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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Feb 8, 2022 14:24:09 GMT
My KitchenAid dishwasher has not been doing a satisfactory job lately. The dishes are clean, but everything is cloudy and spotty - especially glasses and stainless flatware. I had tried a new detergent to no avail and it's been getting worse, so I called our local appliance store for a repair. Turns out it was mostly due to a buildup of detergent sludge keeping the valves and hoses from operating correctly. Here's what he said I should be doing: - refill my rinse aid dispenser (I'm pretty slack about that)
- let the water run in the sink to get it hot before turning the dishwasher on
- choose the high temperature scrub setting instead of the heated drying
- most importantly, stop rinsing my dishes so well before I load them (I practically pre-wash them)
He said with the old phosphate detergents it didn't matter. But with the enzyme cleaners now, they need 'dirt' to feed off of. Old habits in this regard are hard to break, but I've been putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher since he came. It's working like a charm now. And sounds so much smoother and quieter when it runs. Apparently, I was forcing it to work much too hard to do its job. Maybe I'm just the last person to know all these things? But in case some of you don't, I'm sharing. Plus there will be all the fun of the people who disagree and argue about it! Lol. |
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SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,618 
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Feb 8, 2022 14:42:56 GMT
So I do everything except leave food on the dishes. I know I should but I just can’t do it.
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Post by gar on Feb 8, 2022 14:44:01 GMT
I have heard that a few times in the ever popular “do you or don’t you pre wash” discussions. Luckily I’m lazy so I’ve never had that problem 😉
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,176
Location: Alabama
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Post by janeinbama on Feb 8, 2022 15:03:55 GMT
Prewashing was never a problem for me either. I discovered the hot water trick when I read the dishwasher manual when we moved in. At other house had a better quality dishwasher and we moved down to a builder grade model. I feel silly wasting water though.
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Post by malibou on Feb 8, 2022 15:04:57 GMT
I was late in life to a dishwasher. I was so glad to finally get one, and bonus when I found out I didn't have to rinse dishes completely clean!
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Post by littlemama on Feb 8, 2022 15:07:26 GMT
So I do everything except leave food on the dishes. I know I should but I just can’t do it. I dont either. I can smell egg left on dishes even after the dishwasher has been run if the dishes arent rinsed and soaped before going in. |
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Post by MZF on Feb 8, 2022 15:09:33 GMT
I knew that except for the ProScrub cycle choice. I'll try that as I've been noticing my KA d/w hasn't been doing such a great job. TFS
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lesley
Drama Llama
My best friend Turriff, desperately missed.
Posts: 7,184
Location: Scotland, Scotland, Scotland
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Post by lesley on Feb 8, 2022 15:17:03 GMT
So I do everything except leave food on the dishes. I know I should but I just can’t do it. I dont either. I can smell egg left on dishes even after the dishwasher has been run if the dishes arent rinsed and soaped before going in. If I was going to the trouble of rinsing AND soaping dishes, I would go the whole way and just wash them in the sink. Save space in the dishwasher for other stuff.  I’ve never used rinse aid in any dishwasher. The one I had in my last house was 15 years old when I moved out, and still working like a dream! We have very soft water here - I don’t know if that’s why rinse aid isn’t necessary. |
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Post by gar on Feb 8, 2022 15:25:15 GMT
I dont either. I can smell egg left on dishes even after the dishwasher has been run if the dishes arent rinsed and soaped before going in. If I was going to the trouble of rinsing AND soaping dishes, I would go the whole way and just wash them in the sink. Save space in the dishwasher for other stuff. I’ve never used rinse aid in any dishwasher. The one I had in my last house was 15 years old when I moved out, and still working like a dream! We have very soft water here - I don’t know if that’s why rinse aid isn’t necessary. Could be. I have super hard water and I can’t leave it if my rinse aid runs out. |
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Post by cat2007 on Feb 8, 2022 15:49:58 GMT
Huh. You learn something new every day. I've been rinsing my dishes for years but that is one habit I can give up for sure!
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scrappinwithoutpeas
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Posts: 2,928
Location: Northern Virginia
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on Feb 8, 2022 16:04:57 GMT
Is the problem with pre-washing the soap (if used for pre-wash) or the lack of food residue itself? I'm confused as to how pre-washing/pre-rinsing affects the D/W's effectiveness.
DH usually loads the D/W and he totally pre-rinses (no soap), whereas if I do it I just barely run them under the water to get the worst of it off, and often don't pre-rinse at all. Neither of us uses soap to pre-rinse, so that is where my question is coming from.
TFS! This is all good information, and it's a good reminder for me to read the manual on the new D/W we just had installed 2 weeks ago. Kicking myself for not having read it yet...
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Post by padresfan619 on Feb 8, 2022 16:25:59 GMT
I have always scraped dishes instead of pre-washing. That’s the dishwashers job. The only thing I rinse off fully is anything that avocado has touched, it turns into cement in the dishwasher.
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,630
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Feb 8, 2022 17:23:22 GMT
I feel like when I put dirty dishes in they come out with crap stuck to them. I just can't wrap my head around this...
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Post by melanell on Feb 8, 2022 17:26:11 GMT
We don't currently have a dishwasher, but with our last one, we didn't leave heavy food on dishes, but we didn't pre-rinse them either. Now when that dishwasher was installed, the man installing did specifically point out to us that we should run the tap until the water was hot before starting the dishwasher. I didn't know about the settings, though.
