Loading a dishwasher may seem like common sense, but sometimes, it helps to have a little extra professional insight on how to load ‘em up. I mean, who can honestly say that they’ve never accidentally cut themselves unloading a knife from the dishwasher, or opened their dishwasher door only to find that your dishes are not clean at all and the little detergent door is still shut. Believe us, it happens.
When loading your dishwasher, safety first. Be sure to put all sharp knives in your silverware basket handle up. This will highly reduce the likelihood of an accidental cut. Speaking of sharp, make sure you locate all sharp objects and keep them away from the door seal.
Plastics. First off, thank you for using reusable plastic Tupperware. But, when considering whether or not to put something plastic in your dishwasher, always make sure that it’s dishwasher safe. If not, you run the risk of one heck of a mess in your dishwasher. These bad boys belong on the top rack, soiled surface facing either down or inward towards the spray arm.
Pro tip – Plastic dishes don’t dry well. Plastic cannot retain heat like your dishes so drops of water is normal. The drying process of your dishwasher heavily relies on the heat of the dish. We recommend either washing separately or keeping plastic together in the load.
Speaking of the top rack, this is where you should put your small plates and glassware. To avoid clunking noises and potential breaks, make sure the items up there aren’t touching. Not only will this allow them to get cleaned better, it won’t trap food or particles between them.
Down to the bottom rack, this is where your bigger and heavier items belong. When you’re placing plates in there, have the soiled surfaces facing inward towards the spray arms. Before shutting that door and selecting your cycle, double check that nothing is hanging below the bottom rack blocking the spray arm from doing its job.
Lastly, have you ever opened your dishwasher door only to see that the detergent door never opened? It happens, sometimes to the best of us. Check to make sure nothing on the bottom rack is blocking it from opening such as a pan or a cookie sheet. The preferred soap for dishwashers is in a tablet form, but not just any tablet. Hmmm… did we just come up with a new blog topic? Yes we did! Stay tuned for a preferred soap blog.
It seems simple, but we all could use a good reminder every once in awhile. If you’re having bigger issues with your dishwasher, give us a call at 817-568-2866 and we’ll be happy to send one of our professional technicians out to help. Thank you for letting our family help yours!
