Questions about Dishwashers

[rodriguezpoultry]

I grew up in a house where you cleaned your plates, then you put those plates in the dishwasher. My bf grew up in a home where you put the dishes in the washer and they came out clean.

The dishwasher in the apartment is officially not one that HE grew up with, so when a little amount of food gets left on the plates or silverware, of course it goes all over the dishwasher onto other dishes. He throws a hissy fit and decides to clean ALL of the dishes in the sink.

BLECK. I'm sorry, but that just does not seem clean to me, ESPECIALLY when you're soaking plates in the sink that have had raw chicken on them and then rinsing off...just doesn't seem sanitary.

So...is it odd for a dishwasher to not completely clean the dishes and throw food everywhere? Or is it perfectly normal to clean off the dishes, THEN put them into the dishwasher?

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

have you checked the filter to make sure it hasn't been clogged up? that is usually the problem with food getting washed back up onto the clean dishes when it doesn't drain properly. it probably needs to be cleaned out at least once every couple of weeks.

 

[Boyd]

yeah, if your dishwasher is of an inexpensive sort the water does not get hot enough to activate the soap. it's got to be 140 degrees to activate the soap... most folks water heaters pump it out 120-130 degrees max... Then you have garbage disposals. Literally!

The bottom spinning arm usually has blades on the bottom side, and the uuber nice models also have them on the pump to finish grinding stuff down (which is great for septic tanks).

the 149$ model from home depot or lowes doesn't have that extra heater or nice garbage disposal. It just rinses and throws back up whatever it cant dissolve.

 

[warmfuzzies]

Wow, if I had to wash the dishes and then put them in the dishwasher I would SO not use the thing at all!

I don't even rinse my plates, and I just have a portable I bought used. I don't know why the dishes wouldnt be clean after washing them in the sink, people have been doing that for hundreds of years, and probably most people still do.

I would say that your dishwasher is not doing the job. I put mine in nasty sometimes, and it almost always gets them clean unless they are really old and nasty and have been sitting there for three days. But I don't know what you can do about it either. Except you could check the float, when my old one wasnt getting things clean it was because the float was stuck and it was only putting a little bit of water in it.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Chickie'sMoma :

have you checked the filter to make sure it hasn't been clogged up? that is usually the problem with food getting washed back up onto the clean dishes when it doesn't drain properly. it probably needs to be cleaned out at least once every couple of weeks.

There's a filter??? Where would I find this filter?​

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

in the bottom of your dishwasher, usually towards the front and middle where the water would drain from. a lot of people don't realize there is a drain with a filter in them and that you can remove it to clean.

do you happen to know the model and make of the dishwasher? you might be able to find some directions to it online using that info.

i have a Bosch DW and it certainly gets the water HOT HOT HOT!!! it gets so hot they don't even put a heated dry cycle in them to help conserve energy!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I have no idea...the dishwasher came with the apartment.

I tried lifting up the thing up front and it looks like it's part of the heating element.

Then I looked at the thing that looked like a filter, but I can't get it to disconnect from the washer?

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Same here.

On a funny note - my FIL washes the dishes in the sink with hot water and soap and then puts them in the dishwasher - cracks me up! what a waste of time, water and soap!

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

is that a GE brand? it looks like the old one my mom had. i believe it is under that basket area but i know those can be hard to get loose enough to move. my Bosch has a simple one that is only a couple of inches in diameter and just twists out to clean.

check on the side of the door to see what the model number is and i'll see if i can find out if it has a removable filter. i only found out about the filters on dishwashers about 10 years ago when my mom found out too. before then we never knew that was the reason for the 'backwash' onto the dishes and we used to wash before we washed in them.

 

[PineappleMama]

Dishwasher is nothing but an overblown sanitizer.

In our house I had to do the dishes, from age 6 on. One spot on any dish and every dish in the house was pulled out and washed, by hand, by me. So, I was thrilled when we got a dishwasher... until the darned thing left specks of food and I ended up handwashing every dish in the house... again.

So, to heck with that. I wear my rubber gloves, use pure hot water, antibacterial soap (and/or bleach) and rinse in pure hot water as well. Makes them dry faster and helps with killing cooties too. I don't bother with the dishwasher sanitizer (not an option in this house anyways). My MIL, SIL, etc think I'm being a moron... but then it's not MY kids that catch every cold, flu, stomach bug, food poisoning, etc that comes around... so they can kiss my ... counter.

I imagine that the new fangled dishwashers are better than the ones that burned me back in the day, but still... for us hand washing works. It's kept us healthy, doesn't waste a ton of electricity, and doesn't end up as a storage cabinet between official loads.