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China in the dishwasher


snowangel

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My china has a gold rim and I put it in the dishwasher and I use powder. If your dishwashwer has a china setting you could use that, but until I got this new dishwasher, I just used the regular cycle. This particular set has been going in the dishwasher for 8 years without any problems.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I've been using the dw (liquid det) for a couple of years, haven't seen any negative effect on the metal trim. I probably don't use it more than 2x a year, but I'm the 2nd wife using this particular set, so I know it's been OK for a while...

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" - Oscar Wilde

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the basic answer to your question is that it depends on your water chemistry and your long-terms plans for that china.

At our ranch, with its artificially softened water, my mother could point out the difference between the silver-rimmed china that had never seen a dishwasher and the silver-rimmed china that had. We're talking about a lot of years of dishwasher use, however, and it wasn't a huge loss of color. My husband claimed not to be able to tell the difference.

I've put my grandmother's ginger bowls in the dishwasher here, also with artificially softened water, regularly since I inherited them, and ALL the gold trim is gone. OTOH they still look lovely, and the only way you'd know the difference would be to look at the lids, which haven't been in the dishwasher.

In the end, I think you have to balance the beauty with the utility. Will you use the china less if you can't put it in the dishwasher? Are you saving it for the next generation? If the answers are "yes" and "no" respectively, then make the most of your china, use the dishwasher and don't worry about the long term effects. Otherwise, you may have to do some experimenting.

This, from a childless woman who washes all her china by hand! :raz:

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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Totally anecdotal and with no scientific evidence or explanation:

1 - Most contemporary China seems to be made with much more durable processes than older China -- it seems to be designed not to allow the crap to be kicked out of it by a dishwasher.

2 - Silver trim seems to be more durable than gold trim.

3 - I would strongly recommend that you never wash older China in the dishwasher, especially if it has gold trim -- I've seen many, many examples of such China with most or all of the gold washed off.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
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When I bought my china (Lenox with decoration and gold rim) the older salesman, who had been selling china for years, told me that Lenox could go in the dishwasher (specifically dishwasher-safe), and that all others could also go in the diswasher, but not not go through the drying cycle. He said it was the drying cycle that did the damage.

I would not try it with old or antique china, however.

Silver can also go in the dishwasher as long as it does not touch other metals. I would wash the knives by hand if they are made of 2 metals soldered together.

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I put my china and silverware in the dishwasher, use the cycle for light wash or mine has a china cycle. As mentioned above I rescue it from the dry heat part. I let the steam out when the heat starts and then close it back up for a bit. That seems to dry everything unless there is that one cup in the top rack that turned itself over during the wash and filled with water! I do my SS pots and pans too. I hate standing and washing dishes.

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