It is a mixed bag. I pushed it a little too far.
I didn't take any pictures of the results before the final cleanup, but here is a type out. The timer was reset twice during the main wash. Only the rice cooker got rinsed and scrapped. Everything else went straight in. I didn't even bother to scrap them. Finish fresh-scented powder detergent was used since I've run out of Seventh Generation. The "Extra" cycle was used, which adds a prewash cycle before the main wash ("Normal" does not have a prewash). Heat dry was turned off.
That giant pot in the top rack is interesting. The centre of the bottom, the part where the bowls were, got cleaned, the corners were completely untouched. This pot has only been in there twice so I still haven't quite figured out a way to get full coverage on the bottom. I think I may need to put it in the centre of the top rack. The black burnt-on gunk was loosened enough to be scrapped away with my fingernail. A steel spatula made quick work of that mess. Dishwasher detergent really is aggressive, eh?
The rice cooker pot was clean, mostly (more on that later). All the rice was removed.
The small saucer pan was clean except for one spot of cooked-on egg. I probably didn't load it properly.
The large saucer pan was clean.
That glass jar (used for chili sauce) in the top rack was cleaned, half the label got stripped clean off, the remaining half lifted straight off. It appears that dishwasher detergent can dissolve the adhesive they used for paper labels. Lesson learned. Remove all labels before loading the machine, the machine will deal with the sticky residue.
The stainless steel bowls were clean. Unsurprising.
The bowls and plates were mostly cleaned, again more on that later. The prewash already got them 90% clean. Oils and dried sauce are no match for this machine.
All the glass lids were clean. Some wash water remained under the handles, which is annoying but expected. The lid for the big pot looked dirty, so I tried to clean it by hand. Too my horror, the glass on that thing got etched. It was coated in ancient grease before that (first time in the dishwasher), I couldn't tell whether the damage was always there. Judging by the way my roommates wash the dishes, it was probably damaged by their reckless but ineffective scrubbing.
The stainless steel pan had hard water spots but was otherwise clean. The water I have is so hard I can probably grow stalactites in my dishwasher.
The two 750ml bottles I had on the bottom rack got cleaned, the odor they had was gone. My roommate really should learn to wash his bottles after putting perishables inside.
There was an issue with chili skin and seeds getting redeposited on the bowls, plates, and that rice cooker pot. I rinsed them off. Chili skins don't get broken down by detergent, they cannot be effectively shredded, and they like to float around in the water. The filtration systems on a modern dishwasher should be able to deal with chili skin just fine, whatever GE put on this thing simply can't. I should have either rinsed or scrapped the glass jar before putting it in. there wasn't nearly as much chili redeposit as I thought there would be. The pre-wash definitely helped a lot. I've just run the dishwasher empty (with detergent) to get rid of the remaining chili skins on the bottom.
I don't know what rinse aid does, maybe some rinse-aid would have prevented any chili skin from redipositing? I have a new rinse aid dispensor on the way.
