# How do Australians wash dishes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963 "2010-10-04T01:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/61 "2010-10-04T11:37:37Z")
American here. I’d never heard of this before (which is one reason I love this Board), and it seems odd to me. Not only I, but everyone I’ve seen washing dishes rinses them off. I’ve done it even when I only have one sink, using the tap as **Colophon** says. Depending upon the soapiness of the water (and the possibility of having a gob of undiluted soap liquid right on tthe plate or glass, unrinsed stuff can be completely unflavored or a major source of soapy taste, so I rinse everything to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/62 "2010-10-04T11:54:17Z")
I’m sure it’s regional, and depends on the available water supply. Being from Chicago, where there aren’t really any water restrictions, there’s plenty of dish-rinsing and long showering going on. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/63 "2010-10-04T11:55:15Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m just surprised that filling the entire sink with water seems to be the default dishwashing method everywhere in the world (except here). What’s the default method in Israel? Personally, I like to put the water on to a trickle, and let it gradually fill up as I wash the dishes, using the soapy water in the basin to scrub, and the trickle to rinse off. I’ve never known anyone else to do it this way though. Putting on the water full bore to rinse off your dishes would get you hunted down by the Water Saving Inquisition. A big no-no. Having said that, I’ve eaten in both rinsing and non-rinsing households, and never noticed the taste of soap anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/64 "2010-10-04T11:56:43Z")
Australian here. When in Australia, I’ve always lived in houses with two sinks. And we ALWAYS rinsed everything in the second sink, under running water - not with the sink full of water. I live in the UK now where rinsing seems uncommon. I’ve stopped rinsing most things, other than glasses. I can’t taste any difference. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/65 "2010-10-04T11:59:05Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > I’m just surprised that filling the entire sink with water seems to be the default dishwashing method everywhere in the world (except here). > > What’s the default method in Israel? Rinse, scrub with soapy scotch-brite, rinse again, set to dry. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/66 "2010-10-04T12:11:43Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Aspidistra](#): > > > > What’s the default method in Israel? > > Rinse, scrub with soapy scotch-brite, rinse again, set to dry. Rinse in the basin, or rinse with running water? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/67 "2010-10-04T12:17:26Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > Rinse, scrub with soapy scotch-brite, rinse again, set to dry. > > Rinse in the basin, or rinse with running water? Rinse with running water. The basin is always empty of water (unless the drain has clogged). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/68 "2010-10-04T12:20:37Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Aspidistra](#): > > > > Rinse in the basin, or rinse with running water? > > Rinse with running water. The basin is always empty of water (unless the drain has clogged). Same method I’m used to seeing; I’ve also seen some people who had two basins leave the dishes in standing water in one between soaping and rinsing, but that rinse was in running water. And the dishes would be dried with a cloth only if there were too many to let them dry by themselves, or if they were needed right then. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/69 "2010-10-04T14:07:44Z")
Wow, this just blows my mind. We should have a thread on how people wash dishes. I happen to have a double sink, but even when I didn’t, my method of washing dishes was always the same: Rinse dishes if needed. Soap dishes, scrubbing vigorously, place them in sink. Rinse them with hot water from the tap until they squeak. Put in drying rack. I would never dream of leaving the soap on. Sure, it’s not going to get you sick, and eventually you get used to it - Cecil even said so - but why wouldn’t you wash them thoroughly? I never fill up the whole sink and soak them that way. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/70 "2010-10-04T14:26:59Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Wow, this just blows my mind. We should have a thread on how people wash dishes. I happen to have a double sink, but even when I didn’t, my method of washing dishes was always the same: > > Rinse dishes if needed. Soap dishes, scrubbing vigorously, place them in sink. Rinse them with hot water from the tap until they squeak. Put in drying rack. > > I would never dream of leaving the soap on. Sure, it’s not going to get you sick, and eventually you get used to it - Cecil even said so - but why wouldn’t you wash them thoroughly? > > I never fill up the whole sink and soak them that way. I started a thread [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=580630). ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/71 "2010-10-04T23:11:52Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Slight hijack: what’s best to put vegemite on? Axles. 🙂 Marmite on the other hand… > [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Following \*\*don’t ask’s \*\*lead I licked my towel and it doesn’t taste of soap Following \*\*don’t ask’s \*\*lead I licked my wife and she doesn’t taste of soap either… though her hair smells a bit like apples, so that may be something… > [@Princhester](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > No wonder Australians have a reputation for bad-tasting food. > > We do? Since when? **Chronos** is talking about the Vegemite. 😃 As to dishes… growing up in NZ with a single sink: wash in soapy water, drain for a bit, towel dry and put away. Glassware first, then dishes, cutlery, and pots. Water kinda grey by the end. _shudder_ I like my dishwasher… but if hand washing tend to add a rinse step before draining. Childhood visions of sinks of grey water… ETA: I mention NZ becuase I’m guessing we and the Ozzies might have inherited the habit from the Brits. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/72 "2010-10-05T02:10:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No wonder Australians have a reputation for bad-tasting food. Yes, you really can taste the soap when dishes aren’t rinsed off, and I know this from experience. Maybe all you folks who grew up in non-rinsing households just got so used to a little soap flavor that you don’t even notice any more, but to those of us who grew up with rinsed dishes, it tastes terrible. We do? I mean, have a reputation for bad tasting food. Really? I never heard that before I moved here. To the OP: We have two sinks in our 50s era unrenovated Sydney kitchen, and I rinse dishes, as I was taught to do (in the US, as a child). My husband, an Australian, does not except for glasses, which spot if you don’t rinse them. I can’t taste soap on them. And the food here is fantastic. Nom! ---
**Author:** ![vulcanbb18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vulcanbb18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vulcanbb18)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/73 "2010-10-05T02:40:51Z")
Oh good grief. We are a developed country - we have all the same things you do in the US, dishwashers, mixer taps, etc. As pointed out above - bubbles DO NOT lift dirt. The detergent lowers the surface tension of the water allowing it to remove items more easily. I’ve been exposed to all the various washing methods, and I have to say I like the dishwasher the least. It’s convenient, but if there’s any time I think I can detect “soap residue” then it’s from a dishwasher item. Never from hand-washed, even if it was put directly on the drying rack without a rinse. Honestly, all those of you who are having some sort of “Yuk, errghh” attack, maybe think a little more rationally about it - ok so there _may_ be a detectable level of detergent on there, but how clean is your dish drainer? And where you store your crockery, that’s perfectly free of contaminants, yeah? Oh and you’d never use an insect spray while the dishes are exposed, or… need I go on? cheers Jacob ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/74 "2010-10-05T02:43:17Z")
My Aussie hostmum just put them in a dish washer. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/75 "2010-10-05T04:27:37Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > > [@Princhester](#): > > > > We do? Since when? > > **Chronos** is talking about the Vegemite. 😃 He can’t be. Vegemite laughs in the face of detergent contamination. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/76 "2010-10-05T04:28:17Z")
> [@FuzzyOgre](#): > > superhal, soap molecules are like little strings. On one end they bind to water molecules and the other grabs onto bits of dirt. A lot like static cling. Considering how much water is there compared to how much soap, all the soap is bonded to water, so when the water comes off the plate, it draws the soap with it. > > Basically soap acts to make water more ‘sticky’. The bond to the water is a lot stronger than the bond on the other side of the soap molecule. I would be more concerned about remaining dirt than I would about residues of soap. Yep I double-checked my kindergarten and restaurant knowledge through a simple google search and I was right: soap sticks to what you are trying to wash off. If you don’t wash off the suds, whatever you are trying to wash off stays. I don’t know where people got the soap taste thing, it wasn’t me. My example would be a washing a bowl that had chili in it. If you use soap and some type of agitator like a scouring pad, the chili is lifted from the plate and sticks to the bubbles. If it is then dried, the crap that was lifted by the soap is re-deposited back onto the plate. If you use a drying cloth, it is transferred to the cloth, which makes it