The Experiment

So I decided to use a dishwasher load for an experiment that I hadn't wanted to test out before.  There is a marriage debate spanning at least 50 years.....should you pre-rinse your dishes before placing them in the dishwasher.  I say 'yes', hubby says 'no'.  Points that factored into this experiment:

-my mother didn't pre-rinse.  "That's what the dishwasher is for."  She could say this, she had a great dishwasher.  My dishwashers have been the type that are probably whatever was on sale during construction of the residence; I had no confidence in their abilities whatsoever.

-prior to our cohabitation, Teague didn't pre-rinse.  Keep in mind he was a single guy with no roommate so he let dishes pile up for days before loading the dishwasher and expecting them to come out sparkling all the while you could all but hear the strain from each soapy bubble as the machine worked furiously to attack the crusted off whatever-it-was.  I saw his 'clean' dishes and quickly set a few dishes aside and hand-washed them during each of my visits (Is there any question why I offered to always clean all the dishes myself once we bought a house???)

-With all the distrust surrounding the dishwashers I've had, I developed a pre-rinse system along the lines of Braille which basically means that if I had no eyes, how would I know this dish is clean?  I ran my hands over each surface of each dish/utensil until I was confident no spot remained.  Then I placed it in the dishwasher.

Now I understand this is a waste of time and water, which I very much dislike to do, but I could see no other way to ensure the dishes were clean.  I needed that peace of mind, especially with dishes.  I didn't even want to try a load without pre-rinsing, because I didn't want to see the failed experiment, take all the dishes out, pre-rinse, then place them back in the dishwasher and run it again.  Correctly.  Because OF COURSE the dishwasher wouldn't get the dishes clean enough.

However, we have a new house now.  And in this new house, we have a reputable brand dishwasher.  Would I be able to trust it?  I relaxed a little on my normal dish routine, but eventually reverted back to my Braille method of prerinsing. 

Until I came upon a blurb from my absolute favorite magazine, Real Simple.  It started out saying that 40% of all couples squabble about how to load the dishwasher.  The snippet I couldn't ignore told me it was time for the experiment "Dishes should be scraped (not rinsed) because detergent needs the presence of food particles to work properly."  Huh.  I hadn't thought of this.  This concept was enough to give it a shot.

So Teague has been telling me to do this for over a decade, but his history of washing dishes wasn't instilling me with the confidence that this tried and true magazine was.  Do spouses always need an additional opinion?  I'm afraid in this case I did.

As I loaded up that night, every instinct and urge had me fighting to keep from rinsing off the melted mozzarella cheese (surely this doesn't include cheese?!), but I dutifully scraped only.  It was (literally) out of my hands now.

The next day I carefully inspected each and every item as I unloaded the dishwasher.  To my amazement, everything was clean.  Perfectly clean.  I was astonished!  I made sure to let Teague know that although I was wrong about the concept, I don't regret the time spent at our old house, because I'm still not convinced the standard issue dishwasher could've done the job as well.  I definitely believe in admitting when you are wrong when applicable.

I've just recouped so much extra time during the day now, and although I will still put a little extra attention to a dish here and there, I've learned to trust my machines to do the job they were made to do.  It's hard for me to let something (or let's be honest, someone) do a task that I can do so much better, but this will have positive effects on our water bill and my free time, I'm hoping.  Control issues much?

I hope this helps to end any discussion you may have in your household as well :)