these things
annoy me this is a dishwasher detergent
pack actually one of two that came with
my new dishwasher detergent packs have
become wildly popular lately and you
know what that's cool i get it no mess
pre-dosed convenient those qualities are
worth a premium just
don't eat them
i can't believe that ever needed to be
said
trouble is these fly in the face of the
way most dishwashers are designed to
operate including the one this came with
i have a feeling these guys are
responsible for a lot of dishwasher
dissatisfaction these days
see if you use them exclusively you may
be significantly limiting your
dishwasher's ability to clean now have
no fear your tide pods are fine this
problem affects dishwashers specifically
to understand why let's take a look at a
dishwasher so we can learn how it works
luckily
i have one
right
here
hi
this is a fairly typical and basic
household dishwasher built for the u.s
market cue the comments about how
european models are different
actually
yes before we go too far my experience
is with the north american market and
there seem to be vast differences
between the continents i suspect the
main point of my video here will apply
to many of you over there but i could be
wrong and in any case i'm sure there are
lots of particulars that will seem odd
or different please do comment about
them it boosts engagement on that note
before we get into the main point
there's a bit of advice i want to give
to north american viewers specifically
okay i spent way too much time on this
basically because it's always been this
way north american dishwashers are
hooked up to hot water now because of
this they don't expect to heat the water
for the first rinse but since you
probably don't get hot water right away
at your kitchen sink it might start
washing with cold water and that alone
will really affect performance if you
aren't already in the habit of doing so
you should run your kitchen faucet until
you get hot water before you start the
dishwasher since the dishwasher is
almost always hooked into the kitchen
sink this ensures it starts washing with
hot water yes this wastes a bit of water
and the entire practice of hooking it
into hot water is questionable in the
first place but that's just the way it
is and if you think your dishwasher
sucks you should really try this if
nothing else anyway
being a more basic model this dishwasher
is constructed mostly out of plastic
normally it's installed under the
countertop which is why they only bother
to give it good looks on the one side
though so-called portable models which
really just means they're on wheels and
don't require permanent installation as
well as countertop models are available
if uncommon also it comes with this nice
blanket to keep it warm
or maybe it's for sound deadening
probably that
dishwashers are actually very simple
appliances and they haven't
fundamentally changed since
well since they were invented actually
that's right josephine cochran's
dishwasher design patented all the way
back in 1886 and considered to be the
first modern automatic dishwasher worked
more or less exactly how this one does
and really that shouldn't be too
surprising because it's not like the
physics of washing dishes have changed
from then to now
speaking of how does one wash dishes
great question first you get some dishes
then you use them to help you prepare
and consume a meal after that's done now
you got dirty dishes to clean them all
you'll need is some hot water some soap
and something to scrub with fill your
sink up with some hot water add some
soap and go all scrubby scrubby the
mechanical action of your scrubbing
combines with the cleaning actions of
the soap and the heat of the water to
break food residue apart and release it
from the dinnerware now just give it a
good rinse and you have a clean plate or
whatever and if you work in a commercial
kitchen don't forget to fill the third
compartment of your three compartment
sink with an approved chemical sanitizer
solution or extremely hot water remember
wash rinse sanitize
but here's the thing you don't actually
need something to scrub with to wash
dishes scrubbing with a towel sponge
what have you imparts mechanical force
on food grime releasing it from plates
silverware etc
water by itself can accomplish the same
thing though ask any canyon and it'll
tell you just how abrasive water can be
well okay we're not talking about
erosion here but water is heavy stuff a
jet of water can impart a fair bit of
force simply because it's moving at high
speed and has a substantial mass
you've sprayed dirty boots with a garden
hose before
or something like that anyway so you've
seen this firsthand dishwashers use this
same principle combine it with a bit of
soap and thyme and you've got automatic
dishwashing
now you could simply use the water in
your home's pipes send it through
nozzles to create jet streams from the
pressure and spray the dishes but that
would be very wasteful so instead
dishwashers fill themselves with some
quantity of water and use an electric
motor to drive a pump which creates its
own pressure the same water will be
recirculated through the dishwasher for
long periods of time which also means
that any detergent that's added stays in
