I'm always baffled about people looking at things like this compartment and don't think it has any kind of significance whatsoever.
Like do they think it's just put there fore giggles? How uninterested in the world around you can you be?
It drives me nuts when i encounter people like this.
Not quite fair, since once you know it's a compartment it's obvious that it's for something, but with all the sensors and access panels appliances have that are not user serviceable it's not that surprising that there could be a plastic panel in the door of your dishwasher that appeared to do nothing.
Really the only thing that might raise an eyebrow is that it is in a door that gets wet so limiting extra things like that would be good, but perfectly reasonable to assume it was for some type of sensor if you didn't notice the little latch for the door.
There's a little protrusion in the base to check the height of the water, have you ever closely examined that to see if it says 'put bleach in here' or something?
but the door usually snaps and stays open after wasching, so it's clear that you cand put something in there
My 15 year old dishwasher has a hanging basket for tablets... It also has your standard drawer for tablets / powders / liquids.
The impression it's given me is, you do you; I'll spin the hot water and give it my best.
Wait until he discovers that you can clean the filters at the bottom and get things even cleaner.
Everyone saying to rtfm has not lived in rental housing with the landlord special dish washer. You can only rtfm when you have tm.
But anyway, putting a bit of soap in with your pre wash isn't a bad idea. Maybe not a whole tablet but then again, maybe they never thought to look for powdered soap before. I certainly didnt until I watched the technology connections video.
In this day and age, a manual pdf is only a search away. All you need is the model number which should be easy to find for any appliance.
obligatory technology connections comment
Seconded, however:
WARNING:
if you go to Technology Connections YT channel, we are not responsible
ifwhen you find yourself watching a 6 hour play list on light bulbsThe series about the RCA video disc player thing is WILD. That they made that fucking thing work at all is a testament to what can be accomplished if you throw a huge sum of money and enough smart people at a problem .
I also have strong opinions about Christmas lights.
Unfortunately, they do not perfectly align with Technology Connections. We agree is almost all respects: flickering is bad, purple is not a valid Christmas color, white lights should be warm and not bluish. I just can't agree about this one thing though, I LOVE the super saturated colors of LEDs for the red, blue, and green lights. I care much less about the saturation of the yellow and/or orange lights.
There's a third video now (A condensed version I think)
We all came here to say this ^
The most annoying thing for me is that i can't find any powder detergent where I live which worked best in his videos, and the compartment is so poorly designed that i frequently find half the detergent pod still in the compartment after the dishes are done.
This guy clearly doesn't subscribe to technology connections
.....or has much common sense—what did he think that thing on the door was all about.
Wait till this guy discovers he should probably use rinse aid and salt too
Edit: oh....and he's definitely never cleaned the filter
obligatory Technology Connections video on dishwashers
Technology connections would like to know your location
One of the most useful videos on YouTube that EVERYONE in the world should watch.
- The money saved. I bought a pack of tablets for 10$ a month, now its 15$ a year for the powder. That's 6.300$ saved in a lifetime
- The amount of waste reduced since there is no individual packaging of the tablets
- The dishes are cleaner than ever
- NO downsides. It's less work to pour some powder than it is to grab a tablet. Well at least almost no downside: It's hard to find powder, there are like 15 different tablets in the supermarket and maybe 1 package of powder.
Still, this video improved my dishwasher-life soooo much.
A cheap liquid also works just fine.
That though his episode about can openers also has had improvements to my life
Such a good episode! Or...entry into his YouTube series? Idk what to call it. Just "video" seems wrong.
Well since nobody else is giving away the spoiler on the 6 hours of technology connections videos( didn’t know there was a third now), it’s to fill the little compartment with the dishwasher manufacturers(not the detergent bottles) recommended amount of detergent and to also add a little bit in the bottom of the dishwasher too to help that pre rinse cycle before the main cycle begins.
