There are two types of dishwasher people

Cold water only connection for all dishwashers I've seen in New Zealand. Dishwashers have an internal heating element.

Are modern US dishwashers plumbed into hot water?

NZ has 240 Volts (10 Amp 2400 Watt appliances are normal - anything above that needs special wiring). And NZ environmental regulations might be involved too (modern washing machines can be crappy because they try to skimp on water usage - our regulations can be overkill).

For me, moving away from pods to a dishwasher liquid (cascade 3x from Costco) made the most difference. I add some liquid in the prewash and some in the main compartment. I had to figure out the right amount to add in each via trial and error. I don't pre rinse or run the hot water beforehand, my dishes come out clean.

There are no dishwashers in Europe that can be connected to hit water. I had no idea that this is a thing somewhere.

Are US washing machines connected to hot water as well?

I wonder how much this really matters. For me my dishwasher is far enough from the hot water heater that it generally takes several gallons for the water to run hot. But the wash cycle is 2+ hours long and uses very minimal water (~3 gallons/cycle). Even if I preheated the lines using the tap near the washer, it wouldnt even be lukewarm by the end of the wash cycle.

The best way to do that... Pre-rinse!!!

I can't recall ever using a dishwasher that had a connection to the hot water line.

Not sure why you were downvoted. This sounds like absolutely crucial advice for people in countries where dishwashers don't heat the water on their own. I've never seen one like that in my life, but yeah, sounds important.

How about a third :)

I've seen the technology connections video, continue to use pods, and continue not to pre-rinse the dishes

I've seen the video and tried switching from pods (which I assume is the same thing as a tab, just never heard that name before) to powder with some power in the prewash compartment without prerinsing the dishes.

Other's results may vary, but I found my dishwasher would eventually get clogged with the TC approach, even though I clean the filter regularly and wasn't putting in dishes with absurd amounts of food still on them. Since I switched back to pods and prerinsing, the clogging went away. Maybe my dishwasher or the install has something goofy about it, but it was definitely a failed experiment for me. Although I still think the TC argument is a solid one in theory.

Dishwasher companies have tried for a long time to get people to stop pre-washing their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I remember ads from the 80s or 90s with people putting full cakes, or a baked on lasagna pan into the dishwasher and it coming out clean.

Almost everyone I know still does excessive rinsing in the sink first. I have never done this and it’s always been fine.

I learned some things from the TC videos, but it was more about refining things, it didn’t drastically change what I was already doing.

I’m a Bosch dishwasher powder soap with some in the bottom for presoak but still pre-rinse type person. Clean the filter once a month (takes 2 minutes literally) use jet dry (or equivalent) and I have zero complaints about how my 20 year old dishwasher performs!

Pods work fine without prerinsing

I think it depends on the kind of residue. If we're just talking about caked-on stuff that you recognize that didn't wash off, I'd start with hot water and adding the pre-wash powder. But if you get stuff on your dishes that you don't recognize... yeah, that's a filter.

I once stayed with family at a vacation rental where the dishwasher left things worse than we put them in—a thick gray residue plastered over everything. We were going to be there for a week with 30 people, which meant we had a lot of dishwashing to do, but by the time I became aware of it the rest of the family had already given up on it and had started washing dishes by hand.

I took one look at the output and knew immediately what was wrong thanks to TC. An hour later (it was that bad) the dishwasher was working flawlessly and we saved hours in dishwashing time over the week.

(We also told the rental owners that their cleaners weren't taking care of the dishwasher. I didn't ask for them to pay me for the time, but I probably should have!)

Another example is plates tall enough to block the top spinner. Or plates pressed together so much that water can’t get in between.

When I was cleaning my dishwasher I realized there are two ways to configure it: with a in-sink garbage disposal, and without. If you don't have the garbage disposal part hooked up there is simply nowhere for the chunks to go and they accumulate at the bottom of the washer beneath a filter.

What do you mean by finish? I put all my knives in without issue but probably wouldn't do wooden handles

On the other side of this argument, I've seen "just run the dishwasher twice" used as shorthand for giving yourself permission to do whatever is needed to get the job done and not letting perfectionism paralyze you from making progress.

This blog excerpt explains the idea [1]:

> Knowing this week was going to be a lot, I’ve been living by “run the dishwasher twice”. What the hell does that even mean?! Essentially it means to do whatever is the path of least resistance to get shit done. The advice came from a therapist to a woman who was feeling very low & was struggling with everyday tasks such as doing the dishes. She didn’t have the mental capacity to scrub dishes before putting them in her crappy dishwasher so she wasn’t doing them & they were building up & causing her more anxiety. Her therapist said not to rinse the dishes & just run the dishwasher twice, even three times if that’s what it took to get them clean. It was a game-changer for her, one that enabled her to do a small task in an imperfect way just to get it done.

