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Buying a dishwasher. 1. Less drudgery means more time to relax 2. Less pressure to minimise kitchenware use means more ambitious and enjoyable cooking 3. I j

by twic 6y ago

Buying a dishwasher. 1. Less drudgery means more time to relax 2. Less pressure to minimise kitchenware use means more ambitious and enjoyable cooking 3. I just get a little jolt of happiness when I walk into the kitchen and see my large cuboidal son sitting there

hasbot 6y ago
Interestingly, I found the dishwasher produced more stress than handwashing. Living alone, it takes days to fill up the dishwasher to a level where running it isn't wasteful. Every day, I'd eye how full it was and judge whether it was "worth it" to run it that day. Meanwhile, any time I cooked invariably the pot or pan I needed was sitting dirty in the dishwasher. With hand washing, I just spend 15 minutes usually every other day and During the summer I live off-grid in a small travel trailer. Every night I fired up the water heater, did that day's dishes, and took a shower outdoors. A bit of drudgery, but actually relaxing and not at all stressful.
- kirubakaran 6y ago
  An average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute. An average dishwasher uses 4 gallons of water. Unless you can do your dishes in 2 minutes, dishwasher uses less water. Ref https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-much-water-do-dishwashers-use/ https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-much-water-do-dishwashers-us...
  - hasbot 6y ago
    You leave your water running while you wash your dishes?! Having lived off-grid without running water, I know very precisely that I use slightly more than a gallon of water to hand wash my dishes. No way a dishwasher beats that. It's a moot point anyway. I don't have a dishwasher and I'm certainly not going to remodel my kitchen to make room for one.
- loeg 6y ago
  > it takes days to fill up the dishwasher to a level where running it isn't wasteful Dishwashers are much more efficient than you think -- more than handwashing. Just run it every day or two.
  - hasbot 6y ago
    Having lived off-grid without running water, I know very precisely that I use slightly more than a gallon of water to hand wash my dishes. No way a dish-washer beats that.
    - loeg 6y ago
      It comes close on an every other day cycle, and if you waited to run it until filling it, it would probably beat that. (Maybe it goes without saying, but your ~1 gallon figure is extremely efficient for 15 minutes of hand-washing.) That said, unless you live in a desert, or off-grid, 1-2 gallons of water a day has no real cost. E.g., I pay 0.7 cents/gal for the water and 2 cents/gal for the outgoing sewage.
  - tomatocracy 6y ago
    Indeed, and modern dishwashers also often have a cycle which adjusts the amount of washing they do to the load (using things like sensors to see how clean the wastewater is) which can further improve this.
snidane 6y ago
If you cook and have to clean large pots and baking trays, then dishwasher doesn't help you with that as much. These items cannot fit into a regular home dishwasher and these take the most time to clean and dry compared to washing plain plates and utensils. Also dishwashers are not good for roommate arrangements because unless strict rules are enforced things keep piling up in it or you cannot put stuff inside while it is running. Still have to hand wash it yourself then. I can see the utility of dishwashers for single people or couples who don't cook, but honestly I haven't found them very useful myself. Also if you get proper bluetooth headphones and enjoy podcasts, washing dishes can become one of your favorite activities, like mine.
- jeffreyrogers 6y ago
  If you have a big family they save a fair amount of time.
- allannienhuis 6y ago
  Our kids have moved out so there's just the two of us now. We solve the 'wait until the dishwasher is full enough' problem by simply having enough dishes and cutlery to last us the 2-3 days it takes to fill it up :) We do the pots and baking dishes and other awkward items that aren't great for the dishwasher by hand after dinner, but they generally only take a few minutes most days. We try to run the dishwasher end of day or after breakfast in the morning (even if it's not 100% full) to avoid the problem of dirty dishes while it's running. I agree the roommate scenario is a harder problem, but the same approach might work.
- bradlys 6y ago
  Large pots and baking trays fit in my dishwasher pretty fine. If you are using 5 multi-gallon pots every day then maybe dishwasher isn’t ideal. That said, we don’t rinse our dishes or anything. It goes into the dishwasher and comes out spotless. Uses way less energy and water than we would manually washing too. Dishwasher with roommates actually can be fine. Either run it no matter what is in it at end of day or when it fills up. And just have a lot more dishes than you normally would. Dishwashers work great for people with an excessive amount of dishes. If you have an exact amount of utensils and dishes then that’s when they fall apart. But that is true of letting dishes pile up in the sink too. So, moot point to me. The dishwasher has been amazing for my wife who does cook and bake a lot. The whole reason I got one is because she’d spend 30+ minutes everyday standing at the sink manually cleaning every single thing. Huge waste of time and water.

