Cute cartoon and some funny pre-rinse anecdotes shared above. The puppy in the dishwasher is just too much! Lol. I let my dog “pre-rinse” when I have eggs over easy, and he sometimes tries to help pre-rinse when the dishwasher door is open.

I always figured that if you had to rinse them almost clean before you put the dishes into the dishwasher, you might as well just hand wash them and be done with it. I've never owned a dishwasher, and never wanted to.

reminds me of my grandmother's bowl of peanuts she always had in front of her ...

can I have one?

oh you don't want those.

why not?

those are my chocolate covered peanuts ...

This is our lab—but it was several years ago. She has better manners now-well a little better...

My dishwasher soap does not need food enzymes to clean. That is a detergent infomercial to get you to buy their product.

I don’t offhand recall enzymes being highlighted in advertising or packaging. Generally you have to look at the ingredients list to see if the detergent contains them. And most of the good ones seem to, with little fanfare, since phosphates were phased out several years back.

We did have a canine pre-rinse expert for years, but after we lost him it was back to the basics for us. My pre dishwash efforts are pretty much limited to a quick scrape into the garbage bin and then everything goes into the dishwasher. Sure beats messing around those danged rubber gloves!

I have a poodle.....she won't eat anything but perhaps cheese from the floor.....and is selective about what she will lick from a plate.....any trace of mayo or mustard and she won't touch it, and my Jenn Air dishwasher doesn't do well on stuff left on plates.....so I am stuck with scrape and rinse.

I have to prerinse, and installed a commercial prerinse spray faucet for that purpose. My next sink will be extra deep, also to make prerinsing easier. The benefit is that my dishwasher then washes, rinses and sterilize the dishes in 120 seconds. We have no dog and my cat is not interested in serving as one.

Edit to answer a question: yes, I have a commercial dishwasher, a Hobart LX30H high temp. It fits in a normal undercounter dishwasher place, requires a 220v 50A circuit, uses a removable dishrack.

Here's how I use it: when I start prepping for a big dinner, I turn it on and squirt about an ounce of commercial detergent into it. After about 10 minutes it is ready to go. As I use mixing bowls, sheet pans, pots, spatulas, plastic cutting boards, etc I spray them off to remove food.

The sprayer is a commercial pre-rinse sprayer, flows 0.6 gallons/minute. I wish I had the full flow sprayer at 1.4 gpm, but this "eco-sprayer" works fine.

After spraying I put the prep items in the dishwasher and when the rack is full, I run the dishwasher. The cycle lasts 120 sec and is mostly at 150F with a final rinse at 190F. Open the dishwasher and set the rack on the counter, in a few minutes everything has air dried due to being very hot. Put the pots etc away and keep prepping. This works well for a "clean as you go" process. When dinner is ready, there are no dirty prep items left.

After dinner, I scrape the dishes into the compost bin, then spray them off and load into the dishwasher, run the cycle, remove rack and allow to air dry for a few minutes. Then I load the silverware, which has been in a little tub of soapy water, and run those. Finally I load the glassware, which usually doesn't need spraying unless a guest has left lipstick marks. Each cycle of the machine is 120 seconds. This is pretty active work but all the table settings from a big formal dinner (10-20 people) are clean, dry and put away in about 30 minutes. That's 30-60 pieces of dishware, 40-80 pieces of silverware, 20-60 pieces of glassware, plus all the pots and pans and prep stuff from making the dinner. With a regular dishwasher it would be, what, three loads over 6+ hours maybe? I'd never get to bed!

My water usage is pretty substantial. I would guess for that big dinner it might be 10-15 gallons for spraying, and 15-20 gallons for the dishwasher (which uses about 5 gallons to fill then 1 gallon per cycle). I'll run the dishwasher 10-15 times for a big dinner party. The energy usage is substantial too, since water is being heated from the incoming 140F to either 150F or 190F.

However, I really only use the dishwasher for larger dinners. When it is just the family, I handwash.

