You haven’t lived until you showered from a v12!

Running your faucet only makes sense if your dishwasher is also hooked up to warm water. (In Germany) I've only seen them connected to cold water.

It also only matters when your dishwasher is hooked up to warm water in the first place. (In Germany) I've only ever seen them connected to cold water.

Of all the things. Like what the fuck Germany.

Skill issue.

We have 230VAC (on all outlets) instead of your guys' puny 120V, so our dishwashers aren't handicapped out of the box and can heat their own water properly. I feel like having to run the tap before doing dishes is an L for the US, not Germany/Europe?

Most dishwashers have a pre-rinse program, adds ~5min to the duration. It does get rid of lime residue.

Interesting. Why? Do the dishwashers there require only using cold?

In the US, it is always meant to be connected to the hot tap. The first rinse cycle doesn't heat the water (or doesn't run long enough for the heater to make it hot, anyway). It depends on the hot water from the line to be maximally effective that first rinse. And once drained and refilled for the wash, the water will get up to temp eventually, but it's more effective if it starts hotter.

For a country that's all about doing things big, they sure whimped out on their electrical system

In our defense we were very early to having one and everyone was afraid of electricity at the time

US dishwashers often do have a wimpy heating element. It gets used if you have a setting for extra hot water or a sani-rinse cycle. It wouldn't be a big deal to have the dish washer heat it's own water, but it would require either running a 220V circuit to the machine to make it practical or put up with a very long wash cycle.

Though frankly, washing in cold water is fine as long as you scrub well enough. But you do need to do the rinsing in very hot water to finish the job.

Edit to add - I didn't explain the extra heating to the water well enough. The wimpy heating element doubles to do extra heating of the water and is used for the drying cycle.

I tried the powder thing. Couldn't get the hang of it. Back to pods and I'm more than satisfied. I trust Alex implicitly, it's clearly an "operator error," but that's where I'm at.

Much the same reason as electric kettles not being as popular in low-voltage countries as in Europe - with higher domestic voltage, the appliance itself can heat the water it uses in a timely manner.

We use the the same heating element that runs the drying cycle to add extra heat to the incoming water. It works, but it isn't enough to add all the heat needed to start from cold fast enough.

I'd be curious to know how you're washing in a way that makes you feel pods are better.

I used to be a pod person (ha), but after alwx's video, I experimented and found that by adding powder to the door (along with the actual soap part, obv) and running the hot tap before starting the load makes them come out great (most of the time - oatmeal is my nemesis).

To the top. Was looking for this linkeroo

It was purely me not getting the hang of the amount of powder. I also have a lot of plasticware (kids), and so it amplified the residual issue.

The problem is that I have zero issues with pods. I out in pod, turn on, close door, and that's that. It's the lack of problems, and the fact that powder requires some fine tuning, that had me lose interest in it.

And I basically scrape food matter off plates and load them in. Only time I ever rince is when we have lots of tiny food matters on plates and it'll be a pain in the ass to scrape each individually into the garbage, where a jet of hot water will blast them into the strainer ezpz.

So yeah, I'm running the dishwasher daily, and for me I need the path of least resistance.

If you haven't cleaned your filter recently I will recommend you double check it. It's probably not it, but it's an easy thing to check

You made it before me sir!

Pre-rinsing is the hill I'm willing to die on.

The hot water was the big thing for me. I don't see a noticeable performance difference between the pods and the powder, but the pods are easier with a small enough cost difference over time that it might as well be zero.

But the hot water is clutch.

It's an American thing. Our dishwashers get hot water from the line, there is a heating element, but it is not very powerful due to our lower output electrical sockets.

I've heard other countries have washers that are powerful enough to heat their own water, which is why they are attached to the cold water supply.

I did the usage cost at my house, The powder was less than half the cost for what I use and my local prices.

I was gonna say in our defence most of us can't be trusted with high voltage

But half of what? Half of cheap is still cheap.

A lot of houses are older than the concept of central heating or running warm water, so there are some homes that don't have central warm water, but instead small heaters under the kitchen sink/next to the bathroom, which might or might not hook up to dishwashers

Half of cheap is cheaper.
Shit compounds when you have a handful of these savings.

Bingo, I buy dry goods in bulk. Soap, rice, flour... cost so little to produce even buying the smaller bulk packages can save a significant portion of your grocery bill. The only stuff I buy from the grocer is perishables and frozen.

A $7 box of pancake mix costs about $1 to make from bulk ingredients.