I love watching his videos but not everybody does. To those people, you’re welcome
Note that this is only true when not using eco mode, which opens the door right away so you can just chuck the tablet in like a caveman. Mine happens to work well enough in eco mode and the little door tends to get stuck on things, so that's what I usually do.
If your (modern) dishwasher isn't cleaning properly in eco mode, either you have very hard water, or you should clean the filter more often.
If you don't remember when the last time you cleaned the filter is, go clean it now.
As Tech Connections points out, knowing what your water is like is crucial.
I use powdered detergent - 1 Tablespoon in the wash door, one in the prewash. This is about 1/3 of what I'm told to use.
I pretty much trust Technology Connections and their advice is to use the machine's smart setting (or whatever it's called on your brand) as the main job of eco is to score well on water and energy usage. Mine has "6th sense" as its second program which is the only program that does a pre-wash
Eco on my machine doesn't dry the dishes well. We have pretty soft water
Thank you. I got about 1/3 through, checked to see if it was almost over, and proceeded to close the tab.
We had a new washing machine that for the first two washes smelled really bad and made a screeching noise as well. Just before sending it back I noticed that we forgot to remove the styrofoam around the drum..
Additional advice: Clean the dishwasher filter regularly.
the what?
Assuming you don't have a manual to read: First, start with a freshly -emptied clean dishwasher, no spills in the bottom. Wear rubber gloves if you're easily grossed out. Pull out the bottom drawer. Look in the bottom, you see anything that looks like you could turn it 🛞, with maybe a couple arrows ▶️ ◀️ to line up? Lefty-loosey it, pull it out and take it to the sink, along with any screenlike thingamabobs that come out with it. Run warm water and use hands, sink brush, or scrunge to gently remove all the gunk. You don't have to abuse it, you want it to last the life of the machine. Also feel in the hole, removing any gunk left behind. If the filter pieces come apart easily, do that, but put them back as they were before reinserting into the machine. Fit it back into the hole and righty-tighty to match up the arrows. Don't over-tighten! Go rinse out your sink, dry your hands, and set a monthly notification on your phone. It's much less gross if you do it monthly.
Oh no
Don't forget about the seal ring around the washing machine door!
And the HVAC and cabin air, huge laundry list of them it seems
Just RTFM?
I read somewhere that around ⅓ of people (at least in my country) are effectively illiterate. They can read but they can’t really understand what they read. They can’t solve logical tasks and would fail for example to take medication according to written instruction. It does explain a lot.
Even of the literate people, far too few bother reading instructions. People who can read and interpret law texts, but they still click away a pop-up unread when setting up a new phone for example. The only people who I've only ever had a good experience with when it came to diligently reading and following instructions + escalating the problem when the instructions were unclear, were professional accountants.
Call communists, they are good at illiteracy elimination.
I wash by hand. Please convince me to use a dishwasher?
angry Alec noises
Powder detergent is much better.
Unfortunately it's getting hard to find at this point
It makes it really easy to add the tablespoon of detergent to the tub for the prewash as well as the needed dose for the dishes (which is really not much unless you have it loaded with greasy plates)
Technology Connections on YouTube has several relevant videos
I’m getting more and more concerned about microplastics coating the dishes afterwards: powdered detergent helps me feel better about that.
The dissolvable packets of a dishwasher detergent are very different than the forever microplastics that people are worried about. Those are designed to be durable and last while the detergent pods are made to dissolve.
That said the powder detergent is great and SO much cheaper per wash. Also you can put some in the prewash for better washing.
That makes zero sense. Powder is obviously much better, but not because of microplastics.
Target has a store brand detergent that works well. But I find it's easier to use too much with powder. Compared to gel, It's harder to control the pour, and if you have too much it leaves a residue.
I've never even heard of powdered detergent for the dishwasher. Where does it go in the machine?
the little compartment. and ideally a little just in the machine for the prewash.
as others noted: check the technology connections video(s)
Pretty much every dishwasher has a little door that opens mid cycle.
