Do you use your dishwasher?

[kimcdougc]

Yes, we use ours everyday. Rinse and load. In the RV I hand wash 3 times a day. Small sink, not much counter space etc to just let it build up all day. Plus I can't stand the mess of dirty dishes.

 

[ocean view]

We have a Bosch and run it every night.

Isn’t the reason that a Bosch is quiet is because it doesn’t have a “food grinder“ mechanism to take care of the large chunks of food like other brands?

I also like that Bosch does not have a heating elements for drying, so you don’t have to worry about “top rack safe” items. You can safely put plastic items anywhere. The residual heat from the wash water is sufficient to mostly dry everything.

Lastly, your choice of dish washer detergent does make a difference in the outcome of your wash.

 

[Gumby]

We have a Miele and run it every night. I always scrape and usually rinse the dishes before putting them in it. A regular cycle takes a little over two hours, and it is very quiet. I hand wash the pots and pans, and the knives.

 

[marko]

We had a dishwasher. But she left. The cook left soon after. Rough times.

So then we went and bought the kind that goes under the counter. All good ever since.

 

[RobbieB]

I love my dishwasher. A non fancy GE high efficiency unit that cost $450. I rinse but just to get off the big chunks, pre-cleaning is not needed. Use air dry which works fine if you crack door when dishes are hot.

 

[arky]

Yes, I run my Kenmore regularly once or twice a week. Scape/rinse off items before putting them in. I think this is my third one in 35 years.

 

[Cobra9777]

Just the two of us. It runs every 3 days or so, on average. We wash and air-dry a lot of stuff: good knives, wine glasses, pots, pans, and larger items. Everything else goes in the dishwasher after rinsing off most of the bits by hand. It's mainly for the sanitation with very hot water.

 

[Splash]

Never use it.

Replaced the old one when remodeled the kitchen a few year back but have never used it.

 

[Koolau]

During our last remodel, we deleted the dishwasher and placed an extra under-counter cabinet in its place. DW and I use dispo items for most meals and just batch any pans, serving bowls, etc. for maybe once a week hand wash. True, if we ever decide to sell, there might be an issue with some prospective buyers. Still, retrofitting a dish washer at time of prep-for-sale would be a minor issue. In the mean time, the extra storage space in the small kitchen is worth any future cost/effort IMO. We never used the dish washers much in previous houses/condos. YMMV

 

[RobbieB]

That's exactly what I was going to ask of those not using the dishwasher.

Why do you still have it?

You could do (like Koolau) an extra cabinet, or a mini fridge / wine cooler or trash compactor or slide out waste bucket or...

 

[LauAnn]

Don't have one. I rinse my cereal bowl out every morning using the spigot. It gets a proper wash when I do any accumulation of glasses -- which is about every two weeks or when I've run out of spoons. Generally I rarely have no other dishes to wash.

 

[Winemaker]

Yes, we have a 4 yo Bosch, use about every day. My job to unload, and usually fill.

Some of the newer construction homes in area have 2 dishwashers installed, you never have to put dishes away, you just re use from dishwasher.

 

[Sue J]

We have a Whirlpool from 2005. It still works very well but we had to replace the lower rack (rust under the vinyl prongs) and the utensil basket (dried out and cracked) over the years.

I put all dishes, bowls, serving pieces, glasses and mugs in there. I just remove bones or large chunks and don't rinse. OTOH....DH, who is usually the one to do the big cleanup after dinner, can't keep himself from washing everything first. He even uses a scrubby pad. And certain things he will hand wash and put in the dish drainer, like his own mug and drinking glasses. Makes no sense to me but he is cleaning up so I let him do his thing.

We run it every other day at bedtime. It's very quiet! I never set it to use the drying cycle, by morning everything is dry except for the bottoms of the mugs so when I empty the dishes I dab the mugs with a towel.

We have very hard water here and it's common for glasses to get cloudy. I found a product that is a dishwasher detergent additive that keeps everything clear and very shiny - https://www.menards.com/main/housew...ent-booster-14-oz/dm0616n/p-1444444183102.htm Also available at Blain Farm and Fleet and Amazon. One container lasts me 4-6 weeks using maybe a tablespoon or two in with the detergent.

I would do some pots and pans in the dishwasher but DH wouldn't have it. I guess we all have our thing.

 

[Alan]

Do you have a dishwasher? Do you use it? Is it fairly new? Do you rinse before loading into the machine?

Yes,Yes,Yes,No.

