Pinning a comment (in the hopes people read it...) that the running-the-hot-water thing is generally only for North America! I put that in the main channel video but wasn't explicit here.

My wife just looked at my phone and said, "you're watching ANOTHER dishwasher video by this guy?!" 😂

You might say you've covered your dishwasher from start to Finish.

Walmart Online employee here. Save yourself the time on trips and order the soap for pick up. If your store has it in stock you’ll get it but, and here’s the advantage, if it’s out of stock, your order not being completed will send an out of stock alert to Walmarts “In Stock Assistant” aka the algorithm and AI that keeps track of on hands. Missed sales like that help to push the system to raise the replenishment rate.

People are joking about how many dishwasher videos there are now, but the series really proves how much more complex this seemingly simple household appliance is and how many misunderstandings can evolve from not knowing the intricacies of the washing process, the machines' operation, and the outright false advertising by the dishwasher detergent industry.

"I know this dishwasher very intimately" An extremely Alec thing to say

In Finland you don't need detergent, just water is enough because it's already Finish

There's over 3 hours of Technology Connections content based on dishwashers. This is ridiculously excessive. And I love it.

I have attended a training from whirlpool/jennair/kitchenaid/maytag. They said that their engineers prefer that everyone just uses the "prowash" setting all the time. That's the way that the unit was designed to run, with the aid of the turbidity sensor. The other wash cycles are literally there because marketing departments want to be able to list a certain number of wash cycles. So, just use the automatic setting all the time

Some people are intimate with a spouse, Alec is intimate with a dishwasher.

BABE WAKE UP NEW DISHWASHER LORE DROPPED

My wife wasn't interested in having a date night discussion about best dishwasher practices, so I'm glad there's another lore video out

the cat is a nice touch. in the previous video, Alec looked younger, but in this video he looks more DISHeveled.

I just spent a few minutes perusing old Finish Powerball ads, and they definitely imply that they dissolve at different times, and do different things. The funniest part is that modern ads show the ball as the rinse stage to make them sparkle, but ads from 2000-2001 have thr ball act first to break down heavy grime in the pre-wash

"So that's all this video is about" Proceeds for another 10 minutes

Now I want to know more about my clothes washing machine.

As an Icelander, the concept of water heating is such a foreign idea to me because we pump hot ground water into every home. Of course it makes sense that in places where you can't access hot ground water, you need to heat it, but it's just one of those things that I never thought about...

The video ending without the outtro jazz threw me off more than I would have expected.

Fun thought about the hot water thing. If people prewash their dishes before placing them in the dishwasher (like my parents did) it would mean that when they run the dish washer right after prewashing the dishes there would already be hot water in the lines. This might be why some people think they have to prewash by hand in order to get clean dishes.

You have given me the bravery to try any other dishwasher setting beyond “heavy”. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

European high-end machines like mine would blow your mind! We don't have exposed heating elements. They are inline. Machines are designed to run on cold water and usually are programmed to take the pod or tablet. Final drying is always residual heat, some machines open the door to accelerate drying. Having said all that, I too use powder so I can vary it according to load. My current machine only pre-washes on the heavier programme, and it uses sensors for water hardness and turbidity. Its eco grogramme is the most used, takes hours (I am in bed), but works flawlessly. It uses 9 litres of water and just over a unit of electricity to wash up to 3 days worth of dishes. Result!!

I firmly believe that much of dishwasher design is controlled by their marketing departments. My first dishwasher was one that I found on the curb and repaired before using it. While fixing it, I discovered that it had about 6 manual pushbutton switches that made it look like it had all sorts of 'modes'. I was able to test out the switches with a meter and discovered that most of the switches were in parallel and it made no difference which one was pushed. My current dishwasher has a 'smart' setting which lead me to believe that it has some sort of turbidity sensor. Taking it apart and reading the enclosed circuit diagram, I found that the only sensor is a thermostat.

A note about plastic packaging. The 'jug' and 'tub' packaging (usually HDPE) is VERY easy to recycle. The foil-covered pouch - mixed materials are very difficult to recycle. I like how the marketing focuses on plastic used, but skips over if the package can be recycled again 😂.

Love that the backside of that cascade box basically points out how a tablet is one fourth as effective as powder.

