Dishwashers - do you use one? Useful? Just a gimmick? Opinions please.

[turketron]

Temperature. The high temperature water used by dishwashers can be used for hand washing dishes by wearing washing-up gloves.

Except then I have to set my hot water heater unnecessarily high, certainly higher than needed for any other function, solely for washing dishes.  Whereas the dishwasher heats its water to a higher temp on its own.

Moot point with tankless water heaters at point of service and mixing faucets.

Ok, but still valid for everyone who doesn't have that setup, which is a lot of people. I'm not about to replace my 7-year-old tank heater just so I can spend more time handwashing but have it maybe on par with the water use of my dishwasher.

[Sibley]

Some people love their dishwasher, some hate it. If you're fine handwashing dishes just keep doing it. Not everything can go in the dishwasher anyway, so there's still going to be some handwashing.

[tawyer]

Temperature. The high temperature water used by dishwashers can be used for hand washing dishes by wearing washing-up gloves.

Except then I have to set my hot water heater unnecessarily high, certainly higher than needed for any other function, solely for washing dishes.  Whereas the dishwasher heats its water to a higher temp on its own.

Moot point with tankless water heaters at point of service and mixing faucets.

Ok, but still valid for everyone who doesn't have that setup, which is a lot of people. I'm not about to replace my 7-year-old tank heater just so I can spend more time handwashing but have it maybe on par with the water use of my dishwasher.

Then don't? However, that's beside the point: the extra ~20F water temperature isn't making any real difference to the cleanliness of the dishes. The fact is that citing water temperature and water volume as the reasons that a dishwasher is better is bullshit: perfectly clean dishes can be had with normal hot water and similar water volume. As a reminder, per my original post, I'm not about to stop using my dishwasher either; and as Sibley points out, you can't remove hand-washing entirely, so evidently everyone is happy to have some things cleaned with lower temperature hot water...

[nereo]

Temperature. The high temperature water used by dishwashers can be used for hand washing dishes by wearing washing-up gloves.

Except then I have to set my hot water heater unnecessarily high, certainly higher than needed for any other function, solely for washing dishes.  Whereas the dishwasher heats its water to a higher temp on its own.

Moot point with tankless water heaters at point of service and mixing faucets.

Ok, but still valid for everyone who doesn't have that setup, which is a lot of people. I'm not about to replace my 7-year-old tank heater just so I can spend more time handwashing but have it maybe on par with the water use of my dishwasher.

Then don't? However, that's beside the point: the extra ~20F water temperature isn't making any real difference to the cleanliness of the dishes. The fact is that citing water temperature and water volume as the reasons that a dishwasher is better is bullshit: perfectly clean dishes can be had with normal hot water and similar water volume. As a reminder, per my original post, I'm not about to stop using my dishwasher either; and as Sibley points out, you can't remove hand-washing entirely, so evidently everyone is happy to have some things cleaned with lower temperature hot water...

I’m still not sure what you are basing these facts on. Are you advocating for higher temperature at the tap or saying water temp makes no difference? That optimal water usage uses the same amount of water, or just a similar amount? And all based on…?

[Hula Hoop]

You can pry the dishwasher from my cold dead hands.  I love ours - particularly as a family of 4.  We didn't have one when the kids were first born and it was a huge chore washing dishes.

OTOH we have never owned a clothes dryer and I don't miss it.  We just hang our stuff on drying racks or outside on the roof of our building.  Dryers seem like one of those products that marketers convinced people in the US that they needed.  No one has one here and it's just fine.  And way cheaper/better for the environment too.

[Dreamer40]

I love dishwashers. I still end up hand washing washing stuff like pots and pans, colanders, knives, wooden spoons, the food processor components…. But it’s nice to not also have to also wash the utensils, glasses, plates, and containers. I cook a lot of complicated stuff so I make and do a lot of dishes. If I hand washed everything, I’d need multiple dish drying racks, or it would take me forever to keep drying to make room.

[curious_george]

*sigh*

Please disregard this thread.

