Loading the Dishwasher..is there rules?

[Beach Chick]

I didn't know there were rules and a stacking chain of command to the dishwasher..who wrote that book..
I like to stack on my own set of rules..

[Robin Joy]

Our only rule is to never put the cat in it. They hate it.

[ambrose]

The Jan. 19, 2009 issue of Maclean's, a weekly Canadian magazine, has an article on this very subject. I have to admit that I am one of the "prong people"!!

http://blog.macleans.ca/2009/01/12/so...

[Sooeygun]

I just posted further up as to why I am no longer a prong person (well, when I am somewhere with a DW, I don't have one). And I like the cutlery handles down.

Other than that, it's whatever gets the most in. Growing up, if it didn't fit, it had to be washed by hand and none of us kids wanted to do that.

[MakingSense]

The only thing that drives me nuts is when people load the dishwasher from the front first.
Put the stuff in the BACK. If you put it in the front, it's hard to get things over the already-loaded things without chipping.
OCD? Maybe, but you can fit more stuff if you keep it organized.

[MalinDC]

There is only one rule in my house. If you want to load the dishwasher, you should do that however you please!

[JennS]

This post reminds me of the scene in Rachel Getting Married where the father and the future son-in-law have a contest to see who can load the dishwasher the best and the fastest.

I only have a couple of rules, but my husband can't seem to remember them. Good knives and pots and pans are washed by hand. Glasses go on the top rack, bowls on the bottom. That's it.

[rich in stl]

Bowls block the water - so they go on the top as do plastics which might melt if they are too close to the drying element.

[Caralien]

The rules are made by the commander of the kitchen, and if you're helping someone clean up, by all means abide by their rules, even if that includes prewashing everything with soap and water first (learned the hard way).

What we do: dog does the prewash, utensils go in pointed downwards (knives washed by hand). Plates stacked by size, to ease with putting things away. No blocking of the water, which means that the bowl rack is better for small plates and bowls are up top, with larger utensils. Face everything towards the center.

Dry, regular (no lemon) cascade only.

[mordacity]

The most important rule about the dishwasher is what is not to go in it! My little sister in college shares an apartment with some guys who always put their cheap WalMart cookware in the dishwasher and don't quite understand why her Calphalon doesn't go in too.

[BobB]

Absolutely! We have some really nice Dansk non-stick cookware and they're practically the only things we hand-wash.

[AHan]

Of course you can go by your own rules, but the manual that came with the machine gave instructions on how to best fill it. The reasons are to preserve your dishes, glassware, etc.; to aid in getting everything as clean as possible; to load as fully as possible to maximize efficiency.
One thing I noticed my wife used to do was to put the glasses over the pins, yet they properly go between the pins. Straightened that out right away. : )

[alkapal]

you must be a virgo. LOL!

[AHan]

Taurus.

[Whosyerkitty]

Ditto on the manual thing. I figure they know how their machine works best. My basic rules are make sure everything is accessible to the spray and that things in the top rack can't knock together and break. I do have a tendency to put things that horrify other people like knives and wineglasses in there because I hate to wash dishes, period. Never my cast iron, though

For the record, I have also put our Crocs and my daughter's Barbie car through the dishwasher and they came out beautifully.

[alkapal]

whosyerkitty, "have also put our Crocs and my daughter's Barbie car through the dishwasher and they came out beautifull"

-- question for ya: was that at the same time you had the foil-wrapped salmon in the dishwasher to cook? ;-).

[Whosyerkitty]

Uh, no. It was the chicken breast and it too came out beautifully if a bit too aromatic.
bbwwaa-ha-ha-haaa.

[Beach Chick]

WTF..you can cook in a dishwasher too?
Virgo girl

[Caralien]

Vincent Price wrote a cookbook which included a recipe for fish made in the dishwasher...

[BobB]

It makes sense if you think about it - after all, your dishwasher gets everything inside it literally clean enough to eat off of - including its own insides. As long as you remember NOT to add the soap it's like a big boiling/steaming chamber.

