Dishes: By Hand or Machine?

[Peppamint]

I wash my dishes by hand (as does my mom), but my MIL and SIL swear by their dishwashers. My dishwasher is a hand me down and the dishes often have residue and spots, so I have rinse before and after... and then figure why bother? Plus, it has to be hooked to my sink which is a pain in the butt...

Anyway, just curious... by hand or machine? Any specific reason?

Oh! And what kind of deteregent etc. do you use?

[MelMel]

we've always done them by hand. thought dishwashers were wasteful and unnessessary.

then i was reading that newmans book, 'guide to the good life' or something, and they actually suggested dishwashers used less water and were more efficient?!? so we have been trying to look into it more and thinking about getting a portable second-hand one. but how could that be? its not like newmans have any interest in dishwasher sales...just the opposite, actually. hmmm.

i use a bucket/tub in the sink to use less water, but we do spend maybe an hour or more a day washing, it seems....

i will be interested in hearing some responses.

[MelMel]

btw...what is 'neither':LOL

cooking tv dinners and 'on cor' meals, and throwing away plastic spoons/forks single use?? lol
or eating out exclusively???? yummm....
:LOL :LOL :LOL

[Peppamint]

Originally posted by MelMel
btw...what is 'neither':LOL

cooking tv dinners and 'on cor' meals, and throwing away plastic spoons/forks single use?? lol
or eating out exclusively???? yummm....
:LOL :LOL :LOL

Ya know, me being silly. Picturing the days when I was preggo with ds and chasing dd around AND working 30 hr/wk. The dishes would be stacked SO high!

BTW, my MIL uses paper and plastic mostly so it takes her a week to fill up the dishwasher to run a cycle.

[plum]

by hand. i would like a dishwasher, but we don't have one and as it is, the ones i have used i have had bad luck with.

i hate washing them by hand because we have really hard water and it leaves water spots all over, regardless of me rinsing in vinegar.

[momto l&a]

Dont have the time to wash dishes, besides I am allergic to dish soap We have a full sized portable and love it. Make sure you dont get one with the water that has to go up the middle cause you cant wash big dishes that way. My MIL rinses her dishes clean before putting in the washer. I say that what the thing is for so our go in yucky and if they are placed right will come out sparkly clean. Our has a built in garbage grinder thingy as does my MIL's. I will not waste time and water rinsing my dishes. Pet peeve of mine can you tell. :LOL

'Neighter is when you have two dogs, one called Soap, the other Water. :LOL True story!

[Trishy]

By hand, not by choice. I hate washing dishes and I am saving up for a portable dishwasher after I buy a carpet steamer.

[Peppamint]

Originally posted by momto l&a
My MIL rinses her dishes clean before putting in the washer. I say that what the thing is for so our go in yucky and if they are placed right will come out sparkly clean. Our has a built in garbage grinder thingy as does my MIL's. I will not waste time and water rinsing my dishes. Pet peeve of mine can you tell. :LOL

See, that's what my MIL does too. She actually rinses them off with a soapy sponge (Dawn detergent) and then puts them in her machine.

My machine is her old cast-off and if I don't rinse the dishes before there is still food stuck to it. If I don't rinse them afterwards, there is a powdery residue. It's older though, and she'll even admit that her new one is much, much better.

I actually use my dishwasher for storage and since it has a wood top on it, I use it as a cutting board etc since it's right next to my oven.

I actually find washing dishes theraputic sometimes. Depends on my mood, and if I've been doing my gourmet chef thing for awhile and am ready to relax I hate washing dishes.

Oh, the nice dinnerware my parents bought us when we married and my cookware (stainless steel with an aluminum disc on the bottom) can't go into the dishwasher anyway!

[summerdgo]

I use a portable dishwahser that hooks up to my sink, and it really does use less water. I catch the rinse water and use it on houseplants and garden, so I know pretty well how much it uses. I catch about twelve gallons per cycle and let the approx. six gallons of wash water go down the drain. If I just plugged the sink, it would fill up a little more than twice during the whole cycle. When I wash by hand, I have the initial sinkfull plus the water running intermittantly to rinse. I think that the running rinse water would easily fill the sink two or three times even though I only turn it on when I have the sink full of sudsy dishes and am rinsing them (as opposed to just leaving it running the whole time I'm washing). I use Seventh Generation powder because it is the easiest to find phosphate free brand.
There are still things that have to be washed by hand, and things that don't fit in my slightly smaller than normal dishwasher, so I should have voted for "both", but I voted for "neither" out of wishful thinking. I hate dishes SO much. I am seriously trying to develop an entirely dish-free menu. Carrot sticks and cheese cubes eaten with fingers off of the cutting board. Maybe have them gather around the soup pan with spoons. Everything wrapped in a tortilla. When the weather is warm, I can open the kitchen window and serve meals on the porch table and then just hose it down.

[Colorful~Mama]

yeah

we have a crappy old dishwasher. it leaks AND it doens't get dishes clean. So to save money and my sanity I wash by hand. Dh is hinting that if we dont' move by next Christmas maybe mama will get a new one as a big ol' honking Christmas gift next year

[SMPH]

Both.

We have some items that cannot be dishwashed so those are by hand.

