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 🤯

Up there amongst the best things ever invented.
I’ve had one forever as I’m pretty old now.
I don’t buy kitchen equipment that can’t go in the dishwasher so no wooden chopping boards or spoons.
Decent glasses don’t go in either.
I rinse off any utensils/ dishes that have been used for eggs as I find I can detect an egg smell after a wash.
Otherwise I wouldn’t want to be without it.

I got my first dishwasher 12 years ago when my second child was a baby.

I remember when I told people I was thinking of getting one most had a sharp intake of breath and either asked a) how I'd got one child to age 5 and produced another and still not got a dishwasher or b) whether I was in fact insane. I thought they were all being melodramatic.

I just bought a slimline 45cm by a brand no-one had ever heard of that fit into an existing gap. I remember in the showroom there were signs saying that they could deliver appliances within 48 hours. I asked the chap serving about this and he said that when people get used to having a dishwasher and theirs breaks they want a replacement as a matter of urgency. I wondered what on earth was wrong with people and concluded I was surrounded by quiet madness.

About 3 days after said dishwasher arrived I announced to my partner that if this dishwasher ever died I didn't want another one within 48 hours because that would be far too long and that in fact we'd pay for the next day if not same day delivery of a new one thank you very much.

A year afterwards I replaced my kitchen and the only thing I went on about to the designer was the need for a full size reliable dishwasher. I wasn't bothered about things like an oven, or drawers. Or even a hob or a light to be honest. As long as there was a dishwasher.

A friend got her first dishwasher recently. She wasn't that bothered, she lives alone, but thought it might still be a good idea. I warned her what would happen. She messaged me on day 3 to tell me she says thank you to it every evening when she switches it on 😀

Please read articles I’ve linked
pre soaking or rinsing is NOT recommended

1. its not needed due to way cycles work- all washes have a pre wash step, and the way the water recycles is doing what you’re doing but better.
2. it is wasteful on water and energy
3. the items actually need a bit of food residue on them to stop damage or soap residue. Really. You aren’t actually helping this.
4. why in earth would you spend that time doing all that?
5. you can’t them shove stuff in as you go and will have stashes of dirty stuff left around the kitchen all day. Just why?

in summary, I think you’ve missed the point of a dishwasher 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

watching the second video I linked is like a lecture on dishwashing. It’s long but very helpful stating stuff I never realised till a year back, and I’ve been using a long time. The switching to powder detergent away from expensive tablets and using powder in the the pre wash slot or door as well as a second main dose, has made a massive difference to performance and purse.

Why aren't you putting your wine glasses in?

No Cons! Wouldn't be without one, Family of 5 here

My dishwasher stopped working a year or two ago. I live in Lancashire and the engineer who came out was basically Peter Kay in overalls. He asked me if I'd been rinsing things before putting them in. I said no. He asked if I cleaned the dishwasher, I said yes - I'd bought a pack of those bottles of dishwasher cleaning solution you upturn and then run on a full cycle. He said: "That's your problem - you're keeping it too clean. It's overfoaming. It needs some grease to work. You're killing it with kindness." 😀

I asked him what I should do with the remaining bottles of dishwasher cleaner and he said: "Give them to someone you don't like." 😆

Get one.

Scrape only.
Everything goes in, whether it likes it or not. If it doesn't like it, it gets replaced with a version that does.
Get a knife sharpener.
Ikea glasses and wine glasses don't scratch in my experience. I do hand-wash the nicer glasses and glass insulated mugs.

There are only pros, no cons. I like a simple life but would hate to not have a dishwasher.

They are good, but ... they ruin any black plastic items, like pan handles. They can make glasses cloudy (not all of them, but some). They blunt chopping knives. It's possible to wash some silver/silver plate in the machine, but some will go strange colours and turn the dishwasher black ... you just have to try your silver in the machine and see if it's the sort of silver that works with your dishwasher. Some things are so big that they take up too much room and (to me at least) it seems a waste to use the dishwasher for them. They tend not to do too well with metal baking trays. I've got so many things that I won't put in there that I end up doing loads of by-hand washing-up anyway, and I sometimes wonder what the point of one is.

No cons.

There are no cons.

OP, no debate required. Get a dishwasher. My old Miele recently died after 15 years plus loyal service. It probably might have been repairable, but engineers are expensive and no guarantee of success. Anyway, as soon as DH read the last rites, I was straight to John Lewis after work to order my new Miele - super quiet and it has the cutlery shelf rather than a basket. DH connected it in about 10 minutes. The standard programme takes 50 minutes, but there are other programmes. Don’t use it for silver, bone handled cutlery or good glasses, (these rules apply at MIL’s as in common with most on Mumsnet, we do not use silver cutlery).

Or buy stuff that is dishwasher friendly?

There are no cons

I’d replace mine immediately if it broke

My sister always said they didn’t need one then after she got it said ‘how many hours of my life have I wasted?!’ I love the dishwasher!

In fairness this second video does explain this. He describes that the tabs or pouches give same dose of detergent whatever hardness of water. So it can overdose if you’re soft water
by using powder you need a bit of trial and error to find your right dose and not just fill to maximum (as it says on packet) or soft water will cause over foaming on max dose. I actually use surprising little.

im in Lancashire too! But I use a lot less powder than I did when I lived over the border in Cheshire…significantly harder water over there. Love that my shower screen glass is not such a pain to clean too 🤣🤣🤣

Just bloody get one!

Leaving the dishwasher behind was my one regret about leaving exDP. ...... ok I am obviously exaggerating a little but only a little. There's no space for a dishwasher in my current home and boy do I miss it every single day.

Or buy stuff that is dishwasher friendly?

No thanks. I love my silver and my faux-bone handle vintage knives.

We just got a dishwasher. Also a family of 5. It's amazing!!! We do wash pans separately as we only use it once a day so no room for the pans - but a few pans is fine compared to a million mugs, glasses, cereal bowls, lunch plates, dinner plates, pudding bowls etc etc. We don't rinse anything off and it comes clean. I can recommend Morrisons own brand dishwasher tablets. They are brilliant and pretty cheap. Lidl ones are even cheaper but dreadful. We got a Hotpoint one with a top drawer for cutlery which is really brilliant. Not had anything left dirty (except residue on the dishwasher filter with the Lidl tablets).

... and it is possible to wash some sets of silver in some dishwashers - it just depends on the silver and the dishwasher.

They are no cons except if the machine breaks down and you have to do all the washing up by hand.

We didn't have one till a couple of months ago. My dsis doesn't have one. My parents don't have one. We are all 'professionals' (parents retired), property owners etc. We usually divide washing up - mostly whoever didn't cook, washes up.

I have to say I do love it, though DH thinks it costs more than hand washing.

Because they're too tall, and also they're good crystal!

No cons at all - get one

Intrigued by the cooking's salmon in one ?