Just read a thread about someone that does not know how to load a dishwasher. Add me to that group. In my 51 years, 2 months and 2 days, I have never lived in a place with a mechanical dishwasher. Till I was about 10, it was my mother. For the next 15 or so years it was me and my siblings. Since I got out of the Navy in 1979, I have lived in 3 houses, none had a dishwasher. Now I know not to put big pots and bowls on the bottom, leave some space between the plates and silverware and do not use hand washing dishsoap. I have 2 questions:
Are there any other secrets to loading a dishwasher? I will be living by myself so I will likely use it only a few times a week.
What is the best detergent? I remember my sister once howling about being out of Jetdry, what is it and does it work?
Use a dry detergent and not a liquid kind, there is a reason, but I don’t have a clear enough grasp on it. Something to do with putting chemicals in the dry kind that activate when wet and fight each other and the dirt. They are all pooped out if put in liquid detergent.
JetDry is a rinse agent that helps dishes dry without leaving water spots on them.
Actually, in most modern dishwashers I’ve dealt with, you SHOULD put pots and bowls on the bottom, the top rack is not designed for it. Just avoid blocking anything in the center that looks like it might spray up, otherwise, pots and pans all around!
Other secrets, hmmm…don’t bother rinsing plates, unless you have a very old/ very cheap dishwasher without a built in grinder/disposal (if you wash clean dishes, they can be etched by the detergent, as there’s nothing else for the detergent to work on). My method is to turn the plate upside down over the trash. If stuff falls off, it was not meant to be. If it sticks, it goes in the dishwasher with the rest. I realize mine is an extreme position, and other, more moderate types may scrape off stuff with a fork.
As far as detergent, I grew up using Cascade (regular style, no lemon scent), and I’ll use it until I die. I never use things like jetdry, either. I also never use the drying setting, as I wouldn’t want crud that was missed in a cycle end up baked on.
I recently broke down and bought some Jetdry Turbo. It gets the tupperware dry! And the tops of cups and stuff. I like it.
I think you’re supposed to point all the dishes with the dirty side towards the sprayer in the middle, but I don’t. Also, always put plastic stuff in the upper rack, away from the heating element in the bottom. They could melt! Also, the lids may fly around some, so make sure the lids are anchored by something.
I’ve found the best detergents to be the “tabs”- either solid blocks that have 2 or 3 different parts, or the little packets that have liquid and solid in a pouch that dissolves.
Modern dishwashers are pretty effective, even relatively cheap ones. I think I still haven’t completely gotten over my habits from the late-1970s dishwasher I grew up with. Is it true that it will etch dishes that are already clean? That doesn’t sound right, because there will always be glasses and other things that aren’t very dirty.
I use about half the detergent called for and no longer etch my glasses. I use liquid and when I used the amount recommended things got etched. Now they don’t but everything still gets clean.
Here’s one little Hint-from-Heloise style tip that we practice:
Group the like silverware together when loading them into the utensil holder. That is, put all the forks in one compartment, all the spoons in another, knives in a separate one etc. Then when it’s time to unload you can grab them by the handful and place them back in the holding drawer lickety split!
Some advice is machine specific, and you can find tips in your manual. Other things you just have to work it out by experience. For example, traditionally, one would note a dividing line down the middle of the lower rack, and all the plates on the left should face dirty-side right, and all the plates on the right should face dirty-side left - that is, facing towards the center sprayer. Well, in most machines, anyway. My folks’ machines (yeah, they have two dishwashers; their kitchen rocks) work best if everything faces one way - either right or left, but it’s got to be the same way. Otherwise, the two middle dishes somehow block each other and neither one gets clean.
But generally speaking, plates and bowls and silverware all go on the bottom. Plastic anything (including bowls and plates made of plastic) and glasses and long cooking utensils go on top. Real silver should not touch stainless steel flatware (it sets up some sort of electrical current or something that speeds tarnishing and discoloration) and stainless steel pots and pans should not go in the dishwasher unless you don’t like them.
