Pretend I never used a dishwasher before. What do I need to know?

We are getting a dishwasher.

It's part of the plan for aging in place and to free up time for other projects. It's also said to use very little water.

I watched tutorials, read the instructions. But still, I feel like there are loads of things that I'm missing.

Like
. Can it clean cast iron?
. Plastics?
. When it says not to rinse, does it mean that?
. Why do I need extra sauce as well as the cleaning powder?
. Hand thown cups?

How do I know what can and cannot go in it?

What advise would you give someone who has never used one of these gadgets before?

Also, is there a way to read a qr code on a computer.   The instructions are basically use this code to find out how.

Only put your plastics on the top rack. But... the thing does have rather high temperature water and whether or not you want your plastics to be subject to heat is something that should be considered carefully.

Nearly all of them do and will have places where water gets into and doesn't well get out of. Obviously this can cause mildew and molds and stuff, I would be careful to follow any manufacturer's maintenance recommendations very closely.

I would be careful about what cleaning product I use... I imagine that a majority of the commercial detergents for those things are a big giant vat of Yuck Sauce...

And, generally speaking, any of them I have ever used are remarkably inefficent. I say that because most of the time, the dishes needed to be washed, essentially, before being put into the dishwasher... Which to me, made ZERO sense... But the dishwasher itself was not capable of removing a lot of gunks and junk. Perhaps they've made strides in efficiency since my last encounter, but all I saw happening was some amount of 'sanitizing' the dishes after they were washed?

The most recent one that lived in my house with me was never turned on or used for anything but a handy dish drying rack!

Too bad we don't live nearby. I'd come do your dishes!

Cast Iron = No, never.

Aluminum = Sometimes it's fine but other times the surfaces gets all pitted and nasty, I'm not sure why.

Ceramics = In general, anything that's "stoneware" (has a partially vitrified clay-body) is fine in the dishwasher. And "earthenware" (like terracotta) may or may not be.

Plastics = As far as I know, always fine. (Maybe there are exceptions but I've never run into one.) (ETA: Oh yeah, they can melt on the bottom rack if they're really thin plastic!)

Wood = Almost as much "no" as Cast Iron, but bamboo chopsticks are fine going through even hundreds of times.

Steel = Fine.

Glass = Fine, but the measurements printed on (some?) modern measuring cups will wear off over (not very much) time.

I don't understand the no-rinse and extra-sauce questions.

The QR code just takes you to a web page, so you might be able to go to the manufacturer's page, find the product and then find the 'getting started' tutorial that it would lead you to.

I remember from early childhood memories the parents washing the dishes before putting them in the machine.

My manual says not to rinse as the machine needs that bit of dirt to function.  Scrape solids and grease off dishes but never rinse.

This goes against all instinct.

I don't have one now, but in my previous house I did and never pre-washed or rinsed and things came out clean.

I usually put white vinegar in the rinse spot instead of buying the jet dry stuff, and it worked pretty well.

It looks like my machine wants something called rinse aid.  Why?  Is it necessary?


How about tis for hard water?

I didn't know about 'Thou shall not rinse!' So just did some reading.

1) I think this is a little sketchy, but the soaps are made to bind with food-bits and end up just getting washed down the drain without doing any work. Of course, that doesn't mean your dishes don't come out clean, just that there's wasted soap.
2) Modern dishwashers are much more water-efficient than your sink faucet is, so it's a waste of water.
3) Modern dishwashers have sensors to detect particles of crud and if you get rid of everything, the machine will decide that your dishes aren't very dirty and might not do the deep-cleaning cycle to get them e.g. free of grease.

If you ignore the need for rinse aid, your glass will have little white spots where the water droplets evaporated when all done. I think that's all. We use it in general and sometimes it's empty for a month before getting refilled. I'd probably ignore it but my wife cares enough to make it happen.

In some dishwashers, plastics can melt on the upper racks as well.

For cast iron, do you want to re-season them?  I have run a dishwasher for cast iron using water only…no soap.

