Spoiled rotten...
... and no, I am not referring to my kids. I am referring to my dishwasher.
When my wife and I purchased our current home 10 years ago, the kitchen was stocked with GE appliances, much like our townhouse before. As such, we were aware of the performance characteristics of the GE dishwasher, and knew that it was unable to remove lots of residue from our dishes, and required that we give them a good scrub before putting them into the machine.
Seven years ago, we replaced the GE dishwasher with one made by the German manufacturer Miele, and we continued to act as we did, rinsing the dishes very well before washing them in the dishwasher.
Three months ago, we started noticing that the soap pellet was not getting properly dissolved, and was gunking up the holding place for the soap. We groused about it, but proceeded as we were.
Two months ago, we noticed that the dishes were not getting as clean as we thought they should be, so I found company that services Miele dishwashers, and paid for them to come out and take a look. The repairman stated that it needed a new pump, a $500 charge. We said, okay, that is cheaper than replacing the whole thing, go order the part.
Fast forward to yesterday: the owner of the repair shop, plus one of his employees. He had said that they would contact Miele to ensure they were proceeding appropriately. This was at 5:50pm, and I was on my way to the gym, leaving my wife to manage the repairmen.
I returned home, and I was informed by my wife that we have effectively been spoiling the dishwasher by rinsing the dishes off before putting them in. Apparantly, the Miele detects how much dirt is in the water when it's running, and alters its cleaning power accordingly. Since we have been putting mostly-clean dishes into to the machine, it has not been working very hard, which answers why the soap pellet has not been dissolving.
In addition, we have not been using the proper dishwasher detergent delivery mechanism: it should be get 1-1/2 tablespoons of powder, not the pellets. Again, the machine is built in a way to handle stuff that a GE or Maytag or Kenmore couldn't.
Good news: the repairman did not order the part, so we saved money there (will have to pay for the visit, but oh well). Plus, dinner clean-up just got a whole lot faster, as we will be scraping the big chunks of food off of our plates, and putting them straight into the machine.
When my wife and I purchased our current home 10 years ago, the kitchen was stocked with GE appliances, much like our townhouse before. As such, we were aware of the performance characteristics of the GE dishwasher, and knew that it was unable to remove lots of residue from our dishes, and required that we give them a good scrub before putting them into the machine.
Seven years ago, we replaced the GE dishwasher with one made by the German manufacturer Miele, and we continued to act as we did, rinsing the dishes very well before washing them in the dishwasher.
Three months ago, we started noticing that the soap pellet was not getting properly dissolved, and was gunking up the holding place for the soap. We groused about it, but proceeded as we were.
Two months ago, we noticed that the dishes were not getting as clean as we thought they should be, so I found company that services Miele dishwashers, and paid for them to come out and take a look. The repairman stated that it needed a new pump, a $500 charge. We said, okay, that is cheaper than replacing the whole thing, go order the part.
Fast forward to yesterday: the owner of the repair shop, plus one of his employees. He had said that they would contact Miele to ensure they were proceeding appropriately. This was at 5:50pm, and I was on my way to the gym, leaving my wife to manage the repairmen.
I returned home, and I was informed by my wife that we have effectively been spoiling the dishwasher by rinsing the dishes off before putting them in. Apparantly, the Miele detects how much dirt is in the water when it's running, and alters its cleaning power accordingly. Since we have been putting mostly-clean dishes into to the machine, it has not been working very hard, which answers why the soap pellet has not been dissolving.
In addition, we have not been using the proper dishwasher detergent delivery mechanism: it should be get 1-1/2 tablespoons of powder, not the pellets. Again, the machine is built in a way to handle stuff that a GE or Maytag or Kenmore couldn't.
Good news: the repairman did not order the part, so we saved money there (will have to pay for the visit, but oh well). Plus, dinner clean-up just got a whole lot faster, as we will be scraping the big chunks of food off of our plates, and putting them straight into the machine.