These two videos by one of my favorite YouTubers touch on a bunch of important points about how dishwashers work, how best to use them, what not to do, etc.
If you don’t care to spend about 80 minutes in the subject, here is my TL;DW:
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The normal cycle on most dishwashers includes a prewash, and for best results you should put some detergent in the prewash cup. If your DW doesn’t have one (cough, cough, Bosch), just pour a little extra detergent on the door before you close it.
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Don’t use detergent pods! Use gel detergent, or better, powder. (Yes, they’re getting harder to find because of the dominance of pods.)
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Your don’t need to fill the main wash cup with detergent. Vary according to the load.
There are some other points, but I hit reply by accident, and I’m in the edit window, so I’ll add them later, as I remember them.