Using a dishwasher in a one-person household?

mnbvcxz

You could compromise on a miniature dishwasher. We got my brother a bosch table top dishwasher when he was a little unwell. (Actually goes under the counter but only takes up half a cupboard.) He has a small kitchen and sink and juggling plates and pots and pans through the small sink and drying rack everything seemed to get in its own way. With the dishwasher it all gets done right and you just wipe down the now empty counter and everything is clean and dry.

Being only half the size, if that, of a regular dishwasher it fit in his small kitchen and can pretty much be filled up every day just from supper and breakfast plus pots and cups of tea etc. Then he runs it and when he comes back from work its all clean and dry.

I suspect it was rather extravagant in some ways but still chugs along after five years.

Anyway if you have a big kitchen and sinks then you can probably manage but for him it made a big difference to time, effort and hygiene. I do think they are a great invention. If no one else is there to see you can throw in practically everything, pots, pans, chopping boards everything and they pretty much all come out clean.

I notice some bargain sites are suggesting an ART 28008 table top dishwasher from appliances direct for £170 or so though I have no idea if its junk or not.

buglawton

My mum has her dishwasher tablets chopped in half and put in a Tupperware box for her tabletop dishwasher. Cleans perfectly.

Cardew

Sosumi wrote: »

I don't think anyone has denied that or claimed otherwise, here. Have they?

They have! see post #5:

I would be more concerned about his/her concept of hygiene than his/her economics.

One wouldn't want to be anyone whom s/he invites round for a meal.

Even my reading of your post #11 implied that it was unhygienic to leave articles in a dishwasher for days.

By dishwasher or by hand, everything is washed within hours (and usually immediately) after use in our household. The cost of that is subservient to the hygiene of it.

If you are concerned about food drying on plates(I am not) most dishwashers have a short rinse facility.

IMO most manual washing-up is less hygienic than a dishwasher unless you frequently change the washing-up water and afterwards rinse every item in clean very hot water.

Sosumi

No, Cardew, you’ve got that completely wrong.

You posted:

Cardew wrote: »

As far as hygiene is concerned, as stated in post#6, a dishwasher operates with water at a far higher temperature than would be used in manual washing up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/energy-bills/11250403/Dishwasher-vs-washing-up-which-is-cheaper.html

To which I posted (quoting it, to avoid – apparently without success – any confusion over to what I was referring):

Sosumi wrote: »

I don't think anyone has denied that or claimed otherwise, here. Have they?

I don’t see how, as you allege, my posting (in its entirety) that:

Sosumi wrote: »

Presumably, because s/he hasn't got enough pots and pans left with which to "cook" if s/he starts accumulating them, dirty, in a dishwasher for a week.

I would be more concerned about his/her concept of hygiene than his/her economics.

One wouldn't want to be anyone whom s/he invites round for a meal. :eek:

refers, as you claim, in any way whatsoever to the temperatures of the water involved.


My further posting that:

Sosumi wrote: »

By dishwasher or by hand, everything is washed within hours (and usually immediately) after use in our household. The cost of that is subservient to the hygiene of it.

was actually prompted by the fact that, although we do use our dishwasher (promptly, after eating) we wash valuable antique bone-handled and ivory-handled cutlery, exquisite crystal glassware, and delicate items of antique Wedgewood crockery carefully by hand (following an extremely destructive and expensive disaster in the dishwasher some years ago – which, fortunately was covered by insurance). Such items, when they were made, weren't designed to withstand safely the processes and temperatures they encounter in a dishwasher built a century or two later.

And when we do wash such items manually, we indeed

Cardew wrote: »

frequently change the washing-up water and afterwards rinse every item in clean very hot water.

Though we use hot, rather than very hot water, to do that.

None of my Victorian ancestors died of food-poisoning as a result of those very same items being hand washed.

I’m not fanatical or obsessive about hygiene but, yes, I do think that leaving the aftermath of a meal unwashed, either by hand or hidden inside a dishwasher for days on end, is disgusting.



Sadly, you also appear to misunderstand the meanings of the words “imply” and “infer” and have misapplied the former when you meant the latter.

Since they are, in effect, mutually polar opposites of the same concept, their misuse causes confusion.

Ilona

lydriver wrote: »

Wash as soon as finished with plates/cutlery/etc, much easier to wash before the food dries in. Usually leave on the dish rack then use same plate etc next time.
Dont see how a dishwasher could save time tbh!

Agree with this, one person household doesn't need a dishwasher. As soon as I have finished a meal I rinse my pots under the cold tap and put on the drainer. Use them straight off the drainer for the next meal.

It's a matter of discipline, I hate washing up so I get up off my bum and take my pots straight to the sink when finished eating. I never fry food so there are no greasy pots and pans. I do a hot wash in the sink once a week, and wipe down worktops. I am still alive and never get sick.
Ilona

suki1964

When it was just two of us we had a small Bosch table top one, think it took four settings

Now I have a slimline one, takes 8 settings and it's used every two days

I just rinse the plates and cutlery off before putting them in, esp if egg has been eaten

The thing about dishwashers are they are receptacles for dirty dishes. You just stick them in, close the door and forget about them till its full and ready to be switched on

I'm one of those odd bods that still do pans by hand. No way does the dishwasher get in to the corners unless you load it in such a way you don't get much in. Well that's my experience and I don't mind doing them. I usually only have two things to wash at the end of a day anyways

[Deleted User]

Cardew wrote: »

Why cant you put in pots and pans?

I've never used one, but my mother used them at work. She reckoned she had to wash pans again by hand because the dishwasher wouldn't shift the burnt-on stuff.

Smodlet

Which is why you soak them and scrub them first... that way, the DW WILL get them clean and its filters will not clog up with crud, making them easier to clean and prolonging the life of the DW.

warby68

I'd still have a dishwasher if I went back to being solo.

Unless you're on a very very tight budget you can always put it on not quite full if its been a day or two.

I'd miss the quick tidying up more than anything and if you cook a full meal there can be as many pots and pans for one as for four. Its only like another cupboard but you can put dirty stuff in it til you're ready to swithc on!

Its cheap enough to buy an extra few plates and cups as well if this helps as well.

Smodlet

Absolutely, warby. Aeons ago, when I was single, I was advised to get a work top washing machine and cooker (only the rich had dishwashers, then) I looked into these and concluded they cost almost as much as the full-sized ones, did a fraction of the job (as if sheets/towels would fit in a miniature washing machine!) and were far more difficult to fix if they went wrong, as the parts were much harder to source. All in all, non-starters.

There are only two of us and the DW is on every day; twice in a day if I have done batch cooking. When OH is away, I still use it every other day... then walk away and watch telly or something while the lovely machine gets my pots and pans clean... 'cos I soaked 'em first!