Does you dishwasher really wash dishes?

Gary Allan · May 18, 2005

More ranting ....

Does anybody's dishwasher serve any other purpose besides liberating counter space so that you don't have to have a draining/drying sink/area?? That's sorta what I've determined ours is. According to my wife, even institutional certified units require you to basically wash the dishes ..and it merely rinses and drys them (in their case to some sanitized standard - 180°F).

So do all of you consider it an intermediate storage utility with extended functions of rinsing and drying??

[ May 18, 2005, 05:58 PM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]

brianl703 · May 18, 2005

Mine does. I never rinse anything I put into it.

Pablo · May 18, 2005

Our new one does better than the old POS - but still it isn't perfect. Too bad there is no way to really evaluate these devices.

Our cleanliness level is directly related to soap quality and quantity.

jason07-1zzfe · May 18, 2005

Ours washes great. I don't rinse anything. Just knock off the huge chunks. If our water didn't royally suck it would be much more convienient. We have to add double detergent for pre-wash, the when main wash starts you need to open it and add more. Then on rinse I found if I add a cup or two of vinegar we can almost get results of if we had actual water flowing through the pipes insted of slugs of minerals with some water thrown in to moisten them

33GPG hardness.
We will be getting a softener in a yr or two.
Our brilliant Mayor thought he was saving us money by not getting Lake Michigan water like some adjacent towns have.

opus1 · May 18, 2005

Mine seems to be doing a fine job. I don't even rinse the dishes off unless there are large chunks of food left, and I don't soak them either. They go in "as is" and come out apparently clean.

I've started to have oatmeal for breakfast and the bowl sits in the sink all day until it goes in the machine at night, so the stuff is pretty well dried on. I've never had a bowl come out with any oatmeal stuck on it.

SyntheticShield · May 18, 2005

I dont have to pre-wash any of our dishes. I just slap those suckers in there after a meal and at the end of the day will start up the dishwasher and let it go. Its rarely fully loaded so that could have something to do with it. Occasionally it can be pretty loaded up, but most times it usually only about 3/4 or so and Ive only had a couple occasions I can recall that any of the dishes had anything left on them.

XS650 · May 18, 2005

Ours works. Normal food never requires a pre-wash or rinse. Just knock the big hunks off so the filter doesn't have to deal with them. And that's with only running it about every other day.

I've got a couple of plastic frames so I can wash baseball hats in it too.

brianl703 · May 18, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Jason Troxell:
Our brilliant Mayor thought he was saving us money by not getting Lake Michigan water like some adjacent towns have.

When I lived in Elmhurst in the mid-80s I vaguely remember hearing that their water rates were going to go up because they had to get Lake Michigan water due to their being radon in the (probably well) water they were getting.

moribundman · May 18, 2005

I fail to see the point of using a dishwasher, unless there's more than three or so people piling up their dishes all day long. You still have to load and unload the washer, which does take time, too. And the drying agent that's left behind on all eating utensils isn't exactly healthy.

brianl703 · May 18, 2005

I don't use a drying agent in my dishwasher. I don't care about spots.

Pablo · May 18, 2005

Ours works pretty good on running shoes and car parts.

moribundman · May 18, 2005

Yeah, the intake manifold got pretty clean!

Gary Allan · May 18, 2005

Hmm ...well lets ask another question..

How often do you need to run yours? Or..do you run it everyday anyway?? Ours is only used twice a week ..maybe 3 times. Typcially Thursday or Friday ..and then Sunday after the extended family meal (all three kids, and significant others, etc.).

opus1 · May 18, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Allan:
Hmm ...well lets ask another question..

How often do you need to run yours? Or..do you run it everyday anyway?? Ours is only used twice a week ..maybe 3 times. Typcially Thursday or Friday ..and then Sunday after the extended family meal (all three kids, and significant others, etc.).

I tend to run it daily, unless I'm gone for the weekend. Saturday morning's dishes wait until Monday night in that case.

I wouldn't buy a dishwasher since I'm by myself, but in both houses that I've owned, they came with the place and you're supposed to run the thing every week or so to keep the seals from drying out. I figure if I have to run it anyway, I might as well get some use out of it.

wavinwayne · May 18, 2005

I just sent the wife to Home Depot to buy a new dishwasher. Ours developed a slow leak & ruined about half the hardwood in our kitchen.

Patman · May 18, 2005

Ours seems to be on it's last legs too (and it's only five years old) Yesterday it didn't drain out all of the water from the bottom even when the cycle fully completed.

Losiho · May 18, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by Patman:
Ours seems to be on it's last legs too (and it's only five years old) Yesterday it didn't drain out all of the water from the bottom even when the cycle fully completed.

It's definitely on the way out. Our old Miele did the same during January. It wouldn't drain the water properly during the wash cycle, and finally it "dropped its guts" (the water) all over the kitchen floor.

It was 20 years old, so at least we got a good run from it. But because it was so old, it was getting to the stage where repair would be more expensive than replacement. So we bought an LG. Works fine so far.

I think effective cleaning is related to the way the dishes are stacked and loaded more than anything else.

Chris142 · May 18, 2005

My moms old Sears dishwasher lived a long time washing dirtbike engine cases when

I was younger.

jarmstrong · May 18, 2005

the small cascade gel packs clean everything off. i can put plates in w/ huge chucks of food and they come out clean. takes magic-marker of bottles.

jarmstrong · May 18, 2005

oh yeah and mine washes motorcycle carbs and truck parts pretty well too

Does you dishwasher really wash dishes?

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