Dishwasher or washing up???

mom23

My Last water bill was a lot less since i had dishwasher!!!

Entertainer

I notice that a few people on here have made a big thing about having their DW plumbed into the hot water, as if that is somehow a good thing. It actually uses more water that way as the water in the supply pipe will be cold until the hot water from the tank flows through. Therefore, depending on how their machine works, it either discards the cold water until it gets warm enough to use or it fills up on the cold and then has to heat it. If it's the latter then you now have hot water in your pipes which is not needed and will simply go cold and hence be wasted.
For that reason, the models that use only a cold fill are more efficient. They take just enough water for their purpose, and heat only that amount of water, saving both water and energy.

Something to think about.....

I heard exactly the same thing from a washing machine engineer to someone who was heating up their hot water first. He said the heater in the WM would heat the correct amount necessary and it was more efficient.

I loathe washing up. It's such a drag, it goes on everyday and its hard to forget about it. At least things like gardening, washing, hoovering are weekly chores.

missbargain

I also wouldn't be without my dishwasher, but...I still find myself washing many things by hand.
So, I don't know if it is really economical as I find that my dishwasher doesn't wash caked on food, dried out porridge/mash/quinoa/rice (they dry really quickly on plates and utensils). My dishwasher doesn't even clean super tall glasses very well, so I now buy only shorter glasses.
Perhaps it is not a very good dishwasher (AEG, recomended by Which? a few years back).

Does everyone put everything in the dishwasher, I'd love to know?

jackieb

johnjp wrote: »

Do I hear more support for dishwasher machines than hand dishwashing?
Another thought, go back 30 to 40 years,
Q: Would you wash your clothes by hand to save water?
Would YOU, of course not, it`s a thankless task, just as washing dishes by hand is.
In a few short years just about everyone will use dishwasher machines and will be happier for it!

I can't bear the feeling of anything that's been washed in a dishwasher. My parents had one. My sister has one, and i've used one at work. I just can't bear the feeling of them. I feel as if I have to lick my fingers before I can touch anything - and that negates the point of washing them in the first place.

I don't mind washing dishes. In fact I had to argue with my husband against getting one when we got a new kitchen 2 years ago. I also like ironing.

Tr1pp

tawnyowls wrote: »

Absolutely. I don't think many people could imagine themselves living in a house without a WM, but a DW still seems to be seen as a luxury. As you say, fast-forward a few years, when it becomes as accepted as a WM or a freezer, and people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

It takes my washing machine about an hour or so to wash a 6kg load of washing. I know for a fact it would take A LOT longer for me to do the same standard of washing by hand.

a dishwasher on the other hand takes what?... 30mins - an hour+ to do a full load. I can do the same amount of washing up in the same time or less (usually less)...yes i have tried!

your comparing one item that saves HOURS of hard labour (WM) to another item that will often take longer to do a job and use a lot more in energy to do it (DW) I think in a few years it will still be considdered a luxury (unless it can flash claen dishes in less than a minute)

anyway I cant talk, my new house has a dishwasher which i know will be used all the time...:rotfl:

BoxerfanUK

roswell wrote: »

surely the time taken to fill up a washing machine and the extra plates etc you need plus costs of the tablets means hand washing is cheaper ??

Thats where you are going wrong roswell :rotfl:You need to load your plates and cups into a DISHWASHER :rotfl:not the washing machine

roswell wrote: »

is it that hard to use a cup more than once and just wash it at the end of the day?

Well it is if using the washing machine, I should think the cups tend to break when they've been spun at 1400 RPM

BoxerfanUK

I woudn't be without our DW. It goes on just once per day usually and only gets put on when its full.

We don't rinse the dishes beforehand, we just scrape any waste into the waste disposal unit (anybody got a WDU?? wouldn't be without that either ) and into the DW they go. If things have been standing a long while and are dried on then we do a quick rinse cycle first, but generally we start with an empty DW in the morning so by the time we've had dinner in the evenings thats about it so it goes straight on so no need for a rinse cycle then.

For those that have said about the energy used to heat the water in a DW, well what about the energy used by your immersion or combi boiler to heat the water that goes into your washing up bowl, and how many times per day do you do that, each time having to reheat more water. The DW just needs to do this just once.

Our current model is a Hoover, which I chose at the time based on its 'A' rating for water and energy use and also the basket design. Unlike our previous DW, this one hardly ever needs the filter cleaning, it just seems to clean itself and I take the filter out about once a month and give it a clean, but even then not really that dirty.

I would also challenge any handwasher to wash and dry their glassware as well as my DW does.

dizziblonde

This is quite an old thread - but I'd never go back to being dishwasherless... ever. I hate washing up, my husband hates washing up and is a man who can use every dish and utensil in the kitchen making a sandwich (why do men do that?) and he doesn't believe in keeping on top of the washing up - he leaves it till I crack or we run out of plates. My dishwasher saved my sanity and, while it might not actually save time, it does save labour and time I have to spend doing something I hate (the only other thing that made washing up bearable was watching the antics of the squirrel family in the back garden while doing it - but they seem to have scarpered this year just gone).

As for tablets - we tend to stick to Finish - but wait as they inevitably end up on buy one get one free at some point so we stock up then - means we probably need to buy the financial equivalent of one pack (and get two) about twice a year max.

sunshinetours

It doesn't save money using a dishwasher (cost of machine, repairs, tablets etc) but it does save time washing up, which lets face it most people seem to dislike.

As for water useage, most decent modern dishwashers do indeed use less water in a full cycle than washing up which always amazed me

I wouldn't choose to be without one now but I wouldn't say it was as much a necessity as a washing machine for example

pimento

I did have to buy more cups and teaspoons because I use more of those than anything else so ran out of cups and spoons before I'd filled it with plates and dishes.

I love mine though and even if it cost 10 times more than using a bowl, I wouldn't be without it.

I'll never forget how clean the tines of my forks looked the fist time I put them in the dishwasher. I'd never got them as clean by hand before.