I have a Bosch dishwasher and in the manual it actually states not to pre-rinse the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Of course I rinse the bigger pieces of food off anyway because otherwise the filter will need to be cleaned more often (doesn't have a grinder/disposal), but it does also waste a ton of water, and energy heating that water, to pre-wash your dishes.

I believe the real trick is not to overfill the machine with dishes, and ensure your dishes are arranged properly.

> I believe the real trick is not to overfill the machine with dishes, and ensure your dishes are arranged properly.

This. Filling a dishwasher is an art of binpacking in itself. I'm pretty satisfied by my Bosch one, unless it is just a1-2 cycle before asking for the cleaning cycle, 95% of the times everything come up perfectly clean, even with the "eco" program. When something comes out dirty (if everything was properly placed), usually it will nag you to clean the dishwasher on the next cycle or the other.

Says who? This is from Miele's user manual:

> There is no need to rinse items under running water!

Dishwashers already pre-wash with an initial rinse cycle, the whole point is that they do the washing for you. It's also a whole lot more efficient in terms of water waste.

The problem is when you don't give that first cycle any powder to work with, ie. if you're using pods.

> The problem is when you don't give that first cycle any powder to work with, ie. if you're using pods.

That is really interesting, as I do use pods. I need to look into this more.

More generally, I have had a lot more success with not needing to re-wash things if I rinse before hand (but I don't have a miele).

The secret is to put powdered detergent into the pre-wash tray. That and make sure it starts out with hot water...

I've never pre-washed dishes unless it is rice. Everything else goes straight into the dishwasher as it was collected from the table. Always comes out clean and never had problems (unless it is rice... which seems to never get fully rinsed away).

I never do, and my dishwasher works fine? What am I doing wrong? Why would I "prewash" and waste precious water and time when it's going to be washed just fine?