I grew up with one of those portable dishwashers you roll in front of the sink, and it definitely said "HOT WATER ONLY" right on the adapter AND told you in the manual to run the water first and make sure it is hot before connecting the tap to the dishwasher. Also, it had a really nice air dry feature that worked better than a lot of modern built-in dishwashers because it was and enclosed in a kitchen cabinet fixture and thus could get much better airflow.

Theory: People think prewashing is best because they're getting the water hot, and the washing is not what improves their outcome.

I remember that Finish TV ad spot as well. It definitely implied that the red ball would be around after the wash was complete.

The entire reason I watch you is angst about mundane household items. Your neurocess are deeply entertaining.

"I have to test that. I bet it's malarkey, but i have to test that." A true practitioner of the scientific method.

I now want you to throw a whole bunch of different situations at that "Pro Wash" cycle and see what it does it differently each time!

FYI: It is also able to tell how much you loaded it by determining the temperature changes of the water, that represents the capacity of heat storage of the mass of dishes. At least my 15 years old mid price machine does that. Learned that from the technicians manual of its controllerboard.

I do wonder if the people who say they "need" to rinse their dishes are also unknowingly flushing the cold water from the pipes as they rinse, thus getting the heat-related improvement and assuming it's because of the rinse step.

My wife actually came across your initial dishwasher video, I think it's the only one of yours she's ever watched, and we've discussed it a few times, and she has said that she agrees we don't need to pre-wash the dishes. And yet, she keeps pre-washing the dishes. When I load the dishwasher without pre-washing, they come out equally as clean, but no matter what she says I just can't stop her from pre-washing.

Of *course* they will tell you to fill the cups completely. they sell a consumable item and they want you to buy as much of it as possible.

Can I just say how much I appreciate your general knowledge and willingness to deep dive into so many things around our daily lives (dishwashsers, hvac, light bulbs, power). I find all this stuff so interesting. The first video I ever saw of yours was how the cassette-to-aux-cord works and ive been hooked since. Keep it up!

I've had two residences using one of those portable roll-around ones, too. They were trippy. And a great extra horizontal surface (to collect junk) in the kitchen!!! Undercounter ones impressed me!

One thing I really appreciate with my 2010-ish mid range Maytag (Whirlpool) dishwasher is that the pre-wash and wash detergent cups each have two fill lines labelled with "soft water" and "hard water." The "soft water" portion is less than half the detergent suggested for hard water.

Good thing you also had an independent inspector on-site for the tests.

Surprised you didn't mention in-sink food/garbage disposals. When present in a kitchen with a dishwasher, the wastewater from the wash cycles often drains into the disposal, so if you have left any solids/residues in the disposal without thoroughly running it, it can back up and affect the ability to remove the dirty water or just cause a mess. In some cases, if you look down the disposal while the wastewater is draining, you can see it flow in from the side. Neat! Great video (again), and agree with everything in it. I am also one of those people, so I read the chart in the manual for my dishwasher that says what the actual differences in the cycles are.

I had a Kitchenaid by Hobart 40 years ago, that thing was FANTASTIC. But used a lot of water but my dishes were super clean. 7 years ago I bought Kitchenaid with front controls and it never cleaned my dishes well, no matter what I did. Out of frustration I researched and found a higher end Kitchenaid like yours, but has a light inside, and has the option to wash just the top two racks and I bought it. Boy what a difference. I’m just loving it. Thanks to your previous video, I bought Great Value detergent and I’m also using it for the pre wash, which I did not know about. I use the extra dry cycle, but I’ll try without it next time.

I think this is the 4th dishwasher video of yours that I've watched, from start to finish. I do not own a dishwasher.

When my home inspector went through the house they copied whatever serial numbers they could see, now at the start of each season I get an email with any recall notices on those serial numbers and there's also some seasonal home and yard advice.

