CHAPTER II
KEEPING OUT OF HOT WATER
There is never any magic about household equipment. You must not expect to do the impossible. If you have a dishwasher you must not expect it to do any more processes of washing than you expect of your player piano of playing. The dishwasher is to wash, the piano to play.
Many women have said, “I think a dishwasher is a nuisance, you have to stack your dishes, hand-scrape pots and pans, carry water by the pailful and then have the job of cleaning the dishwasher itself. The only thing it does is to wash off some of the dishes.”
Well, it is only a dishwasher. Doesn’t the automobile have to be cleaned and oiled? Why should the dishwasher be expected to polish silver.
Yet we do solemnly think that the dishwasher attached to the plumbing of the house, so that the fresh water comes in unlifted by the operator and goes out unheeded, is the only dishwasher to buy, regardless of how it is worked--by hand, by water force or by electricity. This is only one type.
Some of the best dishwashers are made unattached to the plumbing so that they can be wheeled into the dining room and be stacked as they leave the table. This is a rather perfect type for some homes, but you must have it fixed so that when it arrives dish laden in the kitchen or pantry it can be attached to the water supply and emptied through the sewer. This is the only way to get maximum comfort, unless you or your cook enjoy hauling pails of water.
Yet we can imagine many women who would rather haul water than handle dish water. And here is where the “unattached” dishwasher wins out over the old-fashioned style of washing dishes. The chances of breakage are less where the dishes are not washed separately and rehandled for drying separately. Dishes handled when dry do not slip so readily, to fall or break.
For the most part these machines are equipped with a motor which propels a fan or paddle to spray or “swish” and whirl the water about among the dishes. The efficiency depends not only on the speed the water travels but on the direction.
For example, one of the most interesting of dishwashers is not run by hand or electricity, but it is attached to the drain and water supply. The hot water is distributed and so forced against the dishes that, without soap, they are washed noiselessly. No soap is required with this machine.
It has taken us a long time to be sold to this dishwasher, but we are convinced that it is the type to use when one has to do one’s own work.
If it is possible to use very hot water in your dishwasher, you can leave the top of your machine off and the dishes will dry without handwork. Of course, there will be no polish on the glass and silver, but they will be dry.
The following is advice given by those who sell dishwashers:
1. You must have hot water--really hot water--to use an electric dishwasher successfully.
2. Use the soap powder the manufacturer supplies or recommends. Remember that suds are unnecessary for cleansing and are hard to rinse off, anyway. You need an ash powder which will cut grease.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of Whirlpool Mfg. Co._
A WAY TO KEEP OUT OF “HOT WATER”--THE PORTABLE DISHWASHER]
3. Dishes covered with egg, flour mixtures, etc., should first be held under cold water. Hot water boils these mixtures and makes them stick closer to dishes.
4. Follow the manufacturer’s directions as to placing dishes, silver, etc. Get the knack--which is easily acquired--of putting in the dishes with the fewest motions possible.
5. Experiment with the much disputed point of whether dishwashers will wash pots and pans. Most dishwashers will clean them of everything except burnt-on food or particles which have to be taken off with a powder.
6. Note how easy it is to dry the silver and polish glassware, and that while you are doing this the china dries itself and needs only to be put away.
7. If you have a small family do not wash the dishes after every meal, but stack them in the dishwasher and wash them once a day, say after breakfast.
8. Remember that dishwashing is but one of a series of kitchen operations. To begin at the beginning, and to get the utmost value out of the electric dishwasher, glass, aluminum and enamel cooking utensils are to be recommended, wherever possible without handles, so that they do not take up too much space in the machine. In cooking and serving, clean up as you go, using as few utensils as possible in your cooking (all modern houseworkers recommend this procedure, although it does not always meet with the approval of housekeepers generally), stacking bowls, plates, spoons, etc., in the dishwasher as you work, thus having a comparatively clean kitchen when you are ready to serve the meal.
9. See that the dishwasher is properly placed in relation to the entire dishwashing performance. The ideal placement is near the dining room or pantry door, so that it receives the dishes without extra steps, and adjacent to cupboard where dishes are put away.
You will perhaps think this is a lot to do, but didn’t you have to learn to “do” things on your vacuum cleaner, your washing machine, your typewriter, too? Weren’t you willing to learn how to run your own car?
When buying a dishwasher, look at the racks. Be sure they are smooth and easily cleaned, finished so that there is naught to peel off and catch food. Also be sure these racks fit and are not cantankerous in going back into the machine. If they are difficult to manipulate the misery is untold.
In purchasing look for the following points:
1. The dishwasher must be smooth inside.
2. No corners to harbor bits of food.
3. Self cleansing.
4. Dishes placed so as to be unmoveable and not stick together.
5. Cost of electricity low, from one to two cents per washing.
6. Capacity to be convenient to your uses.
7. Operates in kitchen or pantry.
8. Operates from three to fifteen minutes.
9. The water penetrates all sides of dishes.
10. Easy to fill and empty whether attached or unattached to water and outlet systems.
Some booklets advertise the fact that machines require only six quarts of water--less water than in ordinary dishwashing. The water, unless it is to be hand handled, need not trouble anyone. But it is a well known fact that dishes to be washed satisfactorily must have water used on them without stint.
The most satisfactory soaps are the white powders. A new powder, on the market, which isn’t soap at all, does not leave a greasy residue and make a difficulty of cleaning out the dishwater. In a good dishwasher, however, the water force banishes residue of all kinds.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of Western Electric Co._
THE DISHWASHER WHICH IS A TABLE WHEN NOT WASHING]
One manufacturer of a good dishwasher is honest enough to say that for a good effect silver and glasses should always be polished coming out of the dishwasher, because any method of washing will always leave a film. Many a dishwasher has been sold on the pretext that this is unnecessary and the result has been dissatisfaction and a psychological dislike of the machine.
To be sure, an ordinary dirty pot or pan can be cleaned on a dishwasher. The burnt-on type of dirt must be scraped off by hand.
Warning: don’t burn in food, so use utensils where you reduce this possibility to a minimum. Some dishwasher concerns supply you with hand-saving scrapers.
A dishwasher in the shape of a table, beautifully finished, makes it unnecessary to have an extra table about. This does its work well. One example of this table-high dishwasher has a device whereby the rack of dishes is lifted to a reachable height by lifting the lid.
Another supplies you with extra baskets in which to stack your dishes while the full basket is being used in the washer.
Yet another cylinder type has a cover that goes back flat, on which can be laid the tray to be filled with dishes.
At present some of these machines make a slight noise in operation; yet many do not mind this. But in telling a story we must tell it all. Of course many other machines used in the home are no “modest violets” either. We don’t need to listen hard to hear vacuum cleaners or patent brooms, but they work well despite their blatansies.
Washing machines are made in cylindrical and rectangular form and can be placed in small kitchens as well as large without inconvenience. Of course there are some machines called “Domestic” that are meant for the domesticity of a home where there are seventeen servants and other things equally hotel-like. These are big and efficient but the ordinary apartment or small home could not afford to house them.
The dishwasher really is the crux of the economic problem. Many a girl would marry gladly without a maid, if the dishwashing was reduced to a minimum. One of these days when lovers offer dishwashers in addition to the conventional platinum solitaires, they will find winning a bride a much easier task than it is at present.
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