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Post by maryland on Feb 8, 2022 17:31:50 GMT
I do all of those too, my dishwasher just doesn't wash well. We tried not cleaning our dishes first, and it made it even worse. It's so frustrating and such waste of water/expense to have to run the dishwasher twice sometimes. The regular setting takes over three hours, and the quick setting takes an hour and a half. The dishes never dry, regardless of rinse aid.
The place we stay at the beach has a cheap old dishwasher with nothing fancy. It cleans and dries so well! Much better than our more expensive new dishwasher.
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iluvpink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,298
Location: Michigan
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Post by iluvpink on Feb 8, 2022 17:32:29 GMT
I do the first two.
I'm not sure what you mean about the third. I'll have to look at my dishwasher settings when I'm at home later.
I'm guilty of "rinsing" too well. Dh is always complaining about that when he sees me do it.
ETA Our dishwasher works pretty well but I did notice the first two helped when on occasion I notice results that displease me.
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Post by lucyg on Feb 8, 2022 17:32:57 GMT
I need to add the rinsing aid stuff for sure. But I cannot bring myself to stop pre-washing the dishes before they go in the dishwasher. It is what it is.  |
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Post by Gem Girl on Feb 8, 2022 17:36:33 GMT
We use so few dishes that the "dish masher" (our word for it after a glass got broken in there) would sit with food-dirtied dishes in it for several days before it was run--blech! I also can't dissuade myself from believing that it's NOT a garbage disposal. We've never used a rinse aid. Our dishwasher is from 1997, and it still runs like a champ. (Knocking wood)
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Post by busy on Feb 8, 2022 17:40:25 GMT
So I do everything except leave food on the dishes. I know I should but I just can’t do it. I dont either. I can smell egg left on dishes even after the dishwasher has been run if the dishes arent rinsed and soaped before going in. Rinsed and soaped sounds like they’ve already been washed lol. I don’t get it. |
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Post by MichyM on Feb 8, 2022 17:46:40 GMT
"most importantly, stop rinsing my dishes so well before I load them (I practically pre-wash them)"
This I have a hard time with, as typically my DW gets run only every 4-6 days. If I don't pre-wash, even on the "pots and pans" setting, I'll end up with dried up food left on a dish here and there.
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Post by MichyM on Feb 8, 2022 18:04:32 GMT
I have always scraped dishes instead of pre-washing. That’s the dishwashers job. The only thing I rinse off fully is anything that avocado has touched, it turns into cement in the dishwasher. AND EGG! |
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Post by mom on Feb 8, 2022 18:14:15 GMT
Im just sitting here, amazed, that Spongemom Scrappants does anything wrong! ROFL All kidding aside, I am guilty of pre-washing and like MichyM its because we dont run our DW every day. |
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tracylynn
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Post by tracylynn on Feb 8, 2022 18:14:18 GMT
I only run my dishwasher 2, maybe 3 times a week. I don't know that I would call what I do pre-washing, but I scrub them all off well enough. I wouldn't eat off them, but that doesn't mean they have food residue on them either.
I just can't imagine letting dirty dishes sit there for 2-3 days smelling up the joint.
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Feb 8, 2022 18:40:11 GMT
Is the problem with pre-washing the soap (if used for pre-wash) or the lack of food residue itself? I'm confused as to how pre-washing/pre-rinsing affects the D/W's effectiveness. The way he explains it is that the enzymes need the food/dirt to activate them otherwise they aren't effective. He described it as a dependent relationship of sorts -- the food enables the enzymes to do their job and the enzymes 'eat' the food. When I read up on it, there's even a theory that if there's no food for the enzymes to attack then they may contribute to the etching of glasses and the like that people complain about with dishwashers. I don't know. I've gone down a rabbit hole reading about this whole thing. I have always scraped dishes instead of pre-washing. That's what he recommended. Scrape the chunks off, but leave the smeared parts. Hahaha! If only. I just never admit to much.  |
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Post by librarylady on Feb 8, 2022 22:18:57 GMT
I have always scraped off any chunks of food, but that is as much as I have done.
If something is burned on, I get that off--anything else makes me feel like, "What did I leave for the dishwasher to do?"
I always run the water in the sink to get hot first and DH complains but I do it anyway.
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CeeScraps
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~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
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Post by CeeScraps on Feb 8, 2022 22:58:32 GMT
I have to look at the "high temperature scrub" option. I don't think we have something like that.
I do clean off the dishes. If I'm not supposed to I guess the dogs can't clean the dishes anymore.
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Post by lisae on Feb 8, 2022 23:16:58 GMT
My dishwasher was leaking last year, not every time but many occasions. I couldn't get anyone to come this far out to fix it but I did get some advice. There is a sensor on the lower right that can't be obstructed. I was putting large plates and occasionally quarter sheet pans on that side. I stopped putting anything near that sensor and it hasn't leaked since.
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Post by leannec on Feb 8, 2022 23:41:14 GMT
I'm sorry but someone will have to pull the rinsing very well before step from my cold dead hands I MUST rinse! The rest sounds doable! My dishwasher actually works really well ... I'll be moving later this year and I'm afraid of the dishwasher I'll end up with  |
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Post by peasapie on Feb 9, 2022 1:30:09 GMT
Another thing I learned is there is a removable filter in the bottom that you are supposed to clean monthly.
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peaname
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,389
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Post by peaname on Feb 9, 2022 1:42:43 GMT
My teens do the dishes. They do not rinse!
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