Wednesday, April 1, 2009

HOW TO HELP YOUR DISHWASHER DO A BETTER JOB

Is your old dishwasher not doing a good job? Is it just not getting your dishes clean? Not drying them well? Here are a few helpful hints on how to improve its performance.
1. Fix him a wonderful dinner, send the kids off to the neighbors, wear some new beautiful lingerie and offer him sex!
2. If that doesn’t work try bribing your teenager to let him/her use the car!
3. Well so much for the human element, if you’re using one of those new fangled devices you might try the next few examples
a. Because you need good water circulation through the washing and rinse cycles make sure that you don’t overload the dishwasher especially on the lower rack. Many dishwashers have a telescoping pipe that rises up to the upper rack during the washing and rinsing cycles and where this pipe comes up from the bottom must be kept clear so that it is not hindered in extending.
b. Has much as you might hate it, pre-rinse the dishes if they are heavily soiled or dried because the human dishwasher didn’t get to them fast enough
c. Dishwashers depend on hot water to perform to their best so if it takes too long for the hot water to reach your kitchen then you are hindering its performance during the most critical time, when the dishes are being rinsed for the first time. To make sure the hot water gets there quickly, run the water in the sink first (in most cases the dishwasher runs off of the same hot water pipe as the sink) until you get hot water then turn the dishwasher on. Some of the newer more expensive dishwashers have a element to boost the water temperature but even of yours does its is a waste of precious energy when you have hot water already heated and ready to go from your hot water heater.
d. Avoid the inexpensive dishwashing detergents. Invariably they do not perform as well as the old dependable so the few pennies you save by buying the generic or off brand is lost in time and effort to either wash the dishes again, yourself, or to run another cycle. I know if this fact from personal experience. I always was pleased as to how great our old Kenmore dishwasher worked, probably the best of any I’ve owned. I changed detergents to save some money and immediately the difference was notable and I began to think that I was going to have to invest in a new washer. I went back to my old tried and true brand (green box, by the way) and BINGO! Clean dishes again.
e. Make sure you keep “jet dry” well stocked in the machine to keep spots from forming. I prefer to save electricity by bypassing the heated drying cycle and this drying agent will eliminate spots that form from.
f. Lastly, your dishwasher has a drain in the bottom that can easily clog and will throw this old waste back up in the clean wash water and can cause your machine to smell badly. Every so often pull the bottom rack out and look for the drain, in the lowest point in the dishwasher, and clean it out, especially after washing a cycle of very soiled dishes.
Either way you choose to have you dishes washed will work but I highly recommend that you try step #1 occasionally. Even if it doesn’t get the dishes done better it can be great for your relationship and will detract from your spouse “washing someone else’s dishes”….LOL

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