Dish washer or washing up ?

[ColinJ]

Wow, what a brilliant idea!

There is a dishwasher in the rental property that I live in and I have never even bothered to check if it works - It just sits there wasting space. I never thought of using it for storage!

Sorted!

 

[Dirk]

The one thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is the hygiene factor.
No wiping plates and cutlery dry with tea towels full of all sorts of bacteria that might have been festering within.
I know it's a purely personal observation, but from the moment we started using a dishwasher we started to get less colds, sore throats etc.

 

[JtB]

The one thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is the hygiene factor.
No wiping plates and cutlery dry with tea towels full of all sorts of bacteria that might have been festering within.
I know it's a purely personal observation, but from the moment we started using a dishwasher we started to get less colds, sore throats etc.

Was about to say the same thing.

We use the dishwasher, but on ocasiones when we wash by hand it’s under a hot running tap with a soapy cloth, followed by a rinse under the hot running tap and left to drain. Swilling things round in a washing up basin full of soapy / dirty water and drying with a dirty tea towel seems very unhygienic. In many countries it’s customary for the kitchen unit over sink to have a rack for draining so they don’t have the need for dirty tea towels.

 

[swee'pea99]

Never understood drying up. If you leave it for a while it dries itself. I call that a no-brainer.

Other than that, dishwasher for most stuff, every couple of days typically, washing up for frying pans, wooden stuff & the like.

 

[mjr]

The actual numbers are quite surprising:

https://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/built-in-dishwashers-vs-hand-washing-which-is-greener.html

Built in dishwasher vs. hand-washing: And the winner is...
These numbers indicate that it's possible to be more efficient when hand-washing, but it's pretty tough. Can you successfully wash and rinse a soiled dinner plate in just over a cup of water? If you can keep the water use low, equal to an efficient machine, you'll require less energy, but doing an entire load of dishes in 4 gallons of water is roughly equivalent to doing them all in the same amount of water you use in 96 seconds of showering (using a showerhead that emits 2.5 gallons per minute).

Those actual numbers are quite surprising. 4 gallons?!? Assuming US gallons (as it's treehugger quoting EnergyStar, both US), that's over 15 litres, bigger than my garden bucket, let alone the 10 litre watering can. And that's a good dishwasher - they say the average is 50% more than that! And as others mention, you're told to rinse stuff off first, using more water, but I'm not sure how many do, as you're also told not to let used dishes fester in the machine and many seem to do that until they build up a full load, maybe because it's difficult to break a capsule or tablet in half to do a half load?

An "Addis Essentials" large black washing up bowl is 9½ litres. A small one maybe 6 litres. If you want to save water, get a small washing up bowl of fairly insulating plastic, not a dishwasher.

 

[mjr]

Dishwasher, every time. Gets motorcycle parts much cleaner than washing by hand.

Did you break your washing machine, me duck?

 

[mjr]

Swilling things round in a washing up basin full of soapy / dirty water and drying with a dirty tea towel seems very unhygienic.

Use a clean tea towel and keep the water soapy and soap will hold the dirt in the water and off the plates - that's how soap works, consisting of long-chain molecules with hydrophilic and hydrophobic ends.

 

[raleighnut]

The Dishwasher gets used if we have friends/family round for a meal but normal 'day to day' pots get washed in the sink.

 

[nickyboy]

Run the dishwasher every day, even if not totally full

Hand wash fancy glassware and some expensive pans. Otherwise it all goes in

I remember buying a house in 1993 and it had a space in the kitchen. No idea what it was for until MiL told me it was for a dishwasher. So I bought one, the first of our friends to do so. How la de dah ! Wouldn't be without one now

 

[Sharky]

They are great. Sometimes I wish I had two. So one would hold the clean stuff and then transfer to the second as they get dirty to be washed.
Then no need for storage cupboards.

 

[Skibird]

New kitchen/Dishwasher 18mths ago, never even been switched on!

 

[Sjw]

Dishwasher every day.

 

[slowmotion]

Ours used to have a canine pre-wash cycle.

 

[spen666]

Was about to say the same thing.

......

How did you know about @Dirk and his family's health

 

[Dave 123]

In our first house we had a dishwasher fitted in the small kitchen. We used it as a cupboard.

These days we use the dishwasher about 2-3 times a week, but it’s a pain to unload.
I quite like washing dishes too.