Why humans are bad at washing dishes

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The time and effort savings alone makes it worth it. I've had people argue with me that they can finish washing the dishes by hand faster than my dishwasher's 2 hour cycle. I counter by telling them that I only spend time loading and unloading the dishwasher. The dishwasher's working time isn't using my own time. I am free to do other things while it works.

After Technology Connections video and this, I now know how to actually use my dishwasher

Did you watch this video, and are frustrated because you live in a place without a dishwasher, or without a place to even install one? Look up a countertop dishwasher! I got a Faberware personally. It requires no installation, fits on my counter without issue, takes maybe 5 minutes to load, and saves me dozens of hours every week. I used to have no choice but to hand-wash for 10 years, and I hated it. Getting a countertop dishwasher was a game-changer. It was literally one of the best purchases I've ever made.

I washed dishes by hand throughout college (no dishwasher available). When I moved into a place with a dishwasher, I used it avidly, but always wondered if I was wasting water because I didn't own enough dishes to fill a full load. It's good to know for certain that I have not been wasting water as I absolutely would be hand washing for more than 4 minutes.

1. To fully compare efficiency, also compare the amount of labor involved. The main reason why people buy dishwashers is to reduce the time spent on a repetitive & boring chore. I wanted to write "You had me at time-saving" but it wasn't mentioned. 2. It would help some of us if you also compare older dishwashers, not just "modern." I think mine is 50 years old. It doesn't heat the water, and the hot water supply in the building is set at about 125ºF. Perhaps MinuteFood should do a video about whether to replace an old dishwasher (that isn't broken).

I know she said it's okay not to own a dishwasher, but now I feel bad 😂 I feel like sending this to my landlord

It's actually blowing my mind that some people have a dishwasher and never use it, and even more so that they are proud and happy of that fact! I suppose if they have a truly ancient slumlord model it makes sense, but other than that, what a wild thing.

Things worth noting. It’s worth scraping solid foods off, but you don’t need to pre-rinse in the sink before going into dishwasher. ALSO, not all things SHOULD go in a dishwasher: certain plastics that deform in high heat, wood utensils that can be ruptured from the high heat, and vacuum sealed containers may not hold their vacuum. SO, THOSE items should be hand-washed just before you run the dishwasher to allow the water to warm up before running the dishwasher. ALSO, on a similar note, I LOVE that this video spoke out about the germ /water temperature while hand washing topic; “washing water with extremely hot water” to kill the germs is sooooo wrong - just use water warm enough that it feels comfortable for you hand - you will NEVER want to warm the water up enough to the point that the hotness kills germs, at that point you are scalding you are hand.

Ok, ok... you win. I'll get my dishwasher serviced and I'll try it out. The hot water and long time arguments finally convinced me to at least try.

Please note that in the infographic that describes the cycles of the dishwasher, it's clear that _detergent pacs are useless in the prewash_. USE POWDER/GEL DETERGENT and put some in the prewash compartment!

Really, my biggest reason for pre-rinsing isn't because it cleans dishes better per se, but because a dish might sit in the dishwasher for several days before the dishwasher gets full enough to run. Any crumbs or food residue on those dishes in that time just sit there rotting, or worse, attracting bugs. I have actually had ants infest my dishwasher before. Get this, just running the dishwasher does next to nothing to get rid of ants. So it's not about cleaning the dishes better, it's about preventing food from being left out.

I find it odd that people purposefully don’t use their dishwasher but happily use their clothes-washing machine.

This helps my audhd tremendously. I am now armed with the information needed to proceed with using the dishwasher in most cases

I've had access to a Dishwasher for the last decade of my life and I haven't used it at all, due to two reasons: - Bachelor life meaning I only use a small handful of dishes/tableware - Owning a low number of dishes in the first place I feel like the best use of a Dishwasher is when you use a lot of dishes and you own a lot of dishes to cycle through. It's hard for me to justify using the Dishwasher when I only really use one dish and one fork at a time. However, I imagine the situation will change when a family is involved. Two people plus a child is going to generate a lot of dishes (and will need to own a lot of dishes in the first place). Good to know dishwashers are efficient and effective!

I was supervisor of a dish room at a university. We had THOUSANDS of dishes. Sometimes up to a thousand students at once. I hate dishwashing now. I use the dishwasher whenever possible.

The catch here is that dishwashers are going to completely blow handwashing out of the water for removal of pathogens, but handwashing will be better for at least some forms of caked on dirt, and the latter is what is visible and generally judged as clean vs dirty day to day. It's an increasingly small difference, particularly when you mix in all the mistakes people make that are easily fixed to get better performance here, but it could explain why people perceive handwashing as better.

The biggest difference: TIME.Washing dishes by hand simply takes a lot of time you can use for other things. When free time is already at a premium for you this begins to matter a lot.

Are people leaving their faucet open when washing dishes?

(speaking for Europe) every dishwasher my family has ever had had a half-load button for when it got stinky and needed to be washed before fully loaded. That tips the efficiency even more towards dishwashers.