Tag Archives: BPA

Cleaning, Kitchen

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dishwasher

Leave a comment

I will admit to you that a lot of issues with kitchen wares arise out of putting them in the dishwasher. I grew up without a dishwasher, so I’m pretty great at hand washing them and don’t have an issue doing them that way. I’m also pretty fast at it so it doesn’t take up hours of my day. 

sexist_dishwasher_adI have used dishwashers since then. I’ve known people to have lovely looking dishes come out of theirs. I’ve lived with people who bought cheap dishwasher soap that didn’t work and had nightmarish issues with them at jobs. But now that I understand them a little bit more, how various products react in them, and have been using one in my own home a little more regularly – I have learned to stop worrying and love using my dishwasher!

The Basics:

  • Don’t put things in the dishwasher that aren’t dishwasher safe. They usually say that for a reason.
    • Cheap plastics leach BPA, some ceramics aren’t strong enough to handle bumping each other with the shaking motion of the washer, and certain finishes can’t handle the harsh environment, etc.
  • Pans on the bottom, plastic on the top. Some items will specify they are top-rack only. The heating element in the dishwasher is on the bottom, so this is to keep the item away from the heat.
  • Do not lay knives down on the top rack! If they don’t fit in the utensil holder, hand wash them.
  • Wood does not ever go in the dishwasher. (Epicurean brand can because it’s a special compressed wood that is dishwasher safe.)

Dishwashers get EXTREMELY hot, so that’s the reason a lot of items can’t go in them in the first place. They are the problem with plastic leaching BPA, so if you don’t have a dishwasher you really don’t need to worry about it. Plastic baby bottles are almost never dishwasher safe and unfortunately a lot of parents try putting them in on “sanitize mode” which is usually the hottest setting on the dishwasher. Not a good idea!

Notice the heating element is in the center of the inside of the machine.
Notice the heating element is in the center of the inside of the machine.

I have overcome this issue by sticking to the lower-level settings on my dishwasher. I have a couple of settings above “normal wash” and I have never touched them. If you have anything dirtier than that it’s not even worth trying in the dishwasher, in my opinion. Whatever is stuck to the pan will just get baked on inside of the machine.

Which brings me my next tip – turn off the “heated dry” setting if your dishwasher allows you to. This is just a waste of electricity (in my opinion!) that literally just bakes the dishes after they are washed, so if anything is still stuck to them, it just got baked on harder. The dishes are hot and usually still moist anyway if you do use it, so what I do is turn it off and when the wash cycle is over I just open it up and pull the racks out so they can air-dry. The plastic storage stuff doesn’t seem to dry well so I pull them out and put them in the counter dish rack to dry. Of course this is easiest when done later in the evening so they can dry overnight.

dishwasherYour dishwasher shakes. A lot. Think about your dishes getting bumped around into each other inside of that thing for an hour while it runs. This is why ceramic dishes chip in the dishwasher, because they bump edges with each other. Same with your nonstick finish, if something is bumping into it in the same spot over and over – chipping. I worry about my ceramic bowls even though I put them on the top shelf and they are a really good brand name, so I put the dishwasher safe plastic items between all of the ceramic items to try to avoid them bumping into each other.

The worst is if you put your sharp knives flat on the top rack – they shake and cut into the plastic rungs. This is what causes  your flatware to rust, when the plastic coating is exposed inside of your dishwasher. You can sometimes remove this staining with Barkeeper’s Friend but usually you will end up having to replace all of your flatware and also replacing the racks inside of your dishwasher, which is very costly.

As I already said, if my pans are really dirty, I just resolve to hand washing them. I let them soak overnight and wash them with any other items I have that are not dishwasher safe.  Sometimes you can get away with scrubbing the pan with a dish brush or a scrub sponge and getting all the big stuff off of it so it is dishwasher-ready, however. I pretty much end up cleaning them first if I do this because if anything is stuck to the pan, it will be baked on in the dishwasher, usually. And if it does come out this way, dirty, resign yourself to hand washing them at that point – putting them in for another dishwasher cycle will not get it off!

happy-lady-with-dishwasherMy motto is, “If you love it, hand wash it,” so even a lot of the things I own that are dishwasher safe – I still hand wash. Some items I will throw in the dishwasher every now and again and it’s not the end of the world, but some little thing will happen that reminds me that I do indeed love it and I better wash it by hand next time. And actually, sometimes putting your stainless steel Kitchen Aid mixer bowl or stainless pot in the machine actually helps bring back its luster – just not every time so I only do it every handful of uses. One of my dearest kitchen store friend (and mentor) had the best saying about dishwashers: “It’s called a dishwasher for a reason. It’s not a pots and pans washer. It’s not a glassware washer.” So keep that in mind when putting items other than dishes in that machine, even if it does have special settings for those other things.

