Wash your dishes by hand for a month challenge

[cicy33]

Low-cost ways to conserve water at home

Well, if that is the case then my dishwasher uses less than 1 gallon the whole time and I am not buying that. I just finished washing a sink load of dishes, I filled the sink completely up. I washed all the dishes. Rinsed with cool water at the end. Rinsing took less than 3 minutes total. Maybe 2. When I was finished just because I am strange, I measured the water left in the sink with a gallon pitcher. By the way when I was done, the water was still hot and soapy and I could have washed more dishes just didn't have any more to wash. Total gallons in sink: 4 and 1/2 (this is an estimate after 4.) There was not enough water to total 5 gallons. I am unsure how many gallons to rinse but for argumenative sake I will say 2 gallons. so I am currently at 6.5 gallons of water. Now if the site is correct then my dishwasher is only using a gallon of water to do the dishes. How is that possible?

[Brokemofo]

Fact: A dishwasher uses much less water than hand washing.

Fact; A dishwasher is more sanitary than hand washing.

Fact: A dishwasher uses more electricity than hand washing.

Fact: A good dishwasher WILL clean dshes, pots, pans, etc., and no, you don't need to pre-rinse them.

I will always use a dishwasher, and I only run it when full.

[crazyBMB]

Fact: A dishwasher uses much less water than hand washing.

Fact; A dishwasher is more sanitary than hand washing.

Fact: A dishwasher uses more electricity than hand washing.

Fact: A good dishwasher WILL clean dshes, pots, pans, etc., and no, you don't need to pre-rinse them.

I will always use a dishwasher, and I only run it when full.

I totaly agree. And newer appliances use much less soap & water and I turn off the dry cycle and let them air dry

[ttilmo]

Hi i live in the UK and i think owning a dish washer is far less common, i've only ever known one person who had one and she didn't need it either.

Although i find dish washing a bit of a pain it is really no big deal and i share the job with my partner.

I hate to think what the electricity bill would be if we had a dish washer, it's bad enough having a washing machine.

[pjmama]

more clean dishes

I started washing my dishes by hand last month, actually, and I find that I have much more clean dishes on hand because I wash them much more often if I do them by hand rather than using my dishwasher. My electric bill seems to have shown some difference, too, and every little bit helps!

[cicy33]

Fact: A dishwasher uses much less water than hand washing.

Fact; A dishwasher is more sanitary than hand washing.

Fact: A dishwasher uses more electricity than hand washing.

Fact: A good dishwasher WILL clean dshes, pots, pans, etc., and no, you don't need to pre-rinse them.

I will always use a dishwasher, and I only run it when full.

Sorry, don't mean to be argumentative, but FACT by who? Just because it is on the net or a manufacturer says so does not make it a fact and I feel that I proved it cannot be true. I washed my dishes with less than 7 gallons of water and like I said I could have washed more, so I could also start only filling up the sink half full. So then I could use less. My dishwasher runs for about an hour. even dripping that is a lot of water! I would never not use my dishwasher but I don't use it every day anymore. Based upon the facts on the net by the "experts" a dishwasher uses 1/6 the amount of water I would. If that is true then ick! That is not enough water to rinse, wash and rerinse my dishes. I have noticed a drop in my electric bill. I did do several things, like turning off lights and tvs and unplugging appliances and also not using the dishwasher every day. My bill dropped about $25 total. That is huge to me. my water doesn't change a lot so I would say even though it also dropped, went from about $16 to $14, I don't get crazy about that. and that is for 3,000 gallons of water usage for a month.

[ThriftoRama]

Hmmm. All this dishwasher talk has me thinking. I read something in the Union of Concerned Scientist's Consumers guide to effective environmental choices that sometimes doing dishes in the dishwasher is more water efficient than doing them by hand. I remember being shocked by that, as well as by their suggestion that using a microwave is the most energy efficient way to cook.

Being kind of a green geek, that book inspired me to buy a super high efficiency dishwasher (we had the 1970s one that came with our house, which we used as a drying rack) and the buy a microwave. Of course, being a frugal geek, I bought a Bosch dishwasher at a scratch and dent place and saved $500 and I bought the microwave of my dreams after it went on clearance!!

