Poll : Plate Warmer Feature on Dishwashers.

[toploader55]

Today I was just buffing up my Dishwasher Collection. And a Thought really got my Curiosity Up.

Over the Years, especially since KitchenAid offered the Plate Warmer Cycle (I think KitchenAid was the First to offer this)...

How many times if any, did you use the Dishwasher for Warming Plates ?

I always use my Oven as usually it is on when I'm having company and seems more convienient rather than either running the Dishwasher so it's clean before you put the plates in to warm or removing what's in there and then run the Warming Cycle.

I always like to serve Dinner on Warm Plates. So how many use this feature ???

Thanks for your input. Eddie[this post was last edited: 2/11/2011-09:18]

 

[gansky1]

We should warm the plates more often - it is a nice touch.

I never have, like you said the dishwasher is usually full or filling up with meal prep items and not free for plate warming duty.  Even with a few dishwashers around here, we've never done that.  It's easier to put the stack of plates in the oven than to schlep them out of the kitchen for warming.  "Plate Warmer" is probably just another engineering solution for a problem that didn't exist, to add another bullet-point on the feature list.  More value for your dishwasher buying dollar!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Actually kitchens in grand houses had plate warming cabinets often heated by the radiator pipes or the plates were warmed in racks over the stove where it was warm. When radiators were common in homes, they were used both for a place for dough to rise and for warming plates. Wood and coal ranges ahd warming ovens above the cooktop that could be used to warm plates so the tradition is long. Even before that, warmed plates were the best of luxury in times when dining rooms were cold and the kitchen was a good distance from the dining room. At Mt. Vernon, the guide will show you the covered gravy vessel with the hot water reservoir under it to keep the gravy from congealing between helpings during cold weather. Isn't it a blessing to have warm living quarters in cold weather?

For myself, I warm plates by running some water from the Instant Hot into them and letting it stand for a fraction of a minute. If the plate is microwave proof (not the Centura) I will place some hot water in it and give it a few seconds in the microwave. With fish, which I eat a lot of, it is very important to have the plate hot to prevent the serving from cooling. Cold fish is more than an undesirable personality type.

The main advantage to me of having a control that can be set to Dry or Plate Warming is to be able to repeat the dry cycle if things did not dry the first time. With a standard timer, it is not a problem, but when you have controls that are all buttons or pads having that selection is nice. I think KitchenAid's labeling the dry cycle as a plate warmer was to show that a utilitarian machine could also be used to add a touch of elegance to the dining that preceded the dishwashing. It was also a jab at dishwashers that gave users no control over the fixed cycle and hence no ability to have the machine serve as a plate warmer and it served to point out that KitchenAid had a full separate dry cycle, with heater and blower, that did not depend on the heat built up from the washing and rinsing to flash dry the dishes at the end of the cycle.

 

[toploader55]

It is a Nice Touch

Being in the Restaurant Biz., There is nothing (to me) worse than having any Hot Meal served on a Cold Plate. When I took over managing a Breakfast Operation I was appauled to the fact that they were NOT heating their plates.

RULE NUMBER ONE... NEVER SERVE ANY HOT ENTREE ON A COLD DISH !!!

Ever have eggs on a Ice Cold Plate ??? YUK. The Staff was horrified when I FIRMLY expressed my opinion and enforced that policy.

A few days went by and Customer Satisfaction was raised to a New Level. Just by having Hot Plates.

 

[logixx]

Plate Warmer? A RARE feature on Euro dishwashers with their hidden heaters. Now, that being said, our Bosch does actually have a cycle to warm dishes - that is, if I hack into its programming and change the software, so to speak. The warming cycle runs a final rinse and dry and takes about 25 or 30 minutes.

Some manufacturers have a hidden warming cycle that's actually intended to rinse and dry dusty dishes.

See, if you change the programming to C5, button S5 (not S7) becomes a Dishes Warm-Up cycle. We have C6 programmed into our DW because it lacks the S6 button.

 

[kevin313]

I Agree!

Hot food should be served on a hot plate - cold food (like salad) should be served on cold plates. It really does make a difference.

Keeping salad plates cold is not a problem, I always seem to have room in one of the refrigerators.

I never used the "plate warmer" feature on the dishwasher (my current one doesn't offer it) and generally, my oven is in full use. I keep an electric roaster fitted with a wire rack off the kitchen and have my plates in there.