In a perfect world, I'd have this commercial dishwasher for parties and a residential dishwasher or single dishdrawer for daily use. Someday.

John visited his 90-year-old grandpa who lived way out in the country. On the first morning of the visit, John’s grandpa prepared a breakfast of bacon and eggs. John noticed a film-like substance on his plate, and asked, “Are these plates clean?”

His grandpa replied, “They’re as clean as cold water can get them. Just go ahead and finish your meal.”

For lunch, Grandpa made hamburgers. Again, John was concerned about the plates, as his appeared to have specks of dried egg on it. “Are you sure these plates are clean?” he asked.

Without looking up, Grandpa said, “I told you before, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them!”

Later, as John was leaving, his grandpa’s dog started to growl and wouldn’t let him pass.

John said, “Grandpa, your dog won’t let me get by!”

Grandpa yelled to the dog, “Cold Water, go lie down!”

Actually not pre-rinsing has nothing to do with enzymes and the detergents ability to clean. Many dishwashers today have a sensing cycle that senses how much particulate is in the water at the beginning of the cycle. That adjusts the length of the cycle and sometimes the heat of the water if there is is built in heater. Enzymes do help break down organic matter ( pet urine products work this way) but they don't hunt for it. So pre-rinsed dishes will get just as clean. The only caveat is that if you have pre-rinsed all your dishes and put one heavily soiled unpre-rinsed dish in, that dish may not get completely clean due to the shortened cycle because the sensor will not pick up same amount of particles a full dirty load would have. The whole enzyme thing is just to distract us from the fact that we need 2 hour plus long cycles to clean our dishes with our "energy efficient" dishwashers because they removed the phosphates that did the job in an hour with really hot water before.

I like doing dishes by hand. We don't have a dishwasher, although we do have dogs--but we don't let them lick the plates. We also enjoy leftovers. It's not so odd, is it? lolam

I'm a dedicated dishwasher lover and will never not have one. When I'm cooking for parties it's not uncommon for me to run it three or four times a day.

I scrape the big chunks off and that's it. It's a Bosch and my favorite dishwasher brand.

The only thing I ever found annoying is at parties when people try to help and they scrape all the food into the sink before loading the dishwasher and I don't have a garbage disposal so then I have to clean out the sink.

My two small dogs who I had for 17 years or so were addicted to the dishwasher but my big dog now is indifferent.

Rinse Aid makes a big difference and I always use it.

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/04/why-does-my-new-dishwasher-take-so-long/index.htm

Wow, are some normal dishwasher cycles 2-3 hours now?

https://blog.yaleappliance.com/the-fastest-dishwasher-cycle-times

Check out the Miele Pro with its 15 minute cycle! This machine requires a 220 volt 30 amp circuit. It should not take anywhere near "$5,000" to install such a circuit.

Yes, my dishwasher in my last house ran that long. PIA. This house has an old Kenmore that cleans like a champ in 30 minutes. Even drys plastic. I was going to get rid of it when we moved in and settled until I used it . Now I'll be sad when it dies.

John, did you say your dishwasher cleans, rinses, and sanitizes in 120 seconds? A whole load? I want that dishwasher! Wait, is it a commercial one?

Off topic - Sorry but I'm grossed out by animals eating from plates meant for humans. We always use pet dishes. In Home Ec class they used to teach an order for hand washing dishes - glasses & cutlery first, etc., after washing pots & pans, wash pet dishes, then wash ashtrays last. (No more ashtrays and visitors smoke outside. but I do wash pet dishes separately from human dishes and use paper towel instead of dish cloths/dish towels for the pets.)

Well my American Hairless Terrier does like to help me "finish" my morning yogurt. She will lie down until she hears the scraping of the last spoonful and then she'll sit up waiting until I give her the bowl. And yes, it goes into the dishwasher!

decordummy, I remember the ashtrays : ( . My parents smoked and cleaning the ashtrays was horrid. I refused to do it, so my mother cleaned them out herself. We haven't had any smoking visitors since my parents died, and if we do get any they'll have to smoke outside too.