Plus a little indent for pre-wash detergent
Walmart
If that fails
Amazon, tons of brands for about the same price (yeah yeah I know, Amazon)
I get one with dried goats milk to help with smells edit- this is my laundry soap I am a silly lad sometimes, but the rest applies
I'm confused about what possible reason you could have to say "yeah yeah I know" about Amazon that doesn't apply at least as much to Walmart.
On a related note, I would like to switch to powdered dish detergent after watching the Technology Connections video, but have stuck with liquid because Costco doesn't carry powder.
I have a friend who does this. I tried explaining to her that she's doing it wrong. She told me I'm wrong and she won't discuss it further. I don't get some people.
Most people hate being wrong, or corrected. They seem to see it as an affront to their very existence, and will often fight back tooth and nail when confronted with any evidence that the things they believe about the world might not be 100% correct.
Source: Any substantial comment thread on any social media platform, ever.
She might be right, it depends on the type of the dishwasher.
Maybe she thinks it’s just vibes.
Mix both worlds. Like I have learned from a very investigative YT video. He tested and measured dishwashing in many different ways, and came to the result that a) tablet in that place in the door is the thing to do, but also b) a bit of dishwasher powder into the little compartment right next to it under the flap. This is for the first cleaning stage, and since we use this trick, our dishwasher runtime (which is dynamically depending on cleanlyness of the dishes) has gone down by about 20 minutes.
Are you referring to Technology Connections video on dish washers? This video
How does a machine know whether the dishes in it are clean?
Ask the machine, I don't know, but it works.
My parents insist that it works the same either way despite me explaining that there is a pretty wash rinse. But because they put the powder or tablet in while the little compartment is still wet, the detergent occasionally doesn't release properly.
So pretty
My previous diswasher had the compartment just for powdered detergent. Tablets were supposed to go directly into the dishwasher, per the manual. So the approach works with some machines.
This is the level of understanding I'd expect from someone who thinks vibes affect modern appliances.
My wife refuses to load the dishwasher because to her she "doesn't do it right" or "don't want to fight with it"
So I get OP.
I've had to teach people how to mop a floor, and how you should sweep first, it's just deer in headlights when explaining it. People just don't go outta their lane to learn new things or fix things that don't work right.
A long time ago, as I was getting ready to get dinner with a friend. I asked her if she could start my dishwasher. It was all loaded and just needed the detergent which was under the sink...well, we got back and the kitchen was flooded and filled with suds and bubbles. Turned out she used the dish soap next to the sink instead of the detergent. Cleaned it up, laughed, and was reminded of the different experiences we all have from people who grow up in more wealthy households.
I ran out of dishwasher detergent one time. I KNEW you can't use regular soap, but I said if I just use a tiny amount, I'll rewash later if I have to. It can't be THAT bad.
No.
No amount is ever the right amount other than none.
It's not just wealthy people who don't load their own dishwashers. People who don't own dishwashers are used to manually doing the dishes.
[x] I'm in this picture and I do not like it.
*Cries in poor while manually doing the dishes*
That's super true! I've been renting for so long that it's one of those conveniences that I love having, but I can get by totally okay without one (currently don't have one). Growing up, chores were just normal things, but I meant so many people who never had to do them, and they had a lot of household experiences to gain later in life!
Also people may live with their parents and have never used the dishwasher that they do have, or perhaps only loaded or unloaded it, never having run it
I did this! So many bubbles. There was a bunch of water too. On the bright side I had very clean linoleum till everything dried up, then the corners in some spots started to curl up at the edges.
Funny learning experience.
I also did this as adult when I got my first dishwasher
They do come with a manual. (Says the guy who has never read his dishwasher’s manual.)
Houses typically include the appliances, so unless you buy from one of those rare boomer types that filed everything away, you probably don't have it. I guess you could search it online, now I'm typing this out...
Every home I toured when I was buying had a manual stack laid out for the appliances.
I thought it was weird.
Now I own a home and when I get an appliance I just toss the manual on the stack.
Or maybe you buy a house and later renovate the kitchen, adding in a brand new dishwasher because there never was one to begin with.
