Pre- rinse, pre- wash, or throw it all in?

[brisnat81]

The only thing I rinse is plates that have egg yolk on them, I find for whatever reason, it ends up making the rest of the load smell that way.

Otherwise I scrape off the solids and the remaining bits of lettuce, onion, bits of rice, pasta etc just go into the machine. The Miele seems to have no issue, flushing the filter out. I check it every other month and its always clean.

The only time I will clean the filter after a load, is if I've put crusty roasting for frying pans in the dishwasher. The chunks that wash off those end up sitting on the filter rather than down inside where they get flushed away.

The only time I put water in the sink is to wipe down the stove, sink and benchtops. Otherwise I rarely run the tap to clean anything. That's what the dishwasher is for

 

[runematic]

It's funny that this subject came up. We were just dicussing this at the last sales meeting we attended. Basically, according to the trainer, pre-rinsing is actually bad for clean dishes. By gettng rid of the food particles on the dish, one is also getting rid of anything for the enzymes to cling to. So in actuality, the dish is not as clean as it would be if there were something for the enzymes to cling to. I cannot say if this is 100% accurate, but it makes sense to me.

 

[polkanut]

Todd,

I've heard the same thing about enzyme-laden detergents and pre-rinsing. Makes sense to me also.

 

[drhardee]

I remember a boyfriends' mother who would WASH the dishes clean and then put them in the TOL KA Superba to "scald 'em". I could never make that woman (or her son) understand..sigh..

 

[frigilux]

I never pre-rinse, although I do tend to scrape a little, nowadays.

Dishes don't sit long in my machine. I'll wash a single rack rather than let them sit for a day or two. I like having the upper- or lower-rack only wash option, and I'll admit I use it quite often, especially when things get so busy I don't have time to cook.

 

[lordkenmore]

This may be an urban legend

but it seems to me I've also heard the argument that cleaning dishes too much before putting in the dishwasher can result in harm to the dishwasher, particularly the racks. The detergent, not having anything to "work" on, goes to work on the racks, instead.

 

[animasinsulinpu]

Bosch

Mt "Ironrite" Mike talked me into getting my Bosch. Got it in 2006 with no extra warranty, no break-downs, and everything comes out spotless. It even removes ALL the markings on my coffe carafes. Bare-Naked coffee pot and I only use cheap detergents with tons of phosphates. You can have my Bosch when you pry it out of my cold,dead, blue hands!!!!! Bill in Az.

 

[appnut]

I don't prerinse or prewash, haven't since 1974 when I moved out on my own. I see no use in it. I rarely use rinse & hold or quick rinse cycles. and my stuff can sit for up to 5 or 6 days sometimes.

 

[foraloysius]

John

A friend of mine who had a Miele dishwasher also prerinses everything he puts in it. Reason? Otherwise he might have to clean the filter now and then...
Some years ago the motor of his Miele dishwasher died. He had it repaired and the repair guy told him never to prerinse because the grease from the dishes is supposed to grease the pump. His pump was dried out and therefor needed to be replaced.
He never took the advice to heart so I'm sure one of these days another repair will be needed!

 

[passatdoc]

I check my Bosch DW filter quarterly (when I descale with citric acid, also quarterly) and maybe once in two years do I find anything lodged in the filter.

I think the variation in people's habits stems from previous generations of DW that didn't clean very well. My family had a 1961 KA DW and I remember having to rinse (not scrub) them in order for them to come clean from the wash cycle. That was also using 1961 non-enzyme Cascade detergent. The other non-rinse option was Rinse/Hold cycle, which we used whenever we were short of a full load (as a family of four, if the DW were emptied earlier in the day, the dishes from supper did not fill the machine completely and often it wouldn't be full until breakfast the next day. My last GE DW also couldn't clean well unless Rinse/Hold was used or else everything was pre-rinsed. With Miele being over budget for many people, it took a decade of moderately priced KA and Bosch and other quality models to teach Americans that unrinsed dishes now come clean.

So when my Bosch DW arrived without Rinse/Hold (there were two BOL models, one with Quick Wash, one with R/H, I thought I'd ordered R/H but they shipped the Quick Wash version instead), I freaked at first. But once I saw how well Bosch could clean a mixed load of dishes up to three days old, I realized that Rinse/Hold was a thing of the past, and I was better off with Quick Wash for occasionally lightly soiled loads.

My best friend from high school and her husband have a TOL Bosch and still rinse everything, they are on automatic pilot from their GE potscrubber days.