Dishwashers

I learned something today about dishwashers that might be useful to others.

The dishwasher is eleven years old. That's how long I've lived here. I got in the habit of running it without clearing the dishes first, basically you must wash them before loading the machine but I haven't been doing that.

I was not scrapping them off completely.

For some reason the machine does not rinse all that away, rather, the machine traps the debris. I do not understand why.

What a bummer!

The particles that are trapped recycle over and over super heating each time as they accumulate  and the trapped particles transform into another material until the trap cannot hold any more and the transformed material begins breaking apart and re-depositing on clean dishes.

The particles are black greasy dots like melted rubber stuck hard on the dishes that is nearly impossible to scrub off, and when scratched off with tremendous effort they leave a brown greasy streak. It takes a very long time of extremely hard scrubbing to clear all the dishes of these black dots and they still don't dissolve, they accumulate on the scrubbing sponges.

When you're done scrubbing and cannot see anymore black dots you can still feel them with your fingertips. So back to scrubbing each plate, saucer, glass, and fork.

I thought a rubber gasket was melting.

Regularly running the machine empty of dishes with a de-greaser usually works to keep the trap clear. Today the maintenance guy used an oven cleaner and it took him a long time to clean the trap.

The trap is in the back on the bottom held into place by two long screws. It's in two parts, a small trap like a cup and a larger trap over that like a plastic mesh tent. It's difficult to get to, an awkward position to kneel and reach back and hold while you unscrew.

The dude had a light on an electric screwdriver.

I sure learned my lesson.

So what's the point of the dishwasher if you have to wash the dishes before loading?

It sanitizes. It has a heating element and it gets a lot hotter than regular faucet and that thing gets really hot.

It's probably good for canning.

I don't like that machine anymore.

All that scraping and washing and loading and unloading. It's too much.

Using paper plates is starting to sound like a good idea. I'm over all these dishes all the time.

I bought at least ten times more dishes than I need just so I don't have to wash dishes all the time. And now this.

But then with paper plates I'd be taking out the trash all the time. There is no escaping this housework. I cannot keep up with myself. I'll have to hire a housekeeper again.