Most of us are in the habit of rinsing our dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher. Aside from saving time and water, there’s another reason to skip the rinse: it could actually keep your dishes from getting clean.
Photo by peapod labs.
Consumer Reports explains that pre-rinsing dishes, glasses, pans and silverware can make them come out dirtier. Here’s why:
The reason is that most dishwashers costing $US500 ($678) or more sold in the past five years or so have a sensor that determines how thorough a wash is needed. At the start of the cycle, it rinses the dishes and then checks how dirty the water is to determine the proper amount of time and water to get everything clean. If you’ve already rinsed off much of the muck, the sensor misreads the dishes as already fairly clean.
Of course, that’s kind of the point of the sensor cycle and some folks, like my mum, like to get their dishes fairly clean before running the dishwasher anyway. In that case, you’re probably good to go, since your dishes don’t need much cleaning. One might ask why you’re washing them again, but hey, we’re not here to judge.
However, if you’re simply rinsing off your plates, this is something to keep in mind if you want a deeper clean. Consumer Reports recommends removing food scraps but then skipping the rinse altogether. For more detail, head to the post below.
Why Dirt Gets Your Dishes Really Clean [Consumer Reports]
Comments
3 responses to “Why You Should Skip The Pre-Rinse Before Loading Your Dishwasher”
Huh? This story doesn’t make sense…
Doh! That’s because they are ‘fairly clean’. It’s not a ‘misread’, the sensor is doing what it’s supposed to do. If you’ve already rinsed them a bit, they are ‘fairly clean’ and so they don’t need as much cleaning in the dishwasher.
One real reason for not rinsing them beforehand is just to save yourself some work, because the dishwasher will clean them anyway, whether you rinse them or not. If you’ve spent the money and bought a dishwasher, you might as well let it do the work and save yourself some effort.
My dishwasher asks me how thorough I want the clean. Quick, medium or heavy. I would have thought that this would be universal?
my dishwasher works best when i offer chocolates and alcohol as a finishing prize….
@shithead
how did i do?