# Rant about dishwashers and their owners.



## MurphyMan (Dec 25, 2011)

I didn't know where else to post this, I hope it's not too off topic.

How many people do you know that wash their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? This drives me crazy. :wallbash:

We have a friend with a $1,500 Bosch dishwasher. They will have a big party, then will thoroughly rinse all the dishes in the sink before loading them in the dishwasher for a two hour cycle. They are clean before going in, I mean, what's the point? I once tried to circumvent them by loading my dirty dishes - when they saw what I had done they were aghast! 

For all of you pre-washers, try this one time. After your meal, lightly scrape the food off your dishes, then load. Make sure they're still good and dirty. Now, start the dishwasher and let it run for THREE minutes and hit the stop button.

You will find that those dishes are already 97% clean - after just three minutes! I know it's hard for some people to accept the fact, but dishwashers are actually designed to wash the dishes!

End of rant. Thank you for your patience. :laughing:


What experiences do you have?


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## TheBobmanNH (Oct 23, 2012)

People seem to think their dishes are like surgical instruments that need to be autoclaved to be used again.

We circumvent this problem in my house by not having a dishwasher (old small kitche, no space) and we pretty rarely miss it. Course we also don't have kids....


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## ddawg16 (Aug 15, 2011)

It depends......

try that same trick...but leave them in there for a day....then run the washer and see how much food is stuck on the dishes.

I do a simple rinse if the DW is not going to be ran soon. Quite often, we don't have enough dishes to justify running the machine. Hence, it might sit for a day.

If we have a party....scrape and load.

But, I've had to replace the chopper once....so you don't want any tough pieces left on the dishes.

edit....party? Hell, we are using paper plates. Fancy party....fancy paper plates.


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## NickTheGreat (Jul 25, 2014)

I rinse my dishes. Sorry dude.

In my defense, I only have a $500 dishwasher.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

Once had to buy a new dishwasher because some little sister left some spaghetti on the dishes, Clogged it up, burned it out. 


Just saying my experience, but most people rinse first, then wait until the machine is full before running.


ED


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

I just remove anything that needs scraping, and then dump them in the dishwasher.

I defense of your friends, if they just had a big party, the dishwasher is probably stuffed. Dishes, pans, etc very close to each other will shield some items from water spray, and they will not clean as well.


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## sgip2000 (Sep 24, 2012)

Part of the problem is that the detergent sucks now. With the phosphates ban, you pretty much have to "pre-wash".


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## TheBobmanNH (Oct 23, 2012)

If you're already at the sink washinga dish, why not take the extra 4 seconds to finish washing it and avoid the dishwasher altogether?


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

You be letting this bother you it seems. Just don't. 

I see people all the time rinsing dirty greasy dishes and flooding pots and pans down the sink drain. So what, if they want to rinse raw grease, *that's not emulsified with detergent,* *and call a plumber later for a plugged drain*. Just grin every time you see them do it.


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## AandPDan (Mar 27, 2011)

MsAandP and I don't rinse. With just the two of us we only run the dishwasher every couple of days and never have a problem with dishes not coming out clean. Of course I only have a $200 Frigidaire dishwasher now. 

The biggest mistake I ever made was buying a Bosch. You DO have to clean everything and it does run for hours - but it's so quiet. Big deal, I run mine at night.


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## Tom738 (Jun 1, 2010)

Families that got dishwashers early do this. I know that doctors and dentists and the like working around New York a few decades ago learned to do it this way and taught their families. I assume it is what used to be recommended practice, but it comes from intelligent communities doing something the way they were trained to because it is what they think of as "the right way." Whether there were studies done at the time, I don't know.


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## paintdrying (Jul 13, 2012)

I had it good all those years. My dog would polish the plates so clean they could almost go back in the cabinet. He has demanded only the highest quality scraps now. He turned his nose up at mere bread crumbs.


Dishwashers are a storage shelf between dirty and clean. If the wife was to find out I have been washing and drying the dishes then just sneaking them back on the shelf, it would get ugly. Dishwashers just make no sense to me. Maybe a high dollar one would be different.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

If we were to build another house it would have 2 dishwashers and two complete sets of dishes and a dog named " Coldwater ".  One for clean and one for dirty. It's been determined, in our house motion studies, cabinets aren't really needed for dishes.:laughing:

A man went to visit his 90 year old grandfather and while eating the breakfast of eggs and bacon prepared for him, he noticed a film-like substance on his plate. So he says, "Grandfather, are these plates  clean?" His grandfather replies, "Those plates are as clean as cold water can get them, so go on and finish your meal." That afternoon, while eating the hamburgers his grandfather made for lunch, he noticed many little black specks around the edge of his plate so again he asked, "Grandfather are you sure these plates are clean?" Without looking up from his burger, the grandfather says, "I told you those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them, now don't ask me about it anymore." Well, later that day, they were on their way out to get dinner. As he was leaving the house, grandfather's dog who was lying on the floor started to growl and would not let him pass. "Grandfather, your dog won't let me out." Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching, his grandfather shouted, "Coldwater, get your ass out of the way!"


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## Jim F (Mar 4, 2010)

Certain foods like oatmeal and shredded wheat will stick on my dishes so they won't get clean in the dishwasher so those get rinsed first. Tall glasses will sometimes not get enough spray in them to get clean. When the kids load the flatware upside down in the rack there will still be debris on the part you eat off of. Granted, there are probably better designs in dishwashers than my Maytag.


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## Druidia (Oct 9, 2011)

Dishwashers (hot water) are very good at cleaning off greasy food. Hot water + detergent is not enough for starchy food. Starchy residue requires physical scrubbing. 

I usually scrape off food from dishes. No rinsing. However, since we eat rice and oatmeal, I scrub flatware with steel wool to remove rice and starchy stuff before placing in dishwasher. I also give rice serving bowls a quick scrub with steel wool before placing in DW.


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## MurphyMan (Dec 25, 2011)

Thanks for all the responses, lot's of different opinions here.

If anyone is interested, how about doing the little test I mentioned in Post #1 and posting your results. Photos would be encouraged.

Or - we can drop this whole topic and move on.

:laughing:


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