To ask is your dishwasher worth it?

[Backscratchesforever]

We don’t have a dishwasher, but I’d really like one. Are they worth it, are they expensive to run and do they do the job better?

My new dishwasher has been installed for about half hour (with help from 3yo DD ). Just running a quick empty cycle just now.

Instructions say you should turn the tap off between uses - do people actually do this?

Also I'm using all in one tablets, so I don't need to add salt and rinse aid right ? (Soft water here)

What else do i need to know??

Instructions say you should turn the tap off between uses - do people actually do this

Maybe we should, but I don't. Not even when we go away, which might be a mistake.

read your instruction manual carefully, it should give you all the tip for loading the machine properly, not separate knives/forks or rinse the plates for example.
Check also how flexible all the elements are, how to lower or raise the trays to fit different things inside as needed. I put my barbecue grills in mine.

don't put toilet brushes or toilet seats in it please it's just so gross

Great to wash things like legos at low temperatures in a net however!

Have fun

Yes, yes and thrice yes. Got my first 18 months ago at the age of 50. The years I have wasted washing up. Space permitting, I will never venture back to the dark (damp side) side. Get one and get one quick.

My problem is, to get a dish washer fitted I'm going to need a whole new kitchen..

Do you eat out a lot? There's only 2 and a load of cats whose plates goes in too of us and we eat at home most nights and often have cooked breakfasts and ours goes on full at least 4/5 times a week. Three plates and 2 pots (does your food require no preparation and do you eat with your hands?) isn't even one meal's worth of stuff.

No we almost never eat out. It looks like the major difference is we wash everything immediately and you store up dirty stuff.

No, don't eat with hands there is cutlery, and implements used in cooking. A second or three each to wipe clean with a soapy scourer and rinse under tap.

One pot for rice or pasta, another for whatever goes with it, probably 10-15 different things. Also several different meals where the second "pot" is a actually a large frying pan. (For example fried rice or noodle dishes.)

The task involves washing, not just rinsing. Do you think you might be running an unhygienic kitchen?

Not just rinsing. I use a scourer to wipe. The sponge of the scourer can hold and dispense soap, however soap is almost never necessary.

(Use soap when doing frying pan with baked on bacon grease, but it's non-stick and two or three seconds wiping with scourer removes everything, not sure that soap is actually necessary.)

Everything is visibly as clean as it can be. Maybe if you had a laboratory you could prove surfaces not 100% sterile, but sterility isn't necessary.

I don't believe anyone should get a dishwasher and has to hate doing the dishes, but you will never convince me that hand washing and hand drying is just as quick and economical as a dishwasher Firesuit
It just isn't. It takes me more than 3 seconds to clean and dry my mug of tea and my spoon and they are not exactly dirty.

not just rinsing

I'm laughing because I've just realised: how do you think a dishwasher cleans plates? As far as I know the only mechanical action is water jets that are considerably narrower and less powerful than my kitchen tap...

The fact that I uses a scourer puts me ahead of the dishwasher on mechanical efficiency. (Maybe the dishwasher wins on water temperature though? Not sure if it uses supplied hot water or heats it hotter than water tank temperature?)

Mine is like a life support machine,,

It takes me more than 3 seconds to clean and dry my mug of tea and my spoon and they are not exactly dirty.

I admit I'm guessing the seconds.

Actually a tea-cup does take me longer than a dinner plate, as tea seems to stain the cup and I need to rub longer with a scourer to get it clean.

Let's say it takes 10 seconds per item then.
Plate
Knife
fork
mug
teaspoon
pot 1
pot 2

That's 70 seconds for one person, 50 seconds for each additional person, so hypothetical family of four that's still under four minutes. (I'm not including drying and putting away because I don't do either.)

OK I've left some things out, there will be knives/spoons etc used in preparation and serving. We're not talking whole extra minutes omitted though.

If washing by hand took 20 minutes (as someone up-thread said and as I remember it taking when done the traditional way in a sink, followed by drying and putting away) then I'd agree a washer might be better.

I think how we cook probably helps us. We are doing one-pot dishes, usually Asian. My mother did traditional English cooking and that seems to involve far more pots. (We use an oven maybe once a month. Cleaning ovenware does take a bit more effort.)

Hell yes!

Dishwashers are liberation.

If I had to choose between getting rid of mine or getting rid of a family member it wouldn't be as easy a choice as you might think.

Absolutely. It’s worth paying more though. The cheap ones off en don’t work that well or don’t last beyond warranty.

Oysterbabe
I'd chose the one who leaves the most dirty glasses in his bedroom