To Rinse or Not Rinse - Dishwasher Story

[whirlcool]

Tonight one of our local news stations ran a story about rinsing your dishes before putting in the dishwasher. The link takes you to the video clip.

I noticed that they used a near BOL dishwasher with a VERY enemic spray. Also look at the way that pan with baked on egg was positioned. No DW would clean that put in that position!
What do you think?

http://www.click2houston.com/news/To-rinse-or-not-to-rinse/-/1735978/13393036/-/nn9lywz/-/index.html

 

[washer111]

What do I say?

I say try NOT rinsing plates with heavy soils on your model before you come a conclusion. With the 2007 Dishlex, we used to pre-rinse, but the thing made such a racket, I don't think we'd need to on a REGULAR cycle - we only ever used Quick30 on ours, so it probably was necessary.

Members of this site shouldn't need to pre-rinse, since many of us have TOL modern machines or good quality MOL/BOL machines from way back.

 

[washer111]

Oops, forgot my opinion on the bad frying pan.

I'd say a dishwasher with an orbiting wash-arm (looked like a more modern GE Potscrubber) would have gotten at least some of that off, compared to that machine.
But the spray in that thing, is very anaemic! Our dish drawer moves more water around!

 

[launderess]

If The Dishwasher Detergent Has No Soils To Act Upon

It will start to eat up the dishwasher insides instead.

The only thing one pre-rinses are pots or pans with very badly burned on messes that one does not wish to run through the P&P cycle. Otherwise scrape, load, fill with detergent and let the machine have at it.

Kind of reminds one of that old Maytag commercial where a young girl watches her mother pre-rinsing and loading a sink full of dishes into the dishwasher.

Daughter: I thought the dishwasher washed the dishes.
Mother: It does
Daughter: Gives her mother a funny and perplexed look.

Voice Over: It does if it's a Maytag!

LOL*

 

[washer111]

@launderess

Maybe that's why our 2007 bought Maxwell & Williams plates have deep scratches in them!!! Not our doing, theirs. We always pre-rinsed with our Dishlex, and I used to ask the same questions.

Maybe it had to do with us "trying" to save energy with the Quick30 or Eco 45º cycles on that machine. (Intense 75º, Regular 65º, Quick30, Rinse Hold, Eco 45º).

In our new (old) home, we've installed the Fisher and Paykel DD, and barely ever pre-rinse. We do (sometimes) if there is lots of lettuce matter that may get stuck in the impeller.

 

[launderess]

Think Of It This Way

DW detergents contain some caustic/powerful chemicals to act upon the grease, fats, oils and other soils found on dirty dishware. If there is nothing for the said detergent's chemicals to act upon the buffering action caused when soils meet detergents does not happen. Thus IMHO you have a much more powerful detergent/water solution than otherwise.

Another way to think of it is when one washes one's hair with shampoo.

For generations directions stated one should "lather and repeat", which more often than not left you with dry and tangled hair. The first lather removed soils/dirt from hair, the second with nothing else to work upon went after whatever scalp and or natural oils found.

 

[appnut]

Leave it to Channel 2 (KPRC) for something like this. Not the journalism integrity of what they had when I was growing up. The Heights is a very old sectoin of town and wouldn't surprise me has low water pressure. I would say it's not getting enough water pressure to properly fill. And that's a bol GE/Hotpoint.

 

[DirectDriveDave]

With our old GE Potscrubber, and our current GE Triton XL, we never pre rinsed our stuff, in fact it was my mom who first told me you never had to do that.

We also run the hot water first to make sure it is hot when it starts, we have gotten perfect results every time.

 

[petek]

Hubbys a prerinser, I'm not. He won't stop. A few weeks ago, with the new KA, We loaded a near bobload of unrinsed really dirty dishes, pots etc. I purposely put things in there with lots of extras left on etc. Well when the cycle ended there was one small glass bowl that had a speck of food about the size of a match head under the lip of its handle and everything else was spotless, to him that was enough to warrant rinsing everything everytime.
And he's not a clean freak by anymeans.. you should see how ballistic I have to get to get him to clean "his" toilet bowl.