Of course, why anyone would want to do this when they have a perfectly good stove available is beyond me, but hey, to each his own!

[BobB]

Our Kitchenaid does stemware beautifully and has never broken a single one. My favorite thing about it is the built-in disposal, we save a ton of water by just scraping any large scraps off the plates and not having to rinse them before they go in.

Where knives are concerned, obviously carbon steel gets washed by hand and dried immediately, but pretty much all our other knives go in the dishwasher. It's more of a threat to wooden handles than to blades, and most of ours have some sort of composite or laminated handles so that's not a problem.

[Whosyerkitty]

That was what I never understood. The thing is STEEL and you have to sharpen it anyway, so what is the big deal? My wooden handled knives are fine. I also put sponges and the sink plugs in there.

[AHan]

All dishwashers have essentially a built-in disposal, albeit none as strong or durable as a true disposal.

[lemons]

Sorry. Not true. I'm sure the newer ones all do, but I promise you not all of them do, because mine doesn't. It's old, old, old, though; at least 20 years old.

[BobB]

None of my previous ones did, including the one that was in this house when we bought it five years ago, and that one was just a few years old at the time. I did my research and bought the Kitchenaid and have been very pleased with it.

Or maybe they all do in the sense of being able to get rid of really small particles, while this one handles bigger stuff. It's definitely the first one I've ever used where you literally do not need to rinse your dishes and they still come out spotless.

[AHan]

My guess is you just didn't know it had one. Virtually all do except Bosch, and have for a very long time. The disposer component has no functionality as to the cleaning process or the need to rinse-- it is only there to aid in the expelling of the solids from the machine. I would be happy to expalin the mechanical process of how a dishwasher works if it would help.

[BobB]

No, I'll take your word for it. I guess then that instead of saying I like the disposal feature, I should have gone up a level of abstraction and just said I like how I don't need to rinse the dishes first, regardless of what this one does that makes that possible.

[AHan]

I'll give you that. Sorry about the technicality. It is what it is.

[Sooeygun]

I recall in my mom's DW (I don't have one) some glasses being put over the pins and getting broken during the wash cycle. They weren't long enough to rest on the rack, so rocked back and forth on the pin until they broke. Lesson learned.

[mojoeater]

I saw this post title and just had to chuckle. When SO and I moved in together (a milennia ago), he got very annoyed with how I loaded the silverware. He insisted that all the knives went together in one basket, forks in another, spoons in another... I thought he was crazy until he showed me how simple it was to just take a handful out of the DW and plop it in the cutlery tray. No sorting!

[BobB]

Well, you either sort as they go in or sort as they come out. Same amount of work. Frankly I would think that putting all the spoons together would increase the chance of them nesting together like...well, spoons, so that they don't all get cleaned properly. But hey, whatever works for you.

[mojoeater]

Actually, none of the silverware goes in at the same time. I generally rinse each place setting as we go and put them in the DW. Then we run it about once a week.

I've found that our DW moves the silverware around a lot during the wash cycle, so they all get clean.

[BobB]

It depends somewhat on the dishwasher, but in many (like ours) it's best to put reusable plastic containers (especially those 1 qt deli containers, if you reuse them) on the top shelf, as the drying element at the bottom gets VERY hot and can melt them if they're placed on the lower shelf.

Beyond that it's just common sense - arrange things so that nothing is blocking the flow of water to anything else, and keep in mind that during the cleaning cycle dishes may rattle around a bit so don't put anything heavy too close to a fragile item. Over time you'll discover what positioning of glassware etc works best in your machine.

[alkapal]

hiya beach chick. happy new year! (have any fun with the "captain"? ;-).

my mom definitely has rules, including pre-rinsing (by hand, of course) and a "no heat" dry with dish-towel-dabbing of the water from coffee cup bottoms and other water "retainers."

my only two rules are: fit in the items efficiently, and don't block the water distribution spout on the top.

from your query, it sounds as if someone has taken issue with your technique. but, let me assure you, i am a laissez-faire dishwasher stacker***..... so, you go ahead and stack any old way your little heart desires!

and, say hello to the captain for me, will ya? {;^D.

_____________
*** i have had to educate mr. alka, however, on what "efficiently" "looks like". he is learning. i'm so proud!!!

[smartie]

ha my mum also has rules about dishwasher stacking and gets very upset if it is not perfect (for her)! Silverware (cutlery) has to be pointing upwards, plates must all be sized and only cups and glasses at the top.

[DGresh]

Pointing upwards ?????

I was traumatized as an eight year old by a story in the news of a mother who fell on her dishwasher and was killed by upward pointing knives and forks. I kid you not. It scarred me, and I could no more put in cutlery pointing up than put my cat in the dishwasher :)

[alkapal]

knives and forks get stuck in the basket tines down, damaging the tine alignment and the knife tip (if it is sharp). but, if you're scared to fall on upward-directed ones....

i am careful unloading the cutlery basket when knives are present, though.

[queencru]

I was always taught that sharp knives were not to go into the dishwasher; they must be washed by hand. I can't say I follow this rule, but I do typically wash my cutting knives by hand.

[alkapal]

i only put in cheapo stainless steel blades. anything with carbon i wash by hand.

[Beach Chick]

Hi alkapal!
Maybe my problem is not enough Captain.. ; )

Friends always bust my huevos for how I load the dishwasher...if I want to go sideways with a plate..if I want to mix the silverware up and not have some order to it..let it go..my house..my rules!
I find my creative style, unique..gets the job done and doesn't block the water flow..
I did find that the gel detergent doesn't do the trick..leaves a milky, yukky residue...
its the powder stuff that works the best..

[alkapal]

yeah, i'm a powder-girl, too. mom likes the capsules, though.

your friends gripe about how you load your *own* dishwasher? geesh! let THEM do it! ha!

[OCAnn]

I agree that powder works best. Additionally, I use vinegar as the rinse aid....

[alkapal]

i have to pour mine in the bottom right corner of the dishwasher's floor, as the dispenser cup has never properly released, leaving gooey edges of detergent (which wasn't helping to clean the dishware).

[Beach Chick]

do you use the vinegar vs. the coveted Jet Dry..or do you just add a splash at the bottom of the dishwasher?

Anyone use Lime Away to get the hard water deposits out?

[OCAnn]

Yes, I use straight vinegar....

[alkapal]

in the "jet-dry" dispenser?

[OCAnn]

In my FP Dishdrawer, it's called the "rinse agent dispenser."

[alkapal]

great. will try!!!

[OCAnn]

The main reason I use vinegar is that we have really hard water where I live. I use it also in my laundry...but when I use it in my dishwasher, I put it in a squeeze bottle for easier for dispensing.

Since I haven't used a rinse agent, I don't know how it will compare; so please report back; I'm curious.

[RGC1982]

What is it with the pre-rinsers? Isn't scraping good enough?

[alkapal]

i think mom had to do that when she first got a dishwasher some -- what -- 35-40 years ago. old habits.... i don't pre-rinse, though.

and the "disposal" feature may be standard today, but it wasn't 15-20 years ago. there may've been some disposal-type mechanism, but it wasn't advertised, and it was suggested (i believe) that one remove all the food.

[Dee S]

Not all brands have a disposal. Those that do sometimes require cleaning to work effectively. I can't recall where I read it but someone said a general scraping of the dishes will do the trick. Having said that, I have a friend who will PACK the dishwasher and only run it when every available slot has been filled (once every 10 days for the two of them). I couldn't imagine not pre-rinsing in that case!

If you live in a home with a septic system, you should generally not put too many solids in the system. Grease tends to prohibit the natural decomposition process and could wreck the system.