Dishwasher - Yay or Nay?

[OhMyHolyCrap]

Do you regret your dishwasher or do you love it?

It's just DS10 and I and it feels like a bit of a luxury but I really want one.

Is this pure laziness?

I would say get one, you can get slimline ones if it is just for 2.

Yes yes absolutely yes! I love mine! With 5 of us in the house far too much time was spent washing up. Hated it. So much more time now that I’m not stuck at the sink.

Even if I lived by myself, I’d still have one.

By the way it goes on at least 3x per day, fully loaded. Oh the hours I’ve saved at the sink!

Bought my Bosh on eBay eight years ago, and still going strong.
Never had one before that, but wouldn't be without it now. There's only two of us here now and fill it before we use it, about once every two or three days.

No. They use so much water and water is expensive here. Plus you still have to empty the thing and put everything away plus it's just another thing to clean. I remember when I was a KP in a restaurant kitchen we were forever cleaning the dishwasher. They are a haven for salmonella.

@holly1501 they use less water than hand washing.

I bloody love mine there are only two of us and we work full time but can usually get a full loaf every day or every other day. I have just put my oven racks and grill through it tonight and cleaning the grill was my most hated job. In fact i’d rather pluck out my eyeballs than wash dishes by hand.

Almost nobody would regard a washing machine as "lazy" or a luxury. Why haven't dishwashers become a standard expectation in the same way.

I'd never be without one by choice. Life's too short to handwash dishes. And washing up gives me backache; I can load and unload the dishwasher sitting down.

I love mine. I have a Bosch and use it almost daily, family of 5.
I looked for several features: quiet, because our kitchen is semi-open plan, least use of water and delay timer. I run it on a long cycle overnight mostly. It's the most energy and water efficient and therefore cost effective too, especially if you have cheaper electricity at night.

Do check the hardness of your water when you get one. In hard water areas some makes recommend the salt and rinse aid even if you are using the all in one style tabs.

Just me (and 3 dogs). I have a slimline/smaller place settings dishwasher and run it every other day. Wouldn't be without it. It was relatively cheap too at about £240 2 years ago.

I had a worktop dishwasher when it was just me. A cheap Indesit one. Best buy ever! Used a lot less water than washing by hand.

During the week ours goes on every second day but can be on twice at the weekend if we’re all at home for all meals (me & 3 kids). I buy all in one tablets from Aldi.

Feels strange that in 2019 anyone would think of a dishwasher as being akin to laziness. You don’t get a hardworking award for washing dishes by hand. As nearly everyone else has said they save so much time & use less water. Wouldn’t be without mine now

I used to virtuously wait until the machine was full before running it. But that resulted in half of the dishes left out overnight as not quite big enough for 2 meals worth of dishes. So now I'm not virtuous at all and run it as soon as the worktops are cleared. It has a quick cycle which is fine for stuff that's not dried on. Love the dishwasher. Wish all my non stick pans would go through but it shortens their life so I usually don't.

Yay from me had a dishwasher for years, would be without mine.

Wouldn’t even 🤪

This is not a joke although it might sound like one. My du and I never argue since we got ours. Cheaper than relate. It is amazing

There was one installed in my kitchen when I bought my house. Seller left all white goods.

Hah I said. A dishwasher? I'll never use that. Not much!! Absolutely love it. Wouldn't be without it now. I love that my kitchen is always tidy, no dishes lying around & I still can never get over how sparkly clean my glasses are

They use so much water and water is expensive here

Wrong. They use less water than washing up by hand. Ours uses 11 litres per cycle. That's about half a sink full. Could you really wash up 10-12 plates, crockery, pans, cups and glasses, breakfast things, stirring spoons etc, in half a sink full of water? No way.

How much a dishwasher is useful is more to do with how you cook than family size. It takes the same number of pans and roasting trays etc to cook a meal for 2 as it does for a family.

There's 2 of us (and 4+ cats so their bowls go in too) and because we cook most meals from scratch it goes on nearly every day. A family that lived on mostly convenience food or ate out a lot probably wouldn't produce as much washing up.

OP definitely get one if you want one - we usually use Aldi own brand all in one tablets and they're good. Or branded like Fairy if I see a good offer, but I don't think the expensive branded ones are any better - I aim to pay no more than about 10 p per tablet. Although if you have hard water, it might be better to use separate detergent, rinse and salt so you can put more salt in. Again, supermarket own brands are fine.

We use the finish max tablets which we usually buy on offer. A big bag lasts a couple of months, anyhow.

We got the more expensive quantum ones on offer, a while back, and they were really abrasive and ruined some of our mugs.

I'd like to think our dishwasher reduces arguments but dh is crap at loading it and the discussions around that can get quite heated!

As PPs have said, I’d rather lose my washing machine than my dishwasher. If there’s just two of you, you can either buy a slimline or small worktop one, or use a full size one every 2 or 3 days.
They’re brilliant, and not just for dishes and pans. I put my fridge shelves and oven shelves in there too - they come up sparkling.
The other big plus is clear worktops and sink - all the dirty dishes are tucked away in the dishwasher waiting to run. And when you’re tired at night, it’s such a relief to just press a button, instead of stand at a sink scrubbing burned on grease off roasting dishes for ages!
Get one, OP. You will never regret it, and wonder why you ever doubted.

I used to think they were a ridiculous frippery until we had one in a self catering cottage we stayed in. We were a bit afraid of it at first.
Oh. My. God.
I'm a hardy prepper. I make my own rosehip syrup. I darn socks. All that shit. Dishwashers are fecking brilliant.

Ours is part of the family. I'm pregnant with my fifth child but we've only had a dishwasher for about a year as we couldn't fit one in the previous house. It's amazing. Especially when I had horrific morning sickness.

DH empties it so I don't have to do that, which is an annoying job tbf!

It makes a huge psychological difference not having queues of stuff to wash up on the worktop. Plus we don't have a combi boiler so no instant hot water to wash up anyway, unless you repeatedly boil the kettle

Yes yes yes yes to the dishwasher. 😁

I love it so much I have two .

Utterly wouldn't be without mine now. Same one going strong (fingers crossed 🤞🏽) after almost two decades with only two small mechanical problems quickly fixed. I love it for everyday use but it really comes into its own when I'm entertaining. I only wish I had more room in my tiny kitchen so I could have a second one! I'd then never actually have to empty it and put stuff away before I could use it again - just have one on the go all the time!! 😄

I hate having to scrub pots with stubborn a marks.
So do I - so I don't: Life is too short for that! I put stuff on a simmer on the hob with a little detergent/biological washing powder for a while until you can just use a sponge to wipe away the hard stuff. Or leave the dish/pot to soak overnight with detergent or a little baking soda.