when hand washing dishes, how hot should the rinse water be, and why?
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No hot water is needed. If the tap water is very cold, and you have running hot water, go for it. The grease should be taken off by the soap. Do soak/ rinse your plate as soon as you are done with it, so food doesn’t dry on. Then you can wash when convenient.
Since you said rinse water specifically: as hot as you can handle. The hotter it is, the faster it evaporates and the easier it is to dry. More labour efficient. However, open a window or turn on a dehumidifier to keep your internal home environment at an agreeable humidity level.
Boiling, and you should wear (thick rubber) gloves so you can still grab dishes out of it.
The hotter the water, the easier stuff disintegrates, and the less chemicals you need for cleaning.
Just use the cold tap. The dishes should already be clean after scrubbing/wiping with soap and water. The rinse is purely to remove the leftover suds and any remnants of the food that’s already been loosened.
Hot as I can stand it for rinsing; in fact, I keep my water heater almost-too-hot now that my kids are grown. If you rinse with very hot water and stack the dishes in a drainer properly, they’ll be dry in a couple minutes. So – no drying.
Anything with proteins is best cold, proteins tend to get sticky/harden when heat is applied. But if you’re talking about rinsing off the soap after washing them, then it doesn’t really matter hot water just evaporates faster
It’s actually not that necessary to be hot. Hot water when combined with soap does help breakdown and wash away grease, germs, and dirt down the drain. But it is not hot enough to actually kill the germs, the water would have to be boiling hot for several minutes. So it should really be as warm as comfortable for your hands, and no hotter.
Dishwashing machines can be better for this reason… they can use superhot steam to disinfect the dishes (though the downsides is this can ruin certain dishes if they are not dishwasher safe).
Alternatively, they also have dish sanitizer for hand washing… this is a chemical you mix in a sink or tub of water and dip the dishes in as the final step, typically used in restaurants and such that have a 3-basin dishwashing sink.
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