Watch What Happens Inside Your Dishwasher When You Run It

Have you ever wondered exactly what happens inside your dishwasher once you close the door and start the cycle? How does it manage to get all the food remnants off? The crew over at Warped, @warped.yt on TikTok, has the answer. They stuck a GoPro inside their dishwasher and let it record the whole hour-long cycle. The final cut is sped up so that you can see exactly what happens while it runs in a fraction of the time.

@warped.yt Gopro Inside a Dishwasher P.2 #fypシ #dishwasher #how #howitworks #whatsinside ♬ original sound – Warped

Initial Rinse

The cycle starts with filling and rinsing. The dishwasher has several spigots that shoot water up. These spigots are on multiple arms that rotate to ensure that the water doesn’t miss any portion of the dishwasher. This initial rinse helps spray the dishes from multiple angles, ensuring no food gets left behind. The first rinse is similar to what you might do if you were handwashing. It scrapes off the large chunks of food and gives a quick first rinse so that the soap can reach down to the sauce and oils and break them down properly.

Soap Dispenser

Once the dishes are decently rinsed, the dishwasher dispenses the soap. Then, it continues to rinse with water, but with much more water and more intense water pressure. The footage looks similar to what you might see during a heavy rainstorm. As you watch the video, this is perhaps the most satisfying part: you can see the bulk of the mess come off the plates. Everything that the first rinse loosened but didn’t remove is fair game for the soap rinse.

Draining

The dishwasher drains a few times during the cycle. Doing this at multiple points instead of just at the end ensures that miscellaneous food bits and oils aren’t spread to other dishes. It also does a final drain at the end of the cycle. This way, you don’t flood your kitchen when you go to put the clean dishes away.

Final Takeaways

Watching footage of the inside of a dishwasher during its cycle also illuminates why there is a correct way to load the appliance. If you’ve packed your dishes too close together, the water can’t get to them, and food will stay caked on instead. So, if you’ve been noticing that your silverware is coming out dirty or your bowls still have residue on them, reconsider how you load them in and how tightly you cram dishes in.