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Ditch pre-washing dishes. Don’t spend valuable time cleaning dishes before loading them into the dishwasher. Follow these tips from Craig Clark of Mr. Appliance of the Denver Metro Area to make the chore more manageable:
Scrape but don’t rinsedishes off before putting them in the machine to reduce food clogs. But dishwasher detergent cleans better if it has some food left on the plate to grab on to.
Purge water in the sinkbefore running the dishwasher to make sure it’s hot from the beginning of the wash cycle. Hot water breaks down food particles and prevents clogs.
Choose the correct cycleand don’t interrupt it. Shorter is not necessarily better.
Use granular instead of gel detergent,but don’t put in too much. Overloading on detergent won’t get your dishes any cleaner, and it will cause buildup inside the unit that can damage it over time.
Clean the dishwasherby running it empty with a cup of white vinegar to eliminate odors and food residue buildup, which can clog and cause strain. Inspect the mechanism to make sure no small objects have fallen inside.
money
Win a free vacation. This year’s family vacation could be unforgettable and on-the-house. Enter to win a trip to Niagara Falls, Yellowstone or Glacier national park in the 2009 Thompson’s Water Seal Very Important Places Sweepstakes. The trip, valued at about $6,000, includes round-trip airfare, a four-night hotel stay, rental car and $1,000 cash toward meals, admissions and souvenirs. It’s free to enter at .