 

[rp2813]

I have never used the option on any dishwasher I've ever owned.  Plates either go into the oven or if it's just me and my partner and I'm not using the oven, I place them on or near the stove while I'm cooking.

 

What I want is a cup/mug warmer in the morning.  Mugs are super cold when I pull them out of the cupboard and they put a quick jump on coffee cooling down.  At our other house we had an instant hot water dispenser which doubled as a great mug warmer.  It seems a bit over the top to put water in the mug and then throw it in the microwave to warm it, but that's what my sister has said she does. 

 

[austinado16]

Yep, our 1959 Kitchenaid KD-12 has it, but I've never used it. I just toss them into the oven, since the stove is already being used, and the dishwasher rarely sits empty.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I have never used the plate warmer on my KA or my WP dishwasher.  I'm usually in such a hurry to eat, I don't think about warming the plates.  

 

[dj-gabriele]

I only warm dishes if I have guests, usually I put them on the microwave with forced convection or if the oven is on or was on, I put them in there.

When I'm going to furnish the kitchen in my future house I want one of those warming drawers that are coordinated in style with the oven, so I can a have convection-microwave with the warming drawer and turbo-convection oven on the side.
useful and stylish!

 

[kimball455]

Both warm and chill plates and serving bowls.

I have had several dish washers with the plate warm option. Never used the feature with any of the dish washers. Current dishwasher (Amana tall tub) does not offer plate warm but the tall tub feature is great! I put hot water in serving bowls, other plates can sit on an unused part of the stove to warm. I always warm or chill plates and bowls.

 

[toploader55]

Thank you Everyone so far.

I have always thought for a long time "Do people really use this feature or am I just nuts ?" I could however see a... all right I'll say it... A Housewife with her first Dishwasher putting clean plates in with the soiled ones, turning on the Plate Warm Cycle and baking everything on to the Soiled dishes. Then Loading the machine with the Dinner Dishes, running a Short Wash and the Baked on Plates coming out dirty and blaming the machine. And then saying how Dishwashers don't do a good job.

 

[appnut]

Eddie, I've never used that either.  It's funny you pose this question because I was thinking about his earlier this week with all the wonderful old dishwasher brochures being posted.  It's a nice thought, but so impractical with dirty dishes being put in during meal prep.  I don't do a whole lot of dishwasher loading while cooking, unless I know I'm giong to have time to run it before guests arrive, but seems so inconvenient to keep the machine empty just so you could heat up your dishes before guests eat. 

 

[bajaespuma]

Plates make every meal special

I have to agree with the people who say the dishwasher is either filling or full of dirty dishes. I warm my plates in the oven and as Tom pointed out, I was lucky enough to live, once, in a grand old house that had a dedicated plate warmer in a butler's pantry. Interesting to admit that although I came from a family of wonderful cooks, nobody ever warmed up the plates. Wasn't high on their priority list. Nobody complained. Had I even proposed to my Mother that she use the dishwasher as a plate warmer she would have looked at me as if I had three heads and they were all green.

 

I will say, because I am an advocate of having two or more dishwashers in the kitchen, that in that circumstance I would have no problem at all using one of them for warming plates.

 

[frigilux]

I've had dishwashers with a plate-warming feature, but I've never used it. My dishwasher always has a few dirty dishes in it, so the opportunity to try the plate-warming cycle doesn't present itself.

I warm dishes in the warming drawers of my ranges, or at 170-degrees in the oven.

 

[a440]

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">My mom used it every once in awhile when I was growing up.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Cooking for 5, 3 meals a day.  Often during the winter the dishes from lunch would still be in the Kitchenaid.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">She would pull out the glasses and such and turn on the plate warm right before the evening meal.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">It was not every meal....but once in awhile.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Her thought was that she did not want to heat the oven to heat the pottery plates.  So she would use the dishwasher function.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Worked well actually.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Brent</span>

 

[sudsmaster]

There's another solution...

 

 

 

Paper plates...

 

 

[whirlcool]

Count us in with the ones who have had it on dishwashers in the past and have never used it for the same reasons others above have stated.

