Don't Believe This Viral TikTok Dishwasher Hack

TikTok might be where you go to unwind or to pass the time, but it probably shouldn't be the place you go to learn life skills. As tempting as all those supposedly life-changing hacks are, many of them are fake, designed to get views and comments rather than to share useful information.

Take this recent TikTok sensation posted by user jasminegazelle. In it, they claim that hanging a towel partway in the dishwasher and leaving it for 20 minutes after the cycle finishes will "[absorb] all the extra moisture and your dishes will be bone dry" (via TikTok). Unfortunately, when The Takeout's Marnie Shure tested this claim, it proved to be hogwash. Or, in her words: "the towel did not suddenly begin acting like a dishwasher dehumidifier," even when given a full 30 minutes. Bummer, right? But why do some dishes not fully dry in the dishwasher while others do?

Well, according to The Kitchn, one reason might be because "glass, ceramic, and metal tend to retain heat, which translates to drier dishes. Plastic, on the other hand, is less dense and doesn't hold onto as much heat, which means your containers don't get to dry." Of course, there are other reasons your dishes might not be drying, from how you load them to the cycle you choose to the machine itself. So, if this hack doesn't do anything for those still-wet dishwasher dishes, what are you supposed to do about them?

The good news is you don't need a towel to solve the problem of the still-wet dishes sitting in your dishwasher. Start by making sure you leave space between your dishes when loading the dishwasher to allow for air circulation, and make a habit of opening the machine at the end of its cycle to release the steam (via Reviewed). These practices alone should cut down on the number of dishes you need to dry by hand. If that doesn't help, try choosing a different cycle or using a rinse aid product. Rinse aid is not designed rinse dishes, strangely enough, but to help promote drying and water drainage after the final rinse cycle and "to prevent the accumulation of water droplets that would otherwise dry as streaks or small spots" (via Home Depot).

While none of these options are as flashy as a towel hack you learned from TikTok, trying out rinse aid will only cost a few bucks ... and it's much more likely to actually work.