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> 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.

[cykros]

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.