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by Tidal5474 1271 days ago
This is an understanding based on a very incorrect usage of dish washers. Dishes are supposed to go into the dishwasher dirty, without rinsing. Any food garbage is supposed to be scraped off roughly (ie scrape off actual pieces of food but dont worry if a few rice stick to the plate).

Dishwashers save on water and energy. They are convenient for bulk washing of dishes. Dishwashers need to be used correctly to be optimal, just like any other technology.

For a family of 4 with 2 preschoolers it is absolutely necessary to have a dishwasher.

Anyone who is sceptical of dishwashers and their merits needs to watch the Technology Connections video on dishwashers.

3 comments

> Any food garbage is supposed to be scraped off roughly (ie scrape off actual pieces of food but dont worry if a few rice stick to the plate).

This is the part that takes 80% of the time, because you have to bring every dish to the garbage can that might not necessarily be next to a dishwasher.

> Dishwashers save on water and energy.

Both of which are negligible compared to the amount of water used for, say, heating and showering (not to mention the water that goes into agriculture for food you eat).

> Anyone who is sceptical of dishwashers and their merits needs to watch the Technology Connections video on dishwashers.

Or they just use very few dishes and figured out a method that works for them.

> For a family of 4 with 2 preschoolers it is absolutely necessary to have a dishwasher.

We did fine with two preschoolers and no dishwasher.

I maintain that a 'touch once' is always faster than 'pick up, drop, pick up again, drop'.

Furthermore: the second I see friends puzzle about 'where do I put this in this almost full dishwasher', I know they would have been faster doing it by hand.

> Dishwashers save on water and energy.

No, this is not true. I've measured and it depends. The dutch advisory site 'milieucentraal.nl' comes to the same conclusion: it depends.

I suspect it likely could be if you're spraying everything to rinse it; use a few basins with a good sized rinse with sanitizer or bleach (measured -- ideally use a ph strip to avoid going too far here) and you can use quite a small amount of water for a good number of dishes. Of course, bothering to fill the basins for only a few dishes could be a waste, but when you're doing a whole family worth, you shouldn't need to run the sink while you're cleaning.
Incorrect usage? Put dishes in with food on them: food gets heat baked onto the dish. So, a brief rinse fixes that, while a 5 second wipe with a soapy sponge eliminates the need for the dishwasher entirely.
I run the dishwasher once every 2 days and I almost never have any issues with food sticking. I don't rinse anything, it all goes into the dishwasher and comes out clean 95% of the time.
Do you cook? I've never seen a dishwsher that can clean a pot, or pan or baking dish that was used to cook food. I feel like every responding does not cook. It would require significantly high pressure water jets, with computer vision scanning and robotic hands rotating an item with cooked in food to be cleaned. I think none of you are cooking. You're just rinsing fast food dirtied plates.
Yes, I do. Pans are usually not a problem, pots are not a problem unless there's something really stuck/burnt to the bottom but even then, washing it twice usually does the trick. Baking trays are the only thing that I clean by hand because they're too big to fit in the dishwasher.
Well then, what brand and model washer? I literally just had a 2 year old washer Lg removed and replaced with ordinary shelves & drawers because the thing was absolutely worthless, not cleaning worth a damn.
It's made by a company called Candy (EU) but unfortunately I don't have the exact model number. I can't say how it's going to hold up over time since I've only had it for around 2 years since I moved in.

The only advice I have in this regard is making sure you're loading it correctly and not overloading it to the point where water spray can't reach your dishes.

You've probably come across these videos already but just in case you haven't, Technology Connections released 2 videos on the topic of dishwashers that could be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6-eGDpimU