Expert urges people to stop doing 1 thing with dishwasher

A dishwasher expert has shared his verdict on whether you should rinse dirty plates before putting them in the dishwasher – but not everyone agrees with him. For many, doing the dishes is one of the worst chores that needs to be done, as a growing mountain of dirty dishes is something that often needs clearing at least once every day. And depending on how big your household is, it could even need doing several times a day.

While dishwashers have been proven to use less water than cleaning the dishes by hand, sometimes it might be tempting to give the dishes a pre-rinse before putting them in the dishwasher. But whether or not this is truly needed is what the people at Which? wanted to find out, as they went on to talk to their in-house dishwasher expert about what the best code of practice.

“Do you need to rinse your plates before loading them in the dishwasher?” one Which? worker asked at the start of their TikTok video. Dishwasher expert Andy Laughlin explained that the need to rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher is actually a common myth.

“But what you should really just do is just scrape off the excess food and then stack them straight in,” Andy said. He went on to explain that the dishwasher is ‘expecting you’ to stack in dirty dishes, and claimed it even needs it, especially when using ‘Auto Wash’ features that some models have.

This feature uses sensors to determine how dirty the dishes are when they’re loaded and washes them accordingly. Because of this, it can be ‘tricked’ into thinking that your dirty dishes aren’t actually that dirty if you go ahead and rinse them beforehand.

“So if you’re putting basically clean dishes in the dishwasher, not only are you wasting your time, water, and energy, but also you’re not helping the dishwasher do its job,” Andy explained.

While some viewers were thankful for Andy’s expertise, not everyone agreed with what he had to say, as some went on to claim that it was in fact necessary to rinse dirty plates.

“My experience is that the results are better if the dishes are given a basic rinse of food. Some foods, in particular, you can nearly guarantee that you are going to see bits stuck to the dishes afterwards if you do not rinse first,” one person said.

“Don’t put pans, bowls, or plates used for mashed potato in,” a second user urged others. “Rinse fully first. That stuff sticks to everything,” While a third person said: “Coming from a former apartment maintenance tech who’s had to unclog the filters and lines so many times it’s ridiculous, clean your plates off.”

However, another person added: “I think it depends on the kind of food and the length of stay.”