the water and doesn't get flushed away
immediately
how and when detergent gets added to the
water is important
foreshadowing
when necessary a second smaller pump is
used to drain the water although the
mechanical particulars there vary from
model to model
inside the dishwasher are a series of
sprayer arms which you guessed it are
armed with sprayers the main pump sends
the water it moves into these arms which
by restricting the flow from the pump
and causing a buildup in pressure create
a series of water jets to be directed at
the items to be cleaned the jets are
pointed in all sorts of different
directions a definitely deliberate
design decision distributing a deluge of
detritus decongestant directly at dirty
dishes
importantly the spray nozzles are
arranged so that the reactive force
produced by the water exiting the
nozzles causes the arms to rotate for
more complete cleaning coverage
let's now take a look at the various
components of this dishwasher the large
plastic box which forms the bulk of its
structure is called the tub it's not
always plastic and for a name like tub
it seems to be on its side
but it is the tub nonetheless a small
cavity at its bottom known as the sump
houses the pump assembly and provides
much of the space for the water that it
will fill itself with when cleaning the
pump takes in water through these filter
screens and forces it through a pair of
pipes which lead to the sprayer arms one
pipe leads directly to the bottom
sprayer and in this case there's a
suspended sprayer arm below the top rack
as well as an adobe width one at the
very top
those two are fed by a pipe traveling up
the rear of the tub's exterior
all of the mechanical bits of the
dishwasher hang from the bottom of the
tub and you might be surprised at how
few there are
only four things need to be controlled
here first there's a solenoid valve
which allows clean water into the tub
second there are two electric motors
that drive the pumps the large one
provides the pressure for cleaning and
discharges through the sprayer arms and
the smaller one discharges to this hose
for draining and finally there is the
resistive heating element with its
terminals protruding through the tub
here and that's it
since this is a modern dishwasher there
is a microprocessor at the helm and it
monitors a few sensors this one here is
a mechanical float switch which signals
that the tub is full however this is a
backup input it doesn't actually fill
the tub anywhere near this full instead
there is a second hidden sensor here
i suspect the float switch is there
mainly to guard against overfilling in
case the main sensor fails or the
solenoid valve gets stuck open or some
other thing
lastly there is a temperature sensor
which helps it know when it needs to
heat the water oh and of course there is
also a door switch so it can tell if the
door is open or not
speaking of the door now let's talk
about the door this is where the brains
of the operation are including the logic
board and user input panel as well as
two more things the dishwasher has
control over
built into the door at the top is a vent
that opens when drying and about midway
up the door on the inside is the star of
the show the detergent dispenser
see because of how dishwashers work it
would be best for it to be able to
release detergent into the tub at a
specific point in the cleaning cycle
that is after all the entire point of
having a detergent dispenser it wouldn't
bother with one if it didn't want
control over when it's introduced to the
wash water
and this is where in my opinion
dishwasher detergent packs are making
things worse for all of us well those of
us with dishwashers anyway
to explain what i mean we need to
observe the dishwasher in action and
uncover its sequence of operations
when a cycle is started after running
the drain pump for a while to get any
stray water that might be in the tub for
whatever reason out of it the water
inlet valve is opened and water is let
in
once it's full it runs the main pump and
starts cleaning in earnest remember that
this water isn't being heated by the
dishwasher so unless you ran your
kitchen tap this may be stone cold
because the dishwasher has filled itself
with so little water hardly even a
gallon or four ish liters it can't run
the bottom and top sprayers at the same
time so it periodically switches which
ones are cleaning i believe it
accomplishes this simply by reversing
the direction of the pump motor as i
don't see any sort of valve anywhere
when it's not cleaning the bottom rack
water is redirected out the rear supply
pipe and sent into the top sprayers this
does have the unfortunate side effect of
making the wash cycle much longer but
comes with the benefit of reduced water
usage
in many dishwashers including this one
the impeller of the main pump acts
something like a garbage disposal it
shreds food particles apart so that they
can easily be drained and won't harm
your plumbing this isn't universal
though some dishwashers notably models
made by bosch instead use filter screens
to trap particles and these require
periodic cleaning
sounds gross but whatever
this dishwasher is of the pulverizing
variety and it's actually got a really
clever design feature the bottom sprayer
arm shoots jets of water along the
