Dishwashers take the elbow grease out of removing greasy food stains from your dining ware, and power away baked-on bolognese and lingering lasagne from pots, pans and baking dishes.
But unlike your kitchen sink where you can wash everything but, well, the kitchen sink, some things don't fare well in your dishwasher's inhospitable insides. Busbar Multi-Bending
Here's a guide to what you can and can't safely wash in your dishwasher so you never have to wonder again whether your great-aunt's silver-plated teaspoons will survive the cycle. (Hot tip: you're better off handwashing them if you want them to stay silver.)
Unlike care labels on clothes, there's no universally agreed-upon set of symbols to indicate whether something is dishwasher safe, so you may need to do a little detective work to find out if something can go in the dishwasher or not.
The images above are some commonly used dishwasher safe symbols that you might come across on your crockery or containers.
They're not the only ones out there, but they're all generally variations on a theme, so look for a picture of plates and/or glasses under drops of water or a shower.
Just to make things even more confusing, there's no official definition of what 'dishwasher safe' really means. Manufacturers all have their own definitions and processes for determining whether something can be put in the dishwasher.
Bear in mind, too, that some items that are labelled 'dishwasher safe' can still degrade when washed in the dishwasher over long periods of time – they'll just take longer to deteriorate than products that aren't dishwasher safe.
Items on the bottom rack of the dishwasher sit just above the heating element, which means that they're subjected to more heat than those on the top rack.
For plastic and glass, the top rack is a better option as it's a lower temperature and less intense washing action.
Glass can be fragile and prone to breakage, so the dishwasher isn't always the most hospitable place for delicate glassware. Plus, the harsh chemicals in dishwasher detergent can cause haziness.
The dishwasher safe glassware symbol means an item will stand up to the rigours of the dishwasher.
A dishwasher safe icon with a line through it means the item cannot be safely washed in the dishwasher.
An illustration of a hand in a bucket of water, in the context of cutlery and crockery, means the item should be washed by hand.
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CHOICE kitchen experts weigh in on whether or not the following items can be washed in a dishwasher.
Everyday tableware should be fine in the dishwasher but delicate glasses and sharp knives should be hand washed.
It's tempting to chuck every single thing in the dishwasher to save on handwashing, but unfortunately there are some items that won't fare well in the dishwasher.
We'll explain which ones are safe to go in the dishwasher and which you will need to wash by hand if you want to keep them in good condition.
Dishwashers are great for pretty much all everyday plates, cups and cutlery, so given the time and water savings of a dishwasher, racking your plates in one instead of stacking them by the sink is a no-brainer.
And because your dirty plates are out of sight, you can wait a couple of days till the machine's full before you run it for even more savings.
Fragile glassware can scratch or break easily. So if you value your stemware then handwash it instead. (And just to be on the safe side and avoid breakages, maybe wash them the next morning if you've had a few glasses too many.)
Even durable drinking glasses can fall foul of the dishwasher and develop a white haze over time. Alkaline detergents slowly dissolve the glass itself (silicate filming and etching), leave tiny crystal formations (devitrification), and abrasives in the detergent can physically scour your glass (this gets worse with cheaper powder detergents).
If you're washing in hard water then you may even find cloudy calcium deposits on your glass, though unlike other causes of hazing, this can be removed.
All that said, some manufacturers are going to great lengths to ensure their dishwashers are safe for delicate stemware, and some also include special racks to hold wine glasses safely, so we're definitely seeing improvements in this area.
CHOICE tip: If your wine glasses have lingering red wine stains, use denture cleaner to remove them.
Leave your nan's lead crystal glassware in the display cabinet next to the teaspoons, because your dishwasher's high temperature and alkaline detergent can convert the lead into a soluble form which can be ingested next time you're enjoying a refreshing crème de menthe.
Dishwasher-wise, your good knives don't make the cut – carbon steel corrodes rapidly in your dishwasher's harsh, alkaline environment, and bouncing around with other items will dull carefully honed cutting edges.
Plus, emptying the dishwasher is a far riskier proposition with a 12" lobster-splitter somewhere inside.
Read more: Dishwashers to avoid buying
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Don't want to scrub that dirty baking dish? Fair enough. But before you put it in the dishwasher and cross your fingers that it'll be fine, give this list a quick scan to make sure it will survive.
Modern dishwashers do a surprisingly good job cleaning even heavily soiled stainless steel pots and pans and ceramic baking dishes. Combined with a good quality detergent, your dishwasher may clean away burned-on cheese and food particles that would pose a challenge when washing by hand.
Many dishwashers also have foldable or removable tines to make it easier to fit bulky pots, and some even have an intensive zone, designed specifically to give cookware an extra-thorough going over. Though you should still handwash non-stick, cast-iron, copper and fine aluminium cookware because they can be damaged by the dishwasher.
Non-stick coatings will deteriorate rapidly in your dishwasher – follow the manufacturer's cleaning instructions to extend their life. (And maybe ask yourself if they're really non-stick, why is there anything to wash off in the first place?)
Your dishwasher won't damage the cast-iron itself, but it will strip off the layers of precious seasoning that protect your pan from rust and make it virtually non-stick.
But your skillet shouldn't go near the sink either – just wipe it out with paper towel to clean it, and remove stubborn cooking remnants with salt and elbow grease.
Read more: How to drain a dishwasher
Can you put your Thermomix parts or air fryer baskets in the dishwasher? Check the table below to find out.
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Let's face it: kids can be messy. Can a dishwasher help make cleaning up easier?
A hot dishwasher can warp or damage some plastics, and squeezing plastic items into small spaces may also cause warping – so while you can put them in the dishwasher, they should go on the top shelf.
Plastics also have a low thermal mass, so they don't dry especially well in your dishwasher.
Read more: Dishwashers to avoid buying
Washing your sponges in the dishwasher is a great way to give them a new lease on life.
Housework can feel like a neverending task, so of course you'll want to find hacks to reduce the amount of work you need to do.
But is the dishwasher the answer? Not necessarily.
Sponges and scourers can get caked up with food particles pretty quickly, which means they're a hive for bacteria.
Washing this handheld bacteria nest in the kitchen sink won't cut it from a hygiene perspective (that's where the bacteria came from in the first place), but rather than relegating your manky kitchen sponge to landfill and buying a new one, you can give it a new lease on life by running it through your dishwasher to leave it sanitised, refreshed and probably smelling better, ready to scrub for another day.
Sterling silver, pewter, aluminium, brass and copper will discolour in your dishwasher, and light aluminium items can also mark other items as they bump around during the wash cycle. Pewter can even warp due to its low melting point.
Glossy, gold-coloured or hand-painted items will dull and fade in your dishwasher, and fragile items can be damaged by bouncing against other items or even by thermal stress.
The glue that binds hollow-handle knives, wooden cutting boards or other laminates will melt or soften in a dishwasher, and high temperatures and moisture damage wood, so handwash wooden items instead.
Items contaminated with wax, cigarette ash, poisons, mineral oils, wet paints and oiled tools should never go in your dishwasher, as contaminants can be left behind and redeposited on future loads.
Likewise, objects contaminated by solvents or flammable liquids could explode in a dishwasher, so (carefully) handwash them instead.
Ditch the dirt faster – see the cleaning products that topped our lab tests.
Ditch the dirt faster – see the cleaning products that topped our lab tests.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
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