I took the dishwasher apart.

It is a Maytag and newer than I thought and has one of those chopper blades (mini garbage disposal) built into the dishwasher.

Under the lower spray arm there is a metal plate. Under this plate there is a screen which I thought was the filter, which is clean...

There is a bypass to this screen that I missed. This bypass contains a plastic contraption / coarse filtering unit which is designed to block large items but allow small chunks of food into the intake tube to the chopper blades, which then lead to the pump.

Well...We're kind of cheap...and figured out that Chipotle forks can withstand the dishwasher heat, even on the sanitize cycle. So part of our fork collection is comprised of chipotle forks in addition to our normal stainless steel forks. Welcome to my world.

One of these chipotle forks became dislodged from the silverware tray in the dishwasher and came into contact with the dishwasher heating element, which melted the fork clean in half.

The handle half of the melted fork then made it's way through the bypass of the main filter, through the coarse filter which looks like it is designed to stop just this sort of stray half melted chipotle fork situation, then lodged itself directly into the intake tube to the chopper blades with the melted part of the handle stuck in the tube.

This was enough to slow down the flow rate from the pump enough to stop the upper control arm from spinning, which resulted in extremely poor cleaning performance.

After removing the half melted chipotle fork the dishwasher now cleans dishes perfectly.

I'm not sure what to say here.

[Dicey]

*sigh*

Please disregard this thread.

I took the dishwasher apart.

It is a Maytag and newer than I thought and has one of those chopper blades (mini garbage disposal) built into the dishwasher.

Under the lower spray arm there is a metal plate. Under this plate there is a screen which I thought was the filter, which is clean...

There is a bypass to this screen that I missed. This bypass contains a plastic contraption / coarse filtering unit which is designed to block large items but allow small chunks of food into the intake tube to the chopper blades, which then lead to the pump.

Well...We're kind of cheap...and figured out that Chipotle forks can withstand the dishwasher heat, even on the sanitize cycle. So part of our fork collection is comprised of chipotle forks in addition to our normal stainless steel forks. Welcome to my world.

One of these chipotle forks became dislodged from the silverware tray in the dishwasher and came into contact with the dishwasher heating element, which melted the fork clean in half.

The handle half of the melted fork then made it's way through the bypass of the main filter, through the coarse filter which looks like it is designed to stop just this sort of stray half melted chipotle fork situation, then lodged itself directly into the intake tube to the chopper blades with the melted part of the handle stuck in the tube.

This was enough to slow down the flow rate from the pump enough to stop the upper control arm from spinning, which resulted in extremely poor cleaning performance.

After removing the half melted chipotle fork the dishwasher now cleans dishes perfectly.

I'm not sure what to say here.

That you diagnosed the problem and did a DIY repair? Kudos to you, it's the mustachian way. Your Appliance Repair Badge will be in the mail soon.

[sonofsven]

*sigh*

Please disregard this thread.

I took the dishwasher apart.

It is a Maytag and newer than I thought and has one of those chopper blades (mini garbage disposal) built into the dishwasher.

Under the lower spray arm there is a metal plate. Under this plate there is a screen which I thought was the filter, which is clean...

There is a bypass to this screen that I missed. This bypass contains a plastic contraption / coarse filtering unit which is designed to block large items but allow small chunks of food into the intake tube to the chopper blades, which then lead to the pump.

Well...We're kind of cheap...and figured out that Chipotle forks can withstand the dishwasher heat, even on the sanitize cycle. So part of our fork collection is comprised of chipotle forks in addition to our normal stainless steel forks. Welcome to my world.

One of these chipotle forks became dislodged from the silverware tray in the dishwasher and came into contact with the dishwasher heating element, which melted the fork clean in half.

The handle half of the melted fork then made it's way through the bypass of the main filter, through the coarse filter which looks like it is designed to stop just this sort of stray half melted chipotle fork situation, then lodged itself directly into the intake tube to the chopper blades with the melted part of the handle stuck in the tube.