@decordummy_gw - I hear where you're coming from, and I could do all that stuff too. But then I think about how my dog licks my face and hands, and who knows what he licked before that. Or I pet him, and who knows what he rolled in that day outside. And my cat, when she is happy, sits on my lap but first kneads my legs happily with her behind right in my face. In day to day life, the horse is out of the barn regarding shared pet germs or anything you want to prevent by washing pet dishes separately. In my decades of having pets, the only illnesses I've ever caught are from humans, including food-borne ones.

I didn't let my dog eat off the dishes. Just my preference. But I did work in an ER for years. For a dog bite we would just clean and bandage the wound. Human bites we also gave antibiotics.

No reason to get grossed out by pets licking dishes :-) Dogs' mouths are no dirtier or cleaner than those of humans...pretty much the same number of bacteria reside in both - just not the same ones as we humans tend to cultivate. And for the large part, these bacteria are not zoonotic and can't be transferred across species.

Dog saliva also tends to be antibacterial in nature, containing histatins that ward off infections and encourage healing. Why dogs lick their wounds :)

And no reason to think that running dog licked dishes through the dishwasher would not fully clean them just as it would any other dishes. A completely unnecessary concern IMO.......you are far more likely to come into contact with much more germy situations with humans than you are from dogs!

"We don’t recommend you pre-rinse dishes; today’s better dishwashers can get off even the grungiest stains. But if a quick pre-rinse turns your load into a “lightly soiled” one you can complete in a half hour, go for it."

I use my quick cycle all the time for salad plates, glassware, ...the last load thanksgiving was stemware, a stack of salad plates, cocktail glasses...no food on them and they do get clean. It's a dishwasher.

If a fridge food storage container or two need to go into that load I do a pre-rinse. I have never considered a quick rinse at all similar to washing by hand.

Heavily soiled and stained plates, especially dried-on, need the long cycle, 'heavy', to clean properly. It needs a 'wetting' time, then some soaking time, not using much water.

John, that is for a short cycle I think. stemware, water glasses.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/a33322/stop-prerinsing-dishes/

"Pre-rinsing at the sink (and washing dishes by hand, for that matter) seriously wastes water and energy. You waste 6,000 gallons per year if you insist on pre-rinsing, Consumer Reports says. And today's energy-efficient dishwashers have your hand-washing game beat, too.

The National Resource Defense Council reports that the average modern dishwasher uses just 3 to 5 gallons of water per load, but the most efficient hand-washer will use 8 gallons. "Regular" hand-washers (you know, those of us who don't operate like robots) typically use around 27 gallons of water and twice the amount of electricity per load.

The only time you might pre-rinse dishes is when you're not going to run the dishwasher right away (leaving dirty dinnerware out could attract critters, and the mess might be more difficult to clean the longer you let it sit). But even then, you should let your dishwasher do the heavy-lifting, so you don't waste water and energy. "Simply load them in the dishwasher and run a 'rinse only' cycle," says Forte."

I pre-rinse dishes primarily for smell. I only do one or two loads a week and the smell can get quite bad if I don't rinse. I have a Bosch and I'm going to check out the shorter cycles and maybe do the loads more often.

I recently visited for a couple days at the new house my nephew and his new wife bought. He washed the dishware under hot running water with one of those detergent/sponge/scrubber gizmos before loading into the machine. I called them on it, she said "Ohh, no, I want everything CLEAN."

I tried to explain the points against literally prewashing/rinsing the items but she wouldn't hear it.

To be fair, they've previously lived in an apartment with one of those low-end GEs that doesn't have a filter but the machine in their house is not that type (and it's newly installed).

I found way back in the mid 1970s with our first dishwasher that running rinse/hold causes much more odor than it prevents. Think about it ... rinse/hold runs a fill, spray, and drain, without detergent, leaving the residual dirty water in the pump and sump at bottom of the tub where it festers. I haven't used rinse/hold in YEARS.

