maxine in ri wrote:

> Now, as dishwasher virgins, we assiduously read the manual,
> which told us to run a rinse cycle on the breakfast dishes if
> we weren't washing them right away.
>
> Does anyone else do this? Is it necessary?

Never done it, never needed to. I think the point is that if you are
letting the dishes sit a day or two before washing it *might* be a good
idea. But who does that? <shrug> Waste of money if you bought a good
machine.


Do you run
> a regular wash cycle or use the sanitize feature that heats
> the water up? (Since most of the detergents I've run into
> have bleach, is it necessary to sanitize the dishes?)

Do you "sanitize" them when hand washing? If you had some strange
illness that required extra caution...perhaps? But otherwise probably a
waste of energy resources.
Also assuming you purchased a decent machine (and I have no clue how
decent or not a "portable" machine might be?) there is also NO reason to
prewash or rinse the dishes off before loading and running. Waste of
water and time. Just scrape off debris and load, then wash.

>
> Will the dishes dry overnight if we don't run the dry cycle but
> just open the door?

I never use the heated dry cycle. And they dry just fine. In fact, in
the winter opening the door up as soon as the cycle is over adds welcome
humidity to the air.
>
> Inquiring minds want to know....
>
> maxine in ri

I like the Electrosol little disolving gel packs. Handy and fast, yet
don't require unwrapping individually nor measuring out.