Learn The Proper Way To Load Your Dishwasher

You may think that there’s really not much to loading a dishwasher. After all, isn’t it just a case of sticking your dirty dishes onto the racks, putting in some detergent and turning the dishwasher on? If you’re not too bothered about how long your dishwasher lasts, nor are you too bothered about the health of your dishes, then that way can certainly work for you. But for those who want to save time and money, then we’re here to give you a couple of tips to increase the efficiency of your dishwasher loads.

Tip #1: Watch What You Wash

While you may stuff every dirty dish and utensil into your dishwasher, it’s important to understand what you shouldn’t be putting in there. Take, for example, plastics and wooden spoons or other wooden items. There are certain plastics that can melt when exposed to the prolonged heat of a full wash cycle, and wooden utensils can also warp.

The likes of reactive metals (such as bronze, pewter or iron) can also begin to corrode, and may even become tarnished, when they are washed in a dishwasher. As such, any items of the above materials should always be hand-washed if you want them to last.

Lastly, you’ll want to consider hand-washing any sharp knives – especially if you want to keep them from getting dull, as knives can rub up against other silverware.

Tip #2: Be Careful With Glasses And Cups

Your glasses and cups should only be put onto the top rack. They shouldn’t be placed on top of the tines (the prongs that hold items in place), but rather they should be placed in-between them.

Additionally, glass suffers from the problem of getting cracked if it is placed too close to other glass. This is due to the vibration created by a running dishwasher. As such, be sure to run glass on a separate program for delicate items and make sure your glasses are dishwasher safe.

Tip #3: Proper Placement of Large Items

When it comes to larger items – such as plates, mixing bowls and cooking pots or pans – it’s best to have a look at your dishwasher’s user guide to check if you need to rinse leftover food off of all items before placing them into the dishwasher. While some machines require you to scrape all food of your dishes to ensure that the leftovers don’t clog up the drains, others only require you to get rid of the larger chunks of food.

When placed onto racks, your plates should be facing the centre of the unit to ensure that they are properly rinsed. It’s important not to place dishes too closely to one another, or within the same holder, as only one may get properly cleaned.

For items such as bowels or pots, these should be placed on the bottom rack – facing down so that the water stream will shoot up and clean them properly, and so they don’t end up full of standing water.

Flatter items, such as baking sheets or frying pans, should be placed to the outside of the lower rack so that they aren’t blocking other dishes from getting cleaned.

Tip #4: Ensuring A Proper Clean Of Utensils And Soup Bowls

Knives, spoons and forks should be placed in the utensil holder. If there is no room left, extras can be safely placed in-between top rack tines. For cereal or soup bowls, you’ll want them to go on the top rack too. However, in order to ensure these are properly cleaned, make sure to stack the bowls on an incline – rather than on top of one another.

Tip #5: Don’t Overload It!

We’ve all been tempted to cram extra dishes into our dishwashers as no-one likes dirty dishes lying around. However, overloading can lead to items being improperly cleaned. Save on energy bills, and detergent, and reduce the risk of breaking your dishwasher, by spacing out your dishes and ensure they are properly washed.

However, if you do overload your dishwasher or run into other problems, make sure to get in touch with Repair Aid. We specialise in dishwasher repairs and our talented technicians will most likely be able to sort out the problem in just one visit.