I wish the OP article had dug a little bit deeper into the psychology behind daily task conflict in relationships. The dishwasher is one of many microcosms (laundry, car, pets, etc) that I wish I'd paid more attention to in my relationships, because these conversations really do reveal relationship dynamics around HUGE issues like compromise, empathy, perfectionism, and judgmental behavior.

[1] https://thebackfenceblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/27/run-the-di...

That's the real difference. I'm playing Tetris, and getting an amazing score. She's leaving a bunch of stuff on the side for the next cycle, or hand washing them.

For some reason my husband insists on using the "1 hour speed wash" setting and can't figure out why dishes are coming out still dirty...

the only reason to have particular care is to avoid chipping

You are thinking like someone who buys the dishes, rather than someone who wants the person who buys the dishes to get off their case about it so they can do something more interesting.

It’s always been like this, but the old media landscape prevented the coarse and low class from succeeding by making navigation of all the subtle prestige granting institutions of the upper class a prerequisite.

Big "im14andthisisdeep" energy.

This makes zero sense. Are you considering the machine time or just loading? Also, machines wash 1000 times better than hand ever could, uses less water, and doesn’t dry out your hands.

The time the dishwasher takes to wash the dishes is time you yourself can use for literally anything else. Not to mention the savings on the water bill and the much higher quality of the wash. The only objection I can think of is if you do not have enough dishes, which means the dishwasher "locks in" the dishes for some time, but the real solution to that is to simply get extra dishes so that you have some to use while the dishwasher is running – seriously, it will pay for itself in no time.

I’m not joking. I am indeed in the process of doing so. Working on the placement at the moment. Requires extending the counter.

Also, I’ve worked as a dishwasher and don’t want to do more of that ever.

Even if the washing happens when you're sleeping?

Hah, we have a habit of using them as a drying rack after handwashing too. With the lower rack pulled out and resting on the open door, so air circulates well and things dry pretty fast.

Eventually, you think about running the washer just to clean itself. But, you wonder if the thing will surprise you with leaks if you do run it, because it has been months or more and who knows if the seals are working...

Dishwashers are a lot more water efficient than most people hand-washing.

and you can put on a podcast

It's easy to cut yourself emptying the dishwasher if knives are point up, but since you're in the kitchen which can have slippery floors and there's usually an open door low to the ground and a lot of moving back and forth there's also a small risk of slipping/tripping and falling onto the knives final destination style and impaling yourself on them. Ideally pointy things point down and spoons go up.

Dishwasher utensil baskets have compartments tall and narrow enough that the knife is not going to fall out. I haven't had that happen ever in my life. Even with heavy handles. (If it's as large as a chef's knife, however, that lies down flat in the upper rack.)

And yes, you do only knives down. If you did spoons and forks down it would be too crowded at the bottom. I don't know why only knives down seems like insanity to you?

I mean, I'm glad you've never sliced your hand on a thin paring knife sticking up at an angle that makes the blade virtually invisible. But hey, it's your hand you're risking, not mine...

I have a dishwasher that does this. It was in the house already, I used it for at least a month wondering why it didn't have a proper place to put cutlery before I tried cleaning the top and realized there was a drawer hidden there!

It's a great feature, but since the dishwasher has a standard height to fit under the counter, it means the bottom rack is a bit shorter than standard and I have to be very careful stacking plates to avoid blocking the washer arm. And there are a few large plates which I'm sure would fit in most washers which I have to wash by hand, like a caveman.

On balance it's a good feature though.

This is the absolute best feature any dishwasher can have. I can’t go back to having one of those awkward cutlery baskets now. Besides doing a terrible job with the cutlery, it just wastes so much space that could be used for plates and cups.

Some of us aren’t Kobe beef chefs and like to actually clean our utensils and dishes…

Ours is a Fisher & Paykel dual dishdrawer, which does exactly that, in the space of a single unit.

I saw this "hack" on instagram or something and if I ever get a kitchen big enough for two dishwashers I fully plan on doing this.

Doesn't really need two dishwashers, just two set of racks and a cupboard that can accommodate the other set.

You can purchase dishwashers designed to have a cosmetic door overlay.

You can also do this for drawer style dishwasher. Giving it quite an inconspicuous look.

We would probably call it a “freedom”washer though.

Ha! To clarify, one set per person. Each person only uses and is responsible for their own set.