Hand wash or dishwasher?

[LizfromtheBronx]

I miss my dishwasher

In my last apartment, I put plates, silverware, plasticware (water bottles, etc), and some pots/pans in the dw, and ran it every few days. Never ever put my knives in there, or any non-stick pans.

My landlord (ie, friend who owns the apartment that I live in) is threatening to gut the kitchen soon - if by chance it happens while I'm still living here, I'd gladly pay the higher electric bill for the luxury of the dishwasher.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Mostly hand but once a week I run plates through dish washer. Keep it up.

[AggieLife]

Me! Wash dishes?? Never! Haha, but seriously. I hand wash dishes mostly because I don't own a dishwasher... It didn't come with the apartment and I'm not about to spend that much money.

However, it would be really cool to buy a counter top mini dishwasher. They are super cute and fit on your counter. Who knew, right?

[bjl584]

Hand wash. I don't own a dishwasher.

[JoeP]

Big pots and broiler pans get washed by hand because they take up so much space. Otherwise, we use the dishwasher. It is fairly efficient and quiet and does a very good job.

We got our dishwasher for a pretty reasonable price and I installed it myself.

[purat]

I prefer dishwasher as I don't have time to hand wash!

[Fishindude77]

Taking this thread in a slight slant, but these modern high efficiency dishwashers stink. We've got a new one at home and a new one at work, and when you open them up to retrieve the clean dishes they are always wet and have to be dried off before put in the cabinets. I thought the goal of a dishwasher was to avoid hand washing ad drying?

At our second home we have an old beast of a dishwasher that sounds like a Harley when it runs and probably uses twice the electricity and water, but those dishes are steaming hot and dry when you open it up.

[elessar78]

Unverified claim, but I once read some where that dishwashers use less water than handwashing a full load's worth of dishes.

[retireby55]

I wash the dishes by hand, use a big pot to collect that water, then use it water the yard and trees. I would like to recycle the water from the washing machine for my clothes too, but I don't know how. Just trying to conserve water any way I can since there's a drought here.

[JoeP]

A dishwasher is able to use a very concentrated hot chemical (base) solution to clean, so we found that it works great with large volumes. We run it probably every other day, and are very satisfied.

For items like cutting boards and instruments with wood or plastic, a dishwasher can reach temperatures that kill bacteria. Ours has a "sanitary dry" feature that cranks up the heat to thoroughly kill anything, but you have to be extra careful about melting things.

We had an old school dishwasher that was solid but sounded like a WW2 bomber warming up on the runway, and it did a decent job. Our new one is high efficiency and has had its share of problems, but overall we like it better because it cleans better and is quieter (although it takes longer).

[SavingSteve]

I vote for the dishwasher! I grew up with one. We lived in a house that had no dishwasher, and can say from experience it's hard to do that after you've lived with one. But we hand wash some larger items.

[chestynuts]

Dishwasher. I don't have much time doing household chores.

[chestynuts]

Dishwasher.... a bit lazy one here! LOL

[LittleMissSplendid]

I used to be adamant that handwashing was quicker and more efficient, but that was when I cooked far less and didn't bring my lunch to work. Now I cook and take my lunch to work daily, plus I use more tupperware as I use my crockpot for make ahead/freezer meals to save time. So with all of that I pile up way more dishes and really don't have the time to handwash them now that I have a busier schedule. I find I wash at least 2 sink fulls of dishes each week with more waiting and I'm just one person! With a dishwasher I could probably just load everything and run it once a week. Then I would just handwash my pots and pans and be done. When I move again a dishwasher will definitely be a must have.

[greenskeeper]

dishwasher...energy use + water use < time saved to do something else.