Thursday, September 3, 2015

My Internal Radio

Nothin' much to say here... just have some songs on infinite repeat in my brain, so I figured I'd share. I'd say the mood is nostalgic with a tad bit of melancholy...






So tell me... what's playing on your internal radio today?




Posted by EcoCatLady at 1:25 AM

4 comments :

  1. KrisSeptember 3, 2015 at 1:06 PM

    Sorry about your melancholy mood. I'm trying to avoid getting songs stuck in my head--the same song can stay there for weeks!

    Hey, on a completely different topic--I just read your old post about your Bosch Ascenta. We are in the market for a new dishwasher and that's the one I've been eyeballing--are you still happy with yours? Some of the comments I have read have been that the short wash (about 30 minutes) gets most loads clean--that would have huge amounts of appeal to me--does your dishwasher have a cycle like that? I'm excited about the other features as well--quiet, energy-saving, no heating element ...

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    Replies
    1. EcoCatLadySeptember 3, 2015 at 1:38 PM

      Hey Kris. Melancholy isn't all bad... there's something calming about it for me.

      Anyhow, I LOVE my dishwasher - but I do have a few caveats. First, I don't see a "short wash" option. I've got "Heavy Wash" "Auto Wash" "Normal Wash" and "Half Load". To be honest, I've never used anything but the auto wash with the sanitize setting on. In theory, when you use the auto wash feature it has some sort of sensor that checks how dirty the water is and adjusts the cleaning time accordingly. I keep the sanitize setting on because one of my cats has a problem with feline acne, which supposedly is either caused or exacerbated by lingering bacteria on food dishes, and using that setting seems to help him.

      Soooo... on to the caveats. This dishwasher uses very little water, and instead of a heating element, it heats the incoming water sorta like an on-demand water heater does. That being said, it works best if the incoming water is good and hot. Since my kitchen is on the other side of the house from the hot water heater, and the pipes aren't insulated, it takes a while for water to heat up. So I try to do my hand washing right before I start a load to make sure that the dishwasher gets nice hot water. If the load isn't too dirty this isn't necessary, but if there's a bunch of stuff with stuck on cheese or something, well... it helps to have really hot water.

      The other caveat is that you have to use some sort of rinse aid or the dishes end up with food particles left on them. I think this is because it uses so little water. I've had really good luck with Finish Powerball tabs - the rinse agent included in the tabs seems to be enough on its own without adding the liquid stuff. For a while I was putting white vinegar in the rinse compartment, but I read somewhere that this could damage the machine, so I stopped doing it and haven't noticed any bad results.

      But it's really, really quiet - which I totally LOVE. Seriously, the noisiest part of the cycle is when the compartment opens and the Powerball Tab falls down and makes a "clunk." And since I switched to the Powerball tabs, I've only had one or two instances where things didn't get totally clean - and I think those were cases where I loaded the thing wrong and got one of the swinging arms stuck.

      The only other thing that is a tad bit annoying is that the arm that sprays the top shelf usually ends up with leftover water in it when the load is finished. So I make a practice of pulling the top shelf out first and tapping that arm a few times to get the water to run out so it doesn't drip all over the stuff on the bottom shelf. Oh, and you can put plastic on the bottom shelf which is really nice for tall stuff like bike water bottles, but the plastic won't get completely dry like metal, glass and ceramic does - not sure why.

      OK! So that's my report on the dishwasher. All in all, this is hands down the best dishwasher I've ever owned. Not having to pre-rinse everything is amazing... you just put dirty dishes in and clean ones come out! Imagine that!

      Anyhow, hope something in there helps you with your decision. :-)

      Delete
    2. KrisSeptember 4, 2015 at 2:15 PM

      Thanks for taking the time to comment--I appreciate it! I am definitely leaning heavily toward the Ascenta. I'm milking our current one along until school starts and I have time to do serious shopping. I've never liked it (it's always had a gremlin in the electronics) and now the soap release tab doesn't work (I use the Finish powertabs and throw one in the bottom currently) and something funky is going on in the "guts" requiring me to clean them out frequently (like, every 2 weeks ... we use our unit daily). It irritates me that it isn't better made--hoping for better luck next time around!!!!!!!!!!

      Delete
  2. Gestalt GirlSeptember 5, 2015 at 1:49 PM

    Well......I sympathise with your introspective mood but thanks for introducing me to some great tracks and artists!

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