Now that you know 14 Home Hacks for Your Dishwasher, your helpful appliance might be working overtime. Do you know how to keep it in it's best shape? For starters, read the manual! Then heed these tips to keep your dishwasher—and your stuff—clean and working.
1. Wood
Your Pac Man cutting board is going to swell and crack in the dishwasher. The same goes for wooden spoons or chopsticks.
2. Knives
Detergent can do damage to fine knives, causing scratches and nicks that dull the blade. Leaving sharp knives to rattle around in the dishwasher is likely to scratch up the dishwasher rack itself.
3. Delicate Glass & Crystal
Fine glass (like anything that's hand-blown) is super sensitive to heat. Either run them on a non-heat cycle or, better yet, hand wash your fine crystal to be safe.
4. Pots & Pans
Anything that's coated or enameled should stay out of the dishwasher. If you want your bake ware to stay non-stick, wash it by hand. Similarly, cast iron pans will lose their precious seasoning.
5. Anything with Gold Trim
We've made this mistake before. Any plates, bowls or cups with gold trim need to be hand washed. The harsh detergent and strong water pressure can remove the delicate trim.
(Top Image: Flickr Member mylissa licensed for use by Creative Commons, Inside Image: Photoillustration.)
MORE DISHWASHER TIPS:
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Comments (13)
Let me tell you something you should NEVER put in the dishwasher... a moped engine. 'nuf said.
Piffle! I put my good knives and my Calphalon pots in the dishwasher every time I use them.
If the knives need to be sharpened I'll take them to be sharpened. I've done that ONCE in the 30+ years I've owned them -- pretty reasonable for the countless times they've gone through the dishwasher.
Calphalon says putting their cookware (I have the original sort, not the current non-stick sort) will void the warranty, but they refused to say what it would do to the pans. Again, I've been doing this for 20 years and my pots are fine and dandy. I also put my Wearever non-stick frying pans in the dishwasher.
Life is short.
@mdorothy - your original Calpahlon is more than likely the anodized stuff...perfectly fine as are stainless pans despite the warranty warning...neither are coated or enameled
I keep my wood handled knives out of the dishwasher but all others go in a designated slot in the cutlery basket
I don't put my knives in the dishwasher because the handles have a shiny black finish and the dishwasher will remove it making them dull and faded.
Also, the number one thing you should never put in the dishwasher is regular dish soap. I learned the hard way. I've never seen that many suds outside of a bubble bath but my kitchen floor was very clean afterwards.
I have two roommates, and somehow I am the only one with cookware/dishes/silverware/knives. Our rule is that if there is only ONE of something, it gets handwashed. This keeps pots and pans out of the dishwasher, knives, as well as large bowls that take up a lot of space on the rack.
Also, just because this rule exists, does not mean anyone listens to me. :)
@mdorothy
If you've only sharpened your knives once in 30 years, either you don't use them often enough to have them sharpened...or, most likely, you have dull knives.
Life IS too short for dull knives.
I work in tech support and my friend got a call that had us howling with laughter. Customer called in because his modem was offline. He told my friend that the modem had been getting very warm so he put it out on the balcony to cool. While out on the balcony, the pigeons had done, well, what pigeons do. So to clean the modem, he put it in the dishwasher.
Please don't put your modem in the dishwasher!
The makers of Teflon say on their website that if their Teflon-coated cookware "couldn't withstand the dishwasher, they wouldn't be doing their job right." Putting it in the dishwasher will NOT ruin the Teflon. The pan may have other reasons not to go in the dishwasher, though.
From personal experience, people are much too stuck up about their cookware sometimes... not to mention misinformed.
why would you put yucky shoes where you wash your dishes??? Really? Ucky
For any of you with small children, a word of warning ... keep your sippy cup parts contained. We were putting ours in the silverware basket - one of the rubber valves flew out, got stuck in the motor and burned it out. $300 later ...
Don't put mini blinds in the dishwasher either, heh. Luckily I didn't like them much anyway.
@davebarnes GOOD. Now you can't wear the heinous things.
The real reason you don't want to put fine knives in a dishwasher is that the extreme heat will take the temper out of the blade and they will no longer hold their edge. They should always be washed by hand and dried right away.