It's also basically doubling the water usage.

Incorrect.

If the pre-heating is necessary for it to work properly

The only time I said "should" in this exchange is when I said appliances should work properly. I'll assume you don't disagree.

i rent a house that does not have a dishwasher and i hand washed everything for a while.

i bought a small countertop dish washer, it’s like 2x2 foot or so. you have a house that you stick on the sink tap.

it’s large enough to handle like 3-4 days of dishes, uses less water then hand washing by a lot, and saves so much time, takes not much power.

i just load it up, put some soap inside the trap and some outside, run the water through the pass through until hot and let it run. it cost me about $250 when i got it. it’s been running well for 5 years now

220, 230, whatever it takes.

I'd rather pre rinse then always be cleaning all that rotting food out of the filter.

Hmmm I wonder who it could be.

On an unrelated note, down with blue Christmas lights.

It's also worth seeing if the dishwasher you have heats up the water or if it just pulls hot water from the boiler.

You'll be able to tell by seeing which pipe connected to, if it's connected to cold water then you're okay, you're not American and you can relax.

I was ready to be perturbed on his behalf, awww.

Just a note: Australia and NZ are 'officially' 230v but are in reality 240v.

We were historically 240v and nothing actually changed at an infrastructure level, just the standard which says we're at 230v -6%/+10% (which allows for up to 252v, ie. 240v +5%, the old standard)

lint filter in your washing machine

TIL... where would this be?

Also refill the dishwasher salt!

Another tip is to pop out the spray arms in the machine, and clean and decalcify them.

(If you wondered "what's dishwasher salt", you probably have a lot of blockage in the spray arms, and get less pressure as a result)

It's not like you need to follow commercial requirements like DIN EN 17735, but that feels so weird to depend so much on the faucets temperature. I can just click a button and get a 70c+ wash or whatever, I wouldn't get that high from my faucet...

Dude, my entire point is pre-heating is not always necessary for it to work properly

My front-load washer had a panel on the bottom that exposed the filter. It got clogged with a hair tie and pet hair - the washer wouldn't drain and I had to do it manually. Was quite a pain.

I found this article showing common places, but also TIL that maybe not all washing machines will have one.

My dishwasher somehow checks how dirty the water is after the first rinse and adjust ms the washing time accordingly, so getting ketchup and sauces from the plates before makes it run shorter.

Not all machines can use dishwasher salt and not all areas need it. It's apparently for built in water softening. In the US for example areas with hard water typically have whole home water softeners.

I live somewhere with soft water so dishwasher salt isn't needed. I used to live in Ohio where the water is generally fairly hard, and there every house had a water softener. That said if you don't have a water softener or soft water (or you just get mineral buildup in places with water) check if your dishwasher has a salt compartment

That's why I said "if"

1. use powdered detergent, the cheapest available. NOT PODS
2. Buy rinse aid.
3. fill the rinse aid compartment
4. fill the given soap cup all the way AND the prewash. Sometimes the prewash is just an indention in the little door flap for the soap cup. If you dont have one, just sprinkle like 30% of the amount of powder you put in the cup.
5. if theyre still coming out with residue, consider cleaning/descaling the jets, the filter, and try putting less dishes in.
6. if that all fails, read the manual. The dishwasher company wants it to work. They know how it works. They wrote a guide. Look up something like "whirlpool washomatic manual" or whatever is printed on the front of it/inside the door. Mine has a sticker with instructions.

Ive dealt with 5 dishwashers that "dont work" and after kindly instructimg the owner over the course of maybe 15 minutes, they save 30 mins a day washing dishes. Still less water/energy (water heater) to run twice than handwash once.

It is still possible to get dried stuck on food not washed off. If items are dirty and very dried, they need an option for longer pre-wash.

Powdered dish detergent and running the water until it gets hot before starting the dishwasher seem to make a difference for me

My water is pretty soft at less than 25 ppm, but it still significantly improved my wash results by adding dishwasher salt and cleaning the spray arms, so I dunno.

So building this feature into the machine would unnecessarily waste water

TY for the link! I looked all over on my unit and couldn't find jack. Just the normal fabric softener and bleach receptacles. will check out the link.

Username checks out.

My dishwasher doesn't use hot water, it's got an heating element.

Europe is 240V too

I'll give you the gift of super advanced technology!

fill the given soap cup all the way

One thing I've learnt from this thread is that this isn't necessarily right. Its size allows for people with hard water, but if your water is soft then by filling it all rhe way you are likely using too much, which can lead to residue on your dishes. For soft water, half filling is apparently often plenty. Which is another reason to use powder not pods.

You mean detergent right?

Without double-checking your pedantry (or language barrier) via web search, isn't "detergent" a type of soap?

I suspect it was a fairly small amount since, despite being an idiot in general, she at least knows that dish soap suds a lot. She's washed dishes by hand at least 5 or 6 times in her life I know for sure (mostly she has her men do things like that, she's got no time or energy for chores (or a job for that matter)).

Don't let it fool you. I know a robot in disguise when I see one.

We can have 220-240vac 60hz in America by going across the two hot legs...we just don't because reasons.

Also run the tap on your sink until the water turns hot, then start the dishwasher.

A majority of the gunk removal happens during the pre-wash cycle. Hot water greatly helps with this.

That may save some time but I don't think it'd save water. Dishwashers don't constantly add new water. Itll add water for a rinse, wash it out, and then more water for the clean. I'm sure some dishwashers do a third cycle as well

That is excellent question of semantics. I dont mean to argue semantics but rather clarify dish "soap" vs dish washer "detergent" as that could be the difference between a successful wash that doesn't leave residue vs any alternative result.