.."you are far more likely to come into contact with much more germy situations with humans than you are from dogs!"

Yes, this. Think of all the people who do not wash their hands after using the restroom. It is just one of the ways noro virus and other illnesses get transmitted. I have no skin left on my hands after any cruise. from lots of hand washing to prevent catching noro.

CA Kate z9 -- we run our Bosch DW every other day. I found that leaving the door propped open a couple inches fixed our odor problem. YMMV

We have a Thermador/Bosch that's probably 5-6 years old, I think. I had to do a lot of un-training of my family to stop prerinsing and also to use the quick cycle. I also switched to powder detergent and only fill the receptacle halfway for each cycle. It cleans just fine. The only exception is once in a while tea stains remain on my white mugs, and I just give them a quick scrub in the sink.

I will admit, though, I'm one who enjoys standing at my sink, cleaning pans and gazing out the window. I find dishwashing therapeutic at times.

Ah, canines so clean, what's the worry!

(Doctors, what do they know?)

Source

Looks like my dog a few years ago, he loved perusing the options while I was loading the dishwasher. One night of very dirty dishes he was doing his job and moved out of the way while I put more dishes in the rack. His collar caught on the rack, and he took the whole rack with him on the floor. Thankfully, he wasn't injured, nothing was broken. It was just a gigantic mess. It required a bath for the dog, and a full clean in the kitchen. He was pretty surprised, and since then has been a very cautious pre-rinser.

I don't mind using dishes that my dog has, as long as they go through the dishwasher. I figure that the hot water, heater, detergent, and Sani-rinse cycle takes care of the biofilm.

I think the dishes coming out of the dishwasher, doggie pre-rinse and all, were probably cleaner than my skin where I touched, or got touched by, said dog.

Yes, this. Think of all the people who do not wash their hands after using the restroom. It is just one of the ways noro virus and other illnesses get transmitted. I have no skin left on my hands after any cruise. from lots of hand washing to prevent catching noro.

Exactly. My nail lady wondered what I had done when I got back from my last cruise because my hands were so dried out even with lotion.

OK I confess I'm guilty of prerinsing but with only us 2 old goats I only run the dishwasher every few days. And since I wipe/scrape as much off before even prerinsing I don't use that much water. I have a fairly new Bosch but if I let dishes sit for days with stuff drying on them they do not come clean no matter which detergent I use. Doggie's food & water dishes do not get washed with ours. And I spray the sink down with Method Anti-Bac after washing them. Mostly because it's bamboo scented and I love the fragrance LOL.

It's true. If you conserve water usage by just using many fewer dishes and reusing ones that aren't actually dirty (like using the plate from your sandwich for the melon following it, rather than getting a clean plate when the bread didn't pollute the first one), the gunk that is on the dishes will not come off if they dry in the dishwasher. The pre-rinse might be useful for a whole tableful of dishes, for two lunch plates and a butterknife, it's overkill. If one is conscientious, one can use just a few ounces of water to soak them so they'll be machine cleanable in a few days. I'm not good at handwashing to my level of satisfaction while conserving water, but I'm very good at conserving the preparation water. There are some things, however, that my DW can't handle and will return with gunk, and I do kind of prewash them. I clean them until all the crud is off, then let the DW do the soap and heat thing.

I always have things that need to be washed by hand or will not fit easily in the dishwasher - pots and pans, kitchen knives, my French press, the bowl of the KA mixer, food processor, etc. Since I need to wash these anyway, I see no reason not rinse the dishwasher stuff at the same time :-) I maybe run mine twice a week and the idea of food encrusted dishes hanging around grosses me out......way more than any dog licked plates :-))

Just ordered Miele...pre rinse or not necessary? Does the quick cycle need pre-rinsing? My old Kitchenaid does not do well unless I pre-rinse. I find a lot of family & friends have dishwashers that need dishes pre-rinsed. Now, I am fanatical about spotless dishes - can't stand taking a dirty dish out after cleaning!