 

[whirlcool]

I don't think these people in the video cleared the line of cold water first, that coupled with improper loading probably did them in.

And that pan with the baked on egg was a teflon type of pan too! It should have been cleaned.

All we do is scrape off any large pieces of food and into the dishwasher it goes.
Spotless every time.

I always thought that the pump in the machine generated the pressure for the water flow in the wash arm? If you have low water pressure doesn't the machine just take longer to fill?

Maybe that water out of the wash arm was so low because the area around the pump intake may have been clogged? Maybe with a bottle cap like we saw in another thread?

Here is a tip that works. If you have a pan with egg on it, or residue from cooking rice, fill the pan with COLD water and let it sit for about 30 minutes before putting it in the dishwasher. They'll come out spotless every time.

 

[strongenough78]

My Mom is a pre rinser too. I've told her that our dishwasher works great and the loads I put in I don't rinse UNLESS it's something really stuck on there. All solid food particles either go into the disposal or the trash. But, she's stuck in her ways. I usually use a lot less detergent in the dishwasher if the load that's in there she pre rinsed. Really no use for it since there's nothing left for the machine to clean off.

 

[joe_in_philly]

I generally don't pre-rinse, except if there is a lot of tomato sauce. I have had it discolor some cheap plastic storage containers if they are in the same load.

 

[parunner58]

We never pre rinse, we do scrape into the disposal but not rinse. My GE Profile would have gotten that egg off with the pan in that position. That must have been cheap no-stick cookware, my Tfal or Calphalon don't stick like that. My KA Superba in my profile picture would have gotten that off to, I miss it so much. The motor burned up in June of 1997 at the age of 14 years.

 

[frigilux]

I don't pre-rinse. I'll scrub the interior of a really grubby sauté pan if I'm in a hurry and want to use a shorter (relatively speaking) cycle, but that is a rare occurrence.

 

[launderess]

One *Might* See The Case For Pre-Rinsing

Before dishwasher detergents had enzymes, but now that most TOL and even MOL ones do it does not make sense. Given proper cycle times and water temps, today's enzyme enhanced detergents will get off egg and much else one can throw at them.

The only case one could possibly see for pre-rinsing some especially nasty dishes if the dw is not run often, say in a single person home where it can take several days to build up a full load. Even when dishes are allowed to sit for days on end have had no problems in our Kenmore 18" and using (vintage with phosphates) Cascade.

 

[gansky1]

Space-filler "news"

Lots of things wrong with that "test" but, though not specifically mentioned, it does illustrate that many conditions vary from house to house, machine to machine, etc. It was good in that they used a typical dishwasher in a typical house. Both sides of the rinse - no rinse debate were affirmed in the piece and it harmed no one. That's exactly what 'time filler; feel good; make you smile' pieces are for. That skillet was loaded wrong, but how many hundreds of thousands of dishwashers are running right now loaded exactly the same way? The debate goes on...and will forever.

 

[mrb627]

Exploding Loading

At least it didn't spin around and blow up because that pan was loaded incorrectly or the improper cycle was selected...LOL!

Wonder what would happen if they put that frying pan in the LG Washer instead...

Malcolm

 

[whirlcool]

I sent an e-mail to Any Davis, the woman who did this story. The contents of my e-mail are here:

Dear Ms. Davis:

I have a few comments about your "Rinse or Not To Rinse" dishwasher test.
First of all, something was wrong with the dishwasher you used in your test. Most dishwashers have a much, much stronger water spray pattern than the one you used.
Maybe the pump was going out or clogged in some way? Typical problem.
Also I don't know if they ran the hot water to clear the hot water line going into the dishwasher before turning it on. That makes a BIG difference.
I am willing to bet that if your test dishwasher had been working properly (stronger spray) and the water line had been properly purged of cold water all that egg would have been removed from that pan.
BTW, we NEVER rinse, only remove big chunks of food from the plates and in they go. Perfect results every time.
Thank you.

We'll see what results I get.

 

[gmmcnair]

Interesting video...

...and I agree. Something is wrong with that dishwasher. I have a BOL GE portable bought last year and never pre-rinse. As long as I use a good detergent, dishes are spotless every time, even if the food is dried on for a day or two.