You apparently have an installation problem with your DishDrawer. There shouldn't be any "dirty/smelly" water pooling in either the upper or lower drawer unless it's back-feeding from the sink or disposer. My unit is over 8 years old and I've *never* had water pooling in either drawer.

Any water dripping from wet dishes placed inside would accumulate and won't drain out unless the unit is run, but that'd be clean water and it wouldn't be much.

I'd recommend against using the unit as a "drying rack." I assume in doing that, you load wet dishes then close the drawer. There's no active airflow through the closed drawer, nothing to provide for evaporation and dispersal of the moisture, and no way to set it for a "dry only" cycle. Much more facilitating to simply place your wet items on a dishrack in your sink or on the countertop beside it.

I'm also not understanding why you'd buy a dishwasher and not use it for washing dishes. ?????

Thanks for the response!

We don't typically use the dishwasher (only for large gatherings) but we do sometimes store large dinnerware to dry in it when our actual drying rack is full. But you're correct in that there's very little evaporation when its sealed shut.

I guess I was incorrectly under the assumption that a dishwasher would drain any water that pools up as the result of dishes drying in there. Although looking at the plumbing now, that looks impossible. I guess that's normal.

The smelly water seems like a bit of the disposal unit pushing back and we should get that looked at.

Thanks again

Dishwashers do not drain via gravity. An electric pump runs for draining the wash and rinse water, and of course to spray water over the dishware (your unit takes approx 0.8 gal per fill) for washing and rinsing.

My strong recommendation is to USE the dishwasher. It's not providing any benefit to you sitting idle. The cost per load is quite low. You don't have to run it after every meal or even every day. I'm a single-person household. Not unusual that it takes two or three days to collect a full load (in one drawer) if I haven't done much cooking. The dishes wait patiently. And it's NOT necessary to rinse the items before loading. Dump and scrape off food bits and scraps, yes ... rinse under a running faucet, no.

The dishwasher is the most sanitary drying rack you could use, not to mention spacious. Think about it, how often do people wash drying racks? And on top of that, I've seen many people who have allowed mold and mildew to grow along with sitting water in the catch tray. Assuming you allow the dishes to dry before closing the door, running a cycle once a week will keep the machine clean and in working order. The above answers assume you're dumping gallons of water into the bottom, but if you use common sense and... don't do this? There's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

No, I don't think (many) people use the dishdrawer as a drying rack when not in use. You would have to leave it open so it could properly air dry and that is probably completely inconvenient. If it doesn't dry, it will stink. What bothers you about using the dishwasher? Why are you washing items and then only willing to use it as a drying rack? Do you have only one or two place settings that you have to wash and reuse at each meal?

Most African American, Latin American and Asian American families use the dishwasher as a drying rack. Many families do not use enough dishes on a daily basis to justify running the dishwasher and prefer to keep the sink empty of dirty dishes at all times.

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/why-i-stopped-using-a-dishwasher/

I used my dishwasher primarily as a drying rack for the last 4-5 years. I rarely had enough dirty dishes accumulated to run it regularly. Just to stack dirty dishes for a long time resulted in lots of crusties but to rinse them off well enough to prevent that used almost as as much water and time as just hand washing. I agree with some of the previous posts that your plumbing set up may not be correct. Not enough water should accumulate from use as a drying rack to result in stinky smells.

I'm really curious about this - do people who use a DW as a drying rack buy it intending to use it for that purpose? That's a pretty expensive drying rack!

@sjhockeyfan325

For us, the dishwasher came with the house, so we might as well make use of the space.

I'll also admit to only using our dishwasher to store and dry dishes. Came with the house as well, and I assume not having one would turn off some future buyers so it will stay.

I don't use enough dishes on a daily basis to justify running it each night either… I have place settings for 12 (always ready to accommodate friends at the table). Without guests, it usually takes the two of us four days to fill up the dishwasher, when it is full we run it. For reasons unclear to me, many other people have multiple placesettings (or even multiple sets of dishes) but they prefer to use the same glass, cup, plate, bowl, knife, fork and spoon over and over and over (why?) and, more importantly, I have often found that they clean these items using copious amounts of running water - thereby defeating any economic or ecological savings that a dishwasher might provide... but it is so trendy, so minimalist to have exactly the one thing that is needed and not one bit more. I have found that many people, men in particular, insist that the dishes need to be hand washed and that the dishwasher is for lazy people and is a waste of time and money... It never gets filled up blah blah blah... I don't buy that argument at all. Handwashing is easier only if you have your someone else in your house doing it!