I appreciate your channels so much and selfishly want to ask for more appliance/home lessons. I didn't get taught a lot of stuff like this growing up, and imo the worst part of a surprise house problem is having no direction. You'll forever be one of my favorite channels because you've actively made my daily life a bit less stressful :)

You're right about the turbidity sensor modifying cycle times and steps Typically the cycle where the sensor is most invasive is the "Auto" cycle, where the machine can skip the prewash and a couple of the three total rinses The machines sense the load via how much water is required to wet the dishes, how quickly the temperature rises during the heating step (the smaller the load the quicker the rise) and how dirty the dishes are. Few not so dirty dishes require little water, low wash pressure, few rinses and a lower wash temperature and viceversa In most European dishwashers (Electrolux, Bosch, Mìele) the turbidity sensor is active in MOST cycles (even the ones that aren't labelled as "AUTO") and you might find the machine might run a prewash and drain none, some, or all the water used in this step. It then might feel the need to perform some sump flushes to remove any debris from the filter. The list goes on... My dishwasher, a Bosch Serie 6, can do most of what I wrote, and especially in the "Auto" cycle it gives itself some flexibility about the programming. Few not very dirty dishes? It will wash them at 45°C and rinse them twice before drying them, all at low pressure and not flushing the sump. A heavy load with lots of dirt? Warm prewash, 65°C mainwash, three rinses and drying, all with high water pressure and flushing the sump multiple times The reason behind this? Energy classification for energy labels

I recently bought a new high-end dishwasher and the directions specifically said "you are not doing your dishwasher any favors by rinsing your dishes" I thought of your videos 😊. It did recommend removing bones lol

i don’t know why i’m so invested in this dishwasher series but i’m here for it

you made me dig out my dishwasher's manual, only to find out that the program i've been using doesn't do a pre wash 😅 i now have a copy of the program table taped to the kitchen cabinet lol

My German made Bosch 800 has this feature. I've noticed it does seem to shorten the cycle time if my dishes are fairly clean, so that's nice I guess. Oddly, even though I bought my dishwasher in the Midwest, it still has some European spec features, like a water softener and an inline water heater. I also agree completely on the heated drying though. Before buying my Bosch 800 I never used it due to the energy use and extreme heat melting stuff. Though the Bosch has a cool (hot?) feature where it dries by cycling the air through Zeolite crystals, which absorb moisture and release heat. It's a completely closed loop, and when I open my dishwasher immediately after it completes a cycle I get hit with a wave of hot, but otherwise dry air. It does a remarkably good job of drying dishes.

I learned about the "run the nearest hot water tap until water is hot" from the manual when we moved into our first new construction townhome. My sister has a dishwasher that doesn't have a heated dry. It relies completely on rinse agents. I also believe the the pod must have a high profit margin for the companies. I believe that because when the Tide pods were getting eaten by accident, they weren't immediately taken off the market. It became a "that's a consumer problem". Thanks for making both videos on this. It's amazing that some folks don't how to run their appliances because they never were taught. "That's how my family has always done it".

I remember that the reason I know to run the hot water for the dishwasher is because when I was a kid, we lived in a single wide trailer with a small kitchen and a portable dishwasher that you had to wheel over to the sink and hook up to the faucet whenever it was time to put it on. And since it was getting water directly from the faucet, it was obvious that the hot water had to be run until it was actually hot before hooking up the dishwasher and starting it. That and just knowing that I've always had to run hot water at any faucet for a bit before it was actually hot led me to conclude that the dishwasher isn't magically getting instantly hot water that none of the faucets have, I have to make sure the water is actually hot first.

In Europe and the UK dishwashers and washing machines only have cold feeds as far as I'm aware. As we have 230/240 volts they can have higher power heating elements and as they heat only the required amount of water to the required temperature they are relatively efficient compared to drawing hot water from a distant source. Older washing machines used to use hot water but apparently only on washes 60°C or above.

I lived in an apartment and owned one of those portable dishwashers. It seemed obvious to run the hot before connecting it. But for some reason when I moved to a place with a built in dishwasher, I just never even thought about running the hot first. Can't tell you why. Dishwasher is running much better now! Thanks @TechnologyConnections

Our Bosch all but scared us til we figured it was opening itself

That ad you're talking about absolutely rings a bell for me, too, all the way over in Europe-town. Some blue animation showing powder washing away the dirt, then the red ball coming in to finish the job.

As I said on Mastodon, my girlfriend purchased a new dishwasher. What I did not mention on the post where I tagged you on Mastodon is that in the instruction manual it says to run the hot water in the kitchen until it runs before running the dishwasher! Whenever either of us is poking around with the dishes, we always use the heated dry option. This particular dishwasher actually has a powered vent with a fan that pulls the warm moist air out down to a certain temperature and humidity threshold. In the post I attached an image of the dispenser and you can see this extraction vent. The main reason we use heated dry is that we typically do not dry dishes before putting them away except for the little bit of water caught in the upside down parts of cups and such. It also adds a sanitation step (which sanitation is the primary reason we use the dishwasher in the first place alongside being a massive time saver). This dishwasher is energy star rated, and has very good insulation to keep all of that heat in. It also does not have an exposed heating element in the basin. The basin is also extremely shallow compared to the old plastic white tub dishwasher. It may be that the basin floor, which is stainless steel, has the heating element attached to it on the underside or something along those lines. Your videos on dishwashers actually helped me figure out the best way to get the dishes clean, and my girlfriend (after months of eyerolling) is finally on board as well, so thanks!

