Today, I washed my hands at the kitchen sink while making lunch, and was unexpectedly chastised by my partner because she had just started the dishwasher. Apparently, she has recently come across something that has convinced her that running the hot water in your sink means the water that enters your dishwasher will be hotter (checks out), and thus the dishes will be cleaner. I tried searching startpage to see if this is real, but I couldn’t make it through even one llm-slop-ticle about it before my eyes rolled back into my head, so here I am asking y’all: chat, is this real? Doesn’t my dishwasher have a heating element? Is there any meaningful difference between heating the water with a hot water heater vs a dishwasher, other than I can’t use my sink while the dishwasher is filling and I have to pour a bunch of cool water down the drain?
Your dishwasher uses hot water so if you run your sink until hot water is coming out before running your dishwasher it means it’s immediately getting hot water. It’s about clearing the cold water out of your pipe.
Whether or not you can use the sink while the dishes are being washed depends on your water heater. If you can wash your hands while someone is taking a shower without blasting them with cold water then you should be fine to use your sink while the dishes are being washed.