Podcast: Dishwasher or hand-wash?

"Hey Mr. Green: I'm trying to convince my husband that using the dishwasher is more efficient than washing each dish separately. Is that true?"

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Comments

[jonathan]

Hi, Mr. Green,

This is what I hear all the time--dishwashers are more efficient as long as you do a full load, and you don't waste water rinsing. And you don't need to do much rinsing as long as you wash them right away and don't let food cake on there.

But the problem is this: what about if you only create so many dishes per meal? In our household, we only fill up the dishwasher every 3 days or so, which means either I have to rinse things off to keep them from caking on, or I have to run the dishwasher before it's full, or I do them by hand. What's the reasonable solution in this case?

I suppose the other is to generate dishes more quickly so you can fill up your dishwasher and run it more often, but that seems to defeat the purpose of using less water.

[Portable Dishwasher.net]

Here's a helpful answer from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/built-in-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing-which-greener.php

Can hand washing be as efficient as dishwashing?

The short answer: maybe. First, let's look at water usage alone. The average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute, so if you can successfully wash and rinse eight place settings -- plates, bowls, forks, knives, spoons, glasses, etc. -- and those six serving dishes that your dishwasher can handle without running the faucet for more than 2 total minutes, then, you might be better off hand-washing.

[Linda Penney]

The assumption for the dishwasher efficiency is that you leave the water running full blast the entire time you are hand washing dishes. However, anyone who is consevation aware does not leave the water running full blast. I wash a stack of plates, turn the faucet on a trickle,rinse all off under a trickle of water, then shut the faucet off till the next group is ready to rinse, ie flatware, several pots and pans, etc. Just a trickle is neccessary to rinse all the soap off, due to the sheeting (surface tension)action of water. (surface tension)

[coach purses]

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

[lift chair]

This is really an upgrade procedure of washing the plates. Why don't we try this? This must be a help to decrease the number of your everyday house hold choirs.

[portable dishwasher]

It is way better and will save you loads of time.