Our new dishwasher has a feature that when we were buying it looked like it would be a good idea, but turned out to be freaking fantastic! It has this extra, very shallow pull out tray on the very top. The tray is only about an inch deep and has grooves to line up utensils like forks, spoons, etc. It also has a slightly deeper section where you can put long knives and things. It cleans so much better than bunching utensils in the bins at the bottom, which it also has. It's such a great feature, I don't think I could buy another dishwasher without that tray. It also has bottle jets on the top rack which work great too, but that third top tray is fantastic!

Computer controlled dishwashers don't always resume where they left off. They can alter the cycles as needed. For example opening the door will cause the program to assume you put in an extra dirty glass. Thus run extra to make sure it is cleaned. A mechanical timer won't do this.

You're the one that got me to wash my dishes more proper-like. I don't bother washing them myself, if the dishwasher misses one, I *then* scrub it and then stick it back in the next cycle. but like 99.9% of the time it gets everything, the only trouble I have is my wet dog food spoon never gets cleaned and sometimes leaves dog food remnants over other things, so I scrub that one every time. if you use your brain a little more and know "this food never gets cleaned by the dishwasher properly" you can plan accordingly without having to practically wash your dishes before you stick them in the dishwasher. write the dishes and foods that give the dishwasher a hard time on a piece of paper if you have to.

Your dishwasher doesn't know weather or not the dispenser is open or closed. The discovery of the light sensor changing behavior is super useful information. Thank you for all experience!

I have heard that the reason European dishwashers and washing machines are now all cold fill only is due to the prevalence of gas combi boilers that heat hot water “instantly”. Modern machines use so little water that most of the time running them with a hot fill causes the boiler to fire up to heat the water but it never actually gets to the machine before it finishes filling, so you’ve just wasted a load of gas heating up a pipe. With the machines now being cold fill, they handle all the heating for the cycle at the designed time, whatever that may be, with a net energy saving.

Time usually isn't of the essence for dishwashers, so I wish they would just sense the temperature of your water, and heat it itself.

As someone who formulated dishwasher detergents I'm always excited for these videos. I'll have to update this post once I'm done with, well, both videos, but needless to say, I'm so curious if your findings have lined up with the issues I've encountered (or if consumer grade dishwashers have similar technologies. I know we would often bolt on and program dispensers).

This follow up was so helpful. I switched from the cascade pods to the cascade powder and couldn’t figure out WHY it was leaving a haze still.

Yes, someone had to tell me: after college I lived for 11 years without a dishwasher, then 3 years in an apartment with one, then moved to a townhouse that also had one. In the townhouse I had problems with the dishwasher and a repairman was summoned. He was the one who told me to run the hot water before starting the dishwasher. Since you mentioned hot water recirculation--I bet the apartment building had that feature, so I did not know about hot water to get the dishwasher to work well. Now it all makes sense! I have to fill a gallon jug to purge cold water before running the dishwasher, but at least I understand the problem.

I suppose it's worth investing in those dishwashers that automatically kick the door open when they're done

I am absolutely riveted by the whole dishwasher machine in itself. The soap is a whole other sector that is equally interesting. You should do more on it!

The familiar blazer, the epic long hair, and the topic. Ladies and gents this is peak PEAK technology connections.

I live in an older house, with no provision for a dishwasher, and I am definitely not in a place in my life to remodel the kitchen just for that. All this to say, I have one of the rollaway dishwashers. I always run the water to hot before hooking it up. My wife loves her pods, so, since seeing your first video on this, I bought a bottle of gel for the prewash. That thing has worked flawlessly for me for years now. Thank you for how in-depth you've dug into this subject!

Your videos are pretty much the only ones I watch from absolutely start to absolute finish. Keep doing what you’re doing. Learned a lot with your dishwasher series. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of great family advice on home care, your stuff has been huge in helping me better take care of my home. Also thanks for teaching me about those improved can openers, bought one and love it.

