Poll: Loading the Dishwasher

[nova147]

My mom visited this weekend. After she went home, I emptied the dishwasher and found many dishes that were still dirty. She doesn't rinse before she loads! I guess this works with her dishwasher, but not with mine! So, I'm curious: rinse or no?

[kolamum]

No, unless it's tomato based.

[Parrothead]

I do not have a dishwasher in this house. When I live in houses with a DW I generally will not rinse unless the DW insists.

[jillian]

Other. If it's just like oil or residue like that, not food then I will not rinse. If it's actually food I will do a pre-rinse. I don't wash them before the dishwasher though

[TheCoffeeChick]

My dishwasher is a cheap, older model -- I practically have to wash them before putting them into the dishwasher. And if I use anything but Cascade Complete, they don't come clean.

[Klwhelan]

My mom taught my husband that dishes don't need to be rinsed. Like you said, it might work for her dishwasher but not for mine. I'm still trying to unteach this, several months later!

[Rhonda in TX]

Other. If it's just like oil or residue like that, not food then I will not rinse. If it's actually food I will do a pre-rinse. I don't wash them before the dishwasher though

 

Same here. Sometimes I'm rinsing because, while the DW will get the dishes clean, the disposal in the DW won't work on bigger pieces of food.

[ladydusk]

Other. I'll scrape off chunks, but otherwise in it goes.

[edelweiss]

My dishwasher (actually two dishwashers) are newer, "premium" models, but I still have to rinse all of the dishes before I wash them. :glare: Actually, I do more than rinse them. I wipe them all off completely, so that they actually appear "clean" before they go into the dishwasher. I just figure that the dishwasher does a good job of sterilizing them.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I only rinse if it is super starchy, like mashed potatoes. Otherwise, it gets clean. I just need to remind my boys to clean out the food trap underneath. We have a Bosch. I love that it is super quiet. But it doesn't have the food disposal that our old Kenmore had.

[sbgrace]

I have to rinse many things (though not all). I use those Finish Tabs but I don't think they make it any better for me. I'm on my 2nd dishwasher here and selected a different brand the second time. I've had rinse with both.

[Cinder]

I will scrape the dishes if they need it--like when someone doesn't eat all their spaghetti sauce or something. I don't scrape them clean. I don't rinse before loading the dishwasher. Occasionally I will run the pre-rinse cycle if the dishes are really dirty; this helps the primary wash cycle to clean the dishes better. I wanted a dishwasher that didn't require me to wash the dishes before the dishwasher washed the dishes, so no rinsing here.

[Tammyla]

New dishwashers use so little water combined with no phosphates has resulted in a need to rinse with many machines.

 

(I had a kitchen guy, explain old vs. new...He said the reason cleaning cycles take so much longer and rinsing is a good idea; is that the new ones send fine streams of water out that take a long time to get dishes clean vs. the old ones that sprayed like garden hoses using lots of water.) He also mentioned the old formula for dw det. I was looking to find a dw that didn't take over an hour to clean a load:tongue_smilie:.

 

I wish for an old dw that doesn't waste water rinsing and tons of energy running.

[Miss Cornelia Snook]

I had to practically wash the dishes before I washed them with my old machine. We got a new one a few months ago and I love that I can just toss in the dishes with little prep work on my part now.

 

It depends on the dishwasher.

[Ellie]

I thought about voting "other," but I voted "yes, I rinse." Because yes, I do rinse, but only lightly, and only because I don't run the dishwasher daily, and I don't want left-on food starting to smell in there while it waits three or four days to be washed, KWIM? If we have company and can fill the dishwasher and run it right away, I just scrape the dishes so there are no solids (my dishwasher doesn't have a built-in disposal).

[tmulcahy]

I wish the dishes would get clean without rinsing. It may be our dishwasher. It is not exactly top of the line.

[goldberry]

Other. I'll scrape off chunks, but otherwise in it goes.

 

I don't have a dishwasher, but this is what my mom has always done. When her old DW died, she told my dad she was NOT buying a dishwasher she had to rinse for. What was the point? They bought a very expensive dishwasher, even though they normally are super frugal and my dad hates to spend money.

