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Semi-related: anyone here, like me, not find automated dishwashers very useful? To me it seems to take nearly the same amount of soap exposure, and time at the

Semi-related: anyone here, like me, not find automated dishwashers very useful? To me it seems to take nearly the same amount of soap exposure, and time at the sink, to wash dishes by hand. Maybe if I needed gloves, I'd get frustrated with the smell your hands take on from dishgloves, but honestly washing dishes (particularly dishes that aren't precious) is pretty easy.

redmorphium 6y ago
a lot of people tend to think you need to pre-rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. no, you don't: in fact, this can remove the substrate that's needed for the detergent to be most effective. most of my dishes, which I have a lot of: finish eating/drinking, straight in, no sink stage.
- nradov 6y ago
  Somehow I've never been able to convince my wife to stop pre-rinsing.
- aidenn0 6y ago
  Maybe because when people get their first dishwasher, they are single and it takes days to get a full load? When food hardens overnight they work a lot less well.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  How often do you clean the filter in the sump?
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    Mine has a line that runs to my garbage disposal, so normally no special cleaning is needed.
    - vel0city 6y ago
      Most dishwashers are designed to drain into the disposal, but they usually still have some kind of filter going to the sump before that line. Maybe you have some extraordinary model which truly has no sump filter, but otherwise you should still regularly examine and clean out your sump filter even if your dishwasher drains to the disposal. The water in the dishwasher is being reused by the pump and sprayer while in cycle. The sump filter ensures no particles larger than the sprayer heads are being sucked up by the pump and pushed through to the sprayer jets, as tough food particles could damage the pump or get clogged into the sprayer heads.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    Every week or so; takes a few minutes. You'll need to do this even if you 'pre-rinse', btw.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Don't most dishwashers do a rinse cycle first before adding the detergent?
NikolaeVarius 6y ago
I think the calculus changes when more than one person eating is involved, especially when the ratio skews more eating than washing
- porknubbins 6y ago
  Two people in a small apartment and currently spend 15-20 minutes a day hand washing but I feel like its right on the line where 3 or more people it is clearly faster to machine wash.
  - vazamb 6y ago
    We are in a similar situation, both working from home. It very much depends on how lazy we are during the day. If musli bowls and lunch plates haven't been handwashed when we start cooking dinner it's a "dishwasher day". We have a half size one, which means one day's worth of dishes fills it up at least 3/4. I suspect it might be more water efficient and energy efficient to do this instead of repeatedly heating up water, which takes 30s or so and wastes a lot of cold water / hot water that gets left to cool down in the pipes.
  - microcolonel 6y ago
    I tend to wash the cookware while I'm cooking, and wash my dishes when I'm done, rather than letting them pile up. It takes a handful of seconds each time, and they're often seconds I can't spend anywhere else to begin with.
- HenryKissinger 6y ago
  As a single person I can wash my dishes in less than a minute. Glass, plate no. 1, plate no. 2, bowl, fork, knife, no more than a few seconds each.
  - dzhiurgis 6y ago
    Yes if you eat microwaved crap. Try cooking sometimes.
29athrowaway 6y ago
It depends what you are washing. If you live by yourself and only have to wash one bowl and one spoon every day, a dishwasher can be overkill. But that's not the situation for everyone. If you have a larger family with babies, a dishwasher can be very useful. Baby bottles have many of different parts and washing them by hand can be time consuming, baby toys can be washed in the dishwasher as well... And if you cook your own food rather than buying prepared food, you'll also be washing a lot of stuff: frying pans, pots, cutting boards, blender cups, etc.
- dzhiurgis 6y ago
  If you are single washing sex toys is useful
tachyonbeam 6y ago
Same. I live alone. I have a spot for a dishwasher under my counter, and I could afford one, but I've chosen not to own one. The problem is that there are many things you can't wash in the dishwasher, and it often does a poor job, you have to pre-rinse some things. At the end of the day, it's like, whatever, I can spend 5 minutes a day washing dishes. But I agree with others, it might make more sense when you have a family with several people.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  Even with a family it's not that bad. The worst items are pots and pans but dishwashers don't do a great job on them anyway.
- wlll 6y ago
  > The problem is that there are many things you can't wash in the dishwasher I have had a dishwasher for years. I either don't buy stuff you can't wash in the dishwasher, or wash it in the dishwasher anyway because I have better things to do than pamper some random crockery. Except my chefs knives which never get put in there, but they are the exception. > you have to pre-rinse some things For me (and we cook every meal) it's the minority. It's a rarity that we ever pre-rinse. If I lived alone it might feel differently about having a dishwasher, but it was life changing when we got one after our second child was born. However, I wouldn't not get one for the reasons you listed.
goda90 6y ago
I'm looking forward to the dish washing robot to be invented. Something that can actually scrub a dish, not just spray it. Combine it with an automatic cabinet so you don't even need to unload it.
willbw 6y ago
If you cook for 4+ people they are super useful. It's not just the time saving, you also can just eat your meal and relax for the rest of the evening, compared to having to wash stuff up - even for a small time.
elteto 6y ago
> ... is pretty easy It's not that it is complicated, it's the amount of it. Your threshold may vary, but I find that with 3+ adults, or 2 adults and children (one or more) then I prefer the dishwasher. To me a dishwasher is the equivalent of asynchronous execution: load it up, start it and come back a few hours later to clean and dry dishes. In the meantime I keep on doing whatever else I need to do, which is something probably more important than doing dishes. Another thing that helps is having extra dishes and silverware. That way I keep on loading during the day and turn it on only once before going to bed (pots and pans that are not solid metal we still have to do by hand though).
scollet 6y ago
Also therapeutic if you view it as natural upkeep.
wlll 6y ago
> anyone here, like me, not find automated dishwashers very useful? No, when we got our fist dishwasher after our second child was born the dishwasher was like a miracle. We got so much time back each evening. It was life changing. > same amount of soap exposure, and time at the sink, to wash dishes by hand. What are you doing with your dishwasher that requires any soap exposure? With ours there is none. Scrape the dish into the bin/compost, stick it in the dishwasher. Every once in a while something will require a cursory rince with cold water before just to dislodge any stubborn food bits, but most of the time no prep is required.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I've always found it a bit surprising that dishwashers were relatively slow to take off in the US relative to other major appliances. Even living mostly by myself, I find it extremely useful and would strongly dislike not having one.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
I did my dishes by hand for years after moving out; on my own, it was just once a week, took about 20-30 minutes. Now I own a house and have a small (3 person, 4 animal) household, and the thing runs daily. To me it makes a ton of difference; to the family I wouldn't be able to rely on the others, because the one is a teenage child and the other has debilitating joint problems. I'd rather load / run / unload the thing every day than do things by hand again.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