In the food industry dishwashers are for sanitizing, not for actually washing. Well, my old roommate took this information and thought that it MUST also be true for household dishwashers too. Because of this he'd always argue with me to fully wash my dishes before loading the dishwasher. I truly wish I could have sent him these videos back then.

You're legit one of my favorite youtubers. I wish I could learn under you like a monk in a temple. You know how to make things make sense in my mind. Thank you

I'm not sure if this applies to all makes and newer models, but there is usually a tech sheet taped on the inside of the front access cover at the bottom of the dishwasher. It has information for diagnostic modes and sometimes has a simple electrical diagram.

So, first...thank you for sharing. You've greatly improved my dishwasher experience. When I was a kid I was told to never fill the prewash side because "it's just a waste of detertgent" That being said, I was also raised more or less by my blind grandmother, who wouldnt "clean" the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher but she'd make sure there was no gunk on the dishes before putting them in. So I can see why the prewash step getting skipped always just seemed to work. That being said, when I was a teenager and loading the dishwasher, I'd notice food particles that just stayed put. Pasta, cheese, whatever. Even if I'd ignore the upbringing and just fill the cups as directed. In AZ we've always had very hard water. "Very Hard" water is typically rated at 10ppm ours is very consistently 19 or higher. So I've always just filled the cups up as directed. In both apartments and homes, i've consistently seen food stuff stuck on dishes post wash. What I'm learning now is likely those were things from the filter that got sprayed back up as oppoed to food that was on the dishes pre-washing. As of now, it's just habit to do a quick rinse to keep any food from caking on.

Here’s a hint. If you want to save money on buying that Kitchen Aid Dishwasher. The brand name “Kitchen Aid” is owned by Whirlpool and they sell all their appliances under multiple different brand names (Maytag, Amana, Kenmore, even Whirlpool themselves). So look up the model, and find what name that dishwasher is sold under each name brand and you could probably get a better deal on the exact same dishwasher, so long as you don’t care about the Badge in front.

Exactly how my Hotpoint dishwasher works. When you take the filter out you can actually see the turbidity sensors. It has two directly next to each other. Last night it actually did what yours did where it skipped the pre wash although I only scrap my dishware. Likely it skipped the pre wash because of how easy the food came off.

I have a 21 year old Maytag Dishwasher that does that (2003 Model). On the "Normal" cycle it will check the water after 10 minutes to see if it's dirty enough. If it is, it will drain it. Otherwise it will just continue without draining. All of the other cycles or a Normal cycle with modifiers (such as Pots/pans) will always drain after 10 minutes. It's probably a mid-level model since it is the one that also has the built-in disposal and flat buttons instead of a big dial (this was the builder option - you could get the cheaper one with the dial, or select the upgraded model with buttons and disposal). The disadvantage of this old washer is it uses more water and can suds lock very easily with Cascade Pods. It has less issues with Finish pods, but it can still happen. I had stopped using powders and gels because they just didn't clean as well when phosphates were removed... but watching your other videos I hadn't tried just adding more as a pre-wash. Yep, even back in the early 80's we would run the water to get it hot before running the dishwasher. I think the old manuals used to say to do that too, and the current ones probably say the water needs to be 120 degrees or higher.

I've used the Cascade Complete gel for years, and I've always liked it. I tried the powder after watching your original video, and I had the same results as you with it leaving a white residue on everything. I threw the rest of it away and went back to the gel. I'll have to try the Great Value powder and see if it works for me.

Thank you for that. I just saw a post of dishwasher seller saying that you shouldn't prewash your dishes, because if the water is too clean, it says it hasn't done a good job prewashing and increases time and temp on the prewash .. But now I now it's BS

I have a portable dishwasher! I always run the water hot first before plugging in, but I actually didn't realize it was necessary, I just saw it as a way to save on energy. I naïvely assumed that the dishwasher checked that the water was hot enough before starting its cycle...

