Things you love and hate about your dishwasher

[kitchenspecialist]

WE bought a new dishwasher few years ago so the kitchen looks nice. I use the dishwasher may be twice or thrice a year.

Problem is we can not load the plastic boxes (even in the top rack sometimes they melt) or non-stick items in the dishwasher. Ditto for the Mixer grinder jars, lids and gaskets. If I put couple of stainless steel pots I use for cooking Indian food, the bottom rack fills up.

You still have to rinse the dishes and then load them nicely and decide what goes where. So it is easier to hand wash all the dishes. It gives me a wind down time in the night. Also it is an incentive to use the dishes wisely so not too many accumulates.

When I do use the dishwasher, I open it as soon as it finishes rinsing. I make sure none of the bowls or cups in the top rack flipped and filled with water. I tilt the glasses so water drains off their top. I also try to drain the water from the pots and pans in the bottom rack also. It helps to prevent the soap residue or fogging of the glasses in the dishwasher.

[William Linington]

Here's a tip I swear by for getting dry dishes out of a dishwasher, though it only works if you're around right when it finishes.

As soon as the machine has finished all its cycles and switches itself off, open the front door of the machine a few inches for a few seconds, say 5 or 10 seconds, and let all the steam gush out. You'll see when the bulk of the steam has escaped. Then close the door again, and let dry as per normal on the heat in the machine (you don't need to run any heated drying cycle, so it saves energy money, too.)

Letting the bulk of the steam out prevents the water in it from it from condensing back onto your dishes as the machine cools.

Simple, logical and very effective.

And if you want, you can stick your head into the escaping steam for a free, quick facial :}

Came across this tip here: http://www.cooksinfo.com/dishwashers

[DanM]

The keypad on our GE dishwasher is flaky at best and has been replaced twice. One thing I do like is the rinse cycle. If the dishes are particularly bad or if I know food will dry and stick to the dish, a 5 minute rinse cycle saves me trouble when I run a full load.