redmorphium 6y ago

a lot of people tend to think you need to pre-rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. no, you don't: in fact, this can remove the substrate that's needed for the detergent to be most effective. most of my dishes, which I have a lot of: finish eating/drinking, straight in, no sink stage.

nradov 6y ago
Somehow I've never been able to convince my wife to stop pre-rinsing.
aidenn0 6y ago
Maybe because when people get their first dishwasher, they are single and it takes days to get a full load? When food hardens overnight they work a lot less well.
wombatmobile 6y ago
How often do you clean the filter in the sump?
- crooked-v 6y ago
  Mine has a line that runs to my garbage disposal, so normally no special cleaning is needed.
  - vel0city 6y ago
    Most dishwashers are designed to drain into the disposal, but they usually still have some kind of filter going to the sump before that line. Maybe you have some extraordinary model which truly has no sump filter, but otherwise you should still regularly examine and clean out your sump filter even if your dishwasher drains to the disposal. The water in the dishwasher is being reused by the pump and sprayer while in cycle. The sump filter ensures no particles larger than the sprayer heads are being sucked up by the pump and pushed through to the sprayer jets, as tough food particles could damage the pump or get clogged into the sprayer heads.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- rsynnott 6y ago
  Every week or so; takes a few minutes. You'll need to do this even if you 'pre-rinse', btw.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Don't most dishwashers do a rinse cycle first before adding the detergent?

