I found out something actually useful on this board in a everyday sense - how to use a electric dishwasher. It was so liberating that I can’t believe that more people don’t do this.
I used to rinse the dishes, sort of preclean them in the sink, then place them in the dishwasher. This can easily lead to dishes in the sink, sometimes piling up, which leads to a less then functional sink.
Then a dishwasher thread came up on the SDMB, saying just place the dishes into the washer, don’t pre-rinse them, yes clean off food stuff like chicken bones and the like, but just put them right in. Well I thought it couldn’t be that easy for if it was everyone would be doing it, but I though it was worth a try, so I did.
Then I inspected the dishes flatware and glasses, looking for any sign that it didn’t work, but it did, everything was clean. I have since been doing that for about a year, sometimes, due to travel letting some dishes sit for a long time, but it seems to work even then. Actually the only times it doesn’t clean is when the water is not hot enough or when something blocks the water dildo thing from popping up or the spray arm from rotating.
So I want to know how many of you have tried this and if you did what were your results.
I went out and bought a dishwasher that for sure does not require any pre rinsing. I did ribs on my new smoker for the superbowl, and afterwards, all I did before putting the grates into the DW was knock the really big pieces of cooked on stuff off.
they came out looking brand new.
I do this, but I’ve found it makes a difference which detergent I use.
If I use Cascade Complete, it works, and everything’s cool.
If I use something else, including regular Cascade, it doesn’t work so well.
At least this was the case with my new-but-crappy dishwasher in my apartment in California. My current dishwasher may be better, but I can get big boxes of Cascade Complete at Costco, and I hate comparison shopping, so I just make sure to get Cascade Complete.
My experience is that low end/inexpensive dishwashers are the ones that require the prewashing, and it’s people who went out and bought the cheapest one out there who are perpetuating the myth that you need to pre-rinse dishes.
I’ve never rinsed, and as long as the dishwasher is midlevel or above, it works fine.
When I last had one, I only ran it about once a week. Since I didn’t want to leave stuff festering in it that long I ran the prerinse cycle every few days. Protein based stuff needed to be rinsed off before going in but otherwise, fine.
Never pre-rinsed. Had the cheapest cheeziest dishwasher in the known universe 25 years ago and it did fine without pre-rinsing. The exceptions, as noted above: egg yolk or melted cheese.
I am glad that someone was liberated by this knowledge, just the same.
I had no dishwasher for a month last fall and I got more and more annoyed with the situation as the days went by while waiting to have a new one installed. I don’t “mind” washing dishes, it is not that I feel I am too good for such a job, but I had forgotten how much time it took.
Hooray for the woman who gave the credit for inventing the machine to her husband. (I’m sure that’s the straight dope.)
My dishwasher is pretty much just a rinsing and drying machine. It doesn’t remove stuck on food at all but I’m in an apartment so I can’t really upgrade it. Someday when I have a place of my own the dishwasher is the one appliance where I’ll spare no expense.
Funny, my husband declared this week that he was buying me a baby shower present of a new dishwasher. I suspect the fact that he has been doing the dishes for the past few months may have fed into his decision.
We have a GE Potscrubber 3LCRAPP0, no doubt installed by the builders years ago. Unless we rinse religiously, we get detritus heat-blasted onto the inside of our glasses, so they are actually dirtier and harder to clean by hand than when they went into the thing. Now the drawers are starting to rust. It’s also pretty noisy. So we’re going shopping Saturday! I’m very glad to hear that our rinsing days are almost over. It sounds too good to be true.
I’m amazed how many do not pre-wash. Even the classic comedian, Gallagher, would joke “Why do they call it a dishwasher? It don’t wash your dishes! You put dirty dishes in, oyu get hot dirty dishes out!”
…Also, pre-washing prevents food particles from clogging the drain line.
The important factor on the current one is to run the hot water in the kitchen until hot water exits the faucet. The dishwasher will clean good if it fills with hot water. It will not however always remove all the dried baked on oatmeal which sometimes requires scraping with a knife, and the lipstick stays on the crystal glasses.
We have one of those crappy ones as well. I find that it works best if you rinse your dishes when you are done eating. This gets most of the grimes off and removes any particles of food that may clog the line.
I never get a good job done with pots and prefer to hand wash those. I do those immediately after I am done cooking so they are easy to clean.
I’ve noticed this too. We have one of the good dishwashers with the grinder, but sometimes we’d still get little ground bits of food left on the dishes. Then I saw a commercial for electrosol tabs that said that it prevented the ground food from sticking to clean dishes. Surprisingly enough, it was true. No problems since switching over from Cascade gel.
Do not use the “efficiency” or “water saver” function. A poor wash at this setting means this doesn’t wash long enough or rinse enough for your type of dishes. This is for people who eat sandwiches which barely mess the plate, not oatmeal or eggs which require soaking.
Do not skimp on the soap. A dirty load requires lots of soap to attach to the dirt and hold it off the dishes durnig the rinse.
Do not overload the washer. This is the main thing, according to Consumer Reports.
Any working washer will clean any load with a long enough cycle, enough soap, and enough freedom for the water to splash around a lot.