[Mercedes] OT: Dishwashers

[Allan Streib]

Was reading something a month or so back... the "pod" style of dishwasher detergent is popular now. In some stores it's hard to find anything else. With the older style powder or gel detergents you load two separate dispensers and get detergent dispensed in the prewash and the main wash.

But with the pods, those go in the "main" detergent dispenser and are only released during the main wash cycle, so when you use pods the "prewash" phase uses no detergent. I wonder if newer dishwashers are made with the pods in mind and run a longer prewash cycle assuming that there is no detergent in that cycle?

The more expensive dishwashers have soil sensors so they can adapt the run time according to how dirty the dishes are (so they say). Maybe they can also sense whether detergent is available in the prewash?

It all gets too complicated. Washing dishes is not (should not be) complicated. I don't need or want a dishwasher with complicated operations, software, apps, wifi, bluetooth, etc. Just clean the dishes.


On Thu, Dec 18, 2025, at 12:18, Curt Raymond wrote:
> Seems like all the modern ones have very long run times. I presume they 
> get the water very hot and then pre-rinse repeatedly using time to 
> kinda melt stuff off.
>
> Frankly we rarely use our dishwasher. With only 2 of us there really 
> isn't that much point. I can wash all the dishes in from a whole day in 
> 15 minutes.
>
> -Curt