Do you use heated dry on your dishwasher?

[niclonnic]

This is a question that has been floating around in my head for quite a while now. I ask this because of potential energy saving concerns.

Personally, I've been an advocate of heated dry for as long as I can remember. It significantly cuts down on the time I need to towel-dry the clean dishes.

At my old house, our first dishwasher, which was a Kenmore (GE), had a drying cycle labeled as "Plate Warmer (Heated Dry)". That DW got the dishes bone-dry, even without rinse aid.

Later on after 10 years, the Kenmore broke down, and we eventually replaced it with a Samsung that had a stainless steel interior. Initially, its heated drying performance was poor, (it left plastic items wet) but after adding rinse aid, it dried the dishes a lot better. As I recall, there was no way to turn off heated dry.

Where I'm at now, I have a Frigidaire, which has three different drying settings: air, heat and "Sahara Dry." Heat works very well, but Sahara Dry makes everything nearly dry, particularly pots, pans and certain plastic items. However, Frigidaire states that the performance of Sahara Dry will be improved by using the hi-temp option (for increased wash performance), or even better, sanitize rinse. This in turn uses more energy, though.

One day, out of curiosity, I turned off heated dry, and ran the DW with a Finish Powerball Quantum tab, along with Jet-Dry rinse aid. When I cracked the door open at the end of the cycle and waited some time, some of the dishes were still wet, particularly some silverware and plastics. So I ended up going back to heated dry.

So, fellow members, do you use heated dry on your dishwasher, or do you do without and let your dishes air dry? Can you tell the difference?

 

[DADoES]

 
It doesn't have a choice of either heated or no-heat dry.  The heat source for drying is per heating of the final rinse water, of which the target temperature varies per the selected cycle.  The fan runs for 30 mins after the cycle ends and the internal lid opens, or until the door (drawer) is opened if in less than 30 mins.  I sometimes open it immediately when the "drying" period begins for an increased flash-dry effect, or partway into the 30-min post-fan period.

 

[wayupnorth]

Never, I wait until it shuts off in the late evening, open the door and shake the top rack of mugs and plastic and let the air dry do its thing. Next morning everything is ready to be put away.

 

[mattl]

I have not used heated dry in decades.  I do keep my water HOT - 150 degree range - and they basically flash dry.  With cold/flu season I've been using Sani cycle on my KA.

 

A  lot depends on the machine, I often turn it on when I go to bed and stuff is still warm when I get up many hours later. Also I do not use any plastic, I know that is often harder to dry. For me basically I can open the door at the end of the cycle, give it a minute or two and put stuff away that is totally dry.

 

[qsd-dan]

No, open the door and flash dry. For older models that have strong blowers, they usually get the job done just fine.

 

[maytaga806]

Only use it when there are plastic items in the wash load, otherwise it just gets cracked open soon as it’s done.

 

[me]

Mine's only got residual heat drying, and it doesn't even pop the door open at the end of the wash to vent the steam. I do miss the heated drying in my previous dishwasher, but with current electric prices here, I'd sooner be without. It was also a nuisance when a plastic item got blasted out of the rack and landed and melted onto the element

I'd like my next dishwasher to have Bosch's zeolite drying when I finally get around to replacing my current one, since it is supposed to dry extremely well and doesn't use electricity to do it.

 

[appnut]

My Bosch has CrystalDry which uses the mineral Zeolite to generate the heat whichisn't like baking the dishes dry. More like a passive dry with circulating fan. It's the best drying system I"ve ever encountetred. It even dries plastics safely. I love not having to worry abouut placing plastics anywhere and they are bone dry.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Never ever...not because I'm being cheap or anything... but I've found it's never worked that well...I bought a small cheap electric clip fan that I keep clipped onto the counter out of the way... after dishwasher is done - open/shake racks, clip the fan upside down on the counter above the dishwasher where it's blowing inside...then I go do other things... when I come back everything is completely dry except for the lips of platic containers that hold water...which happens even if you use the dry cycle... A
nd on the few occasions where the dishwasher runs overnight... the next day I do the same.. it still works... It's a Lasko clip fan and they are so easy to take apart and keep clean... I also use it to dry other things... Like after I've made ice with my countertop ice maker...I clip it and blow air in that to dry... That little fan comes in SO handy in my kitchen... If I ever read reviews of dishwashers I ignore the "doesn't dry well" reviews because I would do this anyway regardless of the dishwasher.

