What is it about dishwashers and oatmeal?

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joeekaitis

joeekaitis

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I have seen my prized Kenmore plow through mac-n-cheese, marinara sauce and the grime left from using Corning Ware and VISIONS as broiler pans, but nothing makes a dishwasher roll into a fetal position in the corner while whimpering "No, no, I can't, I won't do it, you can't make me" like oatmeal.

 

If you leave a single oat in the pan or in a bowl, it will defy all efforts to go down the drain.  It will either cling to the original vessel like a barnacle or, if it does dislodge, it will attach to a new host and stay there through the drying cycle, transforming from a healthy superfood particle into a fossilized booger from the nose of a long-extinct small mammal.  As if to mock you, it seems to know which item you will put away last.

 

Oatmeal: Good for you.  Terror for your dishwasher.
 
I hear your pain!
I will say that my Kenmore Ultrawash does a pretty good job with it on bowls IF I make certain they are getting direct spray from the bottom wash arm. Top rack: forget it. Nestled where they don't get full-on spray: forget it. Cooking pots only get clean if they have been soaked. Cold water for a few hours and then a quick swish with a brush usually does it.
 
Oatmeal has always been my test for s dishwasher, for as you say, it is a nasty
carbohydrate that loves to cling onto dishes. the only other close contender for nasty clinging is dried egg yolk.

If you have read my posts, you know I have had inumerous dishwasher. I have never had a tall tub machine that consistently could cope with dried oatmeal. Frigidaire, Whirlpool or GE. GE's tall tub did the best of the three, but not by a very wide margin. It still, all too often left oatmeal remnants.

My top machines for 100% oatmeal removal, consistently, are the older conventional (non-tall tub, two front panel models) of GE, and the Reverse Rack Maytag.

My GSD2800 GE and reverse rack Maytag DU242 breeze through two day old dried oatmeal laced bowls, on the upper rack, without even raising a sweat. No trace or remnants, just nice shiny bowls come out.

It's been several years since I had a Whirlpool Power Clean module dishwasher, but if my memory serves me right, it scrubbed the oatmeal off very well, too. In general, the WP PC modules scrubbed everythig pretty thoroughly.

So if you eat a lot of oatmeal, and other starchy things, I would go out and grab an older GE two panel from Craigslist or the Thrift Store. Make sure you get one with 7 water changes. For a short time in the 80's GE used timers with only 5 water changes, and I don't like the washability of these quite as well, having had several of both.

The Maytags are great and have hurricane power, but are sometimes harder to find than GE's.
 
I would second bwood's observations regarding the best "oatmeal" removers. I grew up with a Reverse-Rack Maytag and it always did well with oatmeal. I have owned 2 Kenmore Ultrawash machines over the years (Same design as the WP Power Clean) and they both have been good with oatmeal.

Now, for environmental purposes I would suggest you find a used Kenmore Ultrawash or WP Power Clean. These machine use at most four 2.2 gallon fills of water (that's on Pots and Pans) and still finish a cycle in about an hour. They only stopped making these about 2 years ago so there are LOTS around on CL and at used appliance shops. I see at least a dozen on CL every week here in mpls. Prices are usually in the $50-$150 range.

For my money, the Kenmore/WP machines I mention were the ideal mixture of energy and resource efficiency that still cleaned dishes well in a reasonable timeframe.
 
Oatmeal tends to stick to pots and bowls like crazy glue.
After using two Kenmore and then got this Shitty Frigidaire knows that oatmeal and spinach removal is a challenge for these new energy saver machines.
That is why I keep pressing, if you want to know how well your machine cleans, put cooked dried on oatmeal and dried on spinach on the top rack of your dishwasher, then you will see what I mean. Any good dishwasher should clean both bowl and pots on both racks, no excuse and I will not compromise on this!

This was the dishwasher that could not remove these two food produce on the top rack. 2001-2003 series. And the machine was lightly loaded! SMH!!!

cleanteamofny++12-17-2011-13-43-53.jpg
 
I can safely say that Nate's RR Maytag makes short work of oatmeal. I was quite impressed with how well it handled a pulp-covered sieve used while juicing lemons and saw no reason to think it wouldn't do equally well with oatmeal. In fact, we had oatmeal one morning I was there, and the dishes went straight from the machine to the cupboard, so there you go.
 