Or maybe you buy a new development and it either has no kitchen appliances or furniture, or it has brand new appliances so the manuals and other documents are kept.
Lots of ways to still have the manual. Where I live, the cost of a new development is maybe 20-30% more per unit of area than a condo in a 40-60 year old commie block, but they look way nicer inside and out and they keep heat way better, which is important when you get really damn cold winters. Plus you can get better loan terms if it's certified C energy class or above usually. For some banks it has to be A. Downside is you have to wait while they build the damn thing.
I've never had a landlord leave me manuals to my appliances
You can probably find it on the Internet.
why I always read the manual like 2 or 3 times
I've switched from using the little door to just chucking the tablet in the bottom. Works just as well, if not better.
If it works for you go ahead... but something is wrong with your dishwasher or you're using the wrong mode (eco) then. This is absolutely not the correct way to use a dishwasher.
The pre-wash cycle is the shortest cycle and by using all of your soap in the beginning you are spending the majority of the wash cycle without soap.
I came here to suggest people not use the pods for the exact reason you mention. My dishwasher went from mediocre to pretty good by switching to gel instead of the packs.
I've been using the soap compartment for years, I only recently just started chucking the packet into the silverware holder because I've heard that might be better (the little compartment might open too late and be less effective). I'm not totally convinced OP was doing a worse job accidentally
Maybe it depends on your model(like it was poorly designed or something), but in general the soap compartment should deploy precisely when it needs to. But, hey, if it's working for you then who am I to say otherwise
I am currently on the other side - my soap compartment broke, and so I have to throw the packet in the bottom of my washer. It works... okay. The problem is, most of the soap goes out with the pre-rinse. So I often have dishes that I have to re-wash by hand now, versus never having to do that before. I dream of the day where I fix my soap dispenser.
I can only imagine what his dryer vent like.
Vent?
I read that it's an American thing. Americans have dryer vents in the house that need to be regularly cleaned or they are a fire risk, while the rest of the world has a dryer lint compartment in the dryer, that also needs to be regularly cleaned or it's a fire risk. FYI so that nobody gets butthurt: I don't think either of this solution is better or worse, they are just different. This is no "muuuh America Bad Europe Good" comment.
Notable exception: dry/wash combos, they just rinse out the dryer lint with the next wash cycle
Edit: And both make sense respectively. Since in the US you mostly build with drywall, it's cheap and easy to add a vent for the dryer. In other parts of the world where they build concrete walls, it's not so easy, so if you choose to move your dryer room in the future it would be a pain in the ass when the dryer needs to be connected to a vent. So it's much more useful to collect the lint and water in the dryer than to vent it out of your building
You'd be surprised at how many people are tech-illiterate & end up blaming technology
I can't wait until they discover rinse aid. If your dishes still look dirty no matter how many cycles you run the machine for, then you probably should have refilled the dispenser ages ago.
I distinctly remember a scene in Sesame Street where Big Bird telling to always read the manual.
The manual:
Start Press start to start. Stop Press stop to stop.
And next we'll tell you what the little hatch labeled "rinse aid" is for.
In other news, major manufacturers are starting to ship appliances now without including any printed instructions. I can see that it's just as well; it's clear that nobody would read them anyway.
I do. And more importantly, I judge others by whether they do or not. Any manufacturer who doesn't ship a manual will get permabanned by me.
Well, no GE or Whirlpool for you anymore, then.
yes, please, stick a QR code on it which leads to the manual in a PDF format. Why do I get a book in 20 languages instead? What century is this?
It’s a shame that the dishwasher the landlord installed has a shitty soap compartment that sometimes failed to open during the wash. When I tried to take it apart to see what the issue was, I couldn’t get it back in. So now I just chuck the puck in.
My parents were really adamant about not leaving any food on plates, so it really doesn’t make a difference to me.
Same. If I use the compartment it has like a 50% success rate. So I Chuck it in and it works well enough
My mom told me an embarrassing story about how my dad once used regular old dish soap apparently it didnt end well and suds got everywhere. At least this person knew to use the tablets.
