dishwasher/old wives tales

Factual Questions
1

I was taught as a child to run the hot water in the kitchen sink BEFORE starting the dishwasher. This was to enable the hotwater into the dishwasher.

Is this an old wives tale? Does this still ring true today?

Thanks

2

It depends. Inexpensive dishwashers use water straight out of the system. Expensive models may be equipped with a heating device.

3

The dishwasher and kitchen sink share the same pipe except for the last three feet. By running the hot water, it insures that the pipe is full of hot water. With a dishwasher that heats the water, this is not necessary.

4

I never run hot water before I start the dishwasher and my dishes come clean. I remember my grandmother would always rinse her dishes clean before placing them in the dishwasher, but I don’t rinse mine off. I stick dirty, crusty dishes in and they come clean.

5

Newer dishwashers have a booster heating element, because otherwise the soap powder (if you’re using powder) won’t dissolve properly.
http://www.aep.com/EnergyInfo/res_html/rekdbh.htm
There was also this:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/erec/factsheets/eewtrhtr.html
And this:
http://www.fpl.com/savings/hes/contents/operating_dishwasher_efficiently.shtml

Putting “dishwasher booster heater” and “dishwasher operation” into google.com brings up all kinds of neat stuff. None of it mentions having to run the hot water first to get your dishes clean. Indeed, as the gist of all of it seems to be “how to conserve energy”, I would say you probably shouldn’t run the hot water first, because you probably don’t need to and it just wastes hot water. What kind of dishwasher do you have?

6

The owner’s manual should tell you whether a specific model needs to have the hot water run beforehand or not.

7

We bought a new Whirlpool last Dec. It has the hot water heater but we figure it takes more electricity to heat that little bit of water in the dishwasher quickly than it takes to heat the water in the water heater.It only takes about a half gallon before it is hot anyway. We can waste that amount of water waiting for it to get cold.

8

I’m with Boscibo.
The dishwasher has never failed me with a cold start, and mine is an older generic type without a heat element.
I hated the heat element anyway on a previous washer, because it would stink when a plastic or wooden spoon fell through the cracks. On that one I used the “economy” setting to never have the heat coil engage, and had no problems, ever.
The soap powder disolved just fine, but I may have been in a natural softwater area.

9

Ack…I guess I should add that mine does have a heating element. All I know is that my dishes come out sparkling clean. If my dishes were coming out with crusty food still on them I would poke my nose around a bit in the owner’s manual and see how I should be running the thing.

Taking my dishwasher for granted, although I’d die without it,
Bo