Dishwasher deposits sand on dishes

I have a GE Potscrubber Model #gsd321oz02aa, here when I moved in. Don't know its age. Works OK, but it deposits "sand" on any cupped surface--bottoms of glasses, etc., and anything that gets turned over during the wash. Could this be particles of lime scale, or is it sand? What is the cause of this, and how can I fix it?
Thanks

 

Are you on a well or city water?

 

Just a thought, are you sure it is sand? I believe some detergents use hard particles in them to help blast food off of dishes. One cause of what you have is that the water doesn't get hot enough to desolve these particles.
Try running water in sink before starting dishwasher until the water coming out of the faucet is hot, than start dishwasher. Or better, switch to a different detergent and see if the problem goes away. Also, make sure you are using a "Jet Dry" or something like it.
Your dishwasher uses the same water as your sink, so if you don't have sand in the sink water there shouldn't be any in the dishwasher.

 

I had the same problem with the dishwasher in my old house. I never bothered to fix it before I moved out (laziness, apathy, lethargy, etc), but I'm pretty sure that it's due to a dying heating element. You are probably using regular powdered detergent (if not then I have no idea where the "sand" is coming from). Your dishwasher is failing to heat the detergent to a point where all of it dissolves, therefore some particles remain intact and stick to your dishes. I could be entirely wrong about this, but multiple people have told me the same thing. Consider investing in a new dishwasher, or as an even smarter alternative, buy home warranty insurance and never worry about appliance problems again.

 

Some dishwasher detergents actually contain sand.

 

I was unaware of this. Does it assist in grinding the food particles off the dishes?

 

I'm on city water. I will try your suggestion, tryingtohelp, of running the hot water in the sink, and using a jet dry product. I have some large mixing bowls that won't fit in the dw and have to wash in the sink. Don't remember sand in them, but probably didn't have the water as hot as in the dishwasher. I use Walmart
brand tablets.

Thanks for the replies--I'll get back to y'all soon.

Bairie

 

Turned out to be a simple problem with a simple fix:

I called an appliance repair person and he told me the "sand" was lime scale. He said to put a capful of LimeAway or Sanivac in the dishwasher and run it through a cycle empty, the run another cycle with about 1/4 cup of vinegar. I followed his instructions and now--no more sand!

Hope this is helpful to anyone else who has this problem.