Read the instructions well.  In this case it’s about when and where to add soap.  I don’t use our dishwasher that often …mostly during canning season.   I used to use pricey soap.  I found out, I can get better results if I use the cheapest stuff I can find ….AND….I put soap in the dispenser,…and I add soap directly on an upper shelf.  My dishwasher runs an initial rinse cycle before the wash kicks in.  By adding soap for that initial cycle, everything gets much cleaner.  

We bought a very expensive model for our new house.  I hate it.  It doesn't get dishes clean and it takes 2 hours, literally, to do one load of dishes.  We have used it 3 times and I'll never use it again.  I wish I had saved the money and used it for pretty much anything else.

could you tell us more about it?  Make?
Did you pre-rinse?  If so, have you tried without?  I'm still not convinced this makes a difference, but the manual says in strict terms not to rinse.  

From reading consumer reports and reviews, they often say the way to fix brand XYZ is to toss it on the front lawn and replace it with Bosch.  

We have a newish Bosch and I adore it. It is by far the best dishwasher I've ever had. And it's so quiet that I sometimes have to hold my hand to the front of it to make sure it's running. I do rinse the dishes as I load it (though I'm thinking about not to see how it does...that might just be bad habit from using lesser machines) but it always gets everything clean even with our very hard water.

I think this is the one we have: https://www.bosch-home.com/us/en/mkt-product/home-appliances/SHX863WD5N

We wash a lot of wood and iron in the sink by hand also, but it's great to have the washer.

It'll likely have a filter, in a sort of circle shape on the bottom. Make sure you regularly clean that thing out, especially if you aren't rinsing your dishes. If your machine starts to get whiffy, it's probably the filter. I like monthly, but you'll figure out what works for you.

You often can turn off the heated dry. Costs less to run, and you won't lose the occasional plastic or wood object to the heat elements in the bottom. If you do this I suggest opening the door an inch after each run to let the moisture out.

Aluminum: if it starts getting weird looking, wipe a little dilute vinegar over the tray by hand, it should clear right up. This works for most aluminum weirdness.

Wood: I'll throw cooking spoons in the top, and remove them shortly afterward to air dry. No to mugs, bowls, trays, and cutting boards. A simple spoon made from a solid piece of wood does alright, but things with strong symmetry or multiple pieces of wood... nope.

Don't ever add a bit of normal dish soap to a load. It'll be fine, until you cross some super vague threshold and suddenly your entire kitchen floor is covered in thick mountains of suds. Which is fun? But will likely cause some drama!

Before we moved here where there is no dishwasher.

I washed the dishes and put them into the dishwasher to dry.

Later I would put them in the cupboard.

I did this at my MIL's to help her out and she told me I did not have to wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

Having a dishwasher is really important to me, because I like just rincing them and then tossing them in there to wash more, neither of us in this house enjoys doing dishes.

Another thing to not wash in the dishwasher is fancy teacups and saucers, they can't always handle it.

My suggestion on dishwashers is simply to have (2) of them in your kitchen.

A few months ago I built a new kitchen, and while that new kitchen is indeed small, I put in two dishwashers. I have no idea why I never thought of it before.

For us, we do not put dirty dishes in the sink, but put them directly into the dirty dishwasher each and every time.  When we need something clean, we pull it out of the clean dishwasher. Ultimately the dirty one gets filled, the clean one is emptied, and so we run the dishwasher and swap the process. Not only does it keep us from needlessly having to put dishes away, it gives us a place to store them. This more than makes up for the room a second dishwasher takes up.

And while this has only happened once; if we have a lot of dishes, we can run both at the same time.

It was the best splurge on our kitchen redo that we did. And splurge being a tease really. Since cheap dishwashers work just as well as expensive ones, our two lower cost ones was the same cost as a more expensive one.

There literally is no downside to having two dishwashers.

