They're all engineered to require rinse aid. Some don't have drying heaters, relying instead on heating the final rinse water and using a condensation method to pull water off the dishware, and rinse aid to promote evaporation. Those that have drying heaters still need it due to reduced wattage.

You're applying chemicals to wash the dishes, yes?

Try opening the door immediately after the final rinse to facilitate evaporation while the interior is still HOT. Add the Sani Rinse option for extra heat, and Pro Dry (if your model has it) for longer drying time if you don't go with the open-door method.

Hmmmm......I have an older (10 yr?) Kenmore dishwasher and I have never used any sort of rinsing/drying aid. And I'd be willing to bet that there is some sort of fan or similar that blows heated air over the dishes to dry them. With the exception of some plastic items (like food storage containers), everything comes out fully dry and with no spotting. And they are super hot if you open the door immediately after the cycle shuts off.

I don't mind using chemicals to wash the dishes because they are washed off by the water. But using chemicals to spray at the end to dry faster and stay on the dishes => beats me! And my model has the heating element and claims on their website that it dries extra well with the help of the heating element and the fans!! But when I called them to inquire why mine came out damp, they said that ALL KitchenAid models need rinse aid to dry!

Don't bank on 100% of the dishwasher detergent being rinsed away, any moreso than is 100% of laundry detergent.

The user guide infers that the drying fan may not come into play unless the Pro Dry option is used. Are you selecting that option? The user guide that I found online also clearly states that rinse aid is needed even for heated drying.

Try opening the door as I suggested, which is sometimes called "flash drying." It's generally more effective at quickly evaporating the moisture than the slower process of drying with the door closed.

Thanks for the suggestions. I still can return the dishwasher. I am trying to find an existing new model of any brand that dries without relying on the rinse aid. I had Whirlpool for 15 years, never used rinse aid and the dishes and inside was always 100% dry...

A quick search suggests that even commercial washers use rinse aid, although that may not apply to all of them. Ignoring all water efficiency goals, perhaps one could adapt a washer to use only reverse osmosis water in the rinse cycle. RO water will dry without spots, but the washer still needs a heater to get the water hot enough to evaporate. Commercial washers have such heaters, but there may be political restrictions applied to residential users that aren't applied to commercial users.

Nooooope.

Rinse aid is surfactant. That is, soap. It breaks the surface tension of water which prevents it from forming balled drops that stick instead of sliding down.

Since you have a heating element, try all in one tablets, like Method Smarty Dish. There's supposed to be rinse aid in them, but it's not a whole soap bath and doesn't leave the glasses tasting soapy. Make sure to use the heater setting, and any other heating settings like extra hot rinse. Try different cycles. My GE will dry my dishes (no liquid rinse aid) if I use all the heat and the "plastics" setting. It also helps with my machine to let it sit for awhile before unloading. At least over night.

The more heat retaining mass you have in your DW the better it will dry as well, even with a coil, though this is most important if you don't have a heater. That's metal and heavy crockery. Run full loads and favor pots over glasses and plastics, big plates over small, thick mugs over dainty tea cups. If your DW fills up with glasses, add some pots and pans, and other massy stuff and run it sooner. Or get a thick, heavy plate or pan, or two, that can permanently live in the DW to help retain the heat for drying.

If your machine is new, it may also improve. I'm guessing from residues. The wetness from new dishwashers is much worse.

Good luck.

Consumer Reports rates dishwashers on drying ability so you could start there. Then find a dishwasher on the CR list that still uses a heating element.

As plllog said, rinse aid is essentially just soap. You need more, when you have hard water and almost none when you have soft water. My dish washer is set to dispense minimal amounts because we have really soft water. I think I need to refill it about once a year and we use the dishwasher every day.

So, the residual amount of soap after drying must be insanely little. You'll probably eat more soap from what's left sticking to your hands after using the restroom.

If you want a similar result, you could get a whole house water softener or a dishwasher that has its own softener. A believe most (all?) Miele do.

Come on. Responding to irrational paranoia with logic and facts? I thought this was the internet.

I don't think it's irrational or paranoid. You can definitely feel the surfactant on dishes washed in many current dishwashers and I'd rather do without it, too, if I could, and I'd rewash a hand-washed dish that was still covered in soap.

Why do you think so many people put vinegar and things in the rinse-aid compartment instead of the official products? There are a lot of people who find the end result obvious enough to be annoying.

Datum: I'm using Finish Quantum Max tabs in a Miele Optima. The liquid rinse aid dispenser ran out months ago. I can taste the tabs' residual rinse aid when drinking RO water from a cleaned glass. I cannot taste it with orange juice. Rinsing the dishwasher-cleaned glass with RO water before filling it is sufficient to remove enough rinse aid that I can't taste it. (In case a worried oenophile is reading this, wine and beer glasses are cleaned manually and rinsed with RO water before being hung to dry.)

