Dishwasher virgin! Advice appreciated!

It will change your life. We got our first dishwasher when it dawned on me that I was the only one in the office who didn't own one. So I went home that day and announced that I would no longer be washing dishes by hand, having done so for near on 50 years. (I started young).

Don't worry about noise - the soft whirring of a dishwasher is a soothing (and satisfying) backdrop whilst sitting on a couch watching telly!

Do use salt and rinse aid (you don't have to use those every time) - I discovered this to my shame when the dishwasher packed up and the engineer showed me how the back plate was bulging due to accumulated (London) limescale! I'm now also more diligent about running a maintenance (cleaning) cycle.

The engineer also explained to me that the short cycles are less energy efficient (something to do with having to heat up faster!)

You don't have to faff with swopping sprinklers etc for washing oven trays, just take out the cutlery tray to do those.

Enjoy!

Our current Bosch is under 12 months old, but it konked out.
I am shielding so we could not have a repair person visit, thus we had a month of washing up by hand. What a palaver.

Then shielding was extended for a further month. We couldn’t bear the thought of more weeks of hand washing up. All the ‘lockdown cooking’ seems to generate loads of pots and pans.
So my partner suggested giving the dishwasher another try and hallelujah ... it worked.
Boy, are we glad it sorted itself out.

I wish you joy of yours phoenix.

As others have said, look out for tablets on special offer. To be honest I've never noticed the difference between the expensive Finish, and Waitrose Essential cheapo ones.

London water is very hard so I follow the manufacturers advice and always use salt and rinse aid.

You'll find the quick economy cycle (mine is 65 minutes which includes drying) is enough for most loads.

Oopsadaisy3

Read the booklet, when we bought a new one when we moved house, I found that my plates didn’t fit, I phoned the customer services to try to return the DW, apparently the top tray comes out and can be raised to allow large plates to fit, I did feel stupid.
I always put my forks tines up, else they slip down through the gaps in the cutlery thingy, knives always go points down, except my best knives, which are still hand washed. Rinse the filter out regularly, you will be surprised how much gets stuck in there.

You will love it!

No !! Really ? I do feel daft and will see if mine does, but it’s one of those slimline (so appropriate for me, not) ones and pretty old (...) so maybe not.

I buy finish tablets their always on offer 110 for £8. Don’t bother rinsing your plates before you put them in , that’s the dishwashers job. Oh and someone else said keep the filter clean .

I had my first dishwasher last autumn when I had a new kitchen fitted after moving house. It's a free standing Bosch slimline ultra quiet one. Love it. I use Fairy original tablets , either Sainsbury's or Tesco lemon rinse add and there dishwasher salt. It is very quiet. Use it once or twice a day depends on what I have been cooking. Once a month I use a Finish all in one dishwasher cleaner tablet you just put in the bottom of the dishwasher and use it whilst running a load of dirty dishes. Salt lasts about a month before re filling and rinse aid about 3 weeks. There is only me but my brother has one and there are 3 in his household. Hope this helps.

PinkCakes: can you dishwasher be adjusted to accommodate your plates? I had that problem for years and then when someone was fixing something else in my kitchen I asked him to look at the dishwasher and he raised the rack at the top. I’d had the dishwasher for years and hardly used it. I still don’t seem to be able to fit as much in as other people do, though. I find that I have to wipe all the cups on the top shelf as soon as the cycle has finished as they hold water. I still tend to wash a lot of things before I put them in the washer and soak cutlery in a bowl for a while before putting it in the washer.

I love my dishwasher. 15 year old Bosch that's only gone wrong once when it had a bit of broken china stuck n the pump (no idea how it got there). Thanks to You tube I got it out myself (very proud of that!).

No salt because we live in a soft water area. I use Fairy all in one thingies, buy them when on offer.

I even put wooden spoons in, they do,n't seem to mind at all, they don't come out sodden, nor do they dry out and crack (some of mine are very old and have survived this for years and years) .

We did have to buy stainless steel saucepans because you can't put aluminium in a dishwasher.

I always stack it because I can fit more in than Mr Maizie can. He unloads.

Did you know that you can cook a whole salmon in a dishwasher - I came very close to doing it once but was saved by a hired fish kettle. Look it up..

I'm on to my fourth dishwasher. I must say that I'm not misusing them ?, three were left behind when we moved houses.
I buy the three in one tablets or pods. I never use salt or rinse aid, and my dishwasher is going strong after the 15 or so years we've been here.

As for loading the thing, I think I'm the only one that can do that task. The dishes manage to find their way onto the draining board and work top, but not inside!!
Mr. M M doesn't stack it properly so I don't really mind, as I always have to rearrange it when he has put things inside.