This was enough to slow down the flow rate from the pump enough to stop the upper control arm from spinning, which resulted in extremely poor cleaning performance.

After removing the half melted chipotle fork the dishwasher now cleans dishes perfectly.

I'm not sure what to say here.

That you diagnosed the problem and did a DIY repair? Kudos to you, it's the mustachian way. Your Appliance Repair Badge will be in the mail soon.

Yeah, I think you did a good job fixing it.

[Telecaster]

How on earth do you manage to use 20 gallons of water! Measured our sink and it holds 30 litres if filled to the brim. Generally don't fill it more than 2/3 when washing up, so 20 litres or 5 US gallons, and usually less than that. We heat water to 45C (from about 6C at the moment) so that's 0.91kWhr to heat the water. The consumption of an equivalent to our dishwasher on a similar program to the one that we use is 15litres of water and 1.05kWhr.

Conclusion; there is very little difference between water and energy use between a dishwasher and hand washing.

You have to rinse too, right?  US kitchen faucets (unless they are extremely old) are designed to flow at 1.5 gallons (5.6 liters) per minute.  So 20 gallons might be pushing it, but if you fill your sink with 5 gallons and rinse for five minutes (7.5 gallons) you have way exceeded the water a dishwasher uses. 

[Telecaster]

After removing the half melted chipotle fork the dishwasher now cleans dishes perfectly.

I'm not sure what to say here.

On another board someone said they cleaned their dishwasher filter with the same result.  I figured I should do the same thing, so I looked up the manual to see how to do it (I save all my manuals).  The manufacturer recommended cleaning the filter once a week.  In a panic, I pulled the filter and it was fine after one year of service.  I guess the moral of the story is that if there is a problem, pull the filter.  Otherwise ignore it like everyone else. 

[curious_george]

For reference, in case anyone finds this thread in the future and is having a similar problem, my dishwasher brand and model:

maytag mdb8959sfe0

https://www.appliancesconnection.com/maytag-mdb8959sfe.html

[Sugaree]

If it makes you feel any better, my nine year-old tried to help clean up yesterday and ran the dishwasher.  With liquid dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent.  I've always heard about the piles of suds that occur when you do that, but had never seen it before...

[Dicey]

If it makes you feel any better, my nine year-old tried to help clean up yesterday and ran the dishwasher.  With liquid dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent.  I've always heard about the piles of suds that occur when you do that, but had never seen it before...

I hope you had a good laugh over it. Hopefully, it wasn't too much of a soapy mess.

[bill1827]

How on earth do you manage to use 20 gallons of water! Measured our sink and it holds 30 litres if filled to the brim. Generally don't fill it more than 2/3 when washing up, so 20 litres or 5 US gallons, and usually less than that. We heat water to 45C (from about 6C at the moment) so that's 0.91kWhr to heat the water. The consumption of an equivalent to our dishwasher on a similar program to the one that we use is 15litres of water and 1.05kWhr.

Conclusion; there is very little difference between water and energy use between a dishwasher and hand washing.

You have to rinse too, right?  US kitchen faucets (unless they are extremely old) are designed to flow at 1.5 gallons (5.6 liters) per minute.  So 20 gallons might be pushing it, but if you fill your sink with 5 gallons and rinse for five minutes (7.5 gallons) you have way exceeded the water a dishwasher uses.

You learn something new every day. I didn't know that US taps were digital; either fully on or fully off. Over here you can adjust them so you can get a very low flow rate out of them.

I start off with an empty sink, put glassware, crockery and cutlery in it. Put a dash of washing up liquid in the first glass and start the tap running (at a low flow rate) wash the first glass with the water going into the next glass then rinse under the slow water from the tap; repeat until finished. By the time the crockery etc has been washed there's enough water in the sink for cooking pots etc. It doesn't usually need more than 3/4 of a sink full of water.

Obviously, if you're washing up after 20 people you would need to use more water.

