Middle aged Dishwasher Virgin Help!

guineapig

I have managed all my life washing up in a sink and even had 2 and 1/2 sink installed in my new kitchen less than 2 years ago because I didn't want a dishwasher. ( We are in a bungalow and on a meter so we use washing up water to flush toilet!)

Anyway, I am realising my life long dream of having a utility.laundry room and thus when my washing machine is moved into its new home I will have a space.
So thought I might as well give in and get a dishwasher even if it was to just use to store the plates in LOL.

But I feel if I could use it say every other day ( there are only 2 of us) then I might use it.

I Know that you guys have worked out how to use yours as cheap as possible and wonder if you could pass on your hard earned tips to moi please?
I don't even know why the plates need to be salted LOL ( what is dishwasher salt for if you are already using tablets to "clean" the dishes?
And why do you need rinse aid? As a sceptic I can't help feeling that these are all made up to make money !!
Even when there is a dishwasher in a holiday cottage ( our usual type of holiday) we never use it because I have no clue how to!!!!!

Have not decided on model or make and the gap I have is barely 60 cms so might have to look at slim line as I don't know if there is any room to manhandle machine in gap unless plumber has fingers as flat as paper!!
So any recommendations/models to avoid most welcome.

Thank you in advance:D

PixieDust

Awww

You don't need more than about 1cm to manhandle the machine, it will all be connected using long-ish hoses and cables and will then just slide straight in

I have a feeling that salt is for the good of the dishwasher itself rather than for the dishes....I have a vague notion that it is used to make the pH of the water correct. I don't think people in soft water areas tend to add the salt: we're in the West Mids and we put it in, it's not expensive.

The rinse aid is there to stop everything being covered in white marks when it comes out of the machine: we use malt vinegar instead and it works just fine.

Whether or not you have a slimline model you can easily get away with using half a tablet, or half the recommended amount of liquid or powder except for really greasy loads.

If you are storing the dirty dishes in there for the next day you will:
a) need to run a "rinse" wash which basically wets them but doesn't wash or dry them...takes about 15mins. This stops the food welding itself on to the plates while the load is accumulating

b) probably need to invest in more plates, bowls etc

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

All of these things are included in an all in one tablet. The only time additional ones can be needed is in areas of particularly hard water.

You scrape the food off the plates, put them in the racks, pop a tablet in the slot, close the door and switch on. You wander back a couple of hours later and the washing up has been done for you.

Every so often you check the filter isn't blocked with little fragments of food, you wipe the seal when you clean the kitchen, and that's pretty much all you have to do week to week. If you aren't that reliable on scraping plates, it helps to run an empty hot wash occasionally to ensure everything inside the machine is clean, but it's very low maintenance.


I tend to have Bosch appliances, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, toaster, kettle, power tools, that kind of thing. But it's up to you - many people are over the moon with the cheapest models/makes.



You *might* find that this unnecessary item becomes something you will replace instantly it goes wrong in the future. Most people who get one admit that they never realised how good they were beforehand.

I personally, having never wanted one, but was 'forced' to have one by the ex as it was what 'the middle classes like him' did, lasted 48 hours without that first, battered, tatty, 15 year old dishwasher when it finally packed up.

DonaldTrumpsHair

We have a slimline. Marvellous Machine.

We use Aldi dw tablets. I can't seem to break them in half so use one. Agree that Malt vinegar works as well as the rinse aid. We do have to use the salt as we have very very hard water.

Cheapest source for this in my experience is Lidl.

vanoonoo

we dont use rinse aid or salt and we have really hard water - we try to get 5 in 1 tablets whenever they are on offer and we seem to get on ok with a wash every other day when we had the slimline and twice a week now we've got the bigger one and we use a whole tablet each time. we LOVE having the dishwasher!

imho

But as far as i know you should still use salt even if you use the dish washing tablets with salt in.

she_who_can_not_cook

there is just two of use and he got a kenwood under the counter one not a full size one and its ok for us ps i too just use the tablets any will do and the mom its the pound shop 12 finish ones

melanzana

Hi, apparently a dw uses much less water than a washing up bowl! Read that somewhere.

Anyhow I am on my own at the mo, but I just LOVE the dw.

I just rinse things under the cold tap and get rid of food residue and into my dw it goes.

Believe it or not once a week is all I use it. But you must have PLENTY of dishes, glasses and cutlery, since in my case it would all be in the dw if I didn't!

It's a lovely thing opening the dw to see sparkling glasses etc. but one thing I do is to give the cutlery a wipe with a tea towel before putting away. I find it streaks a bit otherwise.

Thankfully I live in a soft water area so no salt needed. I use the all in one fairy pouches. They are great imv.

Go for it, you will not look back.

maman

DonaldTrumpsHair wrote: »

Cheapest source for this in my experience is Lidl.

I'd agree with that. I buy the plain tablets (not 3 in 1) and rinse aid and salt from there. Salt is the best buy as it comes in an esy pour container.

pigpen

I use fairy tablets, Bosch dishwasher and both are wonderful.. I couldn't live without them.

When my old one died I had bought a new one same day!.. But there are 10 of us living here and mine is on 3 times a day.

Barbeduk

We are a family of 4 and the dishwasher goes on every other day as I am very good at cramming as much in as I can! (Although I do wash pots and pans by hand). I don't use salt or a rinse aid, just Aldi's Magnum complete dishwasher tablets which I chop in half. I don't bother running a pre-rinse but if plates or bowls are really mucky, give them a quick rinse under the tap before I pop them in.

Good luck! Got our first one at the age of 41 and haven't looked back!