Tried skipping the pre-rinse on a casserole dish. Big mistake.
Last night I thought I'd save some water and just scrape the baked on mac and cheese into the trash, then put it straight in the dishwasher. Ran the heavy cycle with the extra heat dry. This morning that dish still had crusty bits stuck to the sides. Had to hand wash it anyway. So much for saving effort. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way?
Hmm, wouldn't running hot water on a dish for that long before the cycle actually waste a lot of water, @victorcoleman? I've found that just scraping the big stuff off and letting the dishwasher do its thing works fine unless something's really caked on. If it's baked on, a quick soak with a little dish soap in the sink for a few minutes gets it off without running the tap the whole time...