For anyone who needs to read it, dishwashers use significantly less water than manually washing dishes.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Not if you wash using the lick-it-clean method
Water, energy and time. If you have the space and can afford the initial investment, a dishwasher has no drawbacks.
No drawbacks? It stinks when you don't have enough people in the household to fill it quickly. Also, it's disgusting if you do not pre-rinse food remainders off plates, so that has to be factored into the water equation.
Don’t pre-rinse, just scrape the bigger bits into the trash. If your dishwasher can’t handle it there’s something wrong with it.
it's not about what the dishwasher can handle, it's that it is disgusting to have decomposing food sitting in there, which it becomes after less than 24 hours
That's why they said scrape into the bin. You shouldn't have solid food sitting in your dishwasher, but you shouldn't be rinsing solid food down your drain anyway.
it's not about solid food. It's about whatever food remains sticking to the dishes. It stinks within hours.
I'm not sure what you're putting in there that stinks within hours but I can just say that hasn't been my personal experience. Do you not keep your dishwasher closed?
Then it molds. And the mold tends to survive the dishwasher.
I mean, again, I can only speak to my experience but I've never had mold grow in my dishwasher. I don't know exactly what it is I'm doing differently than y'all.
I am not using a dishwasher because ... gross. It's different when you have enough people to fill it in a day and run it.
Can't say I ever had those problems, but fair enough.
in a single person household where you eat out frequently, it can take a week to fill the dishwasher. With food and drink remainders on dishes, it starts smelling after two days tops
on top of that, i only have 2 plates, so if they're both in the dishwasher, i have a problem. that might be a me-thing though
Running your dishwasher even partially full still uses significantly less water than hand washing.
They make smaller dishwashers for 1 bedroom apartments. They’re very narrow so you can fill them up quickly.
Orrrr just wash the dishes by hand.
One of the major myths in the western world is that we somehow need to "save" water in areas where water is abundant. We don't. We just need to keep it clean. And used water is not "gone", it goes back into the cycle after sewage treatment.
The amount of dirt that goes into the wastewater is the same, regardless of whether you wash the dishes with 1 liter of water, or 10. As a matter of fact, "saving water" has gone to such extremes in some parts of Europe, that the freshwater pipes - originally dimensioned for higher throughput - can accumulate dangerous bacteria and every now and then, workers come to open some freshwater valves to freeflow into the street / drains, to accomplish the necessary throughput.
Heating water is one of the highest uses of energy in the home. Using way less water uses way less energy. I dunno if you know this but theres kinda an issue with all the fuel burning we do.
This is a valid point, that I am aware of, but it doesn't help to save energy with dishwashing when you then drive a gas guzzler or waste energy on a high end graphics card or air conditioning ^^ What matters is the overall energy consumption footprint - I prefer to clean my dishes by hand, and save energy elsewhere :p
I keep a dishpan with soap and water in my sink and first put dishes in there to soak. Once that fills up, I transfer them to the dishwasher. I don’t think this method adds too much extra water to the process.
There's people (me, for one) who need the sink for other things (fetching tap water, cleaning countertops, cleaning pots / pans). Also, each to their own but I find it gross to have anything dirty in the sink for extended durations. Yes, also dirty dishwater.
Just run it more often. It will still use less water and energy and time than handwashing even if you run it every day mostly empty. They’re that much better.
This is true however often I only have a mug and a spoon or something like that which I don't want to leave dirty in the dishwasher untill it fills, because bugs or whatever reason. Manual wash, it's done in one minute
can i be a spoon too 🥺🥺🥺🥺
Funny how 1 comment in this post has 95% of the replies
Life is too short to wash spoons with your hands.