I used to hate my dishwasher because it never seemed to get things really clean. I would always end up rinsing/washing my dishes off before loading them which then made using the dishwasher feel like a redundant step.
But then I watched this video from Technology Connections and learned a few things that have made my life a lot easier:  

The key takeaways for me were:
- make sure you have hot water to the sink just before starting the load; hot water makes the prewash more effective
- arrange the dishes in "circles" of sorts, with the dirtiest stuff towards the center of the rack where the water jets will be stronger and the mostly-clean stuff to the outer edges
- clean your filter out monthly if your dishwasher has a filter catch in the bottom
- don't skimp on soap if you have hard water
- speaking of soap, the cheapest powder detergent is just as effective as the expensive pods and you don't have to worry about the plastic from pods clogging up your plumbing over time

My dishes come out much better than they used to, though it's no miracleworker for dried-on foods. Maybe soak anything that has become crusty for 5 minutes before loading up the dishwasher.

Should one leave it open or closed between use?  

Should one leave it open or closed between use?    

Depends on how frequently you're running it. If I'm running mine every day or two, I don't worry about that (other than letting the steam out right after a run.) My parents run theirs about once a week, they'll rinse the dishes and leave it cracked open an inch.

If it's smelling bad or you see signs of mildew or composting happening, it needs to be drier in there when it sits.

I don't know if it matters from the perspective of the device. Usually issues like whether someone is tripping over it or there's space to get around the open door has dictated that for us. In our current kitchen, we laid the kitchen out so that there's room to get around it when fully open on purpose because our previous kitchen did not afford that option.

Don't forget, you can use your dishwasher to cook food too.

Some foods can really get dry when you cook them, but by using the high heat, high humidity levels of your dishwasher you can cook some really good stuff.

Google up "cooking Salmon in a dishwasher" for on how to do one such dish. I prefer to smoke my salmon on a cedar plank, but did try cooking salmon in my dishwasher and it came out good. Very moist inside...

Blast the chunks off before putting them in so you don’t gunk up the drain inside the washer. Check the drain filter once in a while and clean it. You can use distilled vinegar as a rinse aid if your unit has that option. Here’s a recipe for dishwasher detergent that you can make if you choose to do so.
1/2 cup baking soda
1 cup washing soda
1/4 cup citric acid
1/8 cup salt

HEAT, HEAT, HEAT!!!  These things need the hottest water you can run through them.

Also, pre-rinsing is a good idea.  I do this all the time.

Eric

i don't think anyone's mentioned this yet -- we have never had a dishwasher, but my parents got one when I was in high school, and I had to give my daughter a quick-start guide when we stayed with my mother for a month during the pandemic.
The most important thing was to remember that light things will move if not secured-- make sure if they're large enough they're "wedged in" so they won't move around (although if they're that light they may be plastic and not dishwasher safe....), and if they're small enough to travel make sure they are in a cage (some people's silverware part has a door, otherwise you can purchase things to put small movable bits into, often for washing baby bottle accessories). If not you may find those wooden chopsticks blocking the bar at the bottom where the water shoots out, for example (ask me how I know).

How about eggs?  Raw egg should be rinsed off the dishes first? Right?

Hi R,

Actually I rinse everything before putting it in the dishwasher.  All it takes is a quick swish under water and it’s done.

My wife puts everything straight in the dishwasher no matter how dirty and tells me that it will be fine.  However, I notice that after she loads the dishwasher that plates come out with little bits of food stuck to them and spaghetti sauce is the worst—often staining other plastic items.

My vote is to rinse away!

Eric

Some plastics say they are not dishwasher safe. That may be because of the melting issue, or it may be because the plastic is prone to crazing.

I had a plastic cannister with so much crazing you would have thought is was part of the design. I don't know if it was caused by the heat (that element in the bottom heats the water to a higher temp than the faucet would see), or by the chemicals in the detergents.


On the matter of some aluminum pitting, that seems a reasonable concern, since simply cooking high acid foods change the surface and appearance of aluminum cookware, and the detergent has to clean somehow, which might involve acids.


One Net site suggests running the faucet near the dishwasher until hot water comes out before starting the dishwasher. This is so the short, critical rinse cycle, at start up, has hot water, rather than cold.