I am a single-person household. Generally takes 2 to 4 days to accumulate a load to run, depending on how much cooking occurs. Doesn't matter, and no need to rinse the "crusties" .. the machine handles it.

I'm a single person and the dishwasher came with the house. I use it when I have a large load but not for daily use. I use just enough dishes for the two meals I usually eat at home per day, so I put my evening dishes in the sink and wash them in the morning with my breakfast dishes which I put in the dishwasher to dry. After I rinse one dish, I hold it over the sink to allow it to drip dry for a moment while I rinse the next with my other hand. When I'm done washing them all, I push the rack in and tilt the door halfway to allow the remaining drip water that has accumulated on the door to pool at the bottom of the door without letting it drain into the dishwasher (which is very bad over time for the dishwasher as that will rust out the bottom). There's not much water on the door because of my drip dray method. I sponge up the remaining water, maybe a couple of spoonfuls, and close the door about 80% so that air will circulate. EasyPeasy. The next meal I just use the dishes in the dishwasher without ever having to put them away. I'm building a camper van rv right now and I have the dish rack from an old dishwasher. I'm going to add a specific drawer just for this rack so that I can use it basically as I do at home. Figure it will be a fine way to both dry and store the primary dishes I use. I was searching the internet to see if any others had done a similar thing when I found this discussion. Thought I'd chime in.

Dishwashers generally use a lot less water and energy (for heating) than hand washing. They do use electricity though (for circulating/pumping water). I don't know which resources are scarcest in an RV.

A quick web search suggests that dishwashers for use in RVs are generally more compact. That defeats some of the savings, but it means you don't need to lug as much stuff with you in order to fill a full load.

At home, clearly the most economical and environmental option is to have enough dishes to always fill the dishwasher and to avoid hand washing. But not everybody wants to optimize for saving money and the environment ... and of course there is an upfront investment to think of too.

If you absolutely insist on using an appliance to dry dishes, there are in fact dish drying machines. They're not very common in the US, but you can find them in many parts of Asia. Often, they're countertop devices, but I've also seen built-ins.

Dish drying racks obviously exist too. I wouldn't recommend placing one into a drawer, as that's bound to eventually get moldy even if you mostly dry the dishes. And if you perfectly dry them before putting them away, then why bother with a rack? Instead, just place them back into more compact storage.

I understand that the dishwater doesn't use much water, but I use a small plastic tub for the washing that I only fill with about 1 1/2" quarts of water. I also installed an izi-flow foot pedal valve that lets me turn the water on and off with my foot. I just don't use that much water to rinse. I also don't like having a full dishwasher that I have to empty. I'm so efficient with my method that I'm done in about two minutes. My rv is a van so there's no room for any kind of dishwasher or drying apparatus. With the rack drawer I can put them in and drive off and they'll be safe whereas if the dishes are on the counter in a dish rack, I'd have to completely dry them off and store them away before I can drive off. As to mold, that won't become an issue. I'll have the drawer bottom lined with a nonabsorbent, closed cell foam covered with a towel that I can wash whenever I feel the need to. With the small amount of water left over to drip off once i put the dishes in the rack, they'll never be enough moisture to last long enough to create mold. That, and I'll leave the draw open partway for air circulation to facilitate drying of the dishes and the towel. And the drawer will be secured a few inches in the open position so all will be safe even when I'm driving. Gotta remember KISS (keep it simple ...)

For an RV, you might very well make the correct trade off. It's admittedly a very different situation than a home. The need to be able to move at and time is definitely something that homeowners wouldn't care about.

But you're still using more water than a good dishwasher. An average dishwasher needs 15 liters per cycle. A really good one needs 6.5 liters. That's only about 4 times the amount of your bowl of dish water. And that's not even counting the amount of water that you use for rinsing. You probably easily use half as much water as a dishwashing cycle.

But you use that much water each time, whereas a dishwasher could wash half a dozen or even a full dozen of dishes on this amount of water.

Dishwashers are crazy efficient these days. And that's even more impressive when you consider that most people don't go to as extreme measures as you do when washing by hand.

Now, whether any of that matters in your case is a different story. At some point you reach diminishing returns

Now, if I could find a dishwasher that would do my yard work, I'd gladly turn that task over to it. For some reason, I just don't mind whipping out washing my few dishes. Go figure.