To think dishwasher fans are part of a cult

[Peachpicklepie]

I look at people who like dishwashers the same way as I might someone who lives isolated from society, wearing a tin foil hat, while hanging on the every word of madman - with a mix of confusion and pity. Why do people like them? You still have to scrape the waste food off, rinse the plate, then put it in the rack. With hand washing this is where it ends. With a dishwasher you then have to put up with the horrible wafts of smell that come out every time you add a utensil until you finally have a full load/have run out of everything when you can turn it on. Then you have to unload the bastard. Don't get me started on the slops of cold or hot water you get from upside down mugs. So what is the appeal?!

Also a rookie error is waiting till it's full. Why?? Just shove it on every night regardless.

Empty in the morning then put all dishes straight in (no rinsing) so no dishes sitting out on the side. Put it on at night. Love it.

It is really rather simple. It takes me less time to load and set off the dishwasher than it does for me to stand at the sink and wash up by hand.

I can spend that extra time doing productive things like drinking wine and responding to threads like this on MN.

I don't rinse plates before putting them in the dishwasher but I do scrape. I thought you needed to get rid of any lumps of food before putting in the dishwasher?

Me either. I think you're doing dishwashering wrong. I hate washing up so I love ours. Ours broke a few years ago and it was awful!

When I had one in a previous house, I never used it as it was only me and DH, when we came to sell the house the EA opened it and to his amusement (possible disgust) the top draw was used to store full wine bottles and the bottom draw the empties until I could be bother to walk to the recycling bin!

I will defend my dishwasher to the death. I hate washing up with a passion. I love, cherish, clean, polish and talk to her, that's how valued she is.

My mother, on the other hand, believes owning a dishwasher is a sign of delusion and a deranged mind and possible possession by the devil himself. This is nothing compared to her views on tumble dryer owners though!

We always had a dishwasher but have recently moved into a short term rental without one. I have zero idea why anyone would choose not to have one. It's not just a case of rinsing a few dishes, a family of 5 creates a huge amount of washing up in a day and it takes ages and ages to deal with it all. We don't have time to do it as we go along so it all has to be done in one go. Cannot wait until we move into our new house and have a dishwasher again.

That's funny as I see people without dishwashers in exactly the same way. not really

I have never ever rinsed a dish. I don't scrape them. The whole point of the dishwasher is that it saves work not creates it. I put waste food in the bin obviously, but everything goes into the machine dirty and comes out clean. I have a half size dishwasher, so it's not standing empty for days (I don't know anyone who does that).

I use a 45 minute cycle and it all comes out spotless.

Now that I have a teenager who wants pocket money, I don't even have to load it/unload it myself.

I'm in the anti-dishwasher minority. (Anti for myself, not policing anyone else's kitchen). I always find them such a stressy faff when on holiday with other families and end up using one.

My reasons are:

• my spacial awareness is terrible so stacking 'correctly' is hard work for me.
• easier to put things away from the draining board than bending down, reaching in to dishwasher
• In my household of 3 people we wash up once a day after tea. It normally takes about 15 minutes. 20-30 if we used lots of pots or had guests.
• whenever used dishwasher on holiday always ended up re-washing stuff as not clean enough. Especially cereal bowls.
• I watch YouTube videos whilst washing up so don't really mind doing it.

Have you ever had a dinner party?
All put in the dishwasher after the guests are gone, all clean and dry to put away the next morning .
Wouldn't be without mine.

Never rinse the plates! It’s like rinsing all your clothes before you put them in the washing machine - totally unnecessary!

Only scrape off food in the same way you would before handwashing (ie if there's loads of it), never rinse, stack so everything dries easily. It's so much easier than handwashing and drying. Love my dishwasher

I put my gas hob stands and burner covers and oven racks through my dishwasher weekly. As well as the food waste bin, hairbrushes, soap dishes, toiletry/makeup storage boxes indoor plant pots and anything else that can fit.

