While dishwashers have made a huge impact on how easy it is to wash dishes, opening up a finished load and grabbing wet dinnerware is a major disappointment. In these situations, you have two options: Wait for the dishes to air dry, or do it yourself with a towel. It’s not the end of the world — but adding another step to a process your appliance should be doing is a nuisance (not to mention, a dirty kitchen towel can defeat the purpose of a dishwasher).
To that point, this roundup of considerations highlights the many ways dishwasher brands help get dishes dry, and make their users happy.
Stainless Steel Tub vs. Plastic Tub
When it comes to dishwasher tubs, shoppers can choose between a plastic tub or a stainless steel tub. It’s easy to think of stainless steel in terms of looks, but there’s more to the design than aesthetics.
For one, stainless steel dishwasher tubs provide superior sanitization than plastic dishwasher tubs. That’s because plastic tubs can be porous, while metal naturally repels bacteria growth, odors, and food stains. Additionally, metal tubs are able to withstand higher temperatures, which means they can provide a deeper clean.
Another benefit of stainless steel dishwasher tubs is that they’re conductive to heat. This property allows the tub and walls to cool faster than the steam inside the dishwasher, and in doing so, the steam naturally clings to the colder surfaces. Once contact is made, the steam cools, condensates, and falls down and away from dishes.
Upgrade to a Dishwasher with Fan-Assisted Drying
It used to be that users would have to pop open the dishwasher after a finished load to allow air to complete the drying process. Nowadays, many manufacturers use a built-in dishwasher fan to finish the process all on its own.
The simplest dishwasher fans draw in steamy air and recirculate it throughout the interior, but not every dishwasher with a fan can tackle the hardest dishes to wash: plastics. However, names like GE and Bosch carry dishwashers with fan assisted drying worth noting.
GE’s Twin Turbo Boost Drying
This advanced dishwasher dry cycle uses a heating element to finish a load with a hot rinse, adding steam to the wash process. Then, two fans pull the hot air and moisture out, removing water and condensation before recirculating the warm air back into the dishwasher.
By using this drying method available on select GE dishwashers, even hard-to-dry dishes like Tupperware, meal prep containers, and baby bottles come out with better results than simply air-drying.
Bosch’s Magic Minerals
There’s a reason why Bosch has some of the most recommended dishwashers in the industry. Take its two-step drying on select dishwashers, for example.
- The PureDry™ System works similar to GE’s Twin Turbo Dry Boost — a heating element finishes a wash with a hot-water rinse, creating steam that can effectively be removed from the interior. As an added perk, Bosch’s PureDry System also eliminates up to 99.9 percent of bacteria on dishes.
- After the final rinse, CrystalDry™ technology completes the drying process with the naturally absorbent properties of zeolite minerals. Steam is pulled into a chamber where zeolite crystals react to the moisture, transforming it to air that’s 176 degrees. Then, that hot air is introduced back into the dishwasher where it recirculates and dries every dish.
Above outstanding drying, zeolite minerals:
- Never need to be replaced
- Are non-toxic
- Dry out naturally
- Help make a dishwasher more energy-efficient
Consider a Third Rack for Next-Level Drying
When you think about it, a dishwasher’s layout has a big impact on how well it will perform. Case in point, if air can’t circulate well, a dishwasher simply will not dry well, either. However, a dishwasher with a third rack can help effectively get dishes drier since it provides more zones for dishes to dry in.
For instance:
✓ Washing silverware on a third rack eliminates crowding in a silverware basket. When jammed together, water has a harder time wicking away or evaporating.
✓ Lightweight dishes, such as plastics, can flip over when placed near a spray, allowing water to pool. However, a third rack can help “contain” them.
✓ As mentioned, more wash zones means less cluttering, which helps hot air circulate better.
KitchenAid FreeFlex™ Allows More Drying Possibilities
Featuring the largest third rack capacity on the market, KitchenAid dishwashers with a FreeFlex™ Third Rack allows users to wash dishes without the clutter. The secret is an angled design that generously fits awkwardly shaped utensils, silverware, and even bowls and six-inch glasses.
And as if that weren’t enough, the FreeFlex Third Rack also includes dedicated spray jets to properly wash items, plus a drying bar to naturally draw moisture down and away.
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