NikolaeVarius 6y ago

I think the calculus changes when more than one person eating is involved, especially when the ratio skews more eating than washing

porknubbins 6y ago
Two people in a small apartment and currently spend 15-20 minutes a day hand washing but I feel like its right on the line where 3 or more people it is clearly faster to machine wash.
- vazamb 6y ago
  We are in a similar situation, both working from home. It very much depends on how lazy we are during the day. If musli bowls and lunch plates haven't been handwashed when we start cooking dinner it's a "dishwasher day". We have a half size one, which means one day's worth of dishes fills it up at least 3/4. I suspect it might be more water efficient and energy efficient to do this instead of repeatedly heating up water, which takes 30s or so and wastes a lot of cold water / hot water that gets left to cool down in the pipes.
- microcolonel 6y ago
  I tend to wash the cookware while I'm cooking, and wash my dishes when I'm done, rather than letting them pile up. It takes a handful of seconds each time, and they're often seconds I can't spend anywhere else to begin with.
HenryKissinger 6y ago
As a single person I can wash my dishes in less than a minute. Glass, plate no. 1, plate no. 2, bowl, fork, knife, no more than a few seconds each.
- dzhiurgis 6y ago
  Yes if you eat microwaved crap. Try cooking sometimes.

29athrowaway 6y ago

It depends what you are washing. If you live by yourself and only have to wash one bowl and one spoon every day, a dishwasher can be overkill. But that's not the situation for everyone. If you have a larger family with babies, a dishwasher can be very useful. Baby bottles have many of different parts and washing them by hand can be time consuming, baby toys can be washed in the dishwasher as well... And if you cook your own food rather than buying prepared food, you'll also be washing a lot of stuff: frying pans, pots, cutting boards, blender cups, etc.

dzhiurgis 6y ago
If you are single washing sex toys is useful

tachyonbeam 6y ago

Same. I live alone. I have a spot for a dishwasher under my counter, and I could afford one, but I've chosen not to own one. The problem is that there are many things you can't wash in the dishwasher, and it often does a poor job, you have to pre-rinse some things. At the end of the day, it's like, whatever, I can spend 5 minutes a day washing dishes. But I agree with others, it might make more sense when you have a family with several people.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago
Even with a family it's not that bad. The worst items are pots and pans but dishwashers don't do a great job on them anyway.
wlll 6y ago
> The problem is that there are many things you can't wash in the dishwasher I have had a dishwasher for years. I either don't buy stuff you can't wash in the dishwasher, or wash it in the dishwasher anyway because I have better things to do than pamper some random crockery. Except my chefs knives which never get put in there, but they are the exception. > you have to pre-rinse some things For me (and we cook every meal) it's the minority. It's a rarity that we ever pre-rinse. If I lived alone it might feel differently about having a dishwasher, but it was life changing when we got one after our second child was born. However, I wouldn't not get one for the reasons you listed.

goda90 6y ago

I'm looking forward to the dish washing robot to be invented. Something that can actually scrub a dish, not just spray it. Combine it with an automatic cabinet so you don't even need to unload it.

willbw 6y ago

If you cook for 4+ people they are super useful. It's not just the time saving, you also can just eat your meal and relax for the rest of the evening, compared to having to wash stuff up - even for a small time.

elteto 6y ago

> ... is pretty easy It's not that it is complicated, it's the amount of it. Your threshold may vary, but I find that with 3+ adults, or 2 adults and children (one or more) then I prefer the dishwasher. To me a dishwasher is the equivalent of asynchronous execution: load it up, start it and come back a few hours later to clean and dry dishes. In the meantime I keep on doing whatever else I need to do, which is something probably more important than doing dishes. Another thing that helps is having extra dishes and silverware. That way I keep on loading during the day and turn it on only once before going to bed (pots and pans that are not solid metal we still have to do by hand though).

scollet 6y ago

Also therapeutic if you view it as natural upkeep.

wlll 6y ago

> anyone here, like me, not find automated dishwashers very useful? No, when we got our fist dishwasher after our second child was born the dishwasher was like a miracle. We got so much time back each evening. It was life changing. > same amount of soap exposure, and time at the sink, to wash dishes by hand. What are you doing with your dishwasher that requires any soap exposure? With ours there is none. Scrape the dish into the bin/compost, stick it in the dishwasher. Every once in a while something will require a cursory rince with cold water before just to dislodge any stubborn food bits, but most of the time no prep is required.

ghaff 6y ago
I've always found it a bit surprising that dishwashers were relatively slow to take off in the US relative to other major appliances. Even living mostly by myself, I find it extremely useful and would strongly dislike not having one.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

I did my dishes by hand for years after moving out; on my own, it was just once a week, took about 20-30 minutes. Now I own a house and have a small (3 person, 4 animal) household, and the thing runs daily. To me it makes a ton of difference; to the family I wouldn't be able to rely on the others, because the one is a teenage child and the other has debilitating joint problems. I'd rather load / run / unload the thing every day than do things by hand again.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]