A 1.30 box of rice-a-roni costs a little over 0.50 cents to make.

Mac and cheese, same deal,

If you can stash a few large bags, or split the cost with your neibors/fam you can cut out a huge chunk of your food cost, end up with stuff that's healthier and tastier and not locked in to 1 of 4 flavors.

Making pancakes looks like this:

get out a spoon, any small/medium spoon. n heaping spoonfulls of flour, n-2 heaping spoonfulls of sugar, a pinch of salt, 2 if you're making a more than a few cups. 1 level spoon of baking powder. (2 if you're feeding an army) Add water and stir until it comes off the spoon in ribbons. Too much water? add a level spoon of flour and mix until it comes off in ribbons.

For waffles, add some oil, another spoon of baking powder, a few drops of vanilla extract.

rice-a-roni is just rice and spaghetti, lightly browned in oil the boiled off with bullion, maybe some light veggies.

That's why I said "If"

People who saw the TC video reading this post:

50% is 50% it scales linerally.

82 Cascade pouches at bulk cost me $30
75 oz of Cascade powder costs me $6

that's $0.09 per wash for powder and $0.37 cents per wash for pouches.

I don't really consider $30 to be cheap... and it turns out it's 1/3 as much not 1/2

Gotta run that water till its hot, and use the powder, brother.

My dispenser door is permanently jammed Open,so i had to reluctantly Switch to pods for the Timed Release.
Powder is better imo.

If you run the tap hot first you get hot water in the pre-wash cycle. A lot of machines don't use the heating coil for the pre-wash.

I never pre-rinse and I never have any problems. Not using pods and adding soap to the pre-wash cup as per the manufacturer instructions made the real difference.

We also have a lot of cheapish, natural gas in northern climates, so you can heat your dishwasher with gas that way if it's cheaper.

I used powder for years and it worked okay. However I was always cleaning my filter and the inside of my dishwasher seemed a bit grungy. On a whim I decided to try one of the most expensive pods. The difference was night and day. My dishwasher looks much better, and now when I clean the filter there's barely any gunk. Some of the pods definitely have more effective product (enzymes?) that the powder doesn't have.

Electricity in the usa is not weaker than Europe. Since the voltage is half as high, it just takes double the current to do the same work. A heater running 220v at 5 amps and a heater running 110v 10 amps will work exactly the same.

Look up the turbidity sensor

How often do you use your dishwasher?

I use mine about 2-3 times a week, so if we go with 3 that's saving like 40 bucks a year, assuming perfect measurements and no spilling of the powder. That's not enough of a difference to fret over.

I use the "warm up the water" time to rinse dishes as I load them. Seems silly to say "Don't rinse your dishes but do run your water until hot." Block that sink and use that water!

• Run your faucet till hot water comes out, it makes it so the pre-rinse has more ability to soften crud on the surface of the dishes.

Why would this matter? Dishwashers aren’t connected to the hot water line.

Except most home outlets are rated at 16 Amps so at 110V only gives you 1760W of power, whole on a 230v outlet you can get 3680W.

Using regular dish soap for this will end up in a disaster.

Edit: Lol, what kind of idiot downvoted this. Go ahead, use regular dish soap in a dish washer, and PLEASE report back. XD

Do your dishwashers not have different temperature programs? Tap water is generally set at 65ºC here. My dishwasher has a 45ºC program, a 50ºC program, etc. Depending on how dirty your dishes are you can use lower-temp program to save energy. They even make dishwasher pods specifically for lower temperatures. If it always takes in hot water it would need a way to cool it down.

But if you build it into the appliance, then the appliance will waste that water for literally every load, regardless of whether the person cares about making the water hot first

Detergent = soap but you're right, regular dish soap does not belong in the dishwasher and will result in a huge mess.

What even is this comment.

Dishwashers use much less water than hand washing dishes.

"It's probably not it"? After 30 years of dishwater experience I am convinced that it's always the filter.

My dishwasher literally doesn't have a pre-rinse cycle, the first wash is the main one with the powder, so I get to avoid this whole conundrum! By which I mean, I do quickly wash them by hand if there's any obvious gunk, and no one would realistically tell me not to.

To those curious, it's this countertop one: https://www.midea.co.il/product/mdwmt030sw-w-il (couldn't find a product page in any other language)

The compartment for the detergent has no lid, so the powder drops as soon as you close it.

It also does not have anywhere to put rinse aid, but a bottle of some was included when I bought it new. Great attention to details.