Full or empty dishwasher

[SimSam]

Hi all,

We are a family of 4, most days my dishwasher is 90% full so I run a cycle in the evening.

I wash saucepans, casserole dishes by hand.

Do you run a cycle every day even if the machine is not 100% full or do you wait and only run when it is full? I'm not sure what to do????

Any thoughts

Yes I do. Also why are you washing the hardest things by hand?!

When full, could be every day or once every 3 days depending on what's going on.

I just wipe most saucepans by hand, usually they've been used to boil or heat things and just need a wipe. I also find the dishwasher destroys the non-stick.

I wait til the death and only put it on when rammed

I run it even if it isn't competely full. I am in a hot county if it's left it really pongs. I usually manage to fill it every day though. I do put my sauceoans in as they don't have a wooden handle.

Ours is full after 1 day, so there’s no dilemma.

I always put the casseroles and pans in though. Apart from the frying pan, but that doesn’t get used every day.

I put it on when we run out of clean cutlery - usually twice a week.

Every evening no matter how full it is. It does have a half load function which is great.

Why are you washing stuff by hand ?

I put it on when it's full. If it's been a fee days I put it on a full cycle, if its on the same day I'll do a quick wash.

When full

We wash our wine glasses, wooden handled implements. all pots and pans and baking trays and large things that take up a lot of space in the dishwasher by hand.

So we put the dishwasher on, completely full, about 4 or 5 times a week.

The dishwasher is usually full by night time but I'd put it on anyway.

Ours is always full every evening so I put it on when we go up to bed. I wash saucepans (wooden handles) and wine glasses by hand.
If it wasn’t full because we’d been out for dinner or something I’d leave it till it was full…which would usually be the next morning.

www.which.co.uk/news/2020/09/which-research-reveals-how-little-water-dishwashers-use-compared-to-hand-washing/

I have a half width machine, and run it every day or every other day.

Ours goes on every evening and is then unloaded first thing in morning and refilled over course of the day. I find that if we don't do that then we end up all out of sync with too much for one wash but not enough for two anyway.

I don't currently have one, but when I did I'd put it on each night. Unless we'd been out/had a takeaway etc so there really wasn't much in it.

There's a lot I choose not to put in one, so I'm looking at getting a slimline one when I redesign the kitchen.

Because they take so bloody long and have the things you use a lot, I think putting it on at 80+% full us totally fine.

I don't wash anything by hand so it's easy to run a full dishwasher. That's what's it's for IMHO, but my irritating DH keeps fucking up the system by washing that big stuff by hand.

Ours runs at least twice, if not three times a day. No idea how people manage to eat three meals a day without filling it multiple times.

Blimey ours is on every day and sometimes twice a day if I'm baking!

There's only three of us at home now and we run it full, once a day. When everyone is home it's often twice a day.

@Ethelswith. Which slimline one do you have & what do you think of it? If I get one, it'll have a top tray for cutlery.

We run ours whenever it's full, typically twice in three days (though it can be more!). Everything that can goes in it, so not the wooden chopping boards or the beater for the Kenwood chef (which started disintegrating...) but pretty much everything else.

I run mine every night. Some days it is not 100% full, but it is always at least 75% full. I find if I don’t, we run out of teaspoons and such like.

I'm with @Aposterhasnoname ours goes on two possibly three times a day. More when I'm batch cooking etc.

I have stopped using ours completely since electricity has gone up . Rubber gloves are back on 😂

Recent article I read in last couple of weeks- for the life of me can’t remember where.
Basically saying dishwasher takes far less water and resources than washing up even 1 bowlful - never rinse or wash something by hand if it can go in dishwasher. Just scrape into bin and shove in
Fwiw I live on my own, put it on each evening after tea. Everything goes in including pans. I don’t buy things that can’t dishwasher except my sharp knives and posh crystal glasses I’ve had for 30 years when I didn’t have a dishwasher! If I have space I also shove in empty waste plastic containers before sticking in recycle to save me rinsing them out by hand.🙄
I do sometimes have it going on less than full but will tend to look around for things to add in to make sure it’s full like oven bits or drainers etc.