hand-washing dishes versus dishwasher...

[roadrash]

i think dishwashers are brilliant ....mines called mrs. roadrash

 

[Silver Fox]

Dishwashers are great. In a previous life I had one but manage alright without one these days.

 

[Jane Smart]

I love my dishwasher, got my first one in 1989 and have not looked back since. Only thing is, the one job in the house i HATE is emptying the dishwasher, so sometimes i was the dishes, just to get out of emptying the clean dishes to put in the dirty ones, now explain that one

 

[Oxo]

Best kitchen appliance ever, but even so I still wash dishes from time to time.

 

[asterix]

They may be a ginormous waste of energy, but I would not part with mine.

At one stage we were considering having two, because you always end up with a dishwasher full of clean dishes and a sink full of dirty ones. Two dishwashers mean that you can just move dishes from one to the other without having to put them away in between.

Have you thought of just binning the dirty dishes and using new ones?

 

[User482]

A good dishwasher will use 15 litres or less of water and 1KWh electricity on the eco cycle. Considering we only put ours on every other day, 15 litres is a lot less than washing up several times (a sink of water is about 10 litres), and the electricity costs about 14p.

Of course, that ignores all of the resources needed to make and transport a new dishwasher, which are significant.

 

[Linford]

A good dishwasher will use 15 litres or less of water and 1KWh electricity on the eco cycle. Considering we only put ours on every other day, 15 litres is a lot less than washing up several times (a sink of water is about 10 litres), and the electricity costs about 14p.

Of course, that ignores all of the resources needed to make and transport a new dishwasher, which are significant.

I'd say they are very good value for money given the labour they save (time is money). Most in the UK seem to come from Italy, or Slovenia.
We had a Zanussi for about 20 years which gave sterling service, and now got a Bosch for about 4 years.
The only thing is to not put anything which has a significant amount of grease on it in there like a frying pan or baking tray as the outlet pipe is narrow, and will eventually clog with it which then goes solid and downright nasty to clean out when it stops the machine from draining - which happened a couple of years ago with ours. Mrs Linf was not happy when it was out of action and leaned on me fairly heavily to sort it out.

 

[numbnuts]

No machine for me

 

[swee'pea99]

I like to defy my 'no spatial awareness' rep with a nightly display of ingenious packing. The trick being to always leave at least some gap for the water to get thru. 'er indores gets the hump (she empties) and loves to wave things at me that haven't quite cleaned - of course I have the incentive that anything I can't get in the machine, I have to wash by hand. Now, if I just wiggle that cup a bit and put that masher over there instead...

Oh, absolutely wouldn't ever be without one. Incidentally, they're the one thing Miele has never really been very good at. Bosch or Siemens are the ones to go for.

 

[Maz]

Thank you for the answers.
I'm still amazed that a good one will use less water and energy than hand-washing.

Excuse my ignorance, but does a dishwasher also dry the items or does it just leave them to drain?

 

[ianrauk]

Thank you for the answers.
I'm still amazed that a good one will use less water and energy than hand-washing.

Excuse my ignorance, but does a dishwasher also dry the items or does it just leave them to drain?

Dries them also.
Unless you are like Mrs Ian who opens the door to check letting all the drying hot air out...

 

[fossyant]

We actually got rid of our dishwasher. Didn't use it enough. I tended to wash the dishes by hand anyway !

 

[Maz]

Bosch or Siemens are the ones to go for.

Or Smeg?
Now I can't help thinking about Kryten's inability to say 'Smeg'..."Smeeee heeee, Smeee eeee...". Just not programmed for it, I guess!

 

[Night Train]

Isnt this why one gets married??

This is what I offered to Arch, she cooks, I wash up and do laundry.


I have a dishwasher, it is a Bocsh, and I think it was also AAA rated, and does indeed appear to use less water and energy for a full load then I would do at the sink. However, I am often only producing very little washing up so I hand wash unless there is a lot of pots and pans in one go.
I do tend to soak stubborn pans and plates a while first or give them a good scouring in the sink to remove egg yolk, cereal and anything else that sets like concrete before loading the machine. I also removed all food still on the plates (I can't believe some people still think their dishwasher is a waste disposal machine!) by scraping off into the food waste bin. That has ensured that nothing comes out with food still on it, nor food being reprocessed back onto the plates.

My parents produce a lot of washing up but refuse to have a dishwasher. They remember the ones of old that never worked, used loads of water and electricity and only produced warm wet plates with food still on them and Dad reckons they are no better and washing up gives Mum something to do. Mum might disagree on that point.

The other issue is that we, as a family, tend to wash in running water or rinse everything if it has been washed in a bowl or a full sink. That also uses a lot of water but we don't tend to like the film of dirty water and suds that dry on the plates. The dishwasher avoids that.
It also washes at a higher temperature then hand washing and so is good for killing bugs. It is a good idea to put dish cloths, scrubbies and brushes in the top of the dishwasher to give them a good clean too. Tea towels can go in the laundry at 60c.

My last use for my dishwasher is for cleaning Lego Technic models. I put a stainless steel scourer in the filter to catch the small bricks that may fall off and then the whole model, less motors, gets washed.

It is quiet too, less noise then my tumble dryer.

 

[tyred]

They're wonderful for cleaning Sturmey Archer hub internals