Submitted by NoPressureLife t3_11jgm4k in BuyItForLife
If I want to keep things in their best shape over the years, what should stay out of the dishwasher? Certainly my cast iron and my wooden bowls/cutting boards. I know there is more - help me out!
I put everything in the dishwasher. I keep the survivors.
knives and things with wooden handles
Babies, pets, cellphones
Why not knives?
Makes em dull. Also if you have wooden handles, it'll loosen the handles.
I often throw my cheap steak knives in anyhow, but they aren't BIFL to start with.
Plastics, especially plastic lids.
Fine China unless it is labeled okay in the dishwasher.
No plastic thermos...es.
I knew that about wooden utensils, but I didn't know they dulled them out. Obviously cheap steak knives and butter knives, it's whatever, but the sharper knives you want to keep sharp, I'll remember to hand watch them.
No crystal stemware. I’m old so have a set from my wedding 40 yrs ago that still looks like new as always hand washed and barely used. Why was fancy china and crystal such a big deal lol
Dirty underwear
If your knives dont coste more than 50$, id still use the dishwasher. Buy a cheap sharpener and they will still last for years.(if no wooden handles) Those realy expensive ones and especially the high carbon japanese ones should not go into dishwasher
Yes, this. And anything with anodized aluminum, especially if you use the extra strength detergent pods. Learned the hard way.
So is it the heat that messes up the sharpness?
Anything Teflon. Despite claims to the contrary dishwashers will destroy Teflon pans in short order.
As an inherently lazy man this has been the main impetus for me to switch to stainless steel.
I keep a cheap Teflon pan around (mainly for eggs), but most stuff gets cooked in stainless these days.
*looks shifty*
Yeah I got banned from putting the meat grinder parts in the dishwasher xD
The taste of detergent just doesn’t seem To come out of plastic. 🤮
No. Todays dishwashers dont get as hot as back in the day. Today your lucky if the dishes are even dry.
I disagree. I put my nonstick skillets in the dishwasher routinely and they are fine.
Then you should switch detergent or get a better dishwasher.
I put my wooden cooking spoons in the d.w., have done for years. No bad effects yet. Also my knives, handle sides down. They're not expensive knives but they been unaffected by being in the d.w. for at least a few decades. I'm the only one who loads and unloads the dishwasher. I take the whole utensil rack out of the dishwasher to unload it.
It makes them dull if they rub against other utensils, is that what you mean?
I've always put my non-stick skillets in the d.w. and it doesn't seem to bother them at all.
I mean, they won’t explode. But washing them in the dishwasher reduces the effectiveness of the Teflon coating way faster and they’ll start to stick.
Plus many non-stick pans are aluminium underneath which is decidedly not dishwasher safe - if you get a small scratch in the pan that exposes the aluminium a dishwasher can quickly cause the coating around it to start peeling off. I don’t really want to eat that.
Even if they are marketed as dishwasher safe (which these days most aren’t), most manufacturers will recommend against using dishwasher with them too often, and will recommend specific “gentle” detergent.
I’ve come to the realisation (having destroyed a couple of expensive non stick Scanpans) that Teflon is not bifl. I treat it as consumable so I’ll use something else (eg stainless) where possible and break out the non-stick when necessary, and hand wash it.
Same. Have for years.
I put plastic lids in the top rack and have not had any kind of problem with them.
Cast iron and most raw metals that require seasoning. Stainless tends to discolor as does untreated/raw aluminum. If you do put dishwasher safe stainless, make sure it doesn’t contact anything. Anything with a coating will do okay but its life expectancy will inevitably be shortened such as that of Teflon coated pans. I hear applying a light coat of oil after drying is recommended for this. Wood is a big no no. Plastics also will lose elasticity over time with regular use in the dishwasher. You may want to download the user manual for your dishwasher as it may provide proper loading of utensils and such. Hope that helps.
I hate our stainless because they are so hard to hand wash. What's your secret?
Depends how dirty
I love stainless steel because it goes straight in the dishwasher.
If I didn’t have one then I’d use cast iron and non-stick more, but I love that it’s completely bulletproof. I don’t need to worry about what I’m cooking, how hot I’m getting it, what utensils I’m using, etc. just cook->dishwasher.
Weird, I've been putting anodized aluminum (Circulon) pans in the dishwasher for 15 years with no Ill effects. The pans are still in great condition
Sounds like you're using WAY too much detergent or washing them concave side up
Anything vacuum insulated and anything wood. Everything else goes in.
Metal straws, usually slips through the grates of the silverware bin
My coworker claims he washes his unassembled gun in the dishwasher when doing maintenance.
Pattered/colored vintage Pyrex
Cascade Complete and multiple higher end Bosch, Whirlpool, and Samsung. I dunno. I taste it on other people’s plastic food ware too. You can even smell it when people at work microwave their lunches in plastic that’s been through the dishwasher. I don’t think it’s just me.
Knives, any pots and pans even if they say dishwasher safe. If you want them to last, hand wash them. It's half the quality of the item, and half how we take care of it.
Plastics should also go on the top shelf only. Heat makes plastic leach. Glass, ceramics, silverware on the bottom, plastics on the top.
Yeah, anodized aluminum gets that white crust on it from dishwashers. I could always tell how someone ruined their pan when they were returning it to the kitchen store I worked at.
It's the harsh detergent, and the blades hit things when the jet sprays them. Seen some knives even get dents and dings on the cutting edge from being put in the dishwasher.
One trick for teflon pans is soaking them in white vinegar every so often. The residues from cooking sprays and soap scum from detergents (even proper ones like Dawn since they removed phosphates), make the non-stick coating less effective over time. I found the vinegar soak brings them back to life sometimes.
Edit: With stainless it really helps to deglaze the pan while it is still hot. Plus Bar Keeper's Friend is great stuff.
Deglaze the pan while it is still hot, I mean adding warm water (don't put cold water in a hot pan or it will warp). That will loosen up the stuck on food, the brown and black bits from searing. Then you should be able to clean it with a dish brush and some liquid soap like Dawn. I also highly recommend making a paste of water and Bar Keeper's Friend or Comet powder if you want to polish them back to looking like new.
I don't know why you got downvoted for simply asking a question. Take my upvote for being curious about how to properly care for your purchases. 🙂
For stainless steel to conduct heat, it has an aluminum or copper plate glued to the bottom. Some BIFL brands like All-Clad and some (now harder to find) lines of Calphalon use tri-ply construction where the conductor metal is pressed between the two sheets of steel like a quarter. But aluminum and copper are not dishwasher safe, and the glue used to fuse the plates to the other pan's bottoms will eventually degrade in the dishwasher.
Not that I disagree with anything you said, you seem to know your stuff! It may say dishwasher safe, but it will definitely shorten its lifespan. To get the residue off of my Teflon pans, I've found pouring white vinegar in them and letting that soak overnight usually removes the residues and brings the nonstick quality back.
Forgot the vacuum insulated! Dishwashers are perfect at ruining their seals. Add anything with rubber or plastic gaskets and seals to the list to handwash.
You should see the family fights that have happened in my house over my grandmother's Rosenthal china, it's up there with the Hummels. She got crystal from Austria too. We did use it for the holidays and every now and then for nice desserts. But the most I interact with it is washing the dust off 😂
I think it's more about the fact that someone hand painted this, and you just can't find that care put into making an object on a large scale anymore. Things like china are maybe hand stamped now to pass as "hand painted", but someone didn't sit there and lovingly draw that flower on it.
If you have an HE dishwasher, cut the amount of detergent you use in half. Something is not getting rinsed properly.
Or Corningware, Le Creuset, etc.
That one really made me laugh!!
What about vintage patterned corelle?
nothing made of aluminum, it will oxidize and get a grey film on it from the chemicals in the dishwasher detergent
Not all detergents do it.
I've been using the Finish Powerball tablets on high temp the entire time
Chopsticks, for the same reason.
surprised to not see it commented yet, but I won’t put in any mugs/plastic cups/water bottles with a raised decal/design unless they explicitly say dishwasher safe. it’s hard to describe but I know it when I see it.
If your circulon is new you can get away with it for awhile link
Don’t use heated drying. Your dishes will hold up better and you will use less energy. When our cycle finishes, we open the door to let everything air dry for a few hours or overnight.
I think you are imagining this. You don't even know that other people use a dishwasher.
I haven't used cascade in years but my sister did, and I never noticed anything.
I use Finish tabs.
Do not put hand made ceramics in the dishwasher. They’re technically dishwasher safe, but the rapid heating and cooling from dishwashers can damage the glaze over time.
Steel wool? Scraper? I like stainless cause I don't have to be gentle with it. But I also don't care how my pans looks, just how they function.
Not necessarily in that order.
penis
>I hate our stainless because they are so hard to hand wash. What's your secret?
Scrub with warm water on medium heat. For really caked on stuff, just heat some white vinegar and scrub. It will take anything off.
Mechanic keyboards can also easily get washed in a dishwasher
Things made from aluminium, most commonly used for baking tins, bread hooks and garlic presses.
Bread hooks? Like the one from my kitchen aid mixer that I always run through the dishwasher. Oops. How do you tell is something is aluminum?
Great for washing your kitchen floor afterwards though!
No the abrasives will dull it as well. Also the chemicals in fish detergent will over a long time negatively impact the finish of stainless steel.
Newer machines may have the bread hooks made from other materials or coated with something. I had an old inhearited kenwood chef from the 70s that had an aluminum hook.
Aluminum is pale and matte compared to stainless steel, and it can have a chemical reaction and come out of the dishwasher weirdly discoloured.
Sounds beautiful. My stuff is mass produced Noritake :(
I’ve read both- I read that the dishwasher detergent is too abrasive and can etch the paint, and I’ve also read that they are just fine to run through the wash. I won’t tell you one way or another because I just don’t know for sure, but I can say that we had corelle at home growing up that went through the dishwasher for years with no ill effects. I do a lot of looking at flea markets and antique shops and I can’t say that I recall seeing any corelle that looked like it had dishwasher wear on it like Pyrex, Fireking, and that type of stuff gets. Hopefully someone who knows for sure can chime in!
Ruined my favorite non-stick pan this way because I got lazy once.
And if anyone does put wood stuff in, they should also be oiling the handles etc. with mineral oil or some such for maintenance! We have a wooden cutting board and the mineral oil helps it so much.
Add a bit of water while the pan is still hot and put a lid on it for a few minutes. Everything lifts off and then just give it a once over with a some soap and water.
This is probably obvious, but just as a word of caution, since my friend made this mistake, don’t put (assuming you have one) your infant in there.
I found Mod Podge that is labeled dishwasher safe. I used it on my highly stickered vacuum-insulated water bottle. I'm not going to put it in the dishwasher, just hoping the stickers will last longer with handwashing with the dishwasher-safe seal.
Just throwing the idea out there that using dishwasher-safe Mod Podge might help folks with things that wouldn't otherwise get damaged in the dishwasher.
Sharp knifes.
Your not noticing something doesn't invalidate other people noticing them. Maybe their area has different hardness of water than yours does. Maybe they're a supertaster and you're not. Maybe they have pregnancy nose. If they can smell the dishwasher detergent on the microwaved plastic, they'd be able to know that plastic's been heated up with dishwasher detergent.
It seems pretty extreme to jump to saying they're imagining a phenomena you haven't noticed.
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that is VERY interesting, thank you! I too have a beloved, highly stickered water bottle I want to use forever.
What would a dishwasher do to a non-stick pan or skillet that had badly caked-on crud that handwashing woudn't do?
What abrasiives? What is fish detergent?
I'd be happy to show my polished stainless steel knives with the hard plastic handles to anyone. After at least 25 years of going through a dishwasher they still look new.
I guess it depends a lot on how one loads a dishwasher
Sorry, I should have split up those thoughts. They can impact the finish of polished stainless (like pots and pans). It is very detergent dependent though. Some have bleach, some don't, for instance.
Dirty dishes. Imagine it as a sanitizer only
Which dishwasher detergents contain bleach? I couldn't find any brands online that do.
It will be listed as sodium hypochlorite.
Which popular brands would those be?
Depends how much you like the pattern. Some of ours have faded a bit but it doesn't impact their usability.
It'll come out looking all black and you'll have to wash/wipe all the oxidation off. It is really annoying having to clean them a second time too and it turns your hands black. Can start pitting if you keep doing it, but once or twice will just leave it matte grey but functional.
I was just reading about the very high lead and cadmium levels in paint on vintage Corelle. I would think washing it in the dishwasher might expose other dishes to tiny flakes of the paint. Of course, you should ignore me if you feel comfortable using it but I thought it was worth mentioning for those who consider it a factor.
Do people even rinse their dishware properly?
The cat.
Wooden cutting boards.
Shouldn't have to be said really, but considering the numerous negative reviews I saw on Amazon whining about how their board had cracked after going into the dishwasher...
Most clad (multi-ply) stainless cookware should ideally not go in the dishwasher because the edge is often exposed aluminum and is somewhat more prone to corrosion than stainless steel, especially with more aggressive washing detergents. This is more of a long-term thing, as a few times isn't going to make a big difference, but over many years this can cause a problem in some instances.
Anything with a metal-plastic junction. Like many coffee pots. They expand unevenly, which will degrade fit.
I have one of those big standard apartment dishwashers with the utensil basket with 6 little sections. Got annoyed with exactly that, went to the hardware store, found some ~2mm metal screen, cut it to the size of one of the sections, and problem solved.
Omfg I really hate people sometimes
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