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I might be slightly old/senile/dumb but what problem does this solve? If the dishwasher contains dirty dishes, it's dirty and if not, it's not. Why would you ne

I might be slightly old/senile/dumb but what problem does this solve? If the dishwasher contains dirty dishes, it's dirty and if not, it's not. Why would you need another signal to tell if it's dirty or not? Or I grandly miss the point here, sorry if so.

sokoloff 5y ago
It is not always obvious whether the dishes are dirty, especially if you are in a household that does some amount of rinsing of dishes (or if you had a meal that didn't have a lot of color to it).
mikestew 5y ago
Does it contain dirty dishes, or did the spouse run the dishwasher while you weren't paying attention? Now you're stacking dirty dishes in with the clean (sure, the dishwasher was full, but you found a spot). Or your one sample dish was rinsed, and looks clean, so you start stacking dirty dishes in the cupboard... At our house, it's easier to just use a little magnet with clean/dirty on it to track dishwasher state. Or one can use the soap door suggestion above.
- capableweb 5y ago
  It might be that my household eat food on plates very differently, but it's obvious if it's dirty or clean dishes in the dishwasher, as long as you open the door and look in. But I guess as the other comment mentioned, if you pre-wash the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher (not sure why you would, but let's run with it), then I can kind of see how it can be confusing.
  - mikestew 5y ago
    but it's obvious if it's dirty or clean dishes in the dishwasher, as long as you open the door and look in. Okay, let's go with that: why open the door when a $0.50 magnet can be glanced at, along with saving (what is probably a trivial amount of) wear-and-tear on the door mechanism? It's a dishwasher, not a box full of Schrödinger felines: we're allowed to cheat and put the current state on the outside of the box.
    - sokoloff 5y ago
      How is the indicated state maintained accurately? My experience is that clean-dirty magnets are quite prone to displaying a stale state frequently enough to not be reliable (which led directly to the suggestion).
      - mikestew 5y ago
        Having a household of nothing but adults probably helps immensely. But the procedure is: flip the magnet when starting the dishwasher. Flip it back when the dishwasher is emptied. However, I can see how young kids in the house, or just plain lazy roommates, could make this less optimal.
    - capableweb 5y ago
      I guess in general I tend to ask myself "why do X?" rather than "why not do Y?" and if there isn't enough benefit to doing X, I just work with what's there. Premature optimization and all that yada yada :)
ryandvm 5y ago
Indeed. If you can't tell if the dishes are clean or dirty, they are clean ipso facto.

sokoloff 5y ago

It is not always obvious whether the dishes are dirty, especially if you are in a household that does some amount of rinsing of dishes (or if you had a meal that didn't have a lot of color to it).

mikestew 5y ago

Does it contain dirty dishes, or did the spouse run the dishwasher while you weren't paying attention? Now you're stacking dirty dishes in with the clean (sure, the dishwasher was full, but you found a spot). Or your one sample dish was rinsed, and looks clean, so you start stacking dirty dishes in the cupboard... At our house, it's easier to just use a little magnet with clean/dirty on it to track dishwasher state. Or one can use the soap door suggestion above.

capableweb 5y ago
It might be that my household eat food on plates very differently, but it's obvious if it's dirty or clean dishes in the dishwasher, as long as you open the door and look in. But I guess as the other comment mentioned, if you pre-wash the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher (not sure why you would, but let's run with it), then I can kind of see how it can be confusing.
- mikestew 5y ago
  but it's obvious if it's dirty or clean dishes in the dishwasher, as long as you open the door and look in. Okay, let's go with that: why open the door when a $0.50 magnet can be glanced at, along with saving (what is probably a trivial amount of) wear-and-tear on the door mechanism? It's a dishwasher, not a box full of Schrödinger felines: we're allowed to cheat and put the current state on the outside of the box.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    How is the indicated state maintained accurately? My experience is that clean-dirty magnets are quite prone to displaying a stale state frequently enough to not be reliable (which led directly to the suggestion).
    - mikestew 5y ago
      Having a household of nothing but adults probably helps immensely. But the procedure is: flip the magnet when starting the dishwasher. Flip it back when the dishwasher is emptied. However, I can see how young kids in the house, or just plain lazy roommates, could make this less optimal.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    I guess in general I tend to ask myself "why do X?" rather than "why not do Y?" and if there isn't enough benefit to doing X, I just work with what's there. Premature optimization and all that yada yada :)

ryandvm 5y ago

Indeed. If you can't tell if the dishes are clean or dirty, they are clean ipso facto.