Folks, I have a 16yo F&P DishDrawer, which are widely disparaged as one of the worst units on the market (mistakenly so IMO). I can put these items in and they come out perfectly clean. Surely your Mieles and Bosches and Thermadors and Askos and KitchenAids can do the same. (I have these pics on-hand from previous discussions.)

Even my POS, yet rated number one, Kitchenaid gets most of the dishes clean

@dadoes, I have the single tall dish drawer. love it. No bending over and can load a couple things without pulling it all the way out...just halfway.

What is your preferred soap?

Mine works great but just recently had to clean out the spray arm. No big deal.

@AboutToGetDusty I have a Miele and no pre-rinsing, other than scraping to get chunks of food. I order the Miele tabs from Amazon and usually cut them in half, a tip I learned here.

Harry Doyle, thanks. I cannot use the Miele tabs (made with corn starch and I'm allergic!) But I heard the tabs work great.

Dadoes - coming from Miele which I loved, then Bosch which I liked a lot, I’m now in a house with a 1990’s era GE of some sort. Like the others, it cleans. Main difference is I’m running it much more frequently (daily rather than every two or three days) because loading is so much less space efficient.

I had been using Cascade Complete powder for years; recently switched to 7th Generation because it made my wife feel good and I’ve noticed no performance loss.

Dadoes, My DW was chosen for its ability to dry, because my normal loads don't hold enough heat to work to dry the European way. Even so, I have to use specific settings to get the drying. The DW isn't worth using, IMH, if the dishes aren't dry, especially since they might sit clean for a couple of days and start smelling. There are still a few pools in depressions, of course, but those don't get that put away wet smell, and are inevitable, even with angled loading. It is within the realm of possibility that a fancier, newer DW would get dried, stuck gunk off better, or maybe a more aggressive detergent, but using a minimal amount of extra water to prevent failure of what I have, works for me.

BTW, the old, ugly Whirlpool that came with the house did a fantastic job. It's very likely the same guts as the Kenmore listed uptopic. I understand the necessity for resource conservation, but I sure liked when machines were designed first and foremost to do their jobs well.

Meanwhile, I've never had a dog that licked the dishes like that--closest was one who loved ice cream, but we only gave it the bowls to lick because more would have been bad for him.

I'm really enjoying all the stories, as much as I did the original cartoon!

Mine dries pretty well but I always have lots of plastic storage bowls with rims that hold water so as soon as the DW is done, I crack open the door for a little bit to get the steam out then get all the plastic stuff out, dump the accumulated water from them and put them in the drainer until they are thoroughly dry.

I did not notice initially that this was a 'cross-post'...but funny cartoon.! (having pups)

I just pulled my dish drawer out 4 inches to vent. (8.30 pm) Maybe tomorrow morning two or three 'plastics' will be moist. DH will set those moist items on the counter above on a counter cloth to further dry...like travel mug lids, etc. while making the morning coffee. 90% of the remaining dishes will be dry and put away.

Reducing plastics and switching to glass storage creates more heat for drying.

sleevendog, I've been using Cascade Fryer Boil Out (formerly Cascade Industrial/Institutional) powder for 8+ years. It's a phosphated chlorine-based formula, no enzymes. Works great on tea stains, and everything else except dried egg residue which needs enzymes. I've tried Cascade Platinum pacs/pods which work nicely on the egg but the dosage can't be controlled and they cause so much sudsing that the spray force and arm rotation is impaired. A couple loads with the pacs are the only instances I've noticed the DD add more water a few mins into the first wash period to compensate for the volume of water-turned-to-suds. Otherwise I use WM GreatValue powder if enzymes are needed.

I guess circumventing environmental protection is a personal choice. I don’t know where your water drains and am not informed on the true impacts so I won’t judge, but I’d probably not pass on that advice to the general public.