I'm completely neutral about dishwashers, we have one and run it every 2-3 days, but I would live quite happily without it. I've seen a couple of posts with good points in favour of a dishwasher, especially if you have a lot of washing up to do, but economy is a pretty spurious one, probably derived from the makers advertising material.

[Sugaree]

If it makes you feel any better, my nine year-old tried to help clean up yesterday and ran the dishwasher.  With liquid dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent.  I've always heard about the piles of suds that occur when you do that, but had never seen it before...

I hope you had a good laugh over it. Hopefully, it wasn't too much of a soapy mess.

I thought it was hilarious.  And now he knows not to do that.

[NorthernFire]

Our house came with an old dishwasher. 2 person household and we use it all the time. Works great. I especially like it during holiday dinners. I'll have it full and running by desert and it make clean up so much easier.

[Michael in ABQ]

How on earth do you manage to use 20 gallons of water! Measured our sink and it holds 30 litres if filled to the brim. Generally don't fill it more than 2/3 when washing up, so 20 litres or 5 US gallons, and usually less than that. We heat water to 45C (from about 6C at the moment) so that's 0.91kWhr to heat the water. The consumption of an equivalent to our dishwasher on a similar program to the one that we use is 15litres of water and 1.05kWhr.

Conclusion; there is very little difference between water and energy use between a dishwasher and hand washing.

You have to rinse too, right?  US kitchen faucets (unless they are extremely old) are designed to flow at 1.5 gallons (5.6 liters) per minute.  So 20 gallons might be pushing it, but if you fill your sink with 5 gallons and rinse for five minutes (7.5 gallons) you have way exceeded the water a dishwasher uses.

You learn something new every day. I didn't know that US taps were digital; either fully on or fully off. Over here you can adjust them so you can get a very low flow rate out of them.

Water taps are adjustable here as well. Whether it's a knob you turn or a level you pull up. There are some that don't adjust like faucets in public bathrooms that are turned on by a sensor, but most home faucets in kitchen sinks or bathroom sinks are adjustable. I think they were referring to the maximum flow rate which is going to be based on the typical size of pipes and water pressure which are generally consistent around the country.

[roomtempmayo]

Well...We're kind of cheap...and figured out that Chipotle forks can withstand the dishwasher heat, even on the sanitize cycle. So part of our fork collection is comprised of chipotle forks in addition to our normal stainless steel forks. Welcome to my world.

One of these chipotle forks became dislodged from the silverware tray in the dishwasher and came into contact with the dishwasher heating element, which melted the fork clean in half.

The handle half of the melted fork then made it's way through the bypass of the main filter, through the coarse filter which looks like it is designed to stop just this sort of stray half melted chipotle fork situation, then lodged itself directly into the intake tube to the chopper blades with the melted part of the handle stuck in the tube.

This was enough to slow down the flow rate from the pump enough to stop the upper control arm from spinning, which resulted in extremely poor cleaning performance.

After removing the half melted chipotle fork the dishwasher now cleans dishes perfectly.

I'm not sure what to say here.

This is the most Mustachian problem and resolution in recent history.  Well done.

I bet your local Goodwill has a bin of metal forks for cheap.

[MayDay]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

[Rosy]

I got rid of mine once I realized that water bugs or roaches enjoyed the remaining moisture in the bottom of the dishwasher and fed well on any food particles left over from a quick rinse/pre-wash on plates and cookware since it always took a couple of days to fill the dishwasher. Yuck!
Besides, the damn thing never ever got a pot really clean and why do I have to pre-wash anyway wasting water twice if the thing is supposed to wash the dishes for you?

I grew up without one and to this day I can't understand the necessity of one unless you are more than three people and cook every day.

We put a small refrigerator/freezer in that spot in the kitchen although I flirted with the idea of a wine refrigerator.
No regrets, I much prefer washing up while Mr. R. dries and we can chat about our day.
Granted, if you have company all the time or cook up a storm over the holidays or party often then it is nice to speed up the process of cleaning up. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

Both of these points. We don't rinse, just add to the dishwasher. We're also a family of four, and do a lot of cooking at home. We've done without (in the middle of a kitchen remodel), and it was a great reminder of why I love my dishwasher.