I have a Siemens (Bosch) dishwasher, about 4 years old (Australia). It has two main cycles (as well as a few others): Quick wash 65C and Auto 45-65C. It also has a standalone pre-wash cycle. After your first video, I looked into the cycles, prewash etc, and I also don't have a pre-wash detergent dispenser. After the last video, I discovered that Quick does not prewash. I also discovered that Auto will prewash only if it detects turbidity. Therefore, to trigger turbidity, I add a little bit of detergent powder (kudos to first video) to trigger the prewash cycle by helping get the water dirty. If I decide I need to do a quick wash, I may run an independent prewash cycle first with a little bit of detergent. Love your videos, keep them coming.

Thanks for the bit on Cascade Complete leaving a residue! It happened to me too, it left a gritty residue on pretty much any cup.

I hate Walmart with a passion but their store brand bodywash is one of the few that works well and doesnt irritate my skin.

Thanks to your first video I changed to powder and my dishes have benefitted immensely. My washer also has a sensor and I've started to always use the auto mode, even though it has other ones, such as eco, extra power, glass care, etc. Eco just runs three times as long and all of them deliver less reliable results than the automatic one. It also has an additional (smaller) spray arm on one end of the bottom arm. I love it dearly because it saves so much time and water. Especially since using the cheapest powder is in use. For those in Germany: Powder is easily found in stores here, thankfully.

I also have a Kitchen-Aid dishwasher with the Pro-Wash cycle, and we program it to use that. I understand that there is some sort of electronic eye in the water piping that can see how clean or dirty the water is, and it can program to continue to run if it sees the water is becoming more and more dirty as the dishwasher runs. The Pro-Wash cycle can save you money two ways, one being when it senses the dishes are clean it will then move on to the rinse cycles. The other is it will program the dishwasher to keep running when the load needs to run longer to get the dishes clean.

Regarding the "Don't bother pre rinsing"advice. I'd do it for stuff that contains curry or lots of red sauce. I've had plenty of stuff turn orange after putting it in a dish washer with stuff that contained curry powder. Like cutting boards or Tupperware. Guess heat and pigments trend to mix very well in a dish washer.

Your videos have knocked some really needed common sense into this household. I found your channel a few years ago, when looking up space heaters. Love the content!

Just a little note about the dispenser mechanism on your Kitchenaid dishwasher--its not using a solenoid, but a wax motor. Theres literally only two wires going to your disenser from the control and that's just to heat up and expand the wax until it finally "actuates" and causes the latch to unhook and the "pop" is just because of the spring pushing the door back up. So there arent any "signal" wires telling the board whether the dispener door is open or not.

When we moved to a larger range house from our smaller one, i was able to add a dedicated hot water recirculation plumbimg loop with a grundfos pump. It used to take 90 seconds to get hot water to the kitchen and now only takes seconds. You can also add one in a residential setting without massive plumbing work using a pump with a valve that goes on the far end of you plumbing using a bimetallic valve to let the water bleed into the cold side until it gets to temperature. This woukd be great for you to consider and then put up a video for. The big box stores sell under the Watts brand.

I really enjoy this format you got for videos. Having a base video about an appliance/how to use it that can explain the gist to most people and still be helpful. And supplemental extended in depth answers and tangents for people who care to deep dive. Please keep making them

Your previous dishwasher video was my introduction to your channel and I've been hooked since. Learning about purging the cold water before starting the dishwasher from that video has worked great for several dishwashers I've used.

It's interesting that you brought up the person with the same dishwasher having the issue in their house. I don't recall who that was or where I read it either but I'm pretty sure I saw either that or a similar comment way back when. I also experienced something similar when we moved to our house, but in our case the apartment had separate little water heaters in every unit because it was a smaller 8-16 unit building. The dishwasher ran really well over there, and I realize now that's because the water heater was in the closet not even 5 feet from the dishwasher, so it had very little water to purge before it got hot! By comparison, the dishwasher in my current house is about 50ft from my hot water heater and *never* pulls hot water unless I purge it first by running the sink for literally 60-90 seconds. Side note, it also sucks if you use the bathroom upstairs on the far side of the house too because the water in the sink there takes nearly *2 minutes to run hot*, although at least the shower gets hot water relatively fast? Suffice to say I avoid that bathroom unless the others are already occupied. But I digress. I suppose my original point was to say even the location of your hot water heater in relation to your dishwasher, or laundry machine, etc., can make a huge difference in perceived performance. I will say, we've been using the ultra expensive cascade platinum packets for a while because of the whole residue issue. Now that you've pointed out the correct amount is *not necessarily* what's on the box, I think we'll give the cheaper powdered stuff a go again, along with running the water to purge the lukewarm water in before running. Will report back on Mastodon or something I guess?

