Hand washing vs dishwasher

[Stephen Tashiro]

I find that dishes that are hand washed in Dawn dish detergent or liquid laundry detergent eventually begin to feel as if they have a thin coating of cooking oil on them even after they are "clean". By contrast, dishes washed in a dishwasher develop a dry and sometimes coarse surface. The oily feel left by hand washing seems harmless, but I'm curious if there is a type of detergent that will remove it - without removing skin from bare hands. Or would such a strong detergent require wearing gloves?

From my childhood, I recall mother washing dishes with Tide powdered laundry detergent. I think she wore gloves, but I don't recall that detail.

[Pat Germain]

I use Costco dish detergent for hand washing. I have never noticed it leaving any kind of oily film.

I also use Costco dishwasher detergent. For a while my wife switched to Cascade, but that stuff was seemingly sandblasting the dishes, just as you describe. We went back to the Costco stuff which doesn't do that.

[Bill Howatt]

No idea but I'm not surprised dishwasher dishes might feel different since the detergent is extremely caustic and they don't have any concern about making it "easy on your hands". Also, the water may be considerably hotter in the dishwasher since nobody has to stick their hands in it. I once read that households with dishwashers have fewer colds than those who do hand washing because of the heat and detergent. Don't know if it's true but....
Dishwashing gloves are still sold and presumably used likely as protection against the detergent and perhaps hot water.

[Bill Dufour]

My school district had posted rules for hand dish washing. Drying was forbidden. just air dry in a dish rack.
Bill D

[Brian Elfert]

No hand drying in a commercial setting is a health department rule. My local church the volunteers running church dinners often hand dried the flatware so it wouldn't have spots although it was against the rules.

[Ron Citerone]

Might be different for different water supplies. I use dawn and have never seen build up, but mostly use the dishwasher with cascade. Satisfied either way.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

We use Dawn and often I do the dishes. We air dry in a rack. I haven't noticed an oily residue or feeling. In fact, nightly I use a hand cream "Working Hands" to prevent dry and split skin.

We have a dishwasher and use it when we have larger groups over for meals.

[Stan Calow]

Our dishwasher repair guy, after fixing a major leak, recommended that we use only liquid gels not powders. He said the powders were harsher on the gaskets. I prefer the Finish gel packs, although they seem to be harder to find around here.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Our dishwasher repair guy, after fixing a major leak, recommended that we use only liquid gels not powders. He said the powders were harsher on the gaskets. I prefer the Finish gel packs, although they seem to be harder to find around here.

No idea how it affects gaskets, but it's quite well-known that liquid gel dishwasher detergents are the least effective cleaners. Powdered dishwasher detergents contain both enzyme cleaners and bleach, which are not able to be formulated in a stable liquid (gel) form.

[Warren Lake]

what did Madge use?

[Earl McLain]

what did Madge use?

Palmolive. You're soaking in it. :>)

[Thomas McCurnin]

The Finish product line contains gel capsule with liquid detergent, powdered detergent and a rinse component.

We use them in a Bosch machine on high heat and hot dry. No complaints.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Perhaps the reason for the "oily feeling" on hand washed dishes is the fact that the detergent attacked the oils in your hands. Next time you feel this, stop, and rinse your hands in a mild vinegar solution, then check dishes again. I use Palmolive with OXY, as Dawn destroys my hands, causing them to crack and bleed. In our dishwasher, we use Finish Powerball Quantium. Our dish washer ( GE Potscrubber 640) isn't the newest in the world. It came to us used from a trash pile. Replaced leaking pump, both racks, door cables and wash spray arm ( three times.) On tag inside of door is inscribed a date of 12-21-90, which means its almost thirty four years old. Still washes a load of dishes (not including drying time) is about thirty eight minutes. Drying time isn't included as we usually let them air dry over night, saving electricity.

[Michael Schuch]

Hand wash? Why would anyone want to do that? When buying a kitchen small appliance being dishwasher safe is a requirement. We have a good GE dishwasher with a built in food disposal so we don't even pre-rinse, we just scrape into the garbage. The dishwasher is always set on "Heavy Soil" and runs 3+ hours but always comes out perfectly clean. We also always air dry instead of heat dry. With the Jet dry liquid in the dishwasher rinse dispenser we don't have water spot issues.

The hardest part of dishes was teaching my daughter how to properly load the dishwasher so everything is exposed to the water jets. After years of extensive dishwasher loading education her girlfriend moved in with the two if us and the dishwasher loading education started all over again.

When I go over to my girlfriends house everything has to be clean BEFORE it goes into the dishwasher. Most of this is her but her Bosch dishwasher doesn't have a food disposal built in so any bits collect in the screen at the bottom of the dishwasher which has to be cleaned manually.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

what did Madge use?

Palmolive. You're soaking in it. :>)

Someone's showing their age!