 

[cyclemonitor]

Plate Warmer on Dishwasher

another version

 

[turquoisedude]

My late mother's British roots forbade serving meals on cold plates, yet despite plate-warmer cycles on the old Viking and the GE Potscrubber that replaced it, we never used the plate warm cycle. Usually it was because there was already dirty stuff in the dishwasher and the ol' Frigidaire oven was still warm from baking and roasting anyway.
Personally, I follow the same rule and use the oven for warming dishes, but I DO have 2 dishwashers in the kitchen in Ogden so I should try this sometime... Next dinner party in a couple of weeks, perhaps!

 

[sudsmaster]

If the oven is already warm, then using residual heat to warm up plates seems sensible.

 

But firing up the oven or even a dishwasher just to warm plates seems like a waste of time and energy to me.

 

 

 

 

[jerrod6]

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">My Miele has this cycle but I have never used it mainly because I suspect it is really some other cycle that is used in other countries and Miele has just renamed it to something that might be meaningful in the USA.  You know, something like glasses warm or, something.  When I select this cycle the display says it will take 49 minutes - never used it -  so perhaps it takes that long with super cold water but I can heat a plate faster in the oven.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">From my experience in winter I see why warm plates might be nice.  My house is about 64F, 65F inside during the winter and the kitchen cabinets are on a outside wall so the contents in them is even colder. Everything in the kitchen is cold.  As soon as you put hot food on a cold plate the heat of the food is transfered to the plate.  In no time you have cold food.  Some time I put the food on the plate then put it in the microwave for 1 minute which seems to help heat the plate and prevent the food from quickly cooling off before I eat it.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;">Maybe I'll try this plate warm thing and see what happens.</span>

 

[tomturbomatic]

Mom used to invert plates over surface units that had been switched off after she removed the pans or slip them in the oven if it had been used or place them on the surface unit over the oven vent.

 

[chachp]

Never used it.....

I have never used the Plate Warming cycle on any dishwasher I've had. But I have to say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of putting them in the roaster. I do a lot of buffets at my house and what I've always done is stacked them on an electric warming tray with a towel over the top to keep them warm but the roaster is a great idea especially since I seldom use it for anything else!! LOL.

 

[franksdad]

Never used it either

I had this feature on my 1974 Whirlpool built in but never used it. Salad and cold dessert plates/bowls are kept in the freezer. Forgive me Emily Post but Mama never heated her plates and neither did I but I will next time we have company.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Maybe heated plates were not as much of a priority in warm areas of the country because, except for a brief time in the cooler months, they are fairly warm from the cupboard.

 

[gmmcnair]

Never Have Used It

I usually have the oven going anyway, so I just stick the plates on the back burner over the oven vent. The oven is usually full to capacity (big fan of all oven meals here), and it warms up the plates nicely.

 

[toggleswitch]

I had never thought about heating plates as I tend to like my food on the cool side. Sometimes cold, right out of the fridge. Remnants from pre- microwave oven days! Never knew anyone who used the plate-warm feature!

LOL My plates are oridinary Corelle by Corning. Do they even have enough mass to warrant being heated?

I insist upon service for 16 (even when my dining room was of the size to seat only 4 persons). I can't stand pulling dirty items out of the DW, one at a time, and washing them should one run out of plates or bowls of a cetain type/size/configuration!

 

[foraloysius]

My dishwasher doesn't have a plate warmer feature, although I could trick it to do one. Never would bother, as soon as the dishwasher is empty there are already new dirty dishes standing around to go in.

My mother places her plates on a radiator of her hot water central heating. Works fine for her. I've done the microwave trick with water on the plates, heating them up with the water from pasta I boiled, putting them on a small hot plate etc. Nowadys I don't bother much about it anymore.

BTW, anyone who has this plate warmer?

 

[1972lkdishwash]

so many plate warm solutions....

Always 2 dishwashers or more, of course, LOL, and yes, it was invented for and to utilize the machine, for other functions, We Americans just love Multi Purpose TOOLS....We always suggest, "a plate warming drawer" for custom new Kitchens...I simply use the top loader to warm all my main serving dishes (ge Mobile maid, Dial to dry cycle) and have the KA just running wild with catch up, from the prep & cooking mess...The back splash of our 1939 Magic Chef built in Gas Range cook top, (Stainless steel) has vents from the oven and broiler units, this also works great for warming the Plates....and on many sub zero mornings, I light the OVEN, for baking takes the complete chill off that end of the kitchen. Everyone loves fresh warm brownies for coffee clutch....on weekends, AM too...