Putting your dishes inside of a dishwasher is supposed to make them clean, right? Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
If you notice that your dishes still have spots and bits of food and grime on them after running a whole load, the reason your dishes are still dirty may be because you aren’t loading the washer right and not because your dishwasher isn’t working properly.
To get clean dishes anytime, try some of the following tips and guidelines for loading your dishwasher.
What Goes On Inside Your Dishwasher While there are a plethora of various
best dishwasher brand, sizes and designs on the market, each operates in primarily a similar method. When you hit the “start” button on your dishwasher, a basin at the bottom of the machine fills up with hot or cold water, depending on the model.
After this basin is filled, heating elements among the washer heat the water anywhere from 105-155°. Then, the small spot that you filled with detergent opens up and mixes with the warm water.
Once the water is nice and soapy, it's propelled through sprayer arms and moved around throughout the washer for about half-hour. After the washing period is over, the dirty water is drained out of the machine through the pipes in your sink and clean water starts to fill the basin again.
Then, this clean water is sprayed all over your dishes so as to get the soap off. After that, the same devices that heated the water in the starting heat your dishes until they’re dry.
Tips To Getting The Cleanest DishesUnfortunately, all of this cleaning, rinsing, and drying isn’t always enough to get your dishes all the way clean. To make sure that you are getting the most out of your dishwasher, it would be wise to follow these tips.
1) Glasses should always go on the top rack. Don’t place individual glasses on the tines to avoid your glasses rattling around during the cleaning method and getting marks on them.
2) Place your plates on the lowest rack facing the middle of the dishwasher rather than putting them all in one line facing a similar direction.
3) All bowls should go on the highest rack. The bowls place in the front of the rack should face forward whereas those near the back should face the rear so that water is able to get in from all sides.
4) Place butter knives facing down in the silverware container. For forks and spoons, some should go in upside down and others the proper way to avoid nesting.
5) Platters and cookie sheets should go on the lowest rack along the edges so that they don’t block the water and detergent from getting to the other dishes.
6) Any casserole dishes, large pots, or serving bowls should be placed on the bottom rack at an angle so that water is permitted to flow throughout both the bottoms and tops of these dishes.
7) Long utensils, like serving spoons, should be laid face down on the highest rack so that they don’t collect water.
8) Ensure to place plastic containers and children’s cups on the highest rack.
If you start following these loading tips, you'll start to notice a dramatic difference in the cleanliness of your dishes after you run them through your dishwasher.
Experiment With Different washing CyclesIf you want to take it a step further, try experimenting with the various wash cycles and settings on your
dishwasher.
For example, if you just threw the party at your home and have a bunch of dirty glasses lying around, place them on the highest rack and try out the fast clean setting. This is a good setting to get dishes clean quick that are only lightly soiled.
In reality, not all dishes get washed the second food is removed from them resulting in dishes with dry, caked on food that can be tough to get completely off. To take care of those difficult dishes, try using the high-temperature wash cycle.
This heats up the water in your washer about 5 to 10 degrees hotter than normal to disintegrate tough food on your dishes. However, ensure that the dishes you wash in this cycle are able to withstand the extra heat.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with the various buttons on your dishwasher and use these correct loading procedures to get clean, sparkling dishes each time!