by twic 6y ago

hasbot 6y ago

Interestingly, I found the dishwasher produced more stress than handwashing. Living alone, it takes days to fill up the dishwasher to a level where running it isn't wasteful. Every day, I'd eye how full it was and judge whether it was "worth it" to run it that day. Meanwhile, any time I cooked invariably the pot or pan I needed was sitting dirty in the dishwasher. With hand washing, I just spend 15 minutes usually every other day and During the summer I live off-grid in a small travel trailer. Every night I fired up the water heater, did that day's dishes, and took a shower outdoors. A bit of drudgery, but actually relaxing and not at all stressful.

kirubakaran 6y ago
An average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute. An average dishwasher uses 4 gallons of water. Unless you can do your dishes in 2 minutes, dishwasher uses less water. Ref https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-much-water-do-dishwashers-use/ https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-much-water-do-dishwashers-us...
- hasbot 6y ago
  You leave your water running while you wash your dishes?! Having lived off-grid without running water, I know very precisely that I use slightly more than a gallon of water to hand wash my dishes. No way a dishwasher beats that. It's a moot point anyway. I don't have a dishwasher and I'm certainly not going to remodel my kitchen to make room for one.
loeg 6y ago
> it takes days to fill up the dishwasher to a level where running it isn't wasteful Dishwashers are much more efficient than you think -- more than handwashing. Just run it every day or two.
- hasbot 6y ago
  Having lived off-grid without running water, I know very precisely that I use slightly more than a gallon of water to hand wash my dishes. No way a dish-washer beats that.
  - loeg 6y ago
    It comes close on an every other day cycle, and if you waited to run it until filling it, it would probably beat that. (Maybe it goes without saying, but your ~1 gallon figure is extremely efficient for 15 minutes of hand-washing.) That said, unless you live in a desert, or off-grid, 1-2 gallons of water a day has no real cost. E.g., I pay 0.7 cents/gal for the water and 2 cents/gal for the outgoing sewage.
- tomatocracy 6y ago
  Indeed, and modern dishwashers also often have a cycle which adjusts the amount of washing they do to the load (using things like sensors to see how clean the wastewater is) which can further improve this.

snidane 6y ago

If you cook and have to clean large pots and baking trays, then dishwasher doesn't help you with that as much. These items cannot fit into a regular home dishwasher and these take the most time to clean and dry compared to washing plain plates and utensils. Also dishwashers are not good for roommate arrangements because unless strict rules are enforced things keep piling up in it or you cannot put stuff inside while it is running. Still have to hand wash it yourself then. I can see the utility of dishwashers for single people or couples who don't cook, but honestly I haven't found them very useful myself. Also if you get proper bluetooth headphones and enjoy podcasts, washing dishes can become one of your favorite activities, like mine.

jeffreyrogers 6y ago
If you have a big family they save a fair amount of time.
allannienhuis 6y ago
Our kids have moved out so there's just the two of us now. We solve the 'wait until the dishwasher is full enough' problem by simply having enough dishes and cutlery to last us the 2-3 days it takes to fill it up :) We do the pots and baking dishes and other awkward items that aren't great for the dishwasher by hand after dinner, but they generally only take a few minutes most days. We try to run the dishwasher end of day or after breakfast in the morning (even if it's not 100% full) to avoid the problem of dirty dishes while it's running. I agree the roommate scenario is a harder problem, but the same approach might work.
bradlys 6y ago
Large pots and baking trays fit in my dishwasher pretty fine. If you are using 5 multi-gallon pots every day then maybe dishwasher isn’t ideal. That said, we don’t rinse our dishes or anything. It goes into the dishwasher and comes out spotless. Uses way less energy and water than we would manually washing too. Dishwasher with roommates actually can be fine. Either run it no matter what is in it at end of day or when it fills up. And just have a lot more dishes than you normally would. Dishwashers work great for people with an excessive amount of dishes. If you have an exact amount of utensils and dishes then that’s when they fall apart. But that is true of letting dishes pile up in the sink too. So, moot point to me. The dishwasher has been amazing for my wife who does cook and bake a lot. The whole reason I got one is because she’d spend 30+ minutes everyday standing at the sink manually cleaning every single thing. Huge waste of time and water.