Best labour saving device ever invented, especially when we have visitors.

The instruction book will advise you on water hardness and you can google the hardness rating for your area. You may then have to set the salt dispenser accordingly. Ours is set to 0 because we have very soft water.

We use Lidl’s all in one tablets, never had a problem with them.

Swing the spray arms before switching on to ensure they rotate freely.

Check and clean the filters regularly, scrape solids off the dirty dishes before loading them.

Oven shelves and glass oven light covers benefit from a weekly wash.

Charleygirl I would never have thought of putting fridge shelves in!

I find mine come up ok with a wash and wipe in the sink.

The oven shelves and trays are another matter though..........

DH refuses to have anything to do with our dishwasher. He calls it the white elephant. Which is stupid because it goes on every day and I wouldn't be without it.

phoenix I do not put non-stick saucepans in my machine. I still soak if necessary and then wash by hand.

Mine is a Bosch, whisper-quiet and only a few months old. It washes the fridge shelves to perfection but that takes a few washes because I can only fit two shelves in at once. I find I only need to use the quick wash which is about 30 minutes.

If washing fridge shelves, bring them to room temperature because you do not want to crack them.

I live in a hard water area , use Fairy platinum. No salt and no rinse aid as it's not necessary. I have a Siemens.

Most dishwashers have a basket for the cutlery (ours doesn't - it has a pull-out tray at the top). When loading cutlery, put them in upside down, i.e. business end upwards. Except sharp pointy knives!!! Always put them in point down, for safety's sake. I have never forgotten a story I read several years ago about someone who tripped as she walked towards the open dishwasher - the bottom tray was pulled out, and as she tripped she fell onto a sharp knife placed pointy end up in the cutlery tray. It killed her. Yes, a freak accident, but by golly did it focus my mind on how to load cutlery safely!!

Thanks Oops that was another reason I went for this one, adjustable "spikes" and shelf height!

Actually getting quite excited now, although I'm going to have a bit of a kerfuffle sorting out the cupboards.

The cupboard where it will go currently houses all the saucepans, colanders and roasting tins.

Read the booklet, when we bought a new one when we moved house, I found that my plates didn’t fit, I phoned the customer services to try to return the DW, apparently the top tray comes out and can be raised to allow large plates to fit, I did feel stupid.
I always put my forks tines up, else they slip down through the gaps in the cutlery thingy, knives always go points down, except my best knives, which are still hand washed. Rinse the filter out regularly, you will be surprised how much gets stuck in there.

You will love it!

Washing, not easing!

Suusexborn you must be joking when you say that Mr P might put me right on loading

This is the man that when I told him (on the one occasion that he had to do the laundry) to divide the easing into 2 piles, 1 light, 1 dark (I was trying to make it easy, rather than go into detail in fabric types, temperatures etc)

He duly separated them, and then put the 2 piles into the machine together!

I kid you not.

Heaven knows what he thought the machine actually did, maybe had a magic way of separating the clothes whilst in the drum.

He's an engineer

I would add, clean the filter regularly.

We had a new Bosch dishwasher installed a few months ago as part of our new kitchen, thefirst evening we used it, my DH was worried that it had a fault, as some coloured lights were showing from underneith it and he could see them on the kitchen floor. After several minutes trying to work out the problem, he decided to read the instruction manual, only to find that the lights where prefectly fine, and indicators of the programme stage, as being fully intregrated, no control panel was visible once the doorwas closed!
No body warned us that we would also get a set of free kitchen Disco lights with our new Dishwasher!

Also, I have used the more expensive tablets (Finish, Fairy etc) and found them no better than Aldi or Lidl!

We use all in one tablets (whatever is on offer) for our hotpoint dishwasher which probably goes on alternate days.

Mr P will soon put you right on the correct way to load the dishes!

I'm on my third dishwasher, presently I have a Bosch, it's 10 years old an still performs brilliantly. I use the 'All in One' tablets (they have salt and rinse aid incorporated), usually from Aldi or Lidl and they are fine, never needed any extra salt (though we do live in a soft water area) or rinse aid. Apart from putting the usual dishes and cutlery in the washer, I put children's plastic toys in to give them a good wash and my gas hob pan rests which come up lovely and clean. I have never used a dish washer cleaner, but I do regularly clean the door seals and the lip where the door hinges (it gets full of gunk!).

Stick with good quality tablets Phoenix cheaper ones are a false economy. With the all in one tablets there should be no need for other products. I do run a cleaning cycle every now and again. I am currently waiting for a replacement machine, I miss my dishwasher keeps my kitchen nice and tidy.