I'd say we run the dishwasher twice a week maybe but it's just the two of us eating from plates. Sometimes I hand wash things that are in the sink. Don't know why, I just do. For a while I wouldn't let DH use the dishwasher. Well, we used it as a drying rack! Then DS came along and I decided DH could better spend his time with his son.

I do often rinse first. I think it's habit from my exclusive hand washing days. Must work on that.

I grew up with no dishwasher. Brother washed and I dried. Never understood why I had to dry. Nowadays my parents do not dry their dishes! I point it out every chance I get

[MelMel]

Originally posted by summerdgo
I use a portable dishwahser that hooks up to my sink, and it really does use less water. I catch the rinse water and use it on houseplants and garden, so I know pretty well how much it uses. I catch about twelve gallons per cycle and let the approx. six gallons of wash water go down the drain. If I just plugged the sink, it would fill up a little more than twice during the whole cycle. When I wash by hand, I have the initial sinkfull plus the water running intermittantly to rinse. I think that the running rinse water would easily fill the sink two or three times even though I only turn it on when I have the sink full of sudsy dishes and am rinsing them (as opposed to just leaving it running the whole time I'm washing). I use Seventh Generation powder because it is the easiest to find phosphate free brand..

thats great that you can catch the rinse water, thats probably what I would do. we use Ecover dish soap for regular washing, but I guess you need special soap for dishwashers, so thanks for the tip on Seventh Gen! I save our shower/bath water and bucket it down to the basement for cloths/diaper washing..I am sure the dish water could do that too (since cloths get a clean rinse anyway)

and maybe we could keep the little wash tub we have in the sink, and put an inch of water in it, and pre-wipe the dishes by dipping in there, because everyone I know pre-washes or rinses dishes before putting them in the machine too...I always thought it was silly, but if it leaves chunks....dont want that

[MaggiesMom]

We use both (only not the dw right now since the second plumber to be here in two days seems to have broken it or something.)

We use Cascade Complete in the dw because it solves the rinsing beforehand problem and doesn't etch the glasses. The dishwasher hardly ever got used before we had Maggie, but now we hardly have time to do them by hand.

[Sustainer]

My partner washes the dishes. He does it by hand, using Seventh Generation dish detergent from http://www.gaiam.com

[AnnMarie]

By hand until my mother bought me a new dishwasher at the end of the summer. Thanks Mom! There are way too many people here for me to wash them by hand, my back can't take it. I love my dishwasher!

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I love my dishwasher more than anything in the whole wide world. I think about it all the time. I love it. I think I'll name it. I never knew how much I could love a big white square thing. Do you have any suggesions for naming my dishwasher? Did I mention that I LOVE MY DISHWASHER?

[IdentityCrisisMama]

AnneMarie, we posted at the same time...are we the same person?

[StarMama]

Me too IdentityCrisisMama! I love my dishwasher!!! MIL bought it for me for christmas, its the top of the line portable variety... she had originally bought me just the normal one, but it was dented, so they upgraded us for free! Woo! It works SO well. I do rinse the major gook off, but I don't have to scrub any hard bits off anymore like I had to in every dishwasher I ever came across before (like our old apt). I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to wash the big gook off either, but its habit, and big stuff has gotten stuck in the bottom of other dishwashers and its a pain to clean out (like tomato chunks from spaghetti sauce or something).

And is one that the water has to go to the middle the one with the swirly blade thing on the bottom of the top rack? Cuz if so, I find that design MUCH better! I can't wash my huge pot, and 2 plates we have, but everything else I can, and I can fit SO much more into it because there isn't a big spot in the bottom rack where the blade attached and you can't stick dishes there then.

Yes, I think we should name our dishwashers... Lets think of a very maid/butler name or something. I know, Jeeves! Yes, that will be my dishwasher's name! I was thinking "Mary" or something, you know like a maid's name, but then I thought "hey a GUY should do dishes around here, since Dh doesn't!". So now when people ask "So who does your dishes?" I can say "Jeeves does!" and sound like I've got a butler or something! :LOL Ok I really need some out outlet for this creative energy!

[USAmma]

By machine. I don't have time to do them by hand. Our dishwasher broke for about 6 mos. and it was really a burden to wash and wash and wash. I felt like the job was never done.

Our new dishwasher uses less water than I was using by handwashing. It heats the water up inside the machine until it reaches 160 so it will sanitize the dishes. And on top of that I no longer have to deal with a dripping dishrack on the counter, because it dries the dishes for us.

We use Cascade detergent. Tried lots of others and it's the only one that works in our hard water without leaving spots. I only put a small squirt in the open cup and I fill the closed cup only halfway.

Darshani

[Peppamint]

Originally posted by MelMel
we use Ecover dish soap for regular washing, but I guess you need special soap for dishwashers, so thanks for the tip on Seventh Gen!

Oh my goodness... the stories I've heard about this! YES! You do need a detergent that is specifically for dishwashing machines! :LOL From what I hear, with regular dish soap the dishwasher will foam at the mouth... and foam... and foam... and foam... and foam...


The new dishwashers sound nice! Someday I may want one... right now I want a new washer and dryer... One thing at a time I suppose!