My best friend/roommate does this and it drives me INSANE. She claims she is not washing them, she is just wiping them out. To me if you take soap and a washrag and "wipe out" the dishes you are washing them. If I wanted to do that I would not have a dishwasher. It also seem totally wasteful to wash the same dishes twice. Fortunately she is my best friend so I put up with it but honestly if I had a dishwasher that wasn't getting the dishes clean I would buy a new dishwasher (I do knock any large chunks of food off the dishes before washing them). So do you wash your dishes before washing them or not?
I've stayed with friends with dishwashers as I don't personally believe in them and they all wash the dishes and use the dishwasher as a rinser! I followed suit and to be honest it was such a hassle as the items were clean before they were in dishwasher. I do find it quite strange a waste of money as you wash and rinse as a dishwasher doesn't scrub away and burnt bits or coffee stains, you have to do it yourself. That's why lipstick stains remain on cups because a dishwasher just rinses things.
Well I suppose I fall under the category of doing what your friend does, I definitely "prewash" them lightly but I don't get them nearly as clean or sanitized as a dishwasher does..so for me it's not a waste of money but just a way to get them more clean than they might otherwise be if I didn't rinse them out before. I've washed things entirely by hand before but I don't like how they turn out as compared to being run through the dishwasher.
I just don't understand it. If I had a dishwasher that was not performing adequately I would buy one that was. Yes, burnt bits you have to scrub (and in fact my parents do not put pots and pans in the dishwasher at all) but plates, bowls, cups, etc it should do a perfectly fine job washing them. Just a pet peeve of mine!
I'll start by saying this, I don't have a dish washer, but when I lived with my parents not long ago, I did. I certainly always rinsed the dishes very well until they had nothing on them, but I never washed them with soap before putting them in the dishwasher. That seems kind of pointless. I did, however, separate my dishes. If they had tough grease or something burnt on (typically pots and pans), I would hand wash them instead of using the dish washer.
I don't really find dishwashers to be a labor saving device because they don't get all of the food off of dishes. I have a better result just from washing the dishes in the sink with soap and hot water. It seems like I used to do a lot of work just to get the dishes ready for the dishwasher. I don't miss it.
Actually, I would be the other way around - it would drive me nuts if I was living with someone who didn't pre-wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. It's even more of a disaster when caked on food doesn't come off during the cleaning cycle, then gets baked on to the dishes and pans even worse during the drying cycle. Then you have to fill up a sink of hot water to soak them all again just to remove that, and then wash them again. If you are that worried about wasting water, simply use the shorter dishwasher cycle after pre-washing them. Also dishes that are only washed by hand sort of gross me out - because I've seen some people use the same filthy dish water to wash a ton of dishes. What do you think you are doing when you throw cutting boards and knives that you've been cutting raw chicken on into a dish pan, then hand wash your glasses and silverware in that same contaminated water? I don't even put stuff that's come in contact with raw poultry into the dish pan at all, I throw it straight into the sink and squirt detergent directly on it, and clean them off under a running faucet before putting them in the dish washer.
My grandmother was always telling us to wash our own dishes. She would get upset if we left the dirty dishes dry, so we had to at least pour a bit of water onto the dirty plates before putting them in the sink. That way whoever is doing the dishes would not have to scrape off the dried leftover on the plates or cookwares. The same goes for dirty glasses. We had to run water through them at least just to make sure that the soot won't dry out. We didn't have a dishwasher either, so we either took turns washing the dishes or we'd wash our own right after each meal.
I rinse off anything that is stuck on. Things like egg or potato may not come off if they are not scrubbed a little with a dish brush because they are so stuck on there. I don't see a reason to use soap though. Just a little water should do it.
