To think dishwashers are a waste of money and don;t save you that much time/work?

[MinkSlink]

We've just moved into a new house with a dishwasher which I used for the first time today.

The cycle took about an hour and the dishes were no cleaner than if I had washed them myself. It took a while to load/unload, meant we had dirty dishes hanging around in it until it was full, and some of the cups had silt in them after the wash, also ou can't wash pots and pans in there.

It takes me on average about 5 minutes to do the dishes by hand,

AIBU to think dishwashers are an expensive waste of time?

YANBU op. I hate dishwashers. Will never have one.

The longer cycles use less power than the short 30 min cycles.

My eco takes 2hrs 50mins but it's not a problem is it?.

YABU I love my dishwasher and wouldn't be without it. Load it as you go, out a tablet it and tad dar an hour later done and try then takes 5min to put everything away

higgs, lazy to have a diswasher? Ha. I also have a cleaning lady, for just the 2 of us. She also does all the ironing. Now that's lazy! Just the way I like it.

Reading this thread and getting very excited about my first ever dishwasher being delivered next week!

I hate washing up with a passion as does my DP so we are always nagging each other over who is doing the dishes.

With DC2 nearly here I think it's time to get one, wish we ordered one sooner as I haven't fitted in front of the sink for a while now so DP has been left to do all the washing up after work in the evening, dishes piled up in the sink/worktop and kitchen looking very untidy is not good for my nesting!

also looking forward to a quick and easy clear ups after Christmas eve, Christmas day & boxing day dinners

I live on my own and use a dishwasher! My last place had a Baumatic. Now I've got a 25-year-old Bosch that was £60 from eBay. Both absolutely fine - the trick, I think, is to use 5-in-1 tablets and run the main wash as a rule, not the light cycle.

Every study ever done shows dishwashers use a lot less water. Plus, I don't know about you but I do not hand-wash at 65° with soda. The machine wash is cleaner!

I do scrape the dishes and run a rinse cycle if they're waiting a while (to keep them damp). Dunno if that makes the difference?

Oh, re pots: I may have missed someone posting this, but you can put stainless steel & ceramic or glass in the dishwasher.
Aluminium goes black, as they're taking the phosphate out of dishwasher detergent and it was there to prevent oxidation.
Iron gets clean, but makes other things in the machine go rusty.
Don't know about copper - would probably oxidise as well.
Most non-stick coatings get damaged, so does chrome.
Silicon comes up a dream.
I put my wooden utensils in, although the force of water can make them split.
I also wash silver & crystal in the machine, but you shouldn't as they scratch slightly.

You can steam a side of salmon on the top shelf :) Warp it tightly in foil, obv!

Lazy? Really? It frees me up to do much more worthwhile stuff than was pots and pans 3x a day - not that I need to justify having one.

MOst non stick pans are made to go in the DW nowadays.

When we first got married and only had a tiny kitchen, DH and I had a conservatory built on the back of our house, just so we had somewhere to put a dishwasher. YABVVVVVVVVVVVU!

I wouldn't be without my dishwasher. It's great, saves all that mess over the kitchen sides and running out of room on the draining board. Wish I'd had one years ago - would have saved the daily row between DS and DD as to who would wash and who would dry. Life is more peaceful nowadays [hsmile]

I would love a dishwasher! I use 1950s, 60s and 70s plates, glasses and serving dishes etc and can't get a dishwasher when I move, although I really want one, because these things can't go in the dishwasher. All the pattern and print comes out eventually.

My SIL has one and rinses everything before she puts it in her dishwasher, i always think you might as well wash up then?

We scrape, rinse and stack as we go and (for family of 3) we do a dishwash every other day. We love ours and it is especially good on pyrex dishes (lasagnes etc).

For people who are anti-dishwashers I wonder about their thoughts on washing babies bottles and equipment. I'm sure I couldn't have washed them by hand, every day, at the sort of very high temperatures that the dishwasher can operate at.

We hadn't had a dishwasher for ten years until about two months ago. It's made a huge difference to us. Fine if you want to wash up of an evening. I'd rather spend 5 mins filling it and sit down finally.

we can put breakfast pots in it. go to work. come back to clean kitchen. put things away as we cook. put final plates in and set off. far better than the 10pm at night washing up for an hour slog.

It seems to be some sort of moral scoring issue for those who don't have a dishwasher and have never had them, but nevertheless think they are a waste of space. I could sprinkle damp tealeaves on my carpets and then use a stiff brush to get them clean, or use all the fireplaces in my house instead of the central heating, or keep my milk in a jug on a cold stone in our pantry, but I'm fecked if I'm going to. It's 'lazy' to use most appliances instead of doing things the hard way, but that's civilisation for you and long may it continue so that women aren't wasting their lives doing menial chores the hard way.

Dishwashers also use less water than then you use washing up by hand. So they are green too.

YABU - My grandfather called it the "magic cupboard" - and I agree with him. It makes the place seem so much tidier if you can just pop it all in the dishwasher (and there is vv little I don't put in there). I also like being able to put the DDs cups/bottles etc in there and know they are really clean.

I had to have my hot water on for an extra hour in the middle of the day when we were consigned to washing up for 3 weeks... nightmare! I have an eco setting on my DW, it runs once a day uses less water and elec than a standard wash cycle and gets everything spotless. And definitely less water and power than heating the tank for an extra hour! When we washed by hand, we needed to fill the sink at least 3 times per washing up session (ie. every meal) to get stuff done, then everything needs to be rinsed in piping hot water to get the soap off... ugh. A complete pavlova.

And it's pretty stress-free, no (or very few) arguments, even my quite young children are quite capable of clearing their plates and cutlery into it, rather than just shoving at/near the sink (too short to wash up themselves!) so it's good for the soul and general harmony of the house too.

Lazy? Lol - no it's efficient!

I have never had a dishwasher until about 18 months ago when my dh got a free one on a deal with an electrical wholesaler .We had no space in the kitchen so we had a utility room built next to our kitchen,moved the tumble dryer out there,moved dishwasher into kitchen where it stayed unused for about 6 months.Then i thought i would give it a try ,oh my god i ,loved it.I cannot imagine how i managed so long without one and am very impressed with how clean and shiny everything comes out.You dont know what you are missing until you try it.Like everyone else i also love how tidy the kitchen always is.

For those who say they can't afford one or to replace one, keep an eye on eBay - mine was under £30 on there from someone who had got a free one when replacing their kitchen. Bloody marvellous

They are not environmentally friendly because everyone puts everything flipping thing in there whether it needs it or not.

So you get a dishwasher filled with 4 cups/glasses per person per day when you could just rinse the same glass. Lids of things that need a rinse not a full wash. Endless plastic containers that by rights should just be binned because you have at least another 7 identical ones in the cupboard (which you would if you had to handwash).

Allthefun - hahaha!! Dishwashers are not environmentally friendly because they encourage people to re-use plastic containers instead of throwing them away! Great argument!!!

Got my first dishwasher this year and I will never go back to washing dishes by hand. I love it! Especially the part where I chuck all the breakfast stuff in and head off to work leaving a lovely tidy kitchen.

MOst non stick pans are made to go in the DW nowadays. - True, Valium, but the coating on mine has still blistered. I probably ignored some tiny print on the label about which temperature, shelf or detergent was allowed [hhmm]

Dishwashers are not environmentally friendly because they encourage people to re-use plastic containers instead of throwing them away! Great argument!!!

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keep an eye on eBay - mine was under £30 - How jealous am I??!! I paid twice that!!! Outrageous.