Dear Umbra,
Like a good guilt-ridden liberal, I’ve switched to supposed earth-friendly dish detergent. And, on the basis of previous Ask Umbra columns, I don’t rinse my dirty dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Here’s the thing: About 10 percent of items are still dirty when the dishwasher pronounces things clean. So then I rewash these items, either by hand or (perhaps futilely) in the dishwasher. Doesn’t seem terribly eco-friendly.
Scott D.
South Portland, Maine.
Dearest Scott,
No one said being an environmentalist would be a tiptoe through the tulips. There are going to be setbacks, struggles, moments when we think, “I can’t go on!” But somehow we must raise our weary heads and find the strength to continue. Too often we find daily defeat in the questions inherent in dish duty: by hand or by machine? Does rinsing the plastic bag use too much water? Why does this detergent suck? No amount of dishwashing discussion quite rids us of the nagging, dried-on questions. Today I offer holiday dishwashing succor for the dish distressed.
Don’t bang your head over dishwashing conundrums.
There are three things to consider when washing dishes: water use, energy use, and toxics. If you establish and generally follow some best practices, you can call it good and stop fretting.
There are two good ways to wash the dishes. The first is via full loads of an Energy Star, aka water-and-energy saving, dishwasher. The other is using a bucket or a stopped-up sink, with minimal water usage and an aerated faucet. Dishwashers have been proven, again and again, to be more efficient than the typical hand-washer. Some of you will never believe this to be the case, and youse should go ahead and continue your water-wise habits. (By the way, if you choose to wash and reuse plastic bags, do it in the bucket of water, and then rinse with hot running water. I am not going to research the “is it worse to waste water washing bags or to manufacture more bags” question, because life is too short and other issues are more interesting and/or dire—but if a dearest reader wishes to do the research, I will consider publishing the results.)
Automatic dishwashing detergents may contain any of the following environmentally harmful ingredients: phosphates, ammonia, fragrances, bleach, and petroleum-based surfactants. Buying and using less-toxic detergents is worth it and pretty much obligatory. Unfortunately, they do have performance problems when compared to their traditional cousins. I have very hard water, which they don’t manage well, and Scott has his dried-on food. What to do?
Scott, my suggestions may be irritatingly simpleminded. You must keep using the better detergents, for the health of your family and other carbon-based life forms. Maybe experiment with a few brands. Consumer Reports likes Biokleen, Ecover, and Seventh Generation, in that order; Grist has yet to weigh in but will do so in 2009, so keep an eye out. Whichever you choose, you will need to do some conservative pre-washing. Pre-rinse your dishes in one of two ways: Either keep a rubber spatula at the sink and squeegee off each dish, or keep a little bowl of water handy and sponge off each dish.
Also, consider whether your dishwasher may be over-full. The soapy water must have access to all surfaces, which can’t happen when bowls are piled up against each other, etc. If you continue having the problem after following all this amazing advice, go ahead and rewash the offenders in your sink bucket.
Here concludes my brief return to the world of the dish. May all your holiday dishwashing be in the company of loved ones.
Affectionately,
Umbra
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Comments
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laurenmcnees Posted 2:23 am
22 Dec 2008
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jjfahl Posted 4:03 am
22 Dec 2008
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matthewrsparks Posted 4:04 am
22 Dec 2008
On the flipside, running appliances at night instead of during the day can reduce local energy loads during peak hours, which complicates the dish issue immeasurably. Save the climate or save the watershed? You chose...
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nancyhammond Posted 4:25 am
22 Dec 2008
If you don't fill up the dishwasher with one meal, using the rinse-only cycle in the interim helps a lot. Longer-term, when shopping for a new dishwasher, use publications like Consumer Reports to get a good one. They really do vary a lot in their ease of use and cleaning ability.
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bailsout Posted 11:48 am
22 Dec 2008
I think we're all a little too paranoid about our owngerms and a little bacteria. The worst thing is you might get sick or even die. A few humans dieing wouldn't really hurt the species; we're way over budget.
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jgsingle Posted 10:51 pm
22 Dec 2008
I tried turning down the temp of my hot water heater to save energy and using the eco friendly dishwashing detergent and got the predicted results: half my dishes were still dirty, and worse, the food had hardened onto them. It got so bad that I called a dishwasher mechanic to fix my dishwasher. He taught me about dishwashers. You need 3 things for the washer to clean your dishes. First, the mechanical part of the dishwasher must function properly; ie, the spray pressure must be sufficient. Second, you need heat. My water was too cold. Third, you need chemicals. If you don't have all 3, your dishes will not come clean. So what I do now is what all your other commenters are doing. I soak everything in water in the sink until I fill the dishwasher (about once every 3 days). Upon reaching critical mass of dirty dishes, I go downstairs and turn up the hot water heater to VERY hot, wait an hour for it to heat up. I load the dishwasher, clean the sink with the hot water so as to get the hot water up to the kitchen, load the dishwasher with Cascade, and then run the dishwasher. About halfway through the cycle, I turn the hot water heater back down to a very low setting where it stays until I need to run the dishwasher again (another 3 days). Now all my dishes are clean first time through. Many people think I'm off my rocker to adjust the hot water heater just to run the dishes, but it really only takes less than one minute to do this.
Greg
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tpierce Posted 8:05 am
23 Dec 2008
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scarls5 Posted 3:31 am
24 Dec 2008
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katakanadian Posted 11:27 am
24 Dec 2008
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Angelsnecropolis Posted 7:44 am
27 Dec 2008
Remember the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
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mckittre Posted 2:50 pm
28 Dec 2008
I haul water from my own shallow well and heat it on a woodstove to handwash dishes, so I'm not terribly concerned about either the water or the energy. I imagine someone in a dry area might be most concerned about water use, and want to turn their heater up accordingly, to avoid having to wash dishes twice. Someone in a very wet area might be better off using colder water and more of it.
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interguru Posted 1:08 pm
29 Dec 2008
As an experiment I bought Cascade Complete, a highly rated high phosphate detergent. One wash and all my glassware sparkled.
Now I use a non-phosphate detergent most of the time, but once a month or so, as the glassware starts to cloud up, I use a high phosphate detergent to get them sparking.
The best of both worlds with minimal phosphate.
Bookwormhole.net Over 6600 published book reviews.
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Cyndi Posted 5:01 am
30 Dec 2008
I agree with Greg about water pressure. My well water is not only hard but filled with iron/sediment; it's been destroying my appliances. I finally installed a whole-house sediment filter (super cheap, I used one from Sears). I think it's too late for this particular dishwasher, but it has made an amazing difference elsewhere.
For anyone buying a new (or used) dishwasher. Get one that heats the water to the proper temp. Then you can keep your water heater low to medium all the time and have the equivilent of a tankless for the dishwasher.
Consumer Reports' finding was that enzymes in the detergent are what changed a medicore product into a good one. You can find plenty of natural brands with enzymes. If you must have phosphates, why not a pinch of TSP now and then? At least it doesn't have the petroleum-based ingredients, synthetic fragrance, and other toxins.
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