How well do you rinse your dishes before sticking them in the dishwasher? Or don't you?

[Fauve]

I'm trying to out-do the depth and cultural significance of the 'hanging out washing' thread here.
We've never really bothered with rinsing even pans before dishwashing, but have had huge probs with the machine of late - to the point of thinking it was finished. Nearly every item had stuck-on muck glued to the sides. However, I've just used HG Service Engineer from Lakeland in it - it's a powder cleaner - and it seems to have cured the problem (touch wood). So was it all our fault for being too lazy to rinse? And does this mean we have to rinse before loading now?

I scrape excess food off but thats it. Life is too short to rinse dishes before dishwashing them

I scrape excess food but rarely rinse.

I use a dishwasher liquid cleaner about once a month. Not sure if it helps at all though but does make the inside of the dishwasher nice and shiny - until the next load!

Well, that's what I think, Sally. Also, environmentally, once you've used the hot water, you might as well carry on. Although having a sinkful of hottish water to sling them in before loading is thinkable: that's what I've been doing of late.

Maybe we just need to scrape more assiduously.

scrape off. no rinsing here.

I run very dirty plates under the tap so I don't have to put the dishwasher on such a long cycle.

I scrape but the reason I bought a dishwasher is to avoid turning the taps on....[lazy slattern]

no rinsing chez badger, scraping bits into bin only
and we only ever use the econo-cycle

Hmmm, not much rinsing going on then.

Message withdrawn

So the point of a dishwasher if you are going to clean everythimg first is....

I scrape, or dip things into manky water and give them a quick wipe. DH washes them in hot water and soap, and then rinses them. If he's loaded the machine, it's hard to tell whether it's run or not.

It drives me mental, watching him pointlessly load it. We once let a knife covered in peanut butter go through, just to see, and of course it came out totally clean. But he still pre-washes everything.

I scrape but only rinse if the plates have been sat out for a while and are dry. (If they have been sat inside the d/w for a while then I run the rinse cycle)

Cutlery with dried-on food def needs a rinse - I usually put some water in a saucepan or something or stick it all in there for a few minutes - otherwise forks come out with bits in, yuck.

NQC, my dh is the opposite. He'll happily load a frying pan with half an egg still stuck in it. I'm afraid yours would drive me mental, too.

The saucepan idea for cutlery is a good one, thanks.

i dont rinse - i did used to but then read the queen of clean anthea turner on about dishwashers being more environmentally friendly than washing as uses less water (on eco setting especially) but also a dishwashers job is to rinse firstly anyway so rinsing under running water is using excess water and not needed anyway - and who am i to question anthea rinsing the arms out and emptying filter a bit yuck though