Since both have entered our kitchen I haven't noticed a significant change in our water or energy bill. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention?

[getforfree]

I hate to think what the electricity bill would be if we had a dish washer, it's bad enough having a washing machine.

Maybe we should start washing our clothes by hand to? lol

[Pollyanna]

I've heard that old "dishwasher saves water" spiel so many times - and I still don't believe it.

I use cookware/dinnerware/utensils that would be damaged in a dishwasher - my iron skillets, antique dishes, wood and marble rolling pins, wooden salad bowls, knives, old utensils with painted wooden handles... - all of those items would have to be hand washed in any case, so I may as well hand wash all the dishes. I would be using double the water if I used the dishwasher too.

Further, I use a mild, biodegradable soap for dishwashing, and in all but the worst winter weather, my dishwater gets poured on a flower bed or into the compost pile - I surely wouldn't do that with water with harsh dishwasher soap in it, if I could manage to capture it in any case. So the water from the dishwasher doesn't have the option of a second use - it's wasted.

I use a 12 qt dishpan, and start with very little water in it, rinsing with a trickle of hot water that falls into the dishpan. It's a very rare occasion that the dish pan gets over 3/4 full of water by the time all the dishes are done. I don't do dishes 3 times a day, once a day is sufficient for us unless we are doing a large amount of cooking.

And it gives me a chance to stand at the window and look outside

[pjmama]

I find that washing my dishes by hand gives me a little break from doing my homework on the weekends

[disneysteve]

I just finished washing a sink load of dishes, I filled the sink completely up. I washed all the dishes. Rinsed with cool water at the end.

Can you please post step-by-step how you hand-wash dishes? That may sound like a strange question. I know it isn't a complex process, but I don't get how you can only rinse at the end. What do you do with a dish after you wash it? You can't put it back in the water because that's dirty? Do you put it on a rack of some sort until you rinse it? And aren't you rinsing while you're washing it?

We've never been able to figure out how hand-washing could be more efficient since the water needs to be running the whole time.

[sweeps]

Steve I think some people fill up one side of the sink with water and then rinse by dipping the dish into that side. Frankly that kinda grosses me out.

But regardless I have 2 young kids and if I washed dishes by hand, I would be doing them 24 hours a day. I'll stick with my dishwasher, even if it is slightly less efficient.

[cicy33]

I do find it a little strange but okay. I wash on one side and set the soapy clean dishes in the second clean sink next to it. (I have a double sink) Then after I am done or the sink is full, I rinse them and set them to dry. I don't hand dry. Not germ conscious, just lazy! It takes me less than 15 minutes to wash and rinse a full dinners dishes for 6 people, pans included. If I rinsed while I washed then either I would have to turn on and off on and off on and off the water or leave it running which one is wasteful and one is time consuming. How do you rinse yours?

[disneysteve]

I wash on one side and set the soapy clean dishes in the second clean sink next to it. (I have a double sink)

When you say "wash on one side" what does that consist of? You said you filled the sink with water and washed the dishes. How could you wash them if the sink is filled with water and dirty dishes? That's the part I've never understood when people talk about this.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Didn't think I'd get into this thread, but when I came to this point and saw that disneysteve doesn't understand washing the dishes, I, well, I don't understand not understanding. There are a few different ways to go about it.

I think that I wash them like cicy33 does. Fill one sink with hot sudsy water, put in a pile of dishes. Scrub them in that hot sudsy water. Set each scrubbed dish, one by one, as they are washed, into the second sink. Then add some more dirty dishes to the hot sudsy, water. Wash those, one at a time, adding them to the rinse sink. When I have a pile of clean ones in the rinse side, run the hot water on each piece individually and set each piece, as soon as it is rinsed, into the drying rack. If I have a lot of dishes, or the dishes are particularly greasy or otherwise dirty, I might have to dispose of the first sink full of wash water and refill with fresh hot sudsy water. Sometimes while washing the first, least dirty dishes, I have sudsy water soaking the inside of a pan over on the counter.