 

[bpetersxx]

I do not as I do not want to wreck the racks any more than necessary

cause I think that is why the racks coating is ruined

Flash dry here too and fans

 

[ryner1988]

Nope, because my dishwasher doesn't have it. It uses the stainless steel tub to collect water from the dishes, think that's called condensate dry. I was skeptical at first, but it actually works well on everything but plastic items and the rims of cups. I often turn the DW on before going to bed and plates, bowls, etc are all dry by morning, and I just give the damp items a swipe with a dish towel. No biggie. I'm also in the process of gradually replacing my plastic storage container with glass, so that should become pretty much a non-issue soon.

 

[Ultramatic]

Kitchenaid KDS-58 (Built in)

 

 

Always. Although it does take awhile to dry everything.

 

[repairguy]

Yup. Works pretty good in the 2001 GE portable.

 

[Marky_Mark]

I've measured the electricity consumption of the heated dry on my dishwashers, vintage and modern, and it ranges from 0.1 kWh to a maximum of 0.3 kWh depending on the machine.  This is typically less energy than is consumed by heating the water if the machine is doing a high-temp final rinse.  

 

Sometimes I use heated dry, sometimes I don't.  

 

[henene4]

I mean, 0.1 to 0.3kWh would be an increase of 10% to 30% of a typical DW energy usage today.

One thing I never understood was where the moisture is supposed to go with heated dry and no fan or vent.
Don't think just typical condensation effects could cope with that amount of heat...

I found that typical residual heat / condensation drying works well enough with rinse aid and heavy items (plates, cups, most cutlery).

In the EU, AutoOpen type drying systems have become more and more common and help especially if you don't unload immediately.
If you run the DW through the night or while you are at work, the few hours it has to dry even get some plastics all the way there.

But nothing has beaten Zeolite drying - or CrystalDry as it's called in the US.
Dosen't raise energy usage (even lowers it it some to most cases) and drys better and faster than any other system I encountered.
I guess that MANY manufacturers will have a go at ot once the patent expires...

 

[appnut]

I hope once the Zeolive We'll become dominant drying technology once the patent has expired.

 

[retro-man]

No I don't use it. Run dishwasher during the day regular cycle no modifiers, when done, open door all the way pull bottom rack out all the way turn ceiling fan on and half hour later all is dry top to bottom glasses and silverware are all dry and cooled off. I figure that there is less of a load going through the touch pads and the circuit board. Hopefully make it last longer.

Jon

 

[jamiel]

Yes--just use Sani on the cheap Bosch in Detroit--2:20 later the crockery and glasses are fine to be put away, a few little driblets on the silverware/plastics. Out in Palm Springs, the zeolite is a little better (but the climate helps probably more.

I'm not an "immediate putter-awayer" so will normally open the door and deal with the fully dry dishes in the morning.

Have always been intrigued with the Bosch logic running the drain pump for a timer interval halfway through the dry period, then another interval right before cycle completion, and for another interval at the start of the next cycle (this to prevent overflow, obviously)

Grew up with my mom who thought the heated dry was a criminal waste of energy, so as soon as the arms stopped the door was opened.

 

[henene4]

In the EU, Bosch machines have a heat exchanger water pocket on the left side of the cabinet that fills at various stages of the cycle to syphon away some of the heat as most EU machines are connected to cold water. That is also used in drying.
Sequence is a drain at the end of the final rinse and one just before cycle ends.

Thus those machines have a hot water option you can program in to exactly not use that.
US machines don't have that water pocket from the get go.
So the different draining behaviour might just be specific US programming - but never used a hot fill connected BSH machine over here so can't say for sure.

The drain at the beginning is also there to ensure proper calibration of the wash pump.
If any liquid above normal remains in the sump when it tries to run the pump calibration it will error out on that.