If it's working well, you shouldn't have anything you can feel. It's actually probably food. That happens on my new one when I run OUT of rinse aid.

Because I'm a horrible person, I solved my cleaning issues by buying a 100-lb of the phosphates they took out of the detergents. When I finally run out,I hope cleaning technology has improved without me spending $.33 per load of dishes on super expensive detergents.

The lowest dosage setting on my dishwasher releases 1/10 (0.10) of a teaspoon of rinse aid.

As I pointed out above, don't expect that detergent rinses completely away. Remember Cascade dishwasher power back in the day, touted as having "sheeting action" to avoid water spots? That infers it was formulated to leave some residue all the way through the rinse. Some current detergents (tablets & pacs in particular) are also touted as including rinse aid (although it's less effective than the specific rinse aid product).

Rinse aid isn't a new thing. Hotpoint made a big deal of having a rinse dispenser on their dishwashers back in the 1950s.

Ok, just to test the machine I ADDED, the rinse aid yesterday evening. This morning, the top rack is wet, there is condensation on the inside of the machine. I am frustrated at this point. Never had this issue with my previous dishwasher. This one will be going back to Best Buy.

As others explained earlier, you won't be able to get the machine 100% dry. But as long as there is some amount of thermal mass (i.e. you avoid washing only plastic, but instead have some glass, ceramic, and/or metal), a properly functioning dishwasher should get everything except for the plastic completely dry; and the plastic should have only small amount of water that you can shake off. A heavy stainless steel tub helps as well. But I believe most modern dishwashers have those.

While either soft water or rinse aid is really important for this work as intended, so is the ability to vent properly. After all, the remaining water that can't simply be pumped out of the bottom of the dishwasher needs to go somewhere.

The company that probably has the most experience with this is Miele. They have been building dishwashers without a heated-dry cycle for literally decades, as that's the most common configuration in Europe. A couple of years ago, they started adding a small motor to their dishwashers which cracks the front door open by a couple of inches, when the washing cycle is done. In my experience, that does make a big difference. Yes, my plastic items or anything that is turned upside down traps a small amount of water. But overall, things are dry. The plates, dishes, glasses, etc. are all ready to either be put directly back into the cabinets or used on the dining table.

You could run an experiment and open the door all the way right after the cycle completes. This would simulate what the results look like in a Miele dishwasher. Then use the outcome from this experiment to decide whether you want to return your model for a different one.

I have a Bosch dishwasher and I've NEVER used any rinse aid. It works fine , dries well, and no spots. I use powdered Cascade soap.

kaseki wrote several messages ago: Rinsing the dishwasher-cleaned glass
with RO water before filling it is sufficient to remove enough rinse
aid that I can't taste it.

writersblock wrote in response: Yes, but you can't blame anyone for hoping not to have to rinse cleaned dishes before using them, can you?

The point I was trying to make was that the rinse aid was detectable, not that it was ignorable. Or, to put it differently, I was supporting your preceding paragraph.

Thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure whether that's what you meant or that it wasn't a big deal to rinse again.

Expecting water not to pool in turned up lips is too much and I don't, but I also expect everything else to be completely dry. That's more important to me than the washing.

I think all pods and tabs have some kind of rinse aid, but Smarty Dish doesn't leave the kind of residue that makes the glasses taste soapy.

I've seen on TV that they have special glass washers for bars to make the glasses clean enough so that the residues don't spoil the taste of your drinks (especially beer and wine), but I think they have to be cloth dried.

IIRC, the bar washers use super hot water (180*+) that will dry quickly.

http://www.askona.com/dishwashers/why-asko-dishwashers/turbo-drying

We've had this for years. The only time I am wiping dishes is when something flips over (like plasticware)

I have the Kenmore Elite equivalent of your dishwasher. I use the equivalent of Pro Dry and I don't have rinse aid in the dispenser right now and everything comes out dry, no moisture on the inside. My extended dry cycle is 1.5 hours long and the little fan runs for an additional hour after that. Use Pro Wash cycle and not Normal cycle. The extended dry and little fan is one of the reasons why I selected my KitchenAid produced Kenmore Elite. Do you not realize energy standards have rendered heating elements almost useless for drying now days vs. 15 years ago?

boba1, are the railings and baskets for silverware also completely dry? If yes, then can you share the exact model that you have?

Have you tried vinegar in the rinse dispenser instead? Couldn't hurt and you might be pleased.

Yes, to both components. The equivaslent cycle/option to your KitchenAid is ProWash and ProDry. I let it complete the cycle and sit overnight. Unload the next morning or after work.

Kenmore Elite dishwasher

Model number is 02214833000P