I’ve never had good luck with cookie sheets in the dishwasher, either. They fit okay, but they just don’t get clean.
Rice needs to be rinsed, even in dishwashers with disposals, IME. I think it’s a weight thing - the disposal just doesn’t pick up grains of rice.
Other than that, just don’t overcrowd it - make sure everything has an inch of clearance on all sides - and you should be fine.
And don’t be offended if you put a plate in someone else’s dishwasher and they rearrange it. It’s not a personal criticism, but a greater familiarity with the quirks of their machine. Or OCD.
Or their dishes–my parents’ dishes are shaped funny. Not overtly so–I mean they aren’t triangular or something-- but the bowls in particular are shaped in such a manner that it takes a little care to get them situated properly.
On the other hand, if there are guests, the odds that the dishwasher will be run immediately after dinner to make sure there will be sufficient clean dishes for the next meal increase. But this may be a quirk of my parents.
How often do you add it? How much? Do you put it in the JetDry dispenser or what? JetDry is the bane of my kitchen experience - there’s no way to tell it’s run out, and I never know how much to add, and I’m a little skeeved out by adding a chemical slime to my dishes that, by it’s very nature, doesn’t rinse off all the way. Hate that stuff.
I was not allowed to do this growing up. I was told that the spoons had a greater chance of nesting together and not getting clean if you do this.
Another hot button issue is silverware placement - business end up or down. There are different schools of thought on which is easiest/cleanest. We switched to handles up after I read about the girl who was killed when she tripped and fell on a knife resting blade up in the silverware basket of her dishwasher. Yes, it’s a one in a million chance, but I’ve usually got a kitchen full of small clumsy people when loading/unloading the dishwasher.
I grew up in a “useful side up” household, and I’ve never managed to cut myself on sharp objects in the dishwasher. People I know who grew up the other way around, though, tend to cut themselves every time they go to grab something out of the dishwasher’s silverware basket. It’s like they don’t even look at what they’re doing when they pick things out. Maybe I’m just well-trained to watch out for sharp things, as I can also handle sharp knives without much worry that I’ll hurt myself.
We place the utensils with the handles up - business end down and have never had a problem.
Also any dish / utensil that makes it through the wash still maintaining food particles and such stays right where it was for another go round. It’s the only way they’ll learn.
The manufacturer’s information sheet I got with my recent, mirror-finish stainless steel said that the alkalinity of the dishwasher detergent will etch and discolor stainless. From the looks of my mothers stainless flatware after 10 years in the dishwasher, I believe it. Flatware, I can replace. These pots and pans, Og willing, will last me the rest of my life and be passed on to one of my kids.
Hm…I can see the finish dulling, but the worst culprit for stainless isn’t alkaline detergent - it’s acids. Keep away from detergents containing lemon.
I’ve been dishwashing my stainless pots and pans for three years now and they look great, but I don’t think the finish was ever as shiny as yours. I love the wya they take a scrubbing when necessary.
I’ve never had a problem with liquid dishwasher detergents. The theory behind powder being more effective is that ingredients can be sequestered from each other better in a powder. Then when the powder dissolves, they react and become more effective.
Vinegar works as an anionic surfactant. It can also be used in lieu of fabric softener in the rinse cycle of a clothes washer. Vinegar and/or JetDry works to promote sheeting of the rinse water on the dishes so that the water (and dissolved minerals therein) doesn’t bead up on the surface and cause spotting and slower drying.
This is my set. Shiny-shiny. I seriously *love *these pots and pans.
My mom’s flatware all has this oily looking bluish sheen to it, where it used to be shiny. There’s nothing on it that I can tell, though, and hand washing it doesn’t make it better.
Pretty!
For the blue discoloration, try stainless steel polish. It’s likely a chemical reaction between the surface of the steel and minerals in food/water.