Probably overdosed, I have successfully used dish soap when I ran out of tabs on a Sunday.
Typical Reddit user in 2024.
All the idiot kids we used to make fun of over on /r/SummerReddit are adults now, and the main demographic of the website.
Its not that uncommon that some people don't know how to use every day stuff correct and use them wrong. One thing I've noticed that a lot of people use wrong are thermostatic radiator valves. Its not a simple valve and the numbers don't indicate on how far open the valve is, its a temperature setting. I've often told people to not set it to 5 and rather set the target temperature and 3 is about 20°C, so room temperature. At work all engineers don't get it and we stupid little IT guys with a smaller degree get it right.
To be fair, they aren't that accurate. Its pure mechanical and the sensing happens in the thermostat but when it closes the valve, the radiator is still full of hot water. You need to find the correct setting for your room and so on. With electric ones, you can fiddle with the settings, to be more accurate.
Also, they measure right next to the heat source and the markings can't compensate for better or worse insulation. It makes (almost) no sense to put temperature markings on them.
My dishwasher was caked in that white film that denotes very hard water when I got it. Came with the house. Literally did not clean anything put in it. Found some stuff online called Afresh. Comes in tablet form. Tossed one into the machine ran an empty cycle and now it works like it should
I think you're talking about lime scale.
I'm pretty sure the afresh just descaled your dishwasher.
Many dishwashers have a dedicated spot for a "rinse aid" like jet dry, and I'm pretty sure that is just a prevention method for this exact problem.
IDK, I'm not a scientist or anything.
Rinse aid is what we call a surfactant. It disrupts the surface tension of water, which in turn lessens its ability to cling to surfaces.
You know how when you get a smooth surface of glass or plastic wet, there will be a lot of beads of water that just cling there and don't go anywhere? Unless they grow big enough to start finally running down the side? That's surface tension in action. Adding the rinse aid will reduce water's ability to bead up like this on dishes. Instead, water will be more likely to run down the surface in unbroken sheets instead of beading up.
The primary intent is that more water will simply drip off the dishes due to gravity. This does make dishes come out dryer after a drying cycle, and/or decreases the time the drying cycle takes or the energy it requires to get the same effect. But the main reason wanting water to drip off of dishes is to prevent limescale on them.
When water evaporates, only the water disappears into the air. Anything that was dissolved in that water gets left behind. If your water is hard, that will mean there's a bunch of calcites that will stay behind as a whitish powder called limescale. So if you wash dishes with hard water, let the rinse water stay beaded up on them, and dry it out via only evaporation, you get some limescale buildup on them in the form of so-called "water spots".
If instead you add rinse aid, more of the water will drip off the dishes, taking all the dissolved calcites with it. Less water has to evaporate, fewer calcites are left behind on the dishes, so less limescale and fewer water spots. Thus why many brands of the stuff show photos of crystal-clear glass on the box. A water-spotted glass will be cloudy and speckled. Rinse-aided glass will--supposedly, anyway--be clearer.
I'm not a scientist either, but from what I remember from reading the manual; rinse aid helps with drying the dishes, makes it so that water don't stick to them as well. Added dishwasher salt is what helps with lime scale. My dishwasher has a separate salt container, and I then tell the dishwasher how hard my water is and it will add the appropriate amount of salt to the water.
Feel free to correct me if I got it backwards.
One of my former room mates had the same problem with the washing machine. They were two compartments and you put the main detergent in the smaller one. In practice it didn't make much of a difference, but still.
Assuming the other one is for fabric softener, the clothes got agitated with plain water, then soap added during the final rinse. But if you ask my 90 year old uncle, laundry soap is a capitalist scam anyway (their pillow cases feel like they are made of old fashioned oil cloth).
There are people going around TikTok and instagram suggesting you should be chucking your dish detergent in the bottom of the dishwasher and skip the little compartment.
