Limitations of a Dishwasher (things you need to know)

The limitations of a Dishwasher in Indian conditions are given below...

Magic Hands

• Dishwasher doesn't have a any magic hand that would be used to scrap off the Stains or left over food particles that are struck to the vessels. Anything that would normally have to be scrapped with hand may not get removed in a dishwasher completely. That would include, dried rice vessels, Milk vessels heated twice without washing, Curd vessels left dried, deep fried Kadai left dried and any food that would get struck to the vessel. The only exception to this is oily vessels that would come up clean. This could be avoided t0 certain extent if you get into the habit of running such type of vessels under the sink tap in order to keep them wet. We normally remove them by hand with scrotch-brite before placing them in the dishwasher.
• You need to remove solid food particles before putting the vessels on to your dishwasher atleast try to loosen up the food particles so that they get removed during wash cycle.

So the bottom line is, you still have to do that 10% of work which you normally have to do after your maid has completed her unfinished job - The only difference is that you need to do it before. Believe me its worth it, because the sparkle in the vessels, the feeling that your vessels are hygenic (~70 degrees) and the vessels are ready for use, if you give 5-10 minutes time after washing cycle is completed.

Time

• Dishwasher would take about one-and-half hours to complete the entire washing cycle. In our experience short cycles (~30 minutes) are useful to clean glassware and ceramics. Wonder how glassware in those 5 star hotels are looking new, its because of this - you just need to choose the program for cleaning glasses that would take about 30 minutes and your glass & glass containers would be sparkling .

So if you imagine that Dishwasher could be used for cleaning vessels faster that hand-wash they it would fall short of your expectation.

Vessels & Size

• Theoritically you could put big vessels inside dishwasher, however it won't be economical due the limitation in the total space available.
• If you place bigger vessels, it not only consumes more space but also it might prevent water (spray) falling on other vessels. This doesn't mean dishwasher are meant for smaller vessels, we use about 5 medium-size vessels meant for milk, rice, curd, sambar, rasam etc in daily wash. Cooker, Water Pot (Thanni Kudam) are strict No.

Bottom line is if you want clean 5 medium-size vessels and one cooker, it is economical to clean the cooker by hand and use the dishwasher to clean 5-medium/10 small sized vessels.

Arranging Vessels

• Its very important that you place the vessels properly so that you get optimum results. It is not rocket science but just commen sense. It would vary depending on the type/size of the vessels you are using at home and I'll cover this in a seperate post.

Its easy to learn how to place the vessels provided you are inclined to devote some time to understand and master it.