[myfunnybunch]

We don't have to rinse dishes since we bought our new dishwasher. We did have to rinse with our old dishwasher.

 

Cat

[luvnlattes]

We need to rinse before we put dishes in the dw or they don't get clean. We tried not rinsing for a couple of loads but some things were not clean so we're back to rinsing.

[SKL]

LOL, my mom hates it when I pre-rinse the dishes at her house! Her dishwasher does get them clean.

 

Mine - I rarely use it because by the time I've rinsed it enough, I might as well just wash it by hand. I suppose it would be OK with grease, but anything sticky (cheesy dishes are the worst) - yuck. Even our tea and coffee cups don't get clean. If I didn't live with other adults, I would not have a DW.

[The Girls' Mom]

We scrape, not rinse. The only foods I seem to have trouble with is avocado and dried on sour cream or cheese. If I had to rinse, I would just wash by hand.

[Rene']

Other. We scrape as much off as possible, I rinse depending on the residue.

[HappyCrazyMama]

Other. I don't rinse if the DW will get them clean but if it won't then I do. I've had both types and of course prefer the former.:)

 

ETA- My dsf rinses with soap I don't understand why he puts them in the dishwasher after that.:confused: My sister does this too.:confused:

Edited May 9, 2012 by Happyhomemama

[Trilliums]

I scrape off any chunks and rinse lightly. DH always rinses his dishes...and then leaves them in the sink.

 

How do you tell if your dw has a disposal or a food trap? Our DW keeps water in the base of it all the time. I have read that some need to do this to keep seals wet and lubricated. It seems like it is always recycling dirty water though. I have taken apart the bottom to see if it is clogged, but it doesn't seem to have any kind of problem.

[sassenach]

What's your definition of rinsing? Mine is a quick run under the water to get off big chunks. My dishes definitely still look dirty when they go into the washer.

[nova147]

I want a new dishwasher!! When I "rinse" my dishes, I run wat over them, wipe anything that's sticking (ketchup, etcc) with a dishcloth, and then put them in the DW. It seems stupid to me, because I might as ll wash by hand. But I freak out a little about germs and like the sterilizing the DW does. We're moving soon. I'm thinking I'll add new dishwasher to the growing list of stuff I want when we do!

[LisaKinVA]

I "rinse" to get chunks of food off...but the dishes aren't clean. I don't rinse every dish. I do rinse egg yolk dishes a bit more, and cheese, but at my mom's house, the dishes are practically clean before they enter the machine.

[PeacefulChaos]

I don't, but we rent and when we picked out our dishwasher we went low end (they bought it for us and we didn't want to have them spending a whole heck of a lot. :) ), so we just have a Hotpoint, I think it is? Anyway, I know it isn't a great dishwasher, and that's probably why I always rinse. :)

[Belacqua]

The only thing I'm adamant about rinsing is rice. If I leave rice on a plate, I'll find little, ossified wads of rice on everything in the dishwasher once it has finished.

 

Just about everything else smaller than a chicken carcass, though, goes straight in.

[PRTGSw2K]

I scrape off bigger chunks of food, but do not rinse. We just got a new Bosch (after using a VERY old GE for years), and it's awesome! So quiet and efficient. I actually just quit using the GE after awhile and started washing b/c it just wasn't worth it.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Other.

 

I have to rinse my dishes, otherwise my $%&* dishwasher will not clean them. I think it has to do with the detergent formula changing a few years ago, but it happened around the same time we moved to this house so I can't be sure. It's a really nice dishwasher, so I certainly expect that I would not need to rinse, since I never have in the past.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I used to have a dishwasher that would de-flesh a turkey! I loved that dishwasher. When we moved to this house we had a cheap contractor grade dishwasher that wouldn't wash milk off a bowl.:glare: Now, we have a middle grade dishwasher that does a decent job. I have the dd that is responsible for the kitchen rinse off larger chunks and smears of food but the dishes are still quite dirty when they go into the washer. I won't let her put anything that is heavy with grease in though because the grease can build up in the water lines\channels and reduce the amount of water that gets sprayed.

