This is completely un-related to development / software / code but I feel like I just learned a major secret to life! I’ve been watching Technology Connections on YouTube for a while, and stumbled upon this:

It’s a 32-minute video about dishwashers. Yes. 32 minutes. Dishwashers. Riveting stuff.

Alright maybe not, but Alec’s constant sense of humor and amazement with the technology we often take for granted is refreshing and fun. I figured the video would be insightful and historical, so I gave it a watch. What I found instead was life-changing.

To put a long story short, growing up my dad would often become (justifiably) frustrated when my brothers and I would put awfully old / dried dirty dishes into the dishwasher.. and they’d come out still dirty with dried on bits. The number of times I’ve had the phrase “the dishwasher doesn’t have little hands that come out and scrub things!” drilled into my mind is too many. So I grew up thinking the same thing and, on the occasion that I would use the dishwasher, would tend to find the same results.

No longer.

After watching this video, I’ve been putting our own dishwasher through the wringer and I’ve been stunned. I took some pictures from my last test (below) but at this point I’m satisfied. I don’t believe there’s anything my dishwasher can’t wash given the tips Alec shares in the video above. We’re using plain-old Cascade gel and I won’t ever go back. I’ve spend so many hours of my life hand-washing dishes, pots, pans, cutlery, etc. Never again.

Here was my final, most brutal test. A large pot dried with pasta starches. A red-sauce spaghetti left to dry on a pan and spoon (the spoon was particularly horrible). Three large bowl/plates from said spaghetti dinner. Two cereal bowls let to sit and dry (intentionally!) as a poignant nod to my father. Behold:

And based on Technology Connections’s advice.. here’s the result:

Everything was absolutely demolished, sparkling, and clean as could be. The pan was spotless! The dishwasher somehow even managed to reduce some of the prior heat tint from that pan (the discoloration that can occur inside the metal of some stainless steel cookware). I was shocked. THE SPOON! I thought for sure the spoon would have something left on it! It was horrible! Completely clean.

Never. Washing. Anything. By. Hand. Again. 🤯 Thanks Technology Connections 🙏🏻