[charis]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

Both of these points. We don't rinse, just add to the dishwasher. We're also a family of four, and do a lot of cooking at home. We've done without (in the middle of a kitchen remodel), and it was a great reminder of why I love my dishwasher.

We don't hand wash anything either, including pots and plastic containers - they go in the dishwasher.

[Telecaster]

Besides, the damn thing never ever got a pot really clean and why do I have to pre-wash anyway wasting water twice if the thing is supposed to wash the dishes for you?

Newer dishwashers and detergents are so good you don't have to pre-wash.  The manufacturers even tell not to pre-wash.   Everything comes out sparkling clean, especially if you follow the manufacturer's instructions for loading.  They are also very energy and water-efficient.   A new Energy Star dishwasher will only use about 3.5 gallons per load.  As I mentioned above, a kitchen faucet will typically flow at 1.5 gallons per minute.   You can figure that into your calculation however you like, but it is pretty hard to see how you can use less water by hand washing.    Even though @bill1827 runs the faucet very slowly, he still consumers more water than a dishwasher.   

The thing newer dishwashers don't do well is dry.   

[NWGriot]

Besides cleaning the trap and filter, I find that sometimes the spray nozzles on the arms become clogged with miscellaneous food particles and the arm stops moving, causing not-so-clean dishes. That can be easy or hard to fix, depending on the design of the spray arm. I ended up replacing one because I couldn't get it cleared.

Also DW cleaner is a waste of money IMO.  Instead, put a cup of vinegar in a bowl upright on the upper rack and run a cycle. That will clean a lot of crud out of the DW innards and make it smell much fresher. If that doesn't do it, follow with a cup of baking soda and another cycle.

[Zikoris]

I've never had one as an adult, and it's never been an issue. I think in my case it would be a huge hassle because of the way I cook, unless I started buying duplicates for most of my cookware - because I bulk cook/bake on the weekends and need my equipment back in action VERY quickly. Sometimes my partner washes the same mixing bowl (in addition to my two secondary mixing bowls) three or four times in one day for example. I'd rather not have to own ten mixing bowls to not run out while waiting for a dishwasher.

I guess some sort of industrial rapid-washing behemoth might work.

[eyesonthehorizon]

@TreeLeaf - I hope you'll forgive me but I read this aloud to my partner in near-tears from hilarity. Good on you for taking the time to sort it out, fix the machine, & not allow perfectly reusable forks to go to waste, howsoever melt-prone they may be.

This is the most Mustachian problem and resolution in recent history.  Well done.

I bet your local Goodwill has a bin of metal forks for cheap.

I find the appeal of mismatched plastic "disposable" wares is that they'd have ended up in a dumpster had I not thought to merely wash them. Though sometimes a very lightweight utensil is helpful in a shallow vessel, as it's less likely to tip out due to the weight of the handle - I'll specifically choose one over my metal flatware for dosing out small amounts of lightweight things like spices.

[Dicey]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

[RetiredAt63]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

[Dicey]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

At least you have the option of using the "Dry" function, vs. not having one at all.

[RetiredAt63]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

At least you have the option of using the "Dry" function, vs. not having one at all.

True.  But really, unless someone is going to do back to back loads it isn't really necessary.  A lot less necessary than a clothes dryer, in my opinion.  Plus in the winter letting dishes air dry with the door open adds a bit of heat and humidity, both of which are benefits here.  Of course for a small dishwasher (low capacity) the desire to do back to back loads may be stronger.

Should I note that the door is only open a bit?  Because if it were all the way open someone would be exploring the inside of the dishwasher and I don't want cat hair in there.     ;-)  She has already jumped in once when I had the lower rack open for loading, just to check it out.  I'm just glad she didn't land on the spray arm.

[Morning Glory]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

At least you have the option of using the "Dry" function, vs. not having one at all.

