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I refuse to use a dishwasher. I don’t think it makes anything faster or better. When I was a child in the seventies my household chore was loading the dishwasher, but my mom always said I did it wrong.

It doesn’t matter, Mom. It’s fine as it is. But you know what? How about I never use a dishwasher again for my entire life? Deal? Deal!

My wife likes them, though. It looks to me that she is washing the dishes before “using the dishwasher,” so I don’t understand what she thinks she is gaining by it.

Dishwashers promote delusions.

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tombert 2 days ago | parent [-]

Everyone always says that they can "wash dishes faster than the washer", and maybe that's true, but loading the dishwasher takes like five minutes of active effort, then you're done. It might take three hours to finish washing them but you're not involved.

If you only have a few dishes, then sure washing by hands is fast enough, but if you let it pile up on the sink for several days, it can be a fairly long process, on the order of 30-45 minutes if things are really stuck on there.

When I bought my house in 2018, it didn't have a dishwasher. We had to wash dishes by hand, and it changed our entire psychology. I was hesitant to cook anything in the kitchen because it would generate dishes and I don't like washing dishes, so we ended up mostly surviving on low-effort frozen food.

In 2021, we had the kitchen remodeled, and in the process we installed a dishwasher, and it made it fun to cook again. I could use a lot more dishes and utensils in the process, and the effort to clean up doesn't change significantly.

At this point I don't think I will live in a place that doesn't have a dishwasher ever again.

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mcdeltat 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's interesting how you talk about dishwashers stopping you cooking, because I found a bit of the opposite.

First reason is hand washing gives you a much faster iteration cycle on clean dishes. If I'm cooking I don't really want to wait 3 hours to get a pot back.

Second reason is (in my experience so far) dishwashers suck for any significant quantity/intensity of cooking. Ceramics, sure. But big pots? Don't fit in the dishwasher. And cooked-on food? It doesn't come off (despite people repeatedly claiming that if you "just use the dishwasher correctly" it will remove all food, I've never experienced that).

Third reason is a bunch of things that can't go in dishwashers, e.g. wood.

So in the end, the most time consuming things to wash need to be done by hand anyway. The rest is a small enough amount that it doesn't take very long to wash. And of course the dishwasher costs more to run. Once I factor all this in, hand washing isn't that terrible of an option.

	▲	tombert 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		To each their own, I found it made it really un-fun to cook anything that required more than two pots because I didn't want to do the dishes. I just don't use dishes or cutlery or utensils that aren't dishwasher safe. I don't use wood spoons, I have a set of silicone ones that I like. I agree that there will be some stuff that sticks on sufficiently enough to where dishwashing probably won't get it off even if you do everything correctly, but I find that those are outliers. In those cases I let stuff soak in the sink for awhile, scrub it, and then put it in the dishwasher to make sure it's sanitized (my dishwasher has a sanitize cycle). I don't run the dishwasher just for that dish, I just wait for it to fill up again and then run it.

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layer8 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The trick is to only own/use one set of dishes. This effectively prevents you from letting them pile up.

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satisfice 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You will not live in a place without a dishwasher, while I refuse to use them, ever.

It will be hard for us to stay married, then. But I am willing to let you do all the dishes, for the sake of the children.

	▲	tombert 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I am afraid I am already taken by a lady who also refuses to live in a place without a dishwasher :)