I put the wire mesh covers from our 4 floor fans through it this summer as they were a bit dusty looking and discoloured from being in the garage all winter. They came up lovely.

Our dishwasher saved my marriage.

Hahaha guilty! I get you but my opinion changed when I got one a year ago.

When I was single hand washing was fine for me as I didn’t use a lot of stuff and I’m tidy.

DH is a good cook and uses every bloody pot, pan and utensil in the kitchen.

I also used to have having dirty meat pan water slopping at me and the water getting dirty so quickly. When DH cooked it would take ages.

Yes the putting in and getting out takes time but you’d be putting stuff in the sink and then taking stuff out of sink and putting away anyway so it’s the same effort. It saves you a job because you DON’T have to rinse and it dries stuff for you.

Also reduces washing up related arguments!

I love my dishwasher, I hate washing pots and don’t have a draining board. I load as I go where possible. Unloading only takes a minute, much less time wasted than washing and drying everything by hand and then putting it away. We tend to eat all our food so rarely anything to scrape off and we don’t rinse first as that would completely defeat the object, also the official guidance is that you shouldn’t rinse first as the chemicals in the dishwasher tablets require the pots to be dirty to work effectively.

Absolutely!!!!

My parents had a dishwasher back in the 70s so I grew up with them. Have had one myself most of my adult life. Instead of stacking dishes to wash (though that does happen when it's full sometimes) you just put them in. I love that they are squeaky clean and dry when the washer is finished. Whenever ours has broken down and we've had to wait for a repair or to get a new one, having to do the washing up has been extremely irritating. So therefore, they definitely make life better.

Our latest has a cutlery rack at the top which I originally thought pointless, but love it now - much easier to sort the cutlery into types and gather up to put away in seconds, rather than hoiking it all out of the old baskets.

Firstly, I’m offended that you’ve asked, one cannot live without a dishwasher!

Secondly, it is a criminal offence not to own one, washing up by hand should be outlawed! If mine brakes, another is ordered straight away, I simply refuse flat out to wash up.

(I don’t rinse the plates, I scrape food into the bin then straight in the dishwasher-game changer)

Whilst I might come across as a dishwasher snob…which I am…I don’t know where the iron resides in our house, so horses for courses as they say.

I would love one, don't have the room in my little kitchen, have used them in holiday lets and loved them. I detest washing up

Love my dishwasher. Empty it in the morning, takes me as long as it takes the kettle to boil (what can I say, I'm a pro). Then through the day load as you go, so never any dirty dishes lying around and then before bed whack it on.

Occasionally, if we haven't eaten much at home we might not put it on for 2 days but it doesn't get stinky.

Ours broke recently and living without it for 2 weeks until the new one was repaired was awful.

I waited nearly 50 years to get a dishwasher (lack of space for one, insufficient money, convinced myself it was quicker and easier by hand). Let me tell you - I worship at the feet of my Bosch! It took me a while to get the hand of stacking, rinse or no rinse before putting crockery in, and generally worried that it might ‘eat’ my best china. I can now safely say that I would never have a kitchen without one again. And I live on my own!!!

Oh also another bonus is when you don’t have time to wash up you have stuff sitting on or around the sink looking messy. Just put it in the dishwasher and all looks tidy.

The level of plate scraping required for a dishwasher is exactly the same as the level of plate scraping required to wash them in the sink. You don't have to rinse them. You just bin any scraps, like you would for hand-washing them (I assume you don't wash your plates with chicken bones or half a fishfinger still on them) and then stick them in the dishwasher.

Yes, you have to unload it, but you also have to put the plates away after you've dried them on your draining board, so I don't understand why that makes any difference.

I don't really understand the part about a smell. All I can smell from mine is the smell of the dishwasher tablets, which just smell of pretty much like Fairy Liquid.

Obviously if you don't like dishwashers that's absolutely fine - no need to have one if you prefer life without one. I just don't really understand why you're so cross about other people having them.