bottom of the sump to push solids into
the main pump intake where they will be
shredded into gloop
neat
this first fill of water is responsible
for
well
a lot the dishes are as dirty as they'll
ever be when you first start the
dishwasher and there's a lot of grime to
take care of
that means this fill of water gets
filthy
fast so it doesn't spend much time with
this water only about 15 minutes it then
drains it away and it fully expects this
water to be friggin nasty the next step
in its program is to fill with just a
bit of water and run the pump in a few
short bursts this dilutes whatever's
left of the nastiness after all there
will always be at least some water left
in the sump from the last fill and
probably helps ensure the pump doesn't
clog it then drains this small quantity
of water
now notice that this entire time the
detergent dispenser has remained closed
because the first fill is the nastiest
and also the shortest it doesn't make
sense to release the detergent right
away
again that is the entire reason the
dishwasher has a mechanism to hold and
release detergent it has to get the
nasty stuff out first and if it had
released the detergent well the
detergent would have left with all that
nasty stuff in the first 15 minutes of
the cycle
that's no good
but wait you say
isn't detergent like
there to help it clean
wouldn't it be good to have some in the
first fill to help it get more gunk off
faster
why yes
it would
and this is why many dishwashers and in
fact every single model i've encountered
personally have not one
but two places for you to put detergent
one of which the pre-wash compartment is
open to the tub to release detergent
immediately for the first fill in this
case through these little vents and the
other the main wash is sealed until the
dishwasher's program calls for it are
you starting to see why i don't like
detergent packs quick note for those of
you with dishwashers that don't have a
pre-washed basin hold your commenting
fingers because we'll get to you so this
dishwasher like many many others out
there is designed with the expectation
that some detergent will be in that
first fill and that more detergent will
be available to it when it wants it
and sure enough after it drains the real
nasty water out of itself and does that
little purge routine it fills up with
fresh water this time completely so it
can start cleaning again shortly after
it begins it opens the detergent
dispenser it spends a long time with
this water nearly an hour with most of
the real nastiness long gone it can
really work to clean the stubborn bits
with very soapy and mostly clean water
this is also where it turns on the
heating element to heat the wash water
further if needed which since 15 minutes
has passed since the last fill is almost
a given
again we
might want to rethink this whole
dishwashers are hooked up to hot water
business because i think it might be
more harmful than helpful
your water heater ends up heating a bit
of water that gets cold again by the
time the dishwasher actually needs it
it's not great
now after it's done cleaning it needs to
rinse your dishes to make sure there's
no detergent left on them to do this
using as little water as possible this
dishwasher takes special care in the
draining of the main wash it adds a bit
of water while the drain pump is still
running to dilute what's left in the
sump
then it does the same small fill and
purge routine it did after draining the
first fill this further dilutes what's
left and to be extra extra sure the
detergent is gone it again lets water in
at the same time it drains the purge
water finally it fills completely and
pumps the rinse water around for about a
half hour while also heating it if you
have a sanitize option this is when that
happens in the u.s the rinse water will
be heated to at least 150 degrees
fahrenheit per the nsf specification on
residential dishwashers
after the final rinse it drains this
water away and runs the heating element
to dry the dishes if desired
let's step back a moment what do we need
detergent for in the first place what
does it actually do well a number of
things dishwasher detergents are
concoctions of various chemical
surfactants and enzymes with three
particularly useful properties for
washing dishes automatically it helps
break down proteins in food and it acts
as an emulsifier and a dispersant they
also don't produce suds an absolute
necessity when pumping water around in a
machine this is why you can't use plain
dish soap in a dishwasher otherwise
this happens
fun
except
not at all
oh and dishwasher detergent is the main
reason some things aren't dishwasher
safe it's more aggressive than just
plain soap and so can harm certain items
or finishes
anyway you know that oil and water don't
mix right this presents problems when
cleaning dishes because we often have
various oily substances in our food
which in turn end up on the dishes
emulsifiers can ease the tensions
between oil and water dishwasher
detergent and in fact soap more broadly
is an emulsifier it allows oil and water
to mix by encapsulating tiny oil
droplets in structures called micelles
which then become suspended in the water
the emulsifying action of the detergent
thus allows you to clean oily things
