 Most people who open a dishwasher to find plates caked with yesterday's pasta blame the dishwasher. But the machine is usually not at fault.
"Pre-rinsing dishes is a big mistake," said John Dries, a mechanical engineer and the owner of Dries Engineering, an appliance design consulting company in Louisville, Ky. "People assume that the dishwasher will perform better if you put in cleaner dishes, and that's not true. Just scrape. Pre-rinsing with hot water is double bad, because you're pumping water and electricity down the drain."
It's actually triple bad, according to Mike Edwards, a senior dishwasher design engineer at BSH Home Appliances in New Bern, N.C. "Dishwasher detergent aggressively goes after food," Mr. Edwards said, "and if you don't have food soil in the unit, it attacks the glasses, and they get cloudy," a process known as etching that can cause permanent damage.
It's also important not to use too much detergent, he said.
How much do you need? That depends on how much food soil there is, he said, not how many dishes. "If you have a light load," he said, "don't fill the detergent cup all the way."
Powder detergent is preferable to that in liquid or tablet form, he said, because it leaves dishes cleaner. But store it somewhere dry, not under the sink, where it can absorb moisture and form clumps.
Most errors happen during loading. Check the manual for instructions, Mr. Dries said, or do what he does: put glasses along the sides of the upper rack and small saucers and cups in the middle. More durable dishes and pots belong in the bottom rack, where the spray jet is strongest, and flatware goes in the utensil basket.
Don't impede the rotation of the spray arm, which usually sits upright in the center of the base. Avoid nesting, as "the water has to get in there somehow," Mr. Dries said, and do not place bowls upright, because "they carry over all the soil-laden water from one fill to the next."
Avoid loading light plastics, including utensils and containers that don't say "dishwasher safe," and anything made of wood that might warp or discolor, like knives with wooden handles.
Got streaks or spots? They're from water droplets that have dried and left a deposit. Unlike cloudy etching marks, they aren't permanent, just unpleasant. Wayne Morris, the vice president for division services of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers in Washington, offered a solution: "Always use a rinse aid," he said. "It makes the water sheet off the dishes so they dry evenly."
If the dishwasher still isn't cleaning well, a chunk of food or broken dish may be clogging the filter, inlet pump, drain opening or spray arm. Most workings are on the base, so make sure there are no foreign objects there, Mr. Morris said. All models have a filter box protecting the pump, usually in the center bottom, so if there is something in there, reach in and remove it.
Also, wash the spray arm in the sink with a scrub brush to remove any clogs, Mr. Edwards said.
Mr. Dries offered a final tip: stick with the normal cycle. It's the one consumer organizations conduct all their performance and energy tests on. "Manufacturers know this, so it's the cycle that the most work went into," he said.
The pots-and-pans cycle is rarely necessary, except when you have baked-on foods, he said, nor is the heat-dry function.
"A trick you can use is called flash dry," he added. As soon as the dishwasher shuts off, open the door. "Dishes are at their hottest point and give up water moisture the fastest. Within 5 to 10 minutes, your dishes are going to be completely dry."
By Arianne Cohen |
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