No, you can't load the dishwasher

[lovingboth]

When I say this, it's not because I am nice and want to save you the trouble, it's because you can't do it properly.

It amazes me how many people stick stuff in randomly (wasting large amounts of space) or leave large bits of pasta / whatever on stuff (otherwise known as 'how to block your filter') or put things that shouldn't be in (crystal glass or wood, for example).

The most recent guest - wave :) - was mostly very good but still took the view that it was easier to buy new wood utensils every few months rather than wash them by hand...

Comments

[kake]

My dishwasher experience is decades (well, two decades) out of date. If I ever come and stay with you, is it OK if I wash everything by hand? (I ask because some people find this irritating too.)

[lovingboth]

I would sit JA down and get her to take notes on how it's done :)

I don't think much has changed with dishwashers in twenty years. You're still faced with a packing exercise and need to know that it's not a waste disposal unit and some things don't go in.

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

LOL... Yeah - I must admit - I'm quite anal about the dishwasher. I don't put pots and pans in there (particularly, as they are teflon / Tefal - and only take 60 seconds and a bit of elbow grease to get *anything* off them) .
I also like certain things in certain places...
And the kids not scraping the stuff off the plates also is irritating (but not a major problem...)

I have a lesson I've got that I basically say "stick the stuff in, then spin the middle sprinkler arm and if it doesn't spin, check and reload, spin again".

Otherwise nothing is rinsed properly.

But wooden utensils I put in and have done for years with no ill effect? Whats happened to yours?
(I must admit, I did put a wooden chopping board in once, and it broke in two lol).

[lovingboth]

Getting them wet and then hot = warp and crack, especially if there are several pieces of wood fitted together.

The thicker the wood, the more likely it is, from memory, hence the chopping board.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I only have stuff that goes in the dishwasher (if not true 13 years ago, it certainly is now!), with the exception of one pan.
But people who eat all but one mouthful of food off their plates really bug me. I don't believe in finishing plates if not hungry, but one spoonful won't hurt - and it's always the same people. Are they leaving an offering to the cornflake god or something.

Actually much more annoying are people who smugly claim dishwashers actually take longer/are more effort. And then are somewhere with me and use one and I can tell them 'you'd be right if that's all you put in it'...
I resign myself to just rearranging half the stuff before running and it's still more useful having most people fill it than not.

[nyecamden.livejournal.com]

I probably have more opinions on dishwashers and washing up than is strictly healthy ;-)

[memevector.livejournal.com]

took the view that it was easier to buy new wood utensils every few months rather than wash them by hand...

Every few months??! Exaggeration much?

I'm quite happy to abide by your "house policy" now I know it, but that "few months" is fictional from your own brain and nothing to do with my ideas on the matter or indeed (as far as I've experienced) the reality!

It must be about 6 or 7 years since I made that judgement call for my stuff (as that's when we got the dishwasher). One or two cheap-in-the-first-place plain wooden spoons have eventually started to crack, others have slightly raised grain; the stuff that was good quality in the first place has survived so far with only cosmetic changes (lost paint or varnish, or the varnish has got more dull, but wood still solid).

Likewise some of the 50-ish-year-old table knives now have discoloured (plastic-alikey) handles; I can live with that, because the realistic alternative is that we wouldn't be using them at all.

A new set of unvarnished wooden spoons would be a couple of quid, and I shan't begrudge it if I have to pay that some time in the next five or ten years... it doesn't create any non-biodegradable waste, and seems to me like an acceptable tradeoff for that much less hand-washing :-)

It's true I don't do it with the wooden chopping boards though, or anything with sentimental value. And I expect even the better utensils will eventually deteriorate a bit... it's just the timescale I'm disputing. It really doesn't seem to do them that much harm to get wet for an hour or so if they then have 23 hours (or several days if they're not the everyday things) to dry out again.

My 2p... which is worth more than your 2p as I have actually tried what we're talking about :-)

[lovingboth]

Its based on my first experience of being in a house with one, back in the 80s. The owners were rich and took the view that it didn't matter what happened to the wooden stuff (and indeed the crystal) because they'd just buy more. And yes, the crystal clouded and the wood stuff split within months.

Whether that's because of the sort of wood involved, or higher temperatures involved (this dishwasher is cooler than the one we got in London seven or eight years ago) I don't know, but...

[memevector.livejournal.com]

OK then, I accept you have a relevant 2p :-)

(if not directly relevant to your original claim about my views)