Dish Soap Rinsing

Mar 26, 2011
3,401
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
Plates are not the issue. They are easy to clean. The frying pans and pots are the problem. Near Boston Harbor the sea water is not clean. Diluting dish soap in a spray bottle sounds like a good idea. Interesting thought about dishwasher rinse aid; needs research. Took all my powers of persuasion to get the Admiral to not use hot water to wash dishes. Save that for showers. We do use teflon pans and that helps. My standard poodle, Argos, would approve of Rick's suggestion. One of our problems is finding a fresh water source while cruising. You can get it in a marina but marina stays are expensive. You can get it when you stop at a fuel dock but we only do that about twice a season. A water maker is simply out of my league. There certainly was a lot of rain around this year while we were cruising. Still thinking.
The easist way to get hot water for washing is to put a little water in the dirty skilet with a few drops of soap, put it on the burner for a minute, and then let it soak. No waste. I learned that one camping 40 years ago! My last boat had an instant heater, and still, that is how I did most pots. So easy.
 

SFS

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Aug 18, 2015
2,066
Currently Boatless Okinawa
The easist way to get hot water for washing is to put a little water in the dirty skilet with a few drops of soap, put it on the burner for a minute, and then let it soak. No waste. I learned that one camping 40 years ago! My last boat had an instant heater, and still, that is how I did most pots. So easy.
Plus the pan or pot becomes "the sink" from which you wash all the other dishes, washing the pan last. It uses a lot of water to put just an inch of water in any sink, so don't. Let the pan be the sink. Tertiary benefit: if you are careful, this method keeps the sink clean(er), so you don't need to use MORE water to clean the sink.

For rinsing, we didn't have a spray bottle (fabulous idea!), so I used an old plastic bottle that previously held dishwashing liquid. The amount of water coming out can be as little as a dribble if you don't squeeze the bottle, and beyond that things are very controllable with "squeeze force" (or lack thereof). It's also instant off, so you don't lose any precious drops in the 1.7 seconds it would take you to reach for and turn a faucet off. Our bottle was clear, so I also had constant feedback on how much water I was using to rinse a meal's worth of dishes.