You’re Running Your Dishwasher Wrong

For eons, etiquette columns have doled out advice on being a good houseguest: bring gifts, don’t overstay your welcome, respect your hosts’ privacy. Even the Medieval Gazette probably had a few tips on what to do if your horse accidentally nibbled Lady Agatha’s precious family tapestries. But woe to the houseguest who’s faced with an OCD host, filling the house with lists of draconian rules for every aspect of life under his or her roof.

Hand in the air. That’s me, at least when it comes to use of my kitchen. Come on, after reading about the level of detail I put into my dinner party menus, would you want to move any pan or touch a knife without my approval? Even a seasoned expert like Stephanie Stiavetti was slightly cowed by my stringent guidelines when she spent a few weeks with me this winter.

As someone who admittedly ran her machine half-full every night, Steph was especially frightened-slash-impressed by the military precision with which I managed my dishwasher. Every time I yelped at her for putting an item on the forbidden list into the top rack, I felt awful, but I just couldn’t help myself. This stuff is important, you know?

running the dishwasher
Steph, I’m sorry, and I’m turning your pain into everyone else’s gain. For the edification of anyone who spends the night at Casa Barber–and anyone who wants to make his/her dishwasher more energy efficient and the expensive cookware last longer–here are the five rules to remember for dishwasher happiness:

  • No good knives. Obviously the stainless-steel dinner or butter knives that came with your five-piece cutlery sets are A-OK to withstand the dishwasher spray. But stick to hand washing for all your forged steel knives–chef’s, paring, serrated, santoku, steak, and so on. The heat and pressure of the water jostles the knives like a mosh pit circa 1994, causing the wood or plastic handles to eventually warp and crack, and dulling the blades at warp speed. You paid a lot of money for those German and Japanese beauties; you don’t want to be forced to buy another set, right?
  • No Tupperware-style plastic. Polypropylene cutting boards pass muster (although the heat of the dishwasher is likely not enough to sanitize the salmonella away–review my post on cutting board safety for a rundown), but the threat of BPA and other super-awesome chemicals (sarcasm!) leaching from plastics is more than enough to keep the Gladware, Tupperware, and Rubbermaid out of the dishwasher. Yes, even the top rack. Until I win the lottery and can completely move from plastic-based storage to glass jars and containers, this is the next best solution.
  • No nonstick cookware. Even if the company swears up and down that their brand is completely dishwasher-safe, there’s a way greater chance of the nonstick coating peeling or flaking off when constantly subjected to the harsh cleaning environment of a dishwasher. It seems silly when a dishwasher’s water temperature only reaches about 140Ëš and a skillet reaches 350Ëš-400Ëš over medium heat (the highest temperature setting you should use when cooking with nonstick pans–no broiling, no searing, no high heat). But unlike a round on the stovetop, where the nonstick surface is well-lubricated with olive oil, butter, or duck fat (yeah!), there’s nothing protecting the coating when the pan goes into the dishwasher. And that’s where the high heat and detergent do their worst.
  • No (well, very little) rinsing. Newer dishwashers–essentially any Energy Star-rated model made in this millennium–are more than able to dissolve food residue. Rinsing the dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher means you’re using twice the amount of water to accomplish the same task; that powerfully heated spray I’ve been bitching about in the above bullet points is going to take care of the gunk without your pre-rinse intervention. Just scrape the big chunks off and load up.
  • No running until bursting full. I know it’s hard when you’re a household of one or two, but your dishwasher’s working just as hard to clean a mostly-empty load as it is to clean a jam-packed one. Pennies down the drain, my friends.

For bonus energy savings, use the “delay start” function to run your dishwasher overnight, when electricity rates are lower (I’d do all my laundry in the middle of the night if I could) and skip the “heated dry” cycle to let the dishes air-dry inside the washer overnight.

Don’t feel chastised enough? .Read through these dishwasher tune-up tips from The Kitchn, and stay tuned for my strong opinions on how to load the draining rack.

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21 Comments

  1. Good advice/reminders! The one I find hardest is the “no-rinsing” edict…especially when we smaller household only run our dws every 2nd or 3rd day..it seems hard not to rinse when the dishes will be sitting in there for a few days before being washed! i’ll try, though….

  2. On the same thought – GUESTS – please do not touch my expensive stemware and please do not use the garbage disposal – artichoke leaves do not work well there.

  3. We are strict followers of all these rules and have spent the last 10 years trying to convince my husband’s mother not to rinse (in her case, fully wash) dishes before putting them in the dishwasher!

  4. Luckily I follow all those rules about the dishwasher already, they were drilled into me as a child. Except for the Tupperware, which we always washed. I don’t have Tupperware, so I think I’m safe. But just in case, I’m going to hand wash everything at your house next month.

  5. Ha! Perfect timing: Just got a new dishwasher so will study your list with care and remind me not to load your machine if I ever come to stay (I have a reputation as a bit of a dishwasher loading control freak myself.)

    1. Sarah(s), I think you’ll be perfect houseguests – although my parents stayed with me this weekend and still insisted on rinsing every dish before it went into the racks. Sigh. Old habits die hard, eh?

  6. Since my husband IS the dishwasher in this house, however he wants to get those dishes done is fine by me! Some day maybe we’ll get one of those newfangled mechanical devices.

  7. Oh, man. Now I get to feel inadequate over the dishwasher (smirk)?

    Well, let’s see … I have no good knives.

    We do have some plastic in the house, but I did seem some lovely glass ones with lids (for leftovers) at Costco last time I was there. Maybe I’ll put that on my gift idea list.

    We recently ditched non-stick cookware for vintage cast iron, so I’m good there … I do those by hand, carefully.

    And I have an inconsistent rinse policy. I’m trying to do more scraping and less rinsing.

    BUT, because we too are a 2-person house, I indeed can stuff that bugger like you would NOT believe.

    And, since we got our new (bought used on CL) Bosch dishwasher, everything indeed does come clean … even jam packed. The guy we bought it from HATED it because it didn’t have a timer for delayed start. Imagine the horrors of having to turn a dishwasher manual and have it run while you are home / awake.

    Still … it found a happy home here, with us (the dishwasher heathen masses, I guess).

  8. This is such a great list! My husband runs the dishwasher at our house, so I will have to have him read it. I think the machines themselves should have these recommendations posted inside.

  9. Excellent rules! I’m all for all of these. I have one to add: KILL YOUR NON-STICK POTS. Get them out of your house and your life. They’re toxic. The stuff comes off and you EAT IT. YUCK.

  10. My mother in law always moves dishes around in her washer after we put them in there. We all get a kick out of this, especially when she mumbles things like, “What kind of a person would put a glass here?!” But in all seriousness, you raise some good points, especially about the plastic. I’m trying to eliminate that crap from my life, but it ain’t easy.

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