I was given a very old dishwasher and after finally plugging it in I am not sure what cycles correspond with what letters and the obvious cycle (D) seems to take hours.
I hope that someone knows what the letters mean?

Cassia Kelsall, June 2008

I have this dishwasher and still have the manual.
A is a pre rinse - machine will stop after this (meant to rinse dishes while you wait for the washer to fill up to run a full load).
B is prewash. Heavy cycle starts here. Water will be at inlet temp. Machine will continue on to -
C, another prewash at incoming temp. Normal cycle starts here. Machine will continue on to -
D economy wash. Water will be at temp selected at the front (heated by element). Detergent will be added. Machine will continue on to-
E Dry cycle. Element will be on or off depending on switch on the front.
The second switch from the left (on the front) will add an extra 12 minute soak period for really dirty stuff in the D cycle.

Magic Hat, July 2008

Sorry, I know this isn't an answer, but the previous answer didn't fully answer the questions, and I don't want to start a new post.

We recently moved into a house with one of these. All we know is that someone's put a white dot near the "D" that seems to be their preferred cycle. If we use that, we find that dishes are clean but need to air-dry for several hours before we can put them away, which suggests that drying isn't being done properly, if at all.

If "C" is normal, should we use that instead? Or will that wash and not dry? And what is "E"? Any help would be appreciated.

Stuart Travers, June 2008

A IS PREWASH B is HEAVY C is NORMAL D is DRY CYCLE HOPE THIS HELPS

ken knipe, June 2008