Speaking of glassware, I don’t put anything with a painted design in the dishwasher, nor any stemware. If you have really inexpensive, sturdy stemware like Libbey, that will probably hold up. Anything shaped like a martini glass is just asking to break because of the bumping. Luckily most stemware is too tall for most dishwashers unless you purchase one that has specific glassware settings. Use at your own risk! I find that the glassware tends to come out with a teensy bit of spotting, but maybe that’s because I don’t steam clean them afterwards with the “heated dry” setting!

If you just can’t stand to hand wash, make sure you read the labels of what you’re buying and avoid items that aren’t dishwasher safe. There are still kitchen items that you cannot find dishwasher safe, and I’m sorry, you’re just either going to have to not use it, hand wash it, or buy really cheap so you can afford to keep replacing it because you put it in the dishwasher anyway. 😛 (Meat tenderizer is the item I know you can’t find as dishwasher safe. Even the OXO one can’t go in there – it’s a kind of metal that will oxidize. All the generic metal meat tenderizers I have seen are the same kind of metal so there must be a reason for it.)

Cascade Complete Pac
Cascade Complete Pac

My last tip will be on dishwasher detergent. The only thing I have found to work almost all the time are the Cascade dishwasher pacs. They now make a few different versions of this, and I find the Cascade Complete work the best. (Although now there is a “platinum” version I will have to try!)

Just use your best judgement, and the dishwasher can be a great help in your kitchen without costing you a fortune in replacement costs if you’re smart about how you utilize it. Of course spending the extra money for more durable kitchen wares always helps, but clearly we can’t always afford that. So the Dollar Tree items…those get hand washed in my house. 😉

And remember…if you love it, hand wash it!

Leave dishes to air dry, like this!
Leave dishes to air dry, like this!

Happy Cleaning! 🙂

Read more about My Favorite Cleaning Gadgets.

Coffee & Tea, Kitchen

Electric Water Kettles

5 Comments

I entitled this blog post “Electric Water Kettles” for a very specific reason. I do not ever want any of you associating the word “tea” with an electric kettle because you CANNOT put tea in the kettle! It is only for water. This should make sense if you are used to making tea the old-fashioned way; boil water in a kettle on the stove, pour it into a teapot, and then steep your tea in it. A teapot is usually made of ceramic or porcelain, and I would hope that it goes without saying that a teapot cannot go on your stove top to boil water in.

Fine T Machine

There is, however, an electric device you can both brew and steep tea in if you really want to, but it’s a tad on the spendy side. It’s called the Fine T Machine and it has several settings for a variety of tea types and works extremely well (I used one heavily at one point, even producing multiple batches for a tea tasting), so worth every penny! I also just discovered that Breville has come out with a nifty looking machine they call the One-Touch Tea Maker. I’d love to hear your reviews if you’ve used this since they are usually a good brand name.

Bodum electric kettle is the best!!

As for your basic electric water kettle, hands-down the longest-lasting brand I’ve ever seen in action is the Bodum. These very rarely ever got returned (actually, we could hardly keep them on the shelves because we sold so many!), and the stores we worked in owned these and used them extremely heavily and they were all some of the original models, still perfectly functioning many years later. They’ve since improved the design a tad by making the power switch stronger and the connection to the base more durable and simpler to latch.

I know the thought of using plastic alarms a lot of folks, particularly with boiling water. First of all, Bodum products are BPA-free. Secondly, as I explain in my BPA blog, the temperature needs to be extremely hot or else whatever going in needs to be highly acidic for there to be any leaching. Boiling point is not nearly what sanitize mode is in your dishwasher! And lastly, all electric kettles have plastic on the lid, handle and base. If they are glass, there could also be “metal” handles or lids which are usually a thin metallic film painted over plastic that will eventually start peeling off.

Chef’s Choice glass kettle

If you prefer the glass (especially because they do look a little more elegant than Bodum’s modern design), my next pick will always be Chef’s Choice. Another solid brand name, the kettles always seem to last a lot longer than other selections. Now that I just wrote all of that, of course Bodum has come out with a model that is mostly glass, similar to other glass electric kettle models (I swear, click the link, it says “new” over the image! :P) I used to like the Capresso, but as I mentioned in the coffee maker blog, they’ve outsourced to China and the quality of the brand is diminishing a little. I’d say it’s hit or miss if you buy one.