True.  But really, unless someone is going to do back to back loads it isn't really necessary.  A lot less necessary than a clothes dryer, in my opinion.  Plus in the winter letting dishes air dry with the door open adds a bit of heat and humidity, both of which are benefits here.  Of course for a small dishwasher (low capacity) the desire to do back to back loads may be stronger.

Should I note that the door is only open a bit?  Because if it were all the way open someone would be exploring the inside of the dishwasher and I don't want cat hair in there.     ;-)  She has already jumped in once when I had the lower rack open for loading, just to check it out.  I'm just glad she didn't land on the spray arm.

I've had a couple of them with the opposite problem before: no way to opt out of the dry cycle so I had to manually shut it off and open the door to air dry. The one in the last apartment would resume mid dry cycle the next time you tried to run it if you didn't have the dial back to start. Baked some dirt onto my dishes a couple times before I figured it out.

[RetiredAt63]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

At least you have the option of using the "Dry" function, vs. not having one at all.

True.  But really, unless someone is going to do back to back loads it isn't really necessary.  A lot less necessary than a clothes dryer, in my opinion.  Plus in the winter letting dishes air dry with the door open adds a bit of heat and humidity, both of which are benefits here.  Of course for a small dishwasher (low capacity) the desire to do back to back loads may be stronger.

Should I note that the door is only open a bit?  Because if it were all the way open someone would be exploring the inside of the dishwasher and I don't want cat hair in there.     ;-)  She has already jumped in once when I had the lower rack open for loading, just to check it out.  I'm just glad she didn't land on the spray arm.

I've had a couple of them with the opposite problem before: no way to opt out of the dry cycle so I had to manually shut it off and open the door to air dry. The one in the last apartment would resume mid dry cycle the next time you tried to run it if you didn't have the dial back to start. Baked some dirt onto my dishes a couple times before I figured it out.

Oh, that was a problem.  Last dishwasher I had to opt out, it set for dry otherwise.  This one it doesn't dry unless I set it.  But at least I had the choice. 

Occasionally  I do get something left on a dish by the rinse cycle - it isn't that hard to then hand wash it since it wasn't dried at high heat. 

[jrhampt]

I got rid of mine once I realized that water bugs or roaches enjoyed the remaining moisture in the bottom of the dishwasher and fed well on any food particles left over from a quick rinse/pre-wash on plates and cookware since it always took a couple of days to fill the dishwasher. Yuck!
Besides, the damn thing never ever got a pot really clean and why do I have to pre-wash anyway wasting water twice if the thing is supposed to wash the dishes for you?

I grew up without one and to this day I can't understand the necessity of one unless you are more than three people and cook every day.

We put a small refrigerator/freezer in that spot in the kitchen although I flirted with the idea of a wine refrigerator.
No regrets, I much prefer washing up while Mr. R. dries and we can chat about our day.
Granted, if you have company all the time or cook up a storm over the holidays or party often then it is nice to speed up the process of cleaning up.

Another solution to this is to have a half size dishwasher.  There are two of us and we do cook most days - we have a very small kitchen (and a very small house) so we have a smaller stove and a smaller dishwasher.  We love our tiny dishwasher and use the hell out of it. It also doesn't need prewashing and is very quiet (its a Bosch - which is awesome, much like the show and the novels).

[Cassie]

I love my dishwasher even though I live alone. I run it twice a week because I have company for dinner at least weekly. The hot water boiler in my condo building was out for 16 days until it was replaced and my dishwasher was full of dirty dishes. I had a few people tell me that my house would smell and I needed to hand wash everything in there. I rinse my dishes and had no odor. I asked others living here if they had an issue with odor and no one did. I hand wash my pans and plastic.

[ixtap]

I married my dishwasher. He breaks down occasionally, leaving me with a sink full of dishes to do myself, but mostly.he claims it is relaxing?!?

