pre rinsing dishes

[washerboy]

I noticed that lots of folks say one should'nt rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. It's an insult to the machine. Well...if I dont rinse before I load... after the dishwasher finishes its thing my glasses and coffee mugs have food particials floating on the bottoms; and if for some reason I dont unload them for several days the stuff dries on them..and well..it's just gross!!!! I have a Kenmore I purchased new in 2001..think somethings wrong with it or am I just a freak about food particials?

 

[petek]

Hmmmm, could be a few things like either your water isn't hot enough, you're not using rinse-aid, or you're using a poor detergent. My bets on the detergent, what are you using? I never pre rinse and don't have any problems. I use Electrasol tabs and/or Cascade gel tabs.

 

[mixfinder]

Tower Shower

If your machine does not have a water source that sprays from the top of the cabinet, the food particles get washed off the dishes, but left to rest on the rims of the glassware. Cheaper and more environmentally sensitive than rinsing, is to dab the bottoms of the cups and glasses with a towel while they are still wet.
Kelly

 

[toggleswitch]

The tall-tub Kenmores, WPs and KAs all seem to do this. I believe it is a well-known "issue".

Another board IIRC discusses this problem and offers a remedy.

I have gotten to the point that I will take a $250 POS GE water-hog over a tall-tub WP/KA/Sears Kenmore, any day. The GE is fast and does a great job.

 

[oxydolfan1]

That's exactly why I won't give my GE up....

 

[jonv112]

I've never had food particles stay on the top of my mugs before. I use Cascade powder, the Smart Wash cycle, and thats it when I use my 2005 TT Kenmore.

 

[appnut]

I second that Toggles about GE, although mine is going to be 20 years old this coming May.

Washerboy, what cycles & options are you using?

I will tell you, if I use my cup rack in my Ptscrubber, sometimse the spray showering down from the top of the tub, won't reach the mugs and such below the items on the cup rack. doesn't bother me at all. I simply get the dish towl and dab up the puddled water and any little bit of debris. I don't get all bent out of shape about it. It's not a part of a vessel that's going to have liquid/beverage in it. It's just the bottom of a glass or mug/coffee cup.

 

[maytagbear]

Plus, loading technique

counts! If I can, I angle glassware with really deeply recessed bottoms so that they drain. This isn't always possible, but when I can, I think it's useful.

Everything else mentioned helps, too...good, fresh detergent, rinse aid, hottest possible water..(lately, I've been using the water heat boost, but not heated dry, and my results have been better!)

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[vintagesearch]

question...

hello all i have a question regarding dishwashers,
I dont own one and never used one until last weekend while at my brothers house. So i was helping my sister in law load up the dishwasher she gave me a crash course. So i noticed it didnt have a spray arm on the toprack and believe me some of the cups after the cycle was done actually looked worse than when they went in! they have a roper dishwasher looks new i think it came with the house its a BOL model obviously! it has pots and pans cycle heavy and normal also rinse and hold all within the timer and only one button on the console that gives you the option of energy saving dry and heated dry. So my question is :
Do all old dishwashers have no toprack spray or is it only on the cheap priced models?
Theres looks like it may have came out in the early 90's its all white exterior and interior with light gray racks and manual clean food filter. So i would appreciate the info as regards to the detergents she used i believe it was electrosol gelpacks i think thats what it said they were red and white. also there dishwasher was horrible for cleaning a frying pan which i left soaking overnight it didnt clean out one drop of dirt!

damn i wrote alot take care everyone
sincerely vintagesearch

 

[58limited]

I have a 2006 Kitchenaid with a food grinder for large food particles. Never had a problem with food residue on my dishes. I use Sam's Club detergent (whichever bulk they have in stock) and the cascade rinse aid. My dishwasher will clean off baked on foods on my pyrex casserole dishes. I used to have to scrub the burned on food with brillo type pads, but not with this dishwasher.

 

[58limited]

vintagesearch

All of the dishwashers I grew up with in the 70's and 80's had a top rack wash arms. Sounds like your sister-in-law's is the BOL model. Based on what you said about the top rack cleaning, I think they should just hand wash or upgrade to a better dishwasher.

 

[launderess]

Pre-rinsing dishes removes the soil/muck that are what the detergent works on. In absence of soil/muck all that detergent will "work" on one's dishes even causing etching of glassware and other such damage.

Mind you, dishwashers are not garbarge disposals. Heavy muck should be scrapped off. Some dishwashers are better cleaners than others, and that determines how much "scraping" one must do.

As other posters stated, using a good detergent and rinse helps as well.