[Year Round Mom]

I "rinse" mine to the point that DH often has to ask whether the dishes in the DW are clean or dirty! I stop short of using soap, though, when rinsing. I see the role of the DW as Dish Holder, rather than Washer...Enabler, rather than Helper. It enables me to procrastinate. :D

[Word Nerd]

Before dish soap manufacturers were forced to change their formulas and get rid of phosphates, I didn't have to rinse. That is no longer the case.

[NotSoObvious]

Uhhhh, I don't know what kind of fancy dishwashers you all have, but I always rinse. It's not like I have a garbage disposal in there!

 

I was at a friend's house and I noticed she didn't rinse, then I looked in her dishwasher and there was food caked all around the door. It was so gross.

 

My mom has one of the really expensive, low water usage dishwashers and you don't have to rinse. But, she hates how long it takes.

[Lara in Colo]

I always have a sink full of soapy water anyway (you know for the things that cannot go in the DW), so I usually put the dishes in there first, then in the dishwasher. I have never tried any other way.

[Celia]

I voted other, because I only rinse if it's potatoes or rice

[Year Round Mom]

Good grief! I just read this entire thread thinking that DW was Dear Wife. Belatedly, I figured out that DW was dishwasher. I was getting terribly confused, especially when someone said that the DW ran better when the dishes were rinsed.

 

FWIW, we get the chunks of food off and then load the dishwasher without undue rinsing. Our DW is ancient and sounds like a freight train coming through the house when running. (You can see how the "DW" shorthand confused me terribly for awhile...)

 

Hilarious! Actually, I do run (the household) better when the dishes are rinsed!

 

And I resent being called "ancient" and "like a freight train!!!"

 

:tongue_smilie:

[nukeswife]

I voted other because I have a Bosch which does not have a disposer to it, so I basically scrape off the big stuff and then in they go. Like another mentioned we just have to make sure to clean out the "trap" thing in the bottom so it doesn't start to stink.

[GailV]

We scrape, not rinse. The only foods I seem to have trouble with is avocado and dried on sour cream or cheese. If I had to rinse, I would just wash by hand.

 

I have yet to find a dishwasher and/or detergent that can clean avocado off dishes and silverware well ... and we go through a LOT of avocados. So I end off scraping, often using a paper napkin that's destined for the trash anyway. And if it's too mucky (like the bowl and utensils used to make guacamole) I just go ahead and handwash those items.

 

For the record, I have the same problem with sunflower butter and almond butter. Again, we go through a LOT of those, particularly sunflower butter.

 

I think it would be easier to wash dishes if we ate normal food. Sigh.

[SewingMom2many]

My dishwasher (actually two dishwashers) are newer, "premium" models, but I still have to rinse all of the dishes before I wash them. :glare: Actually, I do more than rinse them. I wipe them all off completely, so that they actually appear "clean" before they go into the dishwasher. I just figure that the dishwasher does a good job of sterilizing them.

:iagree:

This is what I have to do too or I find little specks of food all over everything because it didn't get rinsed away in the dishwasher. I've had it cleaned and serviced but I guess because it's an Energy Star it doesn't use enough water to really get all the "stuff" out after it cleans the dishes. I often feel that I am wasting time and might as well just wash the dishes. I also have to use the really expensive dish soap along with Lemi-Shine or I get hard water build up.

[Kathryn]

Always. It's how I was taught. I have no idea if my dishwasher could handle it because I haven't tried. And by rinse, I mean scrub clean. You'd think by looking at it that it was clean, but it's not done with soap unless to get grease off, and it's done with a yucky scrubber.

[Ellie]

Before dish soap manufacturers were forced to change their formulas and get rid of phosphates, I didn't have to rinse. That is no longer the case.

Just an FYI: Amway's non-phospate dishwasher detergent works as well as did the phospate formula. :)

[itsheresomewhere]

I use Ecover and never have to rinse. I do scrap off the chunks.