Some people just want to watch the world burn. And everyone wants to encourage them.
For those who don't know, that wastes the detergent if the dishwasher has a prewash cycle, which most do (eco cycles are the most likely to not have a prewash)
what's a tiktok
Fuck it, do both; clean dishes
Dawn dishwasher soap would get hard reading your comment.
yes, double your consumption for no reason
Just use powder. Put some in the compartment and a little into the basin/on the door. Now your pre-wash cycle is more effective than ever! Also, powder is cheaper most of the time. And also convenient - no individually wrapped pods!
Most people use too much detergent. Put the right amount in the wash and pre-wash, it's probably less than what they used before, and the dishes are cleaner. Too much detergent leaves powdery residue.
That’s what you’re supposed to do!
The Technology Connections content everybody is talking about covers it. The main wash’s detergent goes into the little compartment, which is closed, then a little extra goes on top to help with the pre-rinse.
That is the dumbest thing about pods. If you want to use your dishwasher “correctly” with detergent in both the pre-rinse and the main wash cycle, you need to use two pods for one load of dishes!
Either that or open & divide the pods I guess, but then you aren’t really using “pods” are you, lol.
What the heck did he think the little compartment was for?
Storing spare change?
MIL does this on purpose. Fucking grinds my gears - I gave up on preaching that there is a reason for that little closed compartment.
She’s not wrong to put some for the pre-rinse. Just need some in the compartment for after the pre-rinse cycle too.
Unfortunately the little door on my dishwasher sticks and won’t open 99% of the time so I have no choice but to chuck the pod in the bottom. It sucks, but my dishwasher works well in every other way and my dishes are clean enough so I’m not spending money on a new one until some other part of it breaks.
Mine does that too. I have learned to put smaller things in the front and larger things (like upright plates) at the back and it seems to be working well.
I also put laundry pods in the little compartment even though they say to just toss them into the thing where the clothes go. I do this because
-
The pre-rinse cycle will just flush out all the detergent before the actual cleaning cycle
-
The plastic shit that dissolves to release the detergent was getting all over my clothes and fucking shit up doing it the way the package instructs you.
-
Meanwhile, I know people that should just not use a dishwasher bcz they can't load it properly. Honestly, dishwashers are bloody useless. Washing by hand is faster and cheaper.
The trick to having the dishwasher work is to run the tap on the sink until the water is hot. Using powder or liquid dish detergent instead of those sub-optimal expensive tablets also helps, as does leaving sauces on some of the dishes or cookware (only scraping off solid chunks of food)
Even cheap dishwashers clean very well (assuming no clogged filters or mechanical faults) if you follow the above steps.
Dishwashers may not be as fast as going by hand, but the idea is that you free up time requiring active attention by using the appliance. Dishwashers also use much less water for a cycle than 99% of hand washing setups.
lol
The dishwasher we had when I grew up had a broken soap compartment, it wouldn't stay closed so we would just put the soap in it and shut the door, the soap would spill all over the insides, but everything was clean when it was done.
So not only was he an idiot about the soap, he also didn't scrape or rinse his dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Awesome.
Only remove solid chunks, you don't need to rinse them before hand. That's exactly what the dishwasher does in its first washing cycle (the one without the soap) and doing it by hand only wastes a lot more water.
Not if you're stuck with a shitty and/or old dishwasher like most apartments and older homes have. Growing up in the 80s/90s with a brand new house we still had to scrape/rinse the crap off if we didn't want to find crud in the bowls and such. All y'all downvoters are some privileged mofos.
Some modern dishwashers don't need a pre-rinse (and are actually more effective if the dishes aren't rinsed first due to how fats work). See this video from Consumer Reports or search dishwasher rinse first.
I mean, if you wash the dishes before they go in the dishwasher I guess they come out clean, but to me the point of a dishwasher is to do a more efficient job of it than I can. I scrape but do not rinse, because rinsing then washing is using more water, not less.
If it gets stuff clean, you aren't really using it wrong.
But... it didn't.
