Liquid cleaning and maintenance composition especially for dishwashers

A liquid, aqueous or aqueous-alcoholic cleaning and maintenance composition, especially for dishwashers, consisting essentially of:

• (a) from 12% to 25% by weight of an acid having from 2 to 6 carbon atoms and having a first dissociation stage K value of >10.sup.-6 selected from the group consisting of alkanoic acids, hydroxy substituted alkanoic acids, alkane polycarboxylic acids and hydroxy substituted alkane polycarboxylic acids,
• (b) from 5% to 12% by weight of glycerol,
• (c) from 1% to 5% by weight of a low-sudsing nonionic tenside,
• (d) from 0 to 5% by weight of customary additives selected from the group consisting of odorants, dyes, dissolving intermediaries and corrosion inhibitors,
• (e) from 0 to 30% by weight of a water-miscible alkanol having from 2 to 4 carbon atoms, and
• (f) the remainder to 100% by weight of water, where the amount of water is at least 25% by weight,
• based on the total weight of the composition.