[Dreamer40]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

Sounds like you don’t cook with cast iron. I also wouldn’t put my good knives, Dutch oven, wooden spoons, nice wine glasses, or food processor blades in the dishwasher… I also have a weird dishwasher that can’t fit a normal large-ish pot. Instead of a door that pulls open and down, I have two small drawers that slide out. They’re just tall enough to load a standard size dinner plate. Small pots fit, but nothing like a wooden cutting board, which I wouldn’t subject to a dishwasher anyway. I hate the design of my dishwasher but it came with the house so I’ll use it until I’m forced to replace. But even then, there are plenty of things I wouldn’t ruin or wear out faster than necessary by putting them in a dishwasher.

[jrhampt]

Much as I won't buy dry clean only clothes, I also don't buy stuff that isn't dishwasher safe.  I don't want to buy too much stuff that needs coddling.

[roomtempmayo]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

I don't use the dry setting on my dishwasher.  As soon as it turns off I open it to mop up the water on top of the mugs, and then leave it just slightly open.  Everything is warm enough to dry on its own. 

I suppose if I had a huge load of dishes I would set it on dry so that I could reload it fast, but I've never needed to do that yet.

At least you have the option of using the "Dry" function, vs. not having one at all.

We have an 18" Bosch.  We do usually run it overnight.  While there's no official dry function, everything that isn't plastic comes out pretty darn dry.  We don't use much plastic, but I put the occasional plastic thing in our countertop drying rack and it's ready to go away shortly.

[curious_george]

@TreeLeaf - I hope you'll forgive me but I read this aloud to my partner in near-tears from hilarity. Good on you for taking the time to sort it out, fix the machine, & not allow perfectly reusable forks to go to waste, howsoever melt-prone they may be.

This is the most Mustachian problem and resolution in recent history.  Well done.

I bet your local Goodwill has a bin of metal forks for cheap.

I find the appeal of mismatched plastic "disposable" wares is that they'd have ended up in a dumpster had I not thought to merely wash them. Though sometimes a very lightweight utensil is helpful in a shallow vessel, as it's less likely to tip out due to the weight of the handle - I'll specifically choose one over my metal flatware for dosing out small amounts of lightweight things like spices.

Hahaha - that's awesome!  I love making people laugh, or attempting to make people laugh, or laughing at myself quietly while attempting to make people laugh as they awkwardly stare at me with a confused look.

The smaller children especially seem to prefer the plastic chipotle forks, so we will keep them. They also come in handy if we ever need to sacrifice a fork for any reason. You never know when you need to use a fork for something and you're not sure if you'll get your fork back or not.

At least now I know if I'm missing one and the dishwasher isn't happy I will know the dishwasher probably ate it.

[HPstache]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

Huh?  Which one are you rereferring to?  I'm guessing you have heard this about Bosch dishwashers, but what you are saying is incorrect if that's the case.

[GuitarStv]

We have a nine year old dishwasher, but he has really only been effective at the washing for the past year or so.  And ours is a very noisy model . . . the complaining is hardly worth the effort.  Not sure we've come ahead on the whole deal to be honest.

[nereo]

We have a nine year old dishwasher, but he has really only been effective at the washing for the past year or so.  And ours is a very noisy model . . . the complaining is hardly worth the effort.  Not sure we've come ahead on the whole deal to be honest.

Ours is only four years old, but we find that there’s an abnormally large number of dishes broken for the number of loads done.

[Morning Glory]

Prewash cycle:

[GuitarStv]

Prewash cycle:

My step mother talking to the salesman when buying her last dishwasher . . .

"OK, so the door will be fine with a 60 lb dog on it, right?  This is a very important point, it needs to be able to handle at least 60lbs of dog licking the dishes."

[MayDay]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

Sounds like you don’t cook with cast iron. I also wouldn’t put my good knives, Dutch oven, wooden spoons, nice wine glasses, or food processor blades in the dishwasher… I also have a weird dishwasher that can’t fit a normal large-ish pot. Instead of a door that pulls open and down, I have two small drawers that slide out. They’re just tall enough to load a standard size dinner plate. Small pots fit, but nothing like a wooden cutting board, which I wouldn’t subject to a dishwasher anyway. I hate the design of my dishwasher but it came with the house so I’ll use it until I’m forced to replace. But even then, there are plenty of things I wouldn’t ruin or wear out faster than necessary by putting them in a dishwasher.