I will say: We've a Kenmore dishwasher from around 2017 or 2018 when Sears Canada closed. We've been using the Turbo Heat Dry option since day 1 and about 3 years ago, me and my Dad had to take off the cover to change it from stainless steel to gloss black to match our new appliances. The control board was absolutely perfect. Zero signs of rust or moisture in there. Just for fun, I recently popped back in when I had to remount the dishwasher (it had rattled for years, fixed it by re-installing it the correct way). Still zero signs of rust or moisture. Personally, I think all higher end/more modern dishwashers are immune to this potential issue. Interestingly, however, the dishwasher our Kenmore replaced- an old Fridgidaire, died BECAUSE of rust in the control board, which could have absolutely been due to the heated dry. Either way, this cheap Kenmore (was $600 Canadian back then, nowadays it has less features than the cheapest name-brand ones on the market) has TANKED AND TOUGHED through dirt and grease and insane levels of grime. We started to experience issues with it a couple years ago. Turns out, my parents were using pods and throwing two in the tub and not in the dispenser. Once they stopped using the smart wash option, all hell broke loose. I cleaned the filter, cleaned the dishwasher by hand, (this was when I remounted it), ran two of those "Active" cleaning tabs through from Amazon, bought the Great Value powder, and started turning the tap to hot prior to a wash like you suggested. We also got a new water softener, and I measured the powder detergent appropriately (according to the manual) including pre-wash. Yeah so our dishwasher went from not being able to clean even with a pre-rinse in the sink, to removing stuff that even by hand couldn't come off. Infact the difference was so great that whenever I hear someone at work complain about their dishwasher (as I work at a hardware store) I tell them what I personally do, and what it manages to remove from our dishes, and people don't believe me. So thanks, Alec! You saved my sanity because I thought dishwashers sucked but no! People don't use them correctly. It appears I've learned even more because now I'm going to try using the Smart Wash option again!

Target also has powdered dishwashing detergent. Works great an inexpensive.

I have one of their models that has the top controls and it flaked out on me like 2 years ago. Ghost presses, not acknowledging presses, you name it. I took the door apart and didn't find any obviously dead components. I ended up thoroughly washing the button panel in the sink, then flushed it a few times with alcohol to remove the water. After letting it dry I reinstalled it and it's been perfect since. Apparently it is easy for the button board to become confused from minor buildup.

I wanted to comment on the need to wash dishes before putting them into the dishwasher from personal experience. I am 70+ years old and have lived with a dishwasher since the age of 6. Until the Bosch dishwasher that I purchased a few years ago, every dishwasher has required that dishes be well rinsed. That last couple years of my KitchenAid dishwasher I started using Cascade Platinum with Dawn pods. That alone made a big difference. The new dishwasher does an amazing job on dirty dishes.

I'm in the chicago area too. If you have a Mariano's near you, they still carry Kroger brand dishwasher powder. I did like Cascade more, and was bummed when they stopped carrying it - but the Kroger stuff has been doing well enough.

Y'all know what detergent for industrial dishwashers looks like? Its just Lye. Pure, solid, Sodium Hydroxide in a plastik container that gets dissolved with some water and cleans basically everything you can throw at it, at just 52 C° within 90s, yes seconds! (inkluding sanitizing cylce of 10s 82 C°) The reason it isn't used in your dishwasher, except for safety, its just the more expensive materials required for it to withstand this corrosive environment.

My wife and I literally changed our dishwasher usage because of your first video on this.

I've been doing the run the hot water thing for decades, sorta just figured it out from observation. I also noticed that if you happen to be in the kitchen while your dishwasher is running and you hear the washer draining towards the end of the cycle running the hot water in the sink before the washer fills for the final rinse will knock time off the wash. My dishwasher has a count down clock and you can see it knock minutes off the final rinse depending on how hot the water is at the beginning at the final rinse = takes less time to heat the rinse water to 160 or whatever the final temp is for selected cycle.

When I had an older laundry washing machine with both hot and cold intakes, I always ran the hot tap until it was running hot before starting the washing cycle. I think I figured it out for myself. Washing powder wasn't dissolving properly, so I thought it would help. Interesting to hear you mention the same thing for dishwashers. I too have watched all four dishwasher videos. I have never owned a dishwasher.