I don't have a dishwasher and I go back and forth. I've read/heard that dishwashing is more environmentally friendly, but then again, you'd think hand-washing would be? What do you think?
Hmm....THis is a good question. I think it might depend on whether you leave the water running when you wash. If you have a divided sink and only use one sinkful of wash water and then can rinse in the other sink, I would think handwashing would be more ecofriendly. But I'm not sure. Someone must have stats on this?
I've read that an eco friendly dishwasher is the best option followed by hand washing using the 2 sink method. I know that for me, using the dishwasher fully loaded on a low rinse air dry cycle is way more eco friendly than how I hand wash. Here are a couple links I found...
i have v. v. v. rarely seen anyone hand wash dishes with a conservative use of water.
in fact i very often see the overuse of water for hand washing dishes.
it can be done by hand that is. v. easily possible coz even if you dont have a divider sink you can use a plastic tub.
the other thing is the dishwasher is eco friendly if you have learnt how to correctly load it (surprising how few people actually know that) and use it to its maximum capacity instead of partially full.
It depends how you compare the two I think. An eco-friendly dishwasher might use less water, but how many more resources were required just to make the dishwasher itself? And since every dishwasher I have ever used has been worthless at getting food off of dishes, I've always had to pre-wash them before using the dishwasher, and that would bump up the water usage a lot if it was included in the calculation.
I'm sure I use less water/energy/resources washing by hand than a dishwasher. Supposedly dishwashers save time, though I can hardly imagine how because the entire process requires handling the dishes repeatedly and the wash cycles themselves take like an hour to wash dishes that would take me 10 minutes. When I am hand washing, particularly dishes that aren't very dirty, I can rinse them off as soon as I take them to the sink then just pop them into the rack to dry.
It depends how you compare the two I think. An eco-friendly dishwasher might use less water, but how many more resources were required just to make the dishwasher itself? And since every dishwasher I have ever used has been worthless at getting food off of dishes, I've always had to pre-wash them before using the dishwasher, and that would bump up the water usage a lot if it was included in the calculation.
I'm sure I use less water/energy/resources washing by hand than a dishwasher. Supposedly dishwashers save time, though I can hardly imagine how because the entire process requires handling the dishes repeatedly and the wash cycles themselves take like an hour to wash dishes that would take me 10 minutes. When I am hand washing, particularly dishes that aren't very dirty, I can rinse them off as soon as I take them to the sink then just pop them into the rack to dry.
This is something that most people coming up with how "green" products are tend to not think of. One of my favorite articles that goes over this topic is from Tree Hugger and located here: http://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/built-in-dishwashers-vs-hand-washing-which-is-greener.html
This does not include the manufacturing process of the dishwasher. If you include that, handwashing really seems to win hands down (haha, puns). The problem in this debate is that there are just too many factors. How does the person handwash? Did they get their dishwasher used? Do they pre-rinse or is the dishwasher effective in cleaning things without that?
I suspect that the dishwasher uses less water but more energy.
We are planning to get a dishwasher, actually. We've never had one. We eliminated disposable kitchen items awhile ago, and now there are so many dishes to wash every day - a trade-off.
Lots of links to articles about the eco-friendliness of new dishwashers used correctly, and discussion with my brother the home energy auditor, in this article:
It's always going to be more efficient to wash a large number of dishes at once than a small number, because of the water wasted getting hot water from the water heater to the sink/dishwasher--having done that, the more dishes you wash, the better!
The manufacturing of the dishwasher does have an impact, of course, but if it's then used consistently for 10-20 years, the impact per use is pretty small.
Look at Consumer Reports or similar publications to find a dishwasher with good cleaning abilities. Another thing to consider is the amount of noise it makes. If you're in the USA, the power consumption is listed on the Energy Star label on the display model in the store. I recommend looking at them in the store (instead of ordering online) so you can try sliding the racks, opening and closing the door, pushing the buttons, etc., and think about what feels right to you vs. feeling awkward.
One feature our dishwasher has that I like is that the utensil basket is on the door, leaving more space for other things in the rack.
My experience is that the dishwasher does a really good job getting things clean, but it will sometimes have problems with baked-on food, especially egg or cheese, so it's better if you soak that off first. Mostly we don't have to rinse things, even though we take 3-4 days to fill the dishwasher so the food is drying onto the dishes all that time. We saw hardly any difference in our electric bill when we got the dishwasher, BUT we do not us the Heated Dry cycle which takes a lot of power--we just let the dishes drip-dry for a few hours and then put anything that's still wet in our dish drainer or dry it with a towel.
Plastic dishes do not do as well in a dishwasher as glass/ceramic/metal: Grease doesn't come off them completely, dishwasher detergent can stick to them leaving a white film, they don't dry (unless you use the Heated Dry cycle which can melt them!), and sometimes because they're lightweight they'll flip over and collect dirty water. So we don't put most of our plastic stuff in the dishwasher; we try to use other types of dishes instead of plastic where possible, and then we hand-wash the plastic things. But plastic cooking utensils, like spatulas, are made of heat-tolerant plastic (usually nylon) and they do fine in the dishwasher unless they have egg or cheese stuck on.
Another thing to consider is how many loads you do hand washing each day. Washing once a day is one thing, doing several small sinkfuls with lots of rinsing in hot water is another. So I think it depends a bit on your habits.
Do not like dishwasher. We don't use a lot of dishes because we have a very small family. Using dishpan & reusing rinse water into washing dishpan saves a lot of water. Dishwasher doesn't get things clean enough, IMO. Strong chemicals in dishwasher are bad for us & environment. Nothing beats scrubbing fork tines & the natural soap we can use by hand is far better. It's also a humbling experience that causes us to reuse a glass or not take an extra utensil when we see the water, soap, and labor required.
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