No cast iron but we put  "good" knives and wooden spoons on the third shelf, don't use a ditch oven or fancy wine glasses, and do put food processor blades in the dishwasher. And nothing has gone wrong so far!

[Dicey]

I keep meaning to hop back on this thread, so here goes... Speaking of gimmicks, the 18" dishwasher mentioned upthread dies not have a "Dry" function. The dishes dry via ambient heat. I'm guessing the trick is to run it at night so it has more undisturbed time before opening. Not only does it cost more, it actually does less. Totally a gimmick is my vote. We shall see.

Huh?  Which one are you rereferring to?  I'm guessing you have heard this about Bosch dishwashers, but what you are saying is incorrect if that's the case.

It's not a Bosch, details were given somewhere upthread. GE something something.

[sonofsven]

I love my dishwasher and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands.

Also I don't understand all you people who say you still have to hand wash things. We put literally everything in the dishwasher with no issues.

Sounds like you don’t cook with cast iron. I also wouldn’t put my good knives, Dutch oven, wooden spoons, nice wine glasses, or food processor blades in the dishwasher… I also have a weird dishwasher that can’t fit a normal large-ish pot. Instead of a door that pulls open and down, I have two small drawers that slide out. They’re just tall enough to load a standard size dinner plate. Small pots fit, but nothing like a wooden cutting board, which I wouldn’t subject to a dishwasher anyway. I hate the design of my dishwasher but it came with the house so I’ll use it until I’m forced to replace. But even then, there are plenty of things I wouldn’t ruin or wear out faster than necessary by putting them in a dishwasher.

No cast iron but we put  "good" knives and wooden spoons on the third shelf, don't use a ditch oven or fancy wine glasses, and do put food processor blades in the dishwasher. And nothing has gone wrong so far!

The reasoning behind not putting cutting knives (as opposed to butter knives) in the dishwasher is that the soap contains tiny grit particles that will dull the blade. At least that's what I read.

[RetiredAt63]

Prewash cycle:

My step mother talking to the salesman when buying her last dishwasher . . .

"OK, so the door will be fine with a 60 lb dog on it, right?  This is a very important point, it needs to be able to handle at least 60lbs of dog licking the dishes."

Your step-mom should be just holding the dishes down to the dog before they go in the dishwasher.  So much easier on the dog's neck.     ;-)

And of course every dishwasher door needs to be able to support a cat.  Because cats . . .

[Photograph 51]

My tiny kitchen doesn't really have room for a dishwasher.  I would have to sacrifice valuable storage space and that isn't worth it too me.  Also, I would have to do plumbing changes to create a water hookup.  That seems like a headache.  Also, I am noise sensitive and I don't think I could deal with one more appliance that makes too much noise.  The washing machine and refrigerator already take so much out of me.  For years, I hand washed clothes so I wouldn't have to endure the noise.  I also tried turning off the refrigerator so I wouldn't have to deal with the relentless humming nonsense, but that didn't work out well.  The dishwasher, unlike say, the furnace, would not give me enough benefits to outweigh the noise cost.

I wash dishes by hand in a plastic tub with cold water.  I stack all of the dishes in the tub, then wash the first dish with a wet, soapy washcloth.  I then turn on the faucet, rinse off that item, and turn the faucet off.  The water goes down onto the other dirty dishes, which I have stacked in such a way as to maximize on the water collection.  I continue this process from cleanest to dirtiest dishes.  This way, the dishes that need some extra water to get clean have that advantage.  This process uses much less water than a dishwasher and also allows me to pour the water on plants when I am finished.  Even if it did use more water, I pay a flat fee for water, so the financial cost would be the same.