Chef’s Choice stainless kettle

Chef’s Choice also makes a couple of stainless steel models that I would also highly recommend. The great thing about all of these kettles nowadays is that they are “cordless”– they detach from the base so you can walk around and pour without a cord getting in your way!  They also mostly all have auto shut-off, which is just fabulous.  You can find some electric kettles that have temperature settings, as well.

I’m sure Proctor-Silex and Delonghi are solid enough machines, and of course Breville has a good brand reputation. Share your thoughts with us if you’ve had experience with an electric kettle you love or dislike!

Breville One Touch tea machine
Kitchen

Plastic & BPA

Leave a comment

The BPA scare started several years after Nalgene brand water bottles started getting really popular. People were putting them in the dishwasher despite use and care instructions stating NOT to do that, and then you started hearing the stories about BPA leaching into your water bottles. Bisphenol A, BPA, is a synthetic compound added to some plastics.

The BPA scare actually started before that, but not as many folks listened, and still don’t today, which I find kind of humorous. We’re so scared about the plastic that we’re buying to store our food in that we’re not thinking about the plastic water bottles we purchase in the grocery store. The first scare came from studies showing that refilling these cheap plastic bottles is leaching BPAs into our bodies.

Store-bought plastic water bottle–don’t refill it!

Once the anti-BPA craze took off, to really scare you they of course had to look at baby bottles. Same as with the Nalgene bottles, plastic baby bottles are generally not dishwasher safe. Top that with the fact that a lot of serious moms are using the “sanitize” mode on said dishwasher, which is the hottest, harshest temperatures your dishwasher can reach, and you’ve got yourself some leaching!

So honestly, aside from the plastic store-bought water bottles you’re refilling, the real culprit is your dishwasher! You really don’t need to worry about BPA leaching if you’re not putting your plastic in there. But, I realize this is America and a lot of you want to use that big machine to save yourself some time, so here’s a few tips:

  • Don’t ever wash any plastics on sanitize mode; try to keep them on the top shelf if you’re going to be using anything like “pots and pans” or any other high/harsh settings.
Plastic container from packaged deli meat
  • If you’re reusing cheap plastic, like the Gladware or Rubbermaid containers that all the pre-packaged deli meat comes in these days, don’t put it in the dishwasher or microwave.
  •  Don’t reuse store-bought plastic water bottles!
  • If you really care about the sanitation level of your baby’s bottles, hand wash them! 

I know it’s more work, especially on a mom, but I personally never feel like my dishes are clean unless I or someone I know is as awesome of a dishwasher as me has hand washed the dishes. I’m a firm believer that a good amount of germs is good for you, too, so that’s why I’m not completely OCD when dining out….I’m just saying if you care that much about germs and your baby, you should be hand-washing those bottles, not putting them through extreme heat treatment in some machine! If not, definitely look for dishwasher safe bottles; it’s a lot easier to find glass ones these days, too. This Consumer Reports article also recommends hand-washing bottles even if the label says it’s dishwasher safe.

Most plastic products have actually always been BPA-free, they just have to start printing it on their labels now. Don’t assume that just because the label isn’t screaming “BPA Free!” at you that it’s not—check with the manufacturer first. Tupperware is one of my favorites because it’s the original plastic food storage, and it’s always been BPA-free! Remember that stores/manufacturers have to sell out of the old packaging before you’ll start seeing it printed on the label.

Tupperware brand has always been BPA free and made in the USA!

I searched all around and I think it’s been too many years, but I recall reading an article about a woman who was very passionately anti-plastic in any way, shape or form. And then her son got really sick and almost died, and looking around the hospital room she realized that without plastic he never would have made it through his ordeal, changing her entire outlook on the subject. Pretty cool when you think about all the good plastic has done for the world.

Frigoverre is very nice glass storage

I’m obviously not a plastic hater; I do encourage smart use and care! Plastic really does store food the best, in my opinion, and anything glass you buy for storage is going to have a plastic or rubber seal or lid to try and keep it airtight. The combination isn’t as good as plastic-on-plastic, and I will take my Tupperware over the most expensive glass storage containers any day! I will say that glass storage can be awesome for freezer storage, but I don’t feel safe riding my bike with one full of soup to work! People do it, I just don’t feel like trying. Frigoverre is a great brand with a good seal.

I’m sure most of you have your crazy Tupperware cupboard, too!