Do you rinse your dishes before tossing them in the dishwasher?

Mountain Cat

Mountain Cat

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I was at another site a couple years ago, where it was claimed that you should NOT rinse your dishes before putting them in the D/W. And especially as a brand new one, as the one I'd just bought was about to become, it was a really bad idea. I never really got clear on WHY.

It turned out that since I ran just about every dish I owned through the D/W when I brought them up here (wrapping many things in newspaper to prevent breakage) meant that these dishes weren't really food-dirty, just ink-print dust dirty, if that. There wasn't anything to rinse off! Also, since i am a single person who at the time was still living mostly in Connecticut, this meant that any food I did consume up here turned hard and seriously dried-on before I could run a FULL D/W - I refuse to run one with ten dishes in it! - so yes, I DID rinse food dishes before putting things in the D/W.

Also, I do eat a lot of food with cheese. This stuff has the habit of baking on. Throw those items in?

What's your thought on that bit of foodie philosophy? (Personally, I think it silly. But maybe some light can be shed to change my mind.)
 
The main reason I've always heard regarding rinsing or not rinsing dishes is that it's an unnecessary waste of water, that modern dishwashers are more than powerful enough to clean off just about anything.

Also, a lot of dishwashers come equipped with food grinders to gnash up the big bits, so if you have one of those, theoretically you can skip rinsing/scraping.

MrsTasty is adamant about dishes being nearly sparkling clean before going in the dishwasher - I just make sure there are no chunky bits.
 
morning glory said:
I only rinse if there is a lot of gunge - but not normally. Obviously scrape off any big bits of gristle or bones etc.
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Same with me. I knock off the big stuff, but that's all. My parents practically wash their dishes before they go in the DW. Seriously, I open their dishwasher and don't know if the dishes inside are clean or dirty.

CD
 
It depends on the dishwasher. Three or four years ago our old one died. Since it is just the two of us I did not think we needed a high end machine. Mistake. I had to practically wash the dishes before putting them in. Even with the rinse agent the bottom of the glasses developed a film. Not worth the effort. I wash the dishes by hand and put them on a towel on the counter to air dry. When G is home he puts them away - most of the time. I would like to take the DW out and replace it with a drawer base cabinet.
 
My new countertop machine gets off the tough stuff pretty well with the heated wash & heated final rinse. The heated wash takes at least 20 minutes & takes the heated final rinse has at least 30 minutes. :wink:
 
Another problem with cheap dishwashers is the noise. THEY'RE SOOOOO LOUD!

When we bought our house (new construction, though it was already built), it came with a bare-bones $200US dishwasher, and one of the conditions of us buying the house was that the owner had to take that POS out and credit us back the money, then we went out and bought a top-of-the-line Bosch that's so quiet, I usually can't even hear it running.
 
TastyReuben said:
Another problem with cheap dishwashers is the noise. THEY'RE SOOOOO LOUD!

When we bought our house (new construction, though it was already built), it came with a bare-bones $200US dishwasher, and one of the conditions of us buying the house was that the owner had to take that POS out and credit us back the money, then we went out and bought a top-of-the-line Bosch that's so quiet, I usually can't even hear it running.
Click to expand...

I picked out the appliances for my build, and went with Bosch for the DW, too. You can barely hear it if you are standing next to it. At my last house, you couldn't watch TV and run the DW at the same time.

CD
 
I worked as a custom kitchen designer for Lowe's - 7 years. The appliance dept. was a "sister" department. If the appliance associates needed help I would jump in. I retired in 2012. IDK if it is still true but at the time Bosch was the only DW actually made in the U.S.. German engineering but assembled in the U.S. :scratchhead:
 
No, never. It is a waste of water especially if you are in a city where it had all been treated first.
And whilst we have a dishwasher, we have so little water that I would never consider putting the dishwasher on. We moved in 18-20 months ago and bought some dishwasher tablets (suitable for septic tanks). It had 40 tablets in it, I think. We're still on that same original box.

We wash by hand. It uses much less water than the dishwasher. 1 small washing up bowl and we're done for the entire day's dish washing for 2 people even with cooking taken into account. We've become very efficient at not using much water over the years. If it doesn't rain (and it hasn't) we have no water, even for sanitation, it's that simple. Pre-washing/rinsing is not necessary. In fact in Australia, there is a current ad campaign on tv to stop people pre-rinsing dishes and they'll donate 40L of water to drought strike areas for every household that pledges to stop.
 
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