I never run cast iron, wood or my kitchen knives through our dishwasher.  Steam and finished, seasoned wood don't play well together, whether a spoon, knife handle, or other item. It, certainly, would be a great way to destroy a cutting board.  And that cast iron is of a different world than the one the dishwasher was built for. Running it through a dishwasher might destroy seasoning and will rust it, requiring more work to get it back to where it needs to be, for use. Then there is the matter of knives. No one who appreciates sharp knives should put them through the dishwasher.

I rinse simply because I don't want the filter clogged, even though it's, supposedly, designed for it.

a couple of days with a dishwasher and running it twice a day because life is complicated.  No other changes to behaviour.  Preliminary report from the power company is we are using 3% less electricity than normal for this time of week/year.   I am surprised as I expected it to be higher than washing by hand.  

Pretend you never knew about a dishwasher ...
That's all you need. Forget about dishwashers.
Have a nice day.
Washing dishes together is even better than doing it by yourself.

Getting older means not being able to do things that are simple when we were younger.

Thankfully, we live in a time where technology can help.  

They also discovered that aging in place, or staying at home as long as possible means a longer, better quality life, and less stress on the rest of society.

So, I'm going to accept their offer of a dishwasher as not having one means I make food choices based on the fewest dishes, rather than eating what's in my garden.

Besides,  water and electricity use is going down.  3% the first few days and we had a lot of backlog to wash.  It looks like we are settling at between 7 and 10% reduction in household electricity use with this one small change.  But we are on a well so water savings is probably going to make the biggest difference.

I think dishwashers have come a long ways, and especially over the last few years. They seem to not use as much water, do a better job of doing dishes then they did before, and are not as expensive in cost. I bought two cheap ones and they do a phenomenal job of washing dishes.

We have two used in tandem as I mentioned in an earlier post, and our electric bill is nothing outlandish. It helps that we have an on-demand hot propane water heater that feeds them ultra high temp hot water, but even with that, and two dishwashers, we use 7 gallons of propane per month for all our hot water needs.

My co-worker, he complains about his, but then hooked it to cold water and makes the dishwasher use its heating coils to boost the temperature. I DO NOT recommend that and think its inefficient.

Yep, Steve, dishwashers are not designed to be ran on cold water.

Even when I was installing an on-demand water heater, it was important to be aware of the incoming water temps, because that determined efficiency and effectiveness. It's just as important for a dishwasher.

r ranson wrote:It looks like my machine wants something called rinse aid.  Why?  Is it necessary?


How about tis for hard water?

The second comment explained most things that you need to know.
As for the hard water question, which I'm not sure anyone replied - you need salt. Most washing machines have a salt dispenser, and it makes a HUGE difference to have it VS not have it. Also, it doesn't need to be a special salt, from what I know it's the same salt we use for food - just as long as it has big flakes.

There seems to be a lot of questioning about plastics. It will always depend on the Type of plastic (e.g. takeout plastic I wouldn't risk) and Temperature. Whatever kind of plastic you're using, err on the side of caution and use the lowest temperature to see how it goes. Once it starts to appear deformed, you know you've reached the maximum temperature of that plastic, and should wash it with a lower temperature. There are very hard, thick plastics that never gave me trouble - and I've had washing machines in the house for 12 years now.

Most importantly, whatever the rule, you should try to find information from the manufacturer, because there are different machines, with different ages, temperature and time settings, and that will make the experience quite different.

Hope it helps!

Faeryn Savage's post was accurate except for the plastics. I personally would not stick plastics in the dishwasher or the microwave. In fact, if you can avoid having your food and water contact plastics at all, then that would be best for your health. Also, any dishwasher I have used is not useful because in order for it to work, you have to wash the dishes before/after running them through the dishwasher (which makes no sense to me). I have often called them dish dirtiers.
Machines for washing clothes do a much better job of actually washing the clothes.
Dishwashers just create a large amount of needless conflict and redundancy. If I were you, I would pare down the amount of dishes that I own and just wash those by hand.