using water fun fact egg yolks are an
emulsifier which is why eggs are often
called for in recipes for baked goods
where oil or butter is to be mixed with
flour and water you need them to keep
the oil or butter from separating out of
the batter dough etc
which leads us to the dispersant
properties of detergent dispersants also
known as dispersing agents are used to
keep you in suspen i mean keep things in
suspension i will now read this amazing
sentence from wikipedia
dispersants are widely used to stabilize
various industrial and artisanal
products such as paints ferrofluids and
salad dressings
the main benefit of having a dispersing
agent in the dishwasher detergent is
that it helps keep oil droplets food
particles what have you in suspension so
they don't settle out of the water and
form a nice buildup of food residue
because that'd be gross plus it keeps
them from redepositing on the dishes as
that would be counterproductive
so basically detergent helps break down
food things and helps them mix with the
water which makes the water more
effective at getting food things off
plates and stuff
that's a really simple way to put it but
it's more or less correct and so i ask
you would it not be beneficial to have
some detergent from the beginning after
all if the point of the first fill is to
remove and pulverize the biggest
nastiest grossest food bits and get them
out of the wash water quickly
would we not want it to be able to
emulsify oils and break down proteins
remove more food particles as a result
and keep those particles in suspension
until it can drain them away by adding a
little bit of detergent to the water
from the start personally yes i want
that
and these little buggers have taken this
away from me and you and everyone you
love
well okay that's not strictly true but
their popularity has caused most
consumers to bypass the very helpful and
in my opinion necessary addition of
detergent in the first pre-wash fill
dishwashers can clean much more
effectively if they have detergent in
both the initial fill and the main wash
you really shouldn't need to pre-rinse
the stuff you put in a dishwasher
because that's what the first fill does
without detergent in it though it can't
do nearly as good a job
and now that detergent packs are the de
facto form of detergent
your dishwasher simply doesn't work as
well as it should
i mean look this box of cascade powder
even says for best results fill both the
pre-wash and the main wash cups
completely
how am i supposed to do that with one of
these cascade
let's do some experiments shall we i've
prepared a few pairs of dirty plates
soiled with various grossness here we
have baked on pasta sauce this bowl is
filled with remnants of pancake mix we
have a plate on which scrambled eggs
were eaten and finally there's two
tablespoons of butter and about a
quarter cup of shredded cheese
microwaved to make this mess
and these have been sitting undisturbed
for about three days yummy
i'll be running them through a normal
cycle on this dishwasher but i'll be
stopping it after it drains the first
fill so we can see how much gets done in
that first 15 minutes the water entering
the dishwasher will be as hot as the tap
allows for one run no detergent will be
added to the pre-wash basin and for the
next run there will be and it's nothing
special just this great value
lemon-scented gel
let's see how it goes
here's the first attempt remember
there's no detergent in here at all it's
cleaning with water only
it's doing surprisingly well at getting
the pasta sauce off
that water is looking pretty gross
and here it comes look at that
deliciousness
good
now let's do it again but this time with
some detergent it's been placed in the
pre-wash area and you can see it oozing
out actually it doesn't need to be here
at all in fact i think it would be
better just to squirt some into the tub
but i've done it because it's prim and
proper plus it's the amount the
dishwasher manufacturer recommends
because
well it is a measuring cup after all
all right and washing washing
done
or well no 15 minutes of a two-hour
cycle but now let's compare
i'll admit that i was surprised just how
much water alone was able to accomplish
particularly with the pasta sauce and
believe it or not the run with pre-wash
detergent actually did worse with the
pancake mix but the devil is in the
details and there are some important and
significant differences
while the difference looks slight at
first glance more pasta sauce was
removed and more completely when there
was detergent particularly in the areas
it had been burned onto the plate
there are many more flecks that stuck
behind when there wasn't detergent in
the water
next notice that a fair bit of butter
remained on the buttery cheese plate
with detergent in the water all the
butter had been dissolved into the wash
water thanks to the emulsifying action
of the detergent of course there doesn't
seem to be much of a difference when it
comes to the cheese but remember that
what doesn't leave in the first fill
will stick around for the main wash this
glob of butter will take up a lot of the
detergent's ability to emulsify oils in
the main wash which will make it less
effective whereas when there was
pre-wash detergent it was all gone