I only put cereal bowls in the bottom rack, always have because I thnk they waste spacfe up in the top rack. My Kenbmore Elite Tall Tub does just fine with old-fashioned oats which havbe been cooked in a cereal bowl and eaten from said bowl with milk. The bowl may sit in the dishwasher for 3-7 days. Put in the Cascader Complete (phosphatged) and hit smart wash and all bowls with oats are positively clean and no remmants. Spinach I have found to be a little bit more challenging. As long as I rmember to put the vessel in the bottom rack, it will do fine.
 
Oatmeal ='s Krazy Glue!

*LOL*

We're big on oatmeal for breakfast and have found it's best to make sure the bowls are well scrapped before going into the dw. Any particles of oats allowed to remain especially if allowed to sit for several hours or days until the unit is run next will stick like a barnacle to a ship's hull.

Next while the pre-wash cycle should have hot enough water to activate but not kill off enzymes found in most modern dw detergents, the main wash should be quite hot indeed. Find we have less problems during the colder months of the year when the boilers are on to supply heat as it also increases the water temps from the tap. Since my Frigidaire (badged Kenmore) 18" portable seems to heat water based upon time and not temp this results in near boiling washes.

Finally use a good rinse agent in the final rinse to prevent yibbles from collecting anywhere and remaining. If one is awake tend to reset the dw for a second rinse by letting it fill for the rinse then stopping and resetting to the final portion of the preceeding wash. This seems to also help with keeping oatmeal and the ground flax seed gruel we have at breakfast flushed away.
 
Sorry Everyone...

All my KDS's do a perfect "No Scrape, Pre Rinse " Job of scrubbing Oatmeal , Egg and anything else I can throw at it. I just use the most Long, Hottest Cucle and it all comes out clean with no "Touch Ups".
I'm going to my Dad's house with a Bosch this week and doing all the cooking for 3 days. I wonder when that machine gets my stuff throan at it how it's going to ? LOL feel...
 
Porridge (Oatmeal) comes off fine in our Bosch dishwasher, but it very much depends on the detergent you use.

It's all about the enzymes! You need to ensure your detergent contains Amylase which will breakdown starches.

Most TOL detergents, and even good store-brand detergents will manage to remove oatmeal, in my experience anyway.

Obviously, the best solution is not to let oatmeal dry onto bowls. If you have got dried on gunk on them, and you know your dishwasher won't shift it, just soak the bowls in a sink of hot water (no detergent needed) and then wash in the dishwasher. The long soak will usually loosen it up in a way that spraying in a dishwasher usually doesn't.

Also bear in mind there are two different methodologies in use in dishwashers.

Older machines tended to rely on higher pressure sprays to get dirt off.

Current generation TOL machines like the high end Bosch models tend to work by absolutely inundating the dishes with lots and lots of hot water with a much more dense spray. They use less water, but keep more of it on the dishes by using a lot of spray nozzles and a spray pattern that aims to really get the dishes very wet for as long as possible.

This tends to keep them much wetter and dirt will tend to just fall off quite effectively as the warm water and detergents get more time to react with it.

Basically, the more nozzles and the more spray arms the better!

Also, removing starch requires a long cycle.
 
I don't have an issue with oatmeal in my GE, but I had a terrible time with scrambled eggs when I used to eat them.  i did them in the microwave and the dish would never come out clean no matter what....
 
Scrambled egg

My Bosch is not troubled by oatmeal, up to 5 days dried on however, in common with others, scambled egg sticks like s**t to a blanket, particularly when attached to a silicon spoon/spatula. Needs so much scrubbing with a scouring pad that I don't even bother to put it in the DW!
 
Agree on the scrambled eggs! Sometimes comes off and sometimes it won't... Worst thing is egg on a wooden spatula = basically takes a steam cleaner to get that off.

Other than that, I have no problems with our Bosch dishwasher:

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Here is a hint that your dishwasher will like.
Before putting a Oatmeal bowl in the dishwasher, put it in the sink and fill with cold water. Let it stand for 10 minutes and then dump out and put in the DW. The oatmeal will come off each and every time.
 
UltraWash to the rescue

I throw everything in mine, never rinsed, Normal or Pots & Pans cycle. Never have problems with anything, and I eat oatmeal regularly.

Mine is running now, and of course I can hear it from any room in the house, but I take comfort and have convinced myself that if you can't hear it making a ruckus, then it's not doing a good job!

I will be so bummed when it quits. I guess I should start learning UltraWash restoration.
 
Oatmeal has never been a problem.  My GE and Maytags have always been able to handle it.  Cornmeal, now that's the test.  The only machine I have ever had that could handle a mixing bowl with cornmeal was the Maytag Jet-Clean with tripple filteration.  Otherwise unless you rinse everything in the machine comes out coated with the fine grain-y powder all over.
 

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