To want a dishwasher?

[poooooooop]

I suggested getting a dishwasher the other day to dh and he isn’t keen.

His argument against is that they waste lots of water, are noisy, you have to rinse everything 1st and it’ll never get used anyway as he claims to know many people who don’t use theirs (in work apparently) but the only person I know that he knows who doesn’t use theirs is his parents. But I reckon that’s because there’s only 2 of them there. When we stay, or after dinner parties, they use it.

We are a family of 4, I reckon we’ll use it daily!
My argument is is the fact that there are 4 of us and I feel like I spend quite a bit of my day washing dishes, or they end up taking a lot of space on the side (we have a very small kitchen with little worktop space as it is), so I could hide the dirty dishes in there until it’s full!

Who is BU?

My fridge door shelf broke after going in the dw. They cost about £40 to replace & I can think of better things to spend £40 on.

I broke a fridge shelf handwashing it, it's a bulky awkward thing that doesn't properly fit in a sink and I dropped it.

I did however get a reminder of my physics lessons when I took a glass out of the dishwasher after it had just finished, so still hot from the drying cycle, and poured cold lemonade into it. Crack!

Dishwashers used to be noisy and used lots of water.
Now they are amazingly quiet (I frequently open it to add a mug not realising that it's mid cycle) and much more water efficient.
The best thing is how tidy they make your kitchen

I have spent the last ten years telling my mother that actually we manage just fine without a dishwasher, and it's a luxury for just two adults (though we now have a toddler).

We moved into a house with a dishwasher this summer. It's amazing! I spent today batch cooking and to ram it all in the dishwasher was just fab.

Get one!!

Can you open any dishwasher mid-cycle? I always thought they were like washing machines, and you had to wait for them to finish.

Mine you can.

Can you open any dishwasher mid-cycle?

Yes, you can open mid-cycle.

Some days I’d give my right arm for a dishwasher. We lose so much time constantly washing up, and it puts me off doing meals that use 101 pots or are ‘messy’ to prepare, but we’re in rented so can’t have one.

On the switch to that though, we all muck in and do the pots after dinner. The time spent eating at the table and then all in the kitchen clearing up is the most quality time we get in the day as a family. It’s when I get the best conversations out of my teens, and it’s teahing them a life skill in the kitchen. So that said, I don’t think I really want one!

Are any of you who wash up on a water meter?.

Before our first water meter our bill was £200 a year, afterwards it was £120 a year.

The electric bill went down quite a bit because we were all electric. I easily saved £150 a year & it would have paid for itself in three years.

but we’re in rented so can’t have one.

we bought a table top one when in a flat. we got a divider thingy and it was plumbed in with the washer.

They used to be noisy (and the cheaper ones still are) but they've come on leaps and bounds since the 2000s

I used to run a household with four teens and two adults. I spent about an hour each morning washing dishes clearing up kitchen and always swore I didnt want or need a DW. Then I got one......OMG they're brilliant, dishes are cleaner, less arguments about who is supposed to clear up, much more time for important things

Our washing machine is in the garage, its no problem at all.

DH had this weird suspicion of the dishwasher until we got one. Some people are just averse to change aren't they?

I can't see how anyone can wash by hand (unless it's literally rinsing a mug) faster than putting items into a dishwasher. We just run it in the evening.

Also, stacking a dishwasher is pretty satisfying. From chaotic mess to out of sight in a minute or two. Then close the door on it.

Unpacking is more of a pita, but still infinitely preferable to washing up.

After living without a dishwasher for a few months when our house was being renovated, I swore I'd never complain about unpacking again.

I have a dishwasher that I inherited, 18 years ago. I think we used it once when we moved in, since then we've used it as an extra cupboard.

Family of three, it would take less than five minutes to wash two pots and three plates and some cutlery under a running tap, if one person did it all. (We wash our own plates etc.)

If we had a dishwasher, we'd have to spend time moving clean things out before putting dirty things in, I presume. I can't see how there can't be more moving things from one place to another, and doing that even once is more work than is done now. (Now, a clean plate leaves the drainer to get food put on it, when it is carried back into the kitchen it goes straight back on the drainer, after being cleaned under the tap.)

I suspect to make it worthwhile, you would have to use lots of cups and plates, rather than having just one each and reusing it.

I'm really struggling to see how it could be an improvement, given that the effort of washing up is virtually zero as it is.

I can see how it works for other people, maybe with different styles of cooking, what I can't get is what they think it would do for us, given they think it's impossible for it not to be an improvement.

There are only two of us and I use mine every single day. I think it is more hygienic than a bowl of soapy water. If we go to a holiday home I always wash all the cutlery and crockery in the dishwasher before use in case anyone has done a sloppy washing up!
Slightly OCD I know!

firesuit are you saying that everyone in your family has a plate/cup that they rinse/reuse for every meal?

University of Bonn in Germany, the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap, to boot.

Washing up two or three times a day under running taps, even if it is for a tiny amount of washing up, is still likely to use more water than putting the dishwasher on every other day with 4 meals worth of plates for everyone (I'm assuming you eat lunch out the house and are eating breakfast and dinner at home).

What sort of food do you eat? Don't you ever have stirring spoons, chopping boards, sieves, knives, side plates, scissors etc to wash?

I put all my wooden spoons and spatulas in the dishwasher. They come out much cleaner than doing them by hand.

How about this:

1. Get a dishwasher
2. Go and stay with a friend who does not have a dishwasher and get OH to realise what a ball ache it is to wash up three times a day

But on a serious note I would leave my DP if he made me chose between him and the dishwasher. Goes and strokes the dishwasher and reminds it how important it is

Absolutely you need one! My advice is buy the best and biggest you can afford, so you can fit baking trays and saucepans in, too. Mine’s a Miele with a cutlery tray (thank you Mumsnet). Having a dishwasher is life transforming! And it washes dishes better than you can do by hand. My favourite appliance, can you tell? :)

Just buy one and let him moan, he'll get used to it and thankyou eventually that's what my fella did

Just me today. And the dishwasher is full. Of fridge stuff. Get in.