Talk to me about a dishwasher, pros and cons?

[Lilacbluewaters]

Really debating a dishwasher after just making cottage pie and the pure amount of dishes it has resulted in. Are they worth it? Can you put everything in a dishwasher? I hear you have to rinse them beforehand, is this literally just run under a tap or? Feeling overwhelmed!!
we are a family of 5 and have lots of dishes to wash daily it is exhausting me having to cook for an hour and then cleaning the dishes and the rest of the kitchen for another hour!! How do people have time for this on a school night 🤯

Only con of a dishwasher is emptying it!

If you’re in a hard water area, have a water softener too. Game changer!

I live on my own. When I bought my house the dishwasher was included

'Hah' I said. 'I'll never use a dishwasher when it's only me'

8 years later I haven't washed a dish by hand. If my dishwasher chucked it tonight I'd be out tomorrow ordering a new one

There are no cons to one. You'll wish you'd got one ages ago

It is interesting to see how many people are for it, but I am on the opposite I am afraid. I was never happy with how it was cleaning my dishes. First I would rinse it all, I never put pots and pans, only plates and cups and cutlery, no wine glasses. Still I was never happy with how it cleaned it. I too could smell and see the soap residue on the cups. Got rid of it and trained my family to hand wash. 😉

I didn't want one, didn't reckon I needed one, but came home one day to find the ex had taken out a cupboard and moved the washing machine into its place so he could fit his mother's 22 year old Ariston dishwasher in the space.

In the years since then, at different points and in different houses, I've gone without/made do without

Freezer - 9 years
Microwave - 5 years
Carpet in my bedroom - 12 years
Fridge - 4 weeks
Washing machine - 6 weeks
Built in oven - 4 years and counting
Vacuum cleaner - 2 weeks
Kettle - 10 days

Guess how long I went without a dishwasher in that time? 3 days. I was ordering the first replacement the following afternoon and then when the second one gave up the ghost after 15 years, I was ordering it by the time the kettle had boiled.

Once you get one, you will not want to go back to all of the washing up every day, at least 3 times for meals, pots, pans, plates, cups, spoons, glasses and everything else that can go in one.

Family of five here and we didn’t have one for year for various reasons. We bought a new house and extended and had the first dishwasher. It is a game changer! I reckon we’d spend over an hour each day washing up, now it goes in the dishwasher and I have a strong view that every l thing goes in!
it will change your life!

There are no cons. Plenty of websites to look at for prices.

I scrape but never rinse.

I also don't put anything plastic in there, nor my really sharp knives but everything else goes in.

We're a family of 5 & only got out first dishwasher a few years ago when we had an extension so could fit it in
It's genuinely been lifesaving. I would never be without one again

Had a dishwasher for the past 20 years and love it. I don't put my sharp knives in it as it blunts them and I'd rather wash metal oven trays by hand as they can leave muck on other things and are a pain to load (won't stand vertical without impeding the washing arm and take up too much room if you lie flat). Everything else goes in and I only scrape not rinse. I wash in the sink as I go whilst cooking. Everything left on the side at the end of cooking is no longer my responsibility as I've done all the cooking and have earned the right to sit on my butt.

I love the dishwasher, but would get a full-size one - I got a 45cm one as there’s only two of us, and then they stopped selling loose dishwasher powder and you can only buy the tablets now, and you don’t get smaller tablets for the smaller dishwasher so now I can sometimes taste it on plastic items. Never had that with the powder as could adjust the amount.

Am I the only person who can't believe anyone doesn't have a dishwasher? At least anyone in a reasonable size home with 2 or more people living in it?! I just assumed it was almost as commonplace as an oven for a family home.
Anyway, my naivety aside, of course get one OP. We resent even washing wine glasses - not sure how you cope washing everything (on top of cooking in the first place, but that's another story!)

Perhaps in UK you do, but for many other countries in the world it is not at all a norm. I do not live in UK but most people here do have dishwasher, however many do not.

I would love one but there currently isn't room due to the ridiculous under sink plumbing layout - it would involve changing the cupboard, sink and plumbing to get it in. But it's on my list of things to do! I had one in our old house and I miss it!

All pros. No cons.

Can’t live without ours 😳 ours broke recently and it was a hotpoint, we had it 5 years. We last 10 days without one when dh gave up and said we’d better go get another.
It is worth getting one. If I do a roast it saves on labour and the dishes come out lovely.

Do it. Absolutely worth it.
I use Ecover or the cheaper Lidl tabs, everything else is too smelly.

I persuaded both my mum and my sister to add dishwashers to their new kitchen plans. It will change your life I said. Mum: never used after 10 years. Sister- only used at Christmas if other people are there. So there must be a downside.

Love mine!

last house there was no room in the kitchen, so my hands were red raw from washing up constantly, and I hated the piles of dirty/clean washing, plus it used loads of hot water.

my neighbour went over 15 years without a washing machine, but never been without a dishwasher!

There really are no cons. We sometimes look back at the first couple of years of our marriage where we had a tiny kitchen and no dishwasher with horror at the washing up we had to do!

We scrape nothing. The only glasses we don’t put in are the really expensive ones. I don’t care if other glasses get a dishwasher bloom - it takes years and I just replace them. My husband has extremely expensive Japanese knives and Hexclad pans, so he hand washes those, but that’s his choice.

I’m trying to rearrange our utility room so we can have a 2nd dishwasher, that’s how much I love them.

It's fantastic because you can keep the kitchen clean and tidy by putting everything dirty in there without having to wash dishes multiple times of the day . Go for it OP.

Getting our first dishwasher is on the list of my top ten life changing moments 😄 We debated whether it was worth losing a cupboard for - it definitely was!

Get one op. It's not just the washing up, it's the keeping the kitchen tidy, things waiting to be washed are waiting in the dishwasher out of sight. I'm pretty sure the modern ones are going to be more efficient than washing up in terms of energy and water used too.

OP- why wouldn't you get one? Is it the cost, space or something else?

Its just DH and myself, and we lived 18yrs in a flat with no dishwasher. Now in a house with one and love it. Glass is visibility SO much cleaner.
I don't rinse plates, just scrape off chunks of food.

I don't put very fine, champagne flutes in it, chopping knives or any chopping board which is made up of various bits of wood glued together. I put MIL's in her dishwasher, which melted the wood glue and it came out in bits like large jigsaw pieces 😬

If my dishwasher broke I’d sell my children to afford a replacement.

I would go without a washing machine before I gave up my dishwasher
i I don’t even wash a teaspoon up
There’s no debate

Life is far too short to spend it washing dishes every night.

Get one with a few programmes and figure out what works best.

I have a basic model and I basically plop dishes into a basin of warm, soapy water when they've been scraped, then after they've soaked a bit, I use a scrubbing brush to attack remaining soil (parmesan cheese tends to stick) and put the dishes into the dishwasher. I do the same for cutlery, pots, and Pyrex cookware. The soaking is a hands-off step, and the once-over with the scrubbing brush takes about ten minutes. Everything comes out of the dishwasher squeaky clean.

When I had no dishwasher I learned to only make one pot meals or trays of roast veg/ meats/ potatoes. It was fantastic to be able to look forward to lasagna and other dishes and desserts that needed more than one pot or a few bowls.