How to Use a Dishwasher

Series Summary

Home remodeling is a great way to repair and replace broken items in a home. Additionally, home remodeling can bring an outdated home to contemporary standards or can maintain the classic or historical look of the home. Home repair is often the last thing homeowners want to spend money and time on. However, as many DIYers know, homeowners can do their own home repair with instructions from home renovation and construction professionals. In this free video series, learn some simple home improvement tasks. Tim Gipson, a licensed and insured home repair specialist, takes time to discuss how to troubleshoot different problems around the home. For instance, can't figure out why a washing machine is walking? Gipson shows some simple solutions to keep a washing machine in place. Want to figure out what's wrong with a dishwasher, refrigerator, dryer or microwave? Learn how to decipher major from minor problems. Also, Gipson demonstrates how to clean water pipes and drains with a safe, green home cleaning product. Fix holes in drywall with Gipson's help. Every homeowner knows that upkeep is essential for a comfortable and safe home. So, get some simple home maintenance tips today!

Video Transcript

"I'm Tim Gipson, and I'm going to talk about how to use a dishwasher. Now, the first thing we want to look at in using a dishwasher is how to load it properly. So most of your dishwashers come with a two-rack system. You have an upper rack and a lower rack. Now, in the upper rack, you can see I've got this already pre-loaded with some things. You'll have some different configurations depending on the type of dishwasher you use. It's always a good idea to consult your user manual and it will have some recommended loading instructions, depending on the configuration of your dishwasher. This particular one has some nice hooks in the back here that are great for bowls. So these...it'll position these bowls and it'll hold them upright so that the water circulates and gets it clean. Then on the side here, we have places for cups. Then you have this center area. Now, the center area, you can use it for smaller plates or overflow on your cups. Or if you have some taller cups, that's where they'll go down into this center area. Now, getting to the lower rack, this is where we want to load our plates. And everything loads on ends with the exception of pots and pans. Pots and pans, you want them to be their surface down. You want them upside down so that the water jets will get up in there. And you can load those off to one side, and then again with taller cups, you may load those right over there. With the basket...usually, you have a utensil basket for your flatware. When you're loading these, it's a good idea with knives, particularly sharp knives such as this, we want to make sure that we load these down into the basket. And that way, as you reach in here, you're not as likely to cut yourself. But with the rest of your utensils, you want the utensil portion up, the handle down. And that way, you get...you get your water jets onto that. Now, the most important thing, and you see, this is not...this is a good open layout as far as loading your dishwasher. It's very important not to overload your dishwasher because what cleans the dishes is that circulating water. So you want to make sure that you've got a good pattern in there so that your water will circulate and clean. Now, the easiest way, I use these tablets here that have a tablet and it has a...an agent in here to keep water spots from showing up on your dishes. So you can pop that down into the cup, rotate it, and we close it. Now, it's a good idea to make sure you get...before you actually close the handle, make sure you get all your settings -- heated...water heat on, your dryer on, normal wash -- and then just set it. And for most cases, you can use a light wash unless you've got really soiled dishes. And turn the handle on to activate it. And I'm Tim Gipson, and that's how you use a dishwasher."