 

[Chuckanut]

Most dishes are hand washed most days. About twice a month I run the dishwasher for two reasons:

1. My experience with past DWs is that if they sit for long periods of time unused, things like solenoids freeze up, contacts corrode, etc. Maybe modern electronic ones are better. Mine is an old one with parts like a mechanical timer.

2. Some items come out cleaner in the DW. For example the coffee filter holder on my Mr. Coffee Jr has lots of little nooks and crannies that are hard to clean well by hand. The soap holder in the bathroom likewise has to many little holes and ridges to clean well by hand. One DW cycle and they are perfectly clean. Of course, I toss in regular dishes with them. No point in wasting all that soap and hot water.

I load the DW up twice a month and run a normal cycle. In the Winter it also helps heat and humidify the house.

 

[Rustic23]

NO!....But DW does

 

[Teacher Terry]

We rinse the dishes and run it every 2-3 days. Couldn’t live without it. It is quiet and works well.

 

[Car-Guy]

Acquired my current DW 42 years ago and she is still going strong. Best model ever made. Washes, dries and even puts away the cleaned dishes in the cabinets automatically.


Heck, she even cooks dinner and cleans the house.

 

[Beststash]

Haven't used ours in over 5 years. Reminds me to check and see if it still works. With just the two of us, not practical.

 

[aja8888]

Yes,Yes,Yes,No.

Ditto!

 

[Walt34]

Do you have a dishwasher? Do you use it? Is it fairly new? Do you rinse before loading into the machine?

Yes, we have a Kitchenaid that is very quiet, it replaced the noisy, leaky GE that came with the house. It is run every evening even though there are only two of us here. DW rinses everything, I just scrape off the big chunks. No difference in the outcome.

Now, I love my DW dearly, but I have never in my life seen anyone who could dirty a stack of dishes like she does. On the rare occasions when I eat a microwaved meal, I'll just eat out of the container it came in and dirty only a fork and perhaps a knife.

Not DW! She eats a lot of those prepared Jenny Craig meals (whole 'nother topic) and will heat it, then transfer every bit to another small plate, which then has to go onto a larger plate, and then get a glass of iced tea or something. Oh, and every time she gets a glass of tea, that goes into a fresh glass. I drink mostly tap water during the day and I'll just leave one glass on the counter and drink out of that all day, then into the dishwasher it goes.

So... by the end of the day the dishwasher is completely full, for only two people! If DW goes on an extended babysitting mission for a span of days, I'll run the dishwasher about every five days or so and that's mostly a half load just to run it so the seals don't dry out and stuff.

 

[aja8888]

Yes, we have a Kitchenaid that is very quiet, it replaced the noisy, leaky GE that came with the house. It is run every evening even though there are only two of us here. DW rinses everything, I just scrape off the big chunks. No difference in the outcome.

Now, I love my DW dearly, but I have never in my life seen anyone who could dirty a stack of dishes like she does. On the rare occasions when I eat a microwaved meal, I'll just eat out of the container it came in and dirty only a fork and perhaps a knife.

Not DW! She eats a lot of those prepared Jenny Craig meals (whole 'nother topic) and will heat it, then transfer every bit to another small plate, which then has to go onto a larger plate, and then get a glass of iced tea or something. Oh, and every time she gets a glass of tea, that goes into a fresh glass. I drink mostly tap water during the day and I'll just leave one glass on the counter and drink out of that all day, then into the dishwasher it goes.

So... by the end of the day the dishwasher is completely full, for only two people! If DW goes on an extended babysitting mission for a span of days, I'll run the dishwasher about every five days or so and that's mostly a half load just to run it so the seals don't dry out and stuff.

If you bought her paper plates, your water bill will go down!

 

[marko]

Back in the 60's I had an eccentric aunt who installed two dishwashers in her kitchen; one on each side of the sink.

Her thinking was that she never had to empty them because one was always clean and the other dirty. (I know that there's ones that do that now but this was 50 years ago and she had to go for 2 full sized ones)

This was, to say the least, the most minor of her eccentricities! (She also would never walk into a room or house where she couldn't exit from another door; yes, her bathroom had two doors.)

 

[athena53]

Heck, yes. Just me- it's an Electrolux. I run it about once every 5 days. Not happy with the way it never dries plastic completely but I think that's pretty common.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

My wife is convinced that a dishwasher uses less water. So after we shifted to solar-power, she insisted that we get a dishwasher.

Everyday the sun comes out, which gives us surplus power, we run the dishwasher.