My mother in law called me out for pre rinsing everything

She watched me scrub every plate under hot water before loading the dishwasher and just laughed. Said I was basically doing the dishes twice and wasting water for no reason. I started just scraping big stuff off and letting the machine do its job. Has anyone else had a relative call them out on this?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_williams1mo ago

Oh man, I actually read a whole thing about this in some appliance repair forum a while back. The gist was that modern dishwashers actually need some food particles to help the detergent work better, so pre rinsing too much can mess with the cleaning cycle. But also like, if you have an older model or super baked on stuff, a quick hot water rinse is kind of necessary. I think it really depends on your specific machine and how long you've had it. The middle ground is probably just scraping off the solid bits and letting the machine handle the rest for normal stuff. Has anyone else run into that confusion about what the detergent actually needs to work right?

grace_fox31mo ago

You said "I was basically doing the dishes twice" and honestly I have to disagree. Pre rinsing gets off the baked on stuff that a dishwasher just can't handle, especially with older machines. My own washing improved a lot when I kept up the hot water scrub before the load, so I'm calling that a win for my dishes.

julia921mo ago

Yeah actually I really gotta say @grace_fox3 you kinda made me reconsider my whole take on this. I used to think pre rinsing was just a waste of time and water, like you're doing the work the machine is supposed to do. But after reading what you said about older machines and baked on stuff, I went back and tested it with my own dishwasher. That hot water scrub before the load really does make a difference on things like cheese crusted pans or dried on oatmeal. I thought I was being efficient by skipping that step, but now I see it's more about setting the machine up to actually work right. So I guess I was wrong and you were right, pre rinsing can be a smart move not a double chore.