last but certainly not least the eggs
eggs are notoriously difficult for
dishwashers to tackle and sure enough it
doesn't look like much has been
accomplished here but look closer the
run with detergent removed much more of
the surface residue than water alone
this is probably thanks to the enzymes
in the detergent beginning to break down
the proteins in the eggs
it doesn't look like it at a glance but
to me this is the most compelling
evidence of the benefits of pre-wash
detergent
remember that these results are after
only 15 minutes into the cycle and more
detergent and clean water would be on
the way where the cycle to continue
the simple addition of detergent to the
first fill
honestly not all that much increased the
amount of food it removed in just the
first few minutes of washing
if it can get more out in the first
rinse it will obviously do better in the
main wash not only that but without
detergent a disgusting amount of sludge
built up at the base of the sprayer arm
and pump intake most of that was the
butter i'm sure because it doesn't mix
well with water alone
a little detergent though greatly
reduced that sludge buildup and of
course that means the main wash would
have less to deal with
again i know i'm repeating myself here
but there are two places to put
detergent for a reason
i hope through this you can see why no
matter how fancy your detergent pack may
claim to be it will be working harder
than it needs to without a little help
in the pre-wash
except of course for the dishwashers
that don't have a pre-washed basin
it seems bosh in particular has just
given up and conceded that everyone buys
detergent packs these days
they no longer include a spot for
pre-wash detergent which is particularly
odd because they still have a dispenser
and still hold it shut until the second
fill you would imagine that they would
want their dishwashers to perform at
their peak and i can all but guarantee
they could do with a bit of detergent in
the first fill
nevertheless they don't bother to
encourage it anymore
i suspect this is a reaction to the
proliferation of detergent packs and not
because the pre-wash detergent doesn't
help
we've just seen that it does
significantly
my guess is that bosch has optimized
their wash programs for only one
introduction of detergent
and i'd bet thanks to detergent packs
however my new kitchenaid dishwasher
with such fancy features is a third rack
for flatware mugs and glasses and a
turbidity sensor which can determine how
dirty the wash water is still encourages
you to add a little extra detergent in
this case there's a divot on the sliding
dispenser door and detergent placed here
will just fall into the tub
but you can't do that if you buy
detergent packs
i mean sure i guess you could just use
two with each load but that would be a
little silly and still some dishwasher
manufacturers like lg say that if you
are to use the detergent pack you should
bypass the dispenser altogether and
instead place it directly into the tub
but that's horrible advice particularly
since many packs are nothing more than
plain powder detergent in a dissolvable
membrane with maybe a little extra flare
it will all be gone after the first
drain if you just throw it in the tub
really dishwasher detergent packs just
don't make sense to me
one of the great benefits of using an
automatic dishwasher is that it greatly
reduces the amount of water needed to
wash dishes compared to washing by hand
this is all the water this model uses in
a normal wash cycle which can tackle
more than eight place settings it only
takes 4.2 gallons or about 16 liters
precisely because the detergent keeps
food particles suspended in the wash
water allowing the same water to provide
cleaning action for almost an hour
oh and it only used 1.2 kilowatt hours
of energy
but you hinder your dishwasher greatly
when you only introduce detergent once
i suspect that a lot of complaints
surrounding modern dishwashers not
cleaning as well as old ones have
detergent packs to blame at least in
part
oh phosphates you say
yeah quick note there are a lot of folks
out there who are convinced that
phosphate-free detergents which were
introduced to combat the environmental
damage caused by phosphates being
introduced into the waterways
just doesn't work as well as
old-fashioned phosphate full detergent
personally
i don't buy that i i just don't have
issues with my dishwasher not cleaning
well with
really any detergent i've used plus
phosphates were added to reduce lime
scale deposits from hard water not
exactly a function of cleaning
using a rinse aid product will help so
if you aren't doing that
well start doing that
here's an anecdote for you this pan was
used to make a cheese and bean dip i
make every once in a while i've let it
dry out there's caked on cheese and oil
and in general it's well it's kind of
nasty but i know it will be cleaned just
fine by my dishwasher it's done it many
times before even if i've let it sit for
days before i clean it and for the most
part i buy cheap store brand detergent
all i do is put it in both places my
dishwasher asks me to and it cleans
excellently
even this old one did a great job i only
replaced it because its control board is
starting to get a little loopy and
