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Hello - sorry I may have missed something so forgive me if someone has answered the question before...
I stopped using my dishwasher about 5 months ago, in the belief that it was better for the environment - mainly from a water use point of view (I make my own powder with soda crystals, borax, etc) so I am not worried about chemicals
However when I googled this recently there seem to be an awful lot of articles that say dishwashers use lots less water than hand washing..
Help! Am i being incorrectly virtuous standing washing the pots by hand - or can someone reassure me that infact I should be selling it and continuing the bowl and sponge?
Hey anna, I saw some of those articles too, but as far as I'm aware the figures they use assume you always run a full load. The comment about the water is true as far as it goes, but it neglects the energy needed to produce the dishwasher and any energy used to recycle its components, assuming it's recycled at all. Can I ask what recipe you're using for your handwashing?
I relented to a dishwasher finally this time last year - pressure from the wife
It uses 10% of my daily electricty consumption and takes 40 litres of water and 90 minutes to do what I coud do in 20 minutes with 10 litres of solar heated hot water.
That's progress for you - NOT!
I could return to a bowl of hot and a sponce - buts thats why this is the "ish" forum. We allallow ourselves small luxuries and deviations from the good life.
To compensate for the extra power usage, I only run it when it's full - usually 2 days, and I fitted low energy bulbs, and turn off the telly and sat-box at night. That saves the extra half kWh used by the dishwasher.
to be honest normally dishwashers are more hassle than washing by hand I think.... I do allow myself the luxury after a big party though - I salve my concience by clicking the 'energy efficient' button
Probably you could make exactly the same arguments for and against the washing machine - but I don't hand wash everything that's for sure......
My dishwasher broke down last year and I thought, oh well, probably just as easy to do it by hand. IT'S NOT. With a family of five it took me about half an hour each time, three times a day, plus a few times in between for snacks, tea cups etc. I was going demented and couldn't wait to get my dishwasher back.
It usually goes on once a day, and I turn it off when it gets to the drying cycle and just pull the drawers out so it air dries without the heating element on (if I remember). I use Ecover tablets and rinse aid in it. I reckon it does indeed use less water than doing it by hand, and it is far less hassle. That's true for my household anyway.
I couldn't live without a dishwasher! Yesterday making bramble jelly I seemed to spend the entire day hand washing large bowls and saucepans - what a chore!
If we did all our washing up by hand we would need to put on the hot water more - and this uses about 1/3rd of our electricity consumption.
I also use mammoth amounts of water washing up as I only have one sink (too small as well) so forever tipping out dirty water from the bowl and starting again, not to mention all the rinsing (under a running tap). Our water is very expensive in Brittany.
If you have a modern dishwasher with an A energy rating and use it on the economy wash I can't see it using more power/water/costing more money than doing it by hand. And you have more free time!
Millymollymandy wrote:I couldn't live without a dishwasher! Yesterday making bramble jelly I seemed to spend the entire day hand washing large bowls and saucepans - what a chore!
Bloody hell - how much did you make? I only dirtied two pans and a ladle!
You raise some interesting points, and is it better to wash by hand or use a dishwasher. There is no easy answer to this one, it depends on your lifestyle and the number of family members.
A couple of facts to help you decide:
A standard washing up bowl is about 10 litres and you will use water at only 45 centigrade - or scald youself.
An "A rated" dishwasher will use about 40 litres of water, (details in the manual) and heat it up from 20 C to 65 C, using electricity, unless you plumb it into your hot supply. It will use about 1kWh of electricity and take about 90 minutes to do a wash cycle.
I took the approach that I would use the dishwasher occasionally and justify its usage by making savings in my electricity and water usage elsewhere.
I offset the water heating by using solar hating panels from Navitron. I installed them myself and spent about £600.
A good proportion of the water I use for washing up gets recycled onto the garden. Even if I had a dishwasher (no space, so it's not an option) I think it would be hard to reuse the water in the same way.
My general plan is to wash a bowl full of stuff at a go, then it has plenty of space to drain on the rack and I can go back later, finish off drying with a teatowel, put that stuff away and do another bowlful - keeping on top of it rather than necessarily aiming to wash every last thing all at once (I'm sure this is a more eco-friendly approach, although I haven't quite persuaded my wife of this yet!).
I have a dishwasher - we also have a septic tank.. the council website recommends that you use a dishwasher with a septic tank because it allegedly turns the fats on the dishes into soap! That was a new one on me but there you go. I use ecover tablets and am considering using soap nuts.
I use the shortest cycle and don't use the drying programme at all - it takes 49 minutes but not sure of how much water.
Millymollymandy wrote:I couldn't live without a dishwasher! Yesterday making bramble jelly I seemed to spend the entire day hand washing large bowls and saucepans - what a chore!
Bloody hell - how much did you make? I only dirtied two pans and a ladle!
Well, first the colander to drain them. Then big bowl to weigh them. Then big pan to cook them first with water. Then hang muslin filled with berries over another big bowl. Then big pan to cook them in. Plus many plates for putting utensils on and doing the setting test.
Er... weigh big pan empty, then chuck in berries and re-weigh, then skoosh cold water over and drain off using the pan lid to hold berries in, repeat, add water and cook, later suspend old boiled teatowel over second pan (using cocktail sticks to bunch towel ends round handles) and strain pulp in two batches. Boil up still in the second pan, ladle into jars.
OK OK so I dirtied a plate doing the setting test too, I forgot that, and I don't count my spoon rest as it's always getting dirty.
You're never cooking in my kitchen! Are you related to my wife by any chance?
(I wish!)