jgsingle’s Recent Comments

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  dish washing

  Dear Umbra,
     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.
  GregOn Umbra on eco-friendly detergents posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago 13 Responses