sometimes it crashes and doesn't finish
a cycle it only happened twice during
the making of this video
it might have been an easy fix but it's
also kind of loud and so what's the
perfect candidate for cutting a hole
into
i never pre-rinse my plates cookware
even stuff like this skillet the first
fill with a bit of detergent does that
for you that's the point
granted i'm no chef but i just put
whatever is dirty in the dishwasher
without thinking and rarely do i ever
find something that wasn't cleaned
perfectly usually it's just something
like a random fork with a stuck-on piece
of celery or junk like that even this
giant skillet after making something
like beef with broccoli with its gross
and sticky sauce it comes out perfectly
clean without any pre-treatment and with
cheap detergent
if you're constantly underwhelmed by
your dishwasher
well first you should probably buy a
dishwasher cleaning product and run that
through it according to its instructions
and also check to see if there are any
filters to clean but seriously
go buy some basic powder or gel
detergent and put it in the dispenser
and the pre-wash area wherever that is
and see how it goes
you might find it did a better job than
it ever did with the fanciest of packs
and also now i get to be grumpy it's
getting hard to buy plain detergent
these days everybody wants packs and i
would be okay with that were it not for
the fact that using a single detergent
pack is antithetical to the proper
function of most dishwashers the
pre-washed basin would not exist if the
manufacturer didn't think it might be
helpful and truthfully i think that
adding in a bit of detergent to the tub
even on models that don't have a
specific pre-wash area would provide a
dramatic improvement to cleaning
performance
you might want to give it a try yourself
it really won't hurt anything
now here's a caveat pretty much every
dishwasher has different programs to
choose from you may have an express wash
option or similar which does indeed open
the detergent door right away
for these wash programs if you use them
it simply makes the first fill the main
wash and so adding pre-wash detergent
wouldn't make a difference there but
most normal cycles will behave like
we've seen here there's at least one
pre-wash fill before it opens the
detergent dispenser to get all the
nastiness out quick and in that case
you'll get better cleaning with a little
detergent in there from the get-go
i said get go not gecko anyway you're
right the main point of this video was
for me to tell you about the existence
of the pre-wash detergent basin and to
show you that if you actually use it
your dishwasher will work a lot better
i want you to experience the full
potential of your dishwasher so many
people seem to think that dishwashers
need to be babied that you need to rinse
anything remotely dirty off before you
load it up
and that's just never been the case for
me either i'm the luckiest person alive
or pre-washed detergent makes a huge
difference
i think it's the latter when it has soap
from the start it can work so much
better
thanks for watching i'd really love for
you to give old-fashioned detergents a
try they've never let me down despite
being the value option
and truthfully that's not my motivation
i just don't get how a detergent pack is
going to be a better option because
that's not how dishwashers work and the
popularity of like those finish tabs
that are individually wrapped
don't get that at all that's way more
annoying than just squirting some gel
into a couple of cups
if you like the convenience or
accessibility of packs which i can
absolutely appreciate my advice would be
to try the cheapest ones and use two
with each load put one in the dispenser
and throw another one in at the start
that is of course if your dishwasher
behaves like this one which on a normal
cycle
it probably does
now you can usually hear the detergent
dispenser open and if it does fill and
drain before that happens i really think
you'll have better results with basic
detergent but twice that's worth a try
anyway and please feel free to come back
here and tell me if i was wrong
my experience may simply be outliery
and also i would very much recommend
against doing this to your dishwasher
despite using gobs of silicone and
letting it cure for three days the seal
failed
yeah that was fun nothing quite like
fighting a water leak near live
electrical connections
my second attempt worked but only
because i sealed both the inside and
outside and i can tell that the inner
seal has failed as water's trapped
behind the glass
it's almost like dishwashers are
designed to clean things using
high-speed jets of water or something
who'da thunk
[Music]
though so-called portable models which
really just means they're on wheels and
so don't require oh not and so
no
with most of the real nastiness long
gone it can easily work to clean the
stubborn
well i think they all do you may
sounds gross but whatever this
dishwasher is of the pulverizing variety
and has actually got a really clear like
how this lines being delivered
exactly how this one does
and really that shouldn't be all too
surpris
acts like a garbage disposal it shreds
disposal
i dispose all the clowns coming back
remember him
[Music]
[Applause]
you