by Product Specialist
From novice to highly-experienced dishwasher, almost everyone is prone to making certain mistakes with cleaning dishes, that could easily be avoided if they were aware beforehand, and took steps to avoid them. Many people don't even know about these little nuggets of kitchen savvy, so here are some of those common mis-steps to be eliminated from your routine:
- Single-piece loading - It is very inefficient to be loading your dishwasher one piece at a time, even if it's a big bowl or pot. While having dishes stack up a bit on your kitchen counter may look unsightly, it's still better to accumulate enough dishes for a good load to put in the dishwasher, so best use can be made of the appliance.
- Not sorting flatware - This is another error of efficiency, rather than anything affecting operations. By keeping flatware sorted on type, the pieces can be unloaded and put away more easily, as opposed to the alternative, which calls for extracting one piece at a time to find its proper place in the flatware drawer.
- Not separating spoons - When spoons are allowed to stick together in the washer, the bowl-shaped contour tends to keep them tightly bonded, which prevents good cleaning. While it is advantageous to keep spoons together for unloading, they should not be allowed to nestle together and prevent efficient cleaning.
- Dishwashing high-quality knives - If you have some expensive knives that you'd like to retain their value and cutting efficiency, they should be cleaned outside the dishwasher. Because they would be exposed to jostling with other flatware, strong detergents, and very high water temperatures, they should really be hand-washed rather than cleaned in the dishwasher.
- Mis-loading cookie sheets - The front of the dishwasher is the absolute worst place to load your cookie sheets, because in that position they'll block or hinder the dispensing of detergent. Place cookie sheets along the sides so they are out of the way, but still receive proper cleaning.
- Forgetting about sprayer arm - The sprayer arm is almost always located in the center of your dishwasher, and if you really want your dished to get clean, you should face every piece toward that sprayer arm.
- Unloading top side first - Especially if you are cleaning cups and glasses in this load, make sure you unload the bottom-side dishes first, so they don't have dishwater from those top-side dishes spilled all over them, and make a second washing necessary.