Our Kenmore 18" portable is a pretty good cleaner, but like the original poster would find bits of stuff on dishes and even stuck up high insides glasses/cups. After careful loading and experimenting with various detergent ratios, finally found the solution by adding a tiny amount of STPP to each detergent cup. The extra phosphate (-1/8 teaspoon), seems to work will with producing "muck free" dishes.

L.

 

[maytagbear]

A modern dishwasher

saves water over doing the same amount of dishes than washing by hand.

Older dishwashers save time over doing dishes by hand.

All good dishwashers can get dishes cleaner than washing by hand.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[revvinkevin]

Brand new DW, but bottom of the line!

When we bought our house 8 years ago it had a brand new Frigidaire DW in place, so new it still had some packing material left inside. It was nice because it was so MUCH quieter then the one we left in the condo, but...... I soon discovered I could not count on anything in the top rack coming out completely clean. AND if I dared to leave any food muck on anything going into the top rack.... well forget it! (and I am anal about proper loading technique). This was the cheapest of the cheap, as far down to the bottom that you could get (less then $200 out the door!). As such it did not have an upper spray arm and hardly had a spray tower.

I could stand it no longer! Within 4 month of moving in, I went out and bought a $600 Kitchenaid DW and got rid of the other one.

I am much happier now knowing anything in put in will come out clean when the cycle is done!

 

[bobbins]

This is an interesting discussion. About 25 years ago while I training to become an appliance repairman…it was important for owners to use fresh detergent and hot water (minimum 145 deg F) Dishes get clean by the chemical reaction of detergent caused by hot water and water pressure. Dishwasher detergent does have a shelf life…think about it… chemicals do break down.

I owned a Bosch Dishwasher and now I own a KA TOL dishwasher. My Bosch worked on extremely high temp. (I think about 165 to 170 F) and the pump was not as powerful as the typical North American models. Despite it ran for a long time, the dishes came out absolutely clean. Now I own a TOL KA, using the high temp sani made a huge difference as to the cleanliness of my dishes... For North American made products, I believe the KA is superior over the others that are made today. As for European...Bosch

Bob

 

[pturo]

Older Hotpoint Dishwasher

I have an older Hotpoint(GE)dishwasher in my vacation home that has a top of tank water jet that is supposed to remove the food particles from the bottoms of the glasses, but I just can't seem to get the pressure up there to make it turn, hence the shmutz ends up drying on the glasses. Does the hose get clogged on these or is there a special impeller that pumps the water up that needs to be looked at? The bottom wash arm and the telescoping thing in the center work well, it is just the top 4 inch squiqqly thing that will not spin, just drips a few drops upon full operation. Any suggestions? Thanks Philip

 

[frigilux]

No problem with 'bits' on things in the upper rack of my tall-tub Maytag! I never pre-rinse dishes. If I have several loads of pots & pans to wash, I'll give baked/boiled-on soils a quick once-over with a soap-free restaurant-style stainless steel scouring pad so I can use the 30-minute Insta-Wash cycle. If time isn't an issue, the Maytag cleans the most cruddy pans very well in the +2 hour Heavy cycle with extra scrub and heating options.

 

[washoholic]

The detergents w/ enzymes seem to work the best. The enzymes

We usually scrape, but NEVER rinse. Always do “Bob Loads” (Over stuffed, but positioned well for maximum efficiency). Set our LG to “normal” w/ strong spray, and Sanitary-Rinse. It uses little water, but heats it to a very high temp. No problems.

Nothing is perfect:
The dishwasher takes a long time, but even if it was done w/ the dishes before I was done pushing the button; I wouldn’t put the dishes away until the next morning anyway.
And the coffee pot handle always fills up w/ water and sometimes has a few crumbs in it, but that’s not the dishwasher’s fault. You would think in the 21st Century they would design a coffee pot handle that’s completely solid or w/ a hole for the water to drain, but whatever.

Our frying pans are cast-iron so we don’t put them in the dishwasher or they’d rust. Just scrub w/ steel wool, dry and re-season w/ a little olive oil. My grandmother used to put them on the stove w/ a little soapy water and bring them to a boil. I guess you could put stainless-steel frying pans on the bottom rack of the dishwasher.

 

[retromom]

I have a Bosch that does a pretty good job. The upper rack naturally slants, so unless the glasses/cups have a pronounced indentation on the top, there is usually no remaining water or schmutz.

I still pre-rinse, although not as much as I used to (thanks Bob)! I don't have the luck that many of you do with glass pans, etc. I find that they still don't come out clean on the first wash. Should the be placed "face down" in order for the spray to hit all areas? I have been placing them on their sides.