Oh, and my current dishwasher(came with the house) is quite old and works fine. Would a new one work better? Probably, but I really don’t care and it works fine. We rinse the guck off, stick stuff in, and it cleans it.
My first job was as a dishwasher (really) in high school, and I worked pretty damned hard.
But for the mechanical kind, we don’t have one, but my family did back in Texas, and it worked well. My understanding was the detergent used in those things will burn pretty much anything off the dishes.
You can also wash baseball caps (and probably other hats) on the top rack.
I steam a good ham.
While my husband was deployed in 2011 I had so few bleachable clothes to wash I ran it w/ them on the top rack and the dishes on the bottom. (In lingerie bags firmly attached to the rack.)
I forgot to mention upthread that you’re not supposed to put nice knives in the dishwasher, they’ll get dulled.
Knives also dull when you drag them through the flesh of animals or drag them across surfaces such as wood, granite, or porcelain.
And the bones of animals as well; but one can still use knives yet AVOID putting them in the dishwasher. “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same…”
My understanding is that knives aren’t particularly dulled by dishwashers but that the harsh detergents tend to pit the carbon steel of good knives.
And bicycle chains (and other parts) come up a treat in the cutlery rack. (Don’t tell my wife this.)
If the dishwasher has a grinder is usually clear when buying one… most of the “European” versions like Bosh do not… most of the “American” versions like GE do.
As far as the non-phosphate detergents go… I’m still not happy with the new versions of Cascade, etc. (we have hard water). If you have soft water you will be fine, but if not… I’ll just mention that commercial detergents can still contain phosphates. These can be picked up on the internet very easily. “Bubble Bandit” has kept us in nice spotless dishes for the last few years.
Not like I would encourage anyone to skirt local regulations, but it isn’t like they require you to show your “I own a restaurant” id to buy it. There are also many people who will argue that the impact from home use dishwasher detergents is basically non existent.
I’ve owned several, that I bought second hand for under $150, they all proved more than worth the money, in my opinion.
When we bought this house the small kitchen had been designed around one of those half size machines. It wasn’t brand new and I was concerned it would wear out quickly and be more expensive to replace than a full size. Plus I was skeptical about it handling the load.
12yrs later, the thing still runs very well! I’ve had it serviced once, under $150! And it has proven as useful as any full sized one, I have to say. I would never even consider going back to the full sized one now!
That was the Mythbusters episode Alton Brown appeared on, wasn’t it? Seeing him on Mythbusters was what got my husband and me watching Good Eats. 
The dishwasher in my present apartment generally does very well, even with store-brand detergent. I have run into having to rinse off a little debris or even having to rewash an item or two, but I think a lot of that is user error on my part. I’d spent most of my adult life in apartments that lacked dishwashers, so I’m still getting the hang of arranging stuff for best cleaning. Still, I run the thing at about two-day intervals normally (two-adult household, we just don’t generate that much on a daily basis) and even melted cheese or dried-on canned cat food come off the dishes nicely. I don’t use the heat-dry, just open the door (and dump water out of lightweight stuff that got turned up as needed) after the rinse cycle concludes (don’t see a need to run up my power bill when air-dry works fine for my needs).
Different models can be loaded different ways to be most efficient; see if the owner’s manual for yours is online and it should give you directions on loading. I don’t mean that in any patronizing way - my mom’s dishwasher loads entirely differently from mine and I was surprised to see it.
I’ll have to hunt that down. Trial and error has gotten me progress, but I’d like to see if it gets better than what I’ve worked out.
The one I have now I’ve had for going on 8 years. The one before that came with the house, I’m assuming it was at least 10 years old. We replaced it not because it didn’t work, but because it didn’t match the other new appliances we bought.
The one I had in the house before was at least 10-15 years old, maybe older. It worked great.
My parents put theirs in when they built their house. That has to be 15 years old. Still works great.
So how long is “every few years” again? When should I plan on the one I have now blowing up?
In my experience, they last a good long time- my parents had one for nearly 15 years when I was a kid, and the one in my house dated from 1998 or so, and we just replaced it in 2011, so 12-15 years doesn’t seem uncommon at all.
(which is a reason to get a good one even if it’s a little bit more spendy)
No, I wouldn’t. Our detergent hatch failed to open on multiple occations, and the difference was quite noticable every time.
Your observation may have been influenced by your knowledge that the detergent wasn’t present. To prove this one way or the other, we’d have to do multiple double-blind tests.
My conclusions are the opposite of yours, and are subject to the same biases. I’ve forgotten to put detergent in, and dishes looked just fine after the cycle.
Same here, I’ve noticed that dishes still had stuck-on food after a run, after which I observed that the soap dispenser had been blocked by a large pan.
Nope. It was blatantly obvious. We’d notice the dishes, then look down and see the tab laying in the bottom of the dishwasher. Seriously, it wasn’t a matter of confirmation bias, the dishes were still quite noticably dirty.