Dishwasher Use

Our dishwasher was never made for real heavy-duty dish washing. Mildly soiled dishes at best. It uses both detergent and sanitizer BUT because it doesn't have its own internal water heater it makes it harder to wash the dishes completely clean and/or remove a greasy film WITHOUT doing some pre-preemptive cleaning to the dishes before going in the dishwasher.

The hot water we use comes from a water heater and its output usually tops out at just above 120 degrees F. AND this just happens to be the temperature the Health Department looks for the on the gauge on the dishwasher when its running a cleaning cycle.

High-temp machines require an additional booster water heater to provide sanitizing hot water above 180° F (82.2° C) during the rinse cycle BUT this also cleans the dishes better during a regular wash cycle.


We use a detergent and a sanitizing solution. If you click on the picture of the two buckets I think it will enlarge enough for you to see the writing on them. Both of these can be ordered through Halsey or pretty much ANY food service company. (Sysco, US Foods, PFG...)



The dishwasher is also capable of running a "rinse aid" on one of the cycles. This is not necessary by the Health Department AND we have found that even when we use a "low-temp" rinse aid for our low-temp dishwasher it isn't very effective. It doesn't work well enough to justify the cost.

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