“I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that many times I have opened the dishwasher, loaded properly, with the right amount of dishwashing liquid or pod put in, that all the dishes aren’t clean,” the orator declared.
Hmm.
Not really the point of the article, but that’s not really using the dishwasher in the intended fashion. Those normally use powder. Normally, liquid detergent is for hand dishwashing and pods don’t do an ideal job because they don’t dissolve and release their detergent until after the rinse cycle, whereas normally dishwashers do have a spot for putting powder used during the rinse cycle.
Technology Connections did a video on this a while back.
He uses liquid detergent in his extensive example and regularly has the bottle feature alongside a box of powder.
The big difference between liquid and powder is powder allows for two different cleaning agents whereas if they both are in a liquid, they react with each other. He doesn’t bring this up in the video, but I think he mentions it in another one.
Doubt liquid dishwasher detergent is the problem. He’s probably not pre-rinsing before loading them in.
Had a dumbass roommate that had steak and fries every dinner, and would leave the grease and a massive pool of ketchup on the plate every time, then run the dishwasher days later after everything was dry. All it did was bake it onto the plates and require some heavy scrubbing to get off.
You’re not supposed to pre-rinse dishes. It messes up the sensors by suggesting the dishes are already clean, and detergents are designed to bind to the particles on your dishes, making them work less well.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/a33322/stop-prerinsing-dishes/
Properly used dishwashers do not require pre-rinsing. It’s a waste to do so.
I have never found a dishwasher that requires less pre-wash than me just washing the whole dish by hand anyway. Like, if I already have to take it to the sink and start getting food off, I might as well just finish the job right there.
Some people take that to mean that you don’t have to clear the food residue off the plate I have found.
Also if you’re having to wash multiple times, there’s a good chance your mistake it’s not running the water until hot at the tap before running the dishwasher. First cycle is a just hot water rinse which actually does a pretty decent percentage of the debris removal. But that step works best with hot water when there is any grease or caked on food. The first cycle just uses a bit of water from the hot water line connected to it, no heater. So if your hot water line is still cold at the tap, it’s cold in the dishwasher too.
Dishwashers already have heating coils and temperature sensors. It’s 2024, why don’t they handle that on their own?
If you run it correctly, with the hot water at the tao, the first cycle is only a few minutes long and the box is insulated, so there is very little heat loss. It drains all that water out after a few minutes so that all that grease and debris isn’t being sprayed all over your dishes that it is trying to wash. There is no reason to add more heat to that cycle, and the heat added would be minimal since the cycle doesn’t last long. The next cycle, the detergent cycle is much longer, so the water will lose heat over the duration of the cycle if not heated. That is what the heating coil is used for, to maintain the heat of the, ideally, already hot water.
Why not use the heating element one the first cycle? Energy efficiency, runtime, and equipment cost/complexity. It is a waste of energy to heat cold water when you should already have a tank full of heated water somewhere in your house with a line connected to the dishwasher. But not only that, heating water takes a considerable amount of time. To heat a gallon of water by 80 degrees Fahrenheit (average cold tap is 60 degrees, vs 140 in water heater) with a typical heating element in a dishwasher, it would take just under 15 minutes of continuous heating to get it to temp, and you would need to do that before you started cleaning if you want it to matter. And every cycle after that will need to heat the water from cold too. With 4 cycles to a normal wash (if I’m not mistaken), that’s an extra hour to every load of dishes. Then on top of that, you need a thermostat that’s currently unnecessary, to let the dishwasher know when it’s reached temp. The temperature sensor that is currently in your dishwasher is dedicated overheat sensor to make sure the system doesn’t get too hot and become a safety hazard. It’s a simple kill switch, too simple to serve both purposes. So you would need both sensors, not just the one, or a more complicated and expensive sensor.
It’s not like they couldn’t just use the heating element on the initial rinse. They could. But there’s no good reason to add extra time, sensors and power usage on an appliance when you already have an appliance that’s already done all of that for you. You just have to clear the line of the unheated water. It will save to time and money.
After that video, I did try switching from pods to powder, and for my dishwasher it sucked. The powder didn’t fully dissolve, and would end up settling all over everything, requiring me to hand wash or wash them again.
That’s too much powder, which can happen if your water’s not hard and you fill the space up.
I tried varying amounts, no matter how little I put in it always happened. I think it’s probably an issue with our dishwasher, it’s an old, crappy apartment model and probably doesn’t work 100% correctly.
They make liquid detergent (It’s a gel) for dishwashers. Perhaps that’s what he was talking about.
I’m not defending the guy, I’m just saying that I’ve been using the stuff for a couple of decades. It’s made by Cascade.
I believe TC made a video calling out the inadequacy of liquid dishwasher detergent, and having made the switch to powder I have to say that I agree. I used to get discoloration building up on coffee mugs with the liquid stuff, this went away right away when switching to powder.
What people forget is their own water hardness. It determines how much detergent you should actually use.
