DETROIT – It's a debate that plays out between plenty of couples each night: To rinse, or not to rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
We're not sure this story will end the debate, but Consumer Reports is chiming in with its advice.
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The experts there say STOP rinsing before popping those plates in the dishwasher. Pre-rinsing your dishes in the sink can easily waste more than 6,000 gallons of water per household each year. Consumer Reports says that's a waste of water, time, and money.
It says dishwashers are made to do dirty jobs, so just scrape the excess food from the plates and let the machine do the rest of the work.
If you want to wash your dishes before the machine is full, use the rinse-and-hold cycle, which uses about half the water you'd consume hand washing them. Also, to get the dishes their cleanest, load large items at the side and back so they don't block the water. And face the soiled surfaces inward so they're hit by the spray.
By the way, Consumer Reports says it leaves all kinds of caked on foods on the dishes it uses to test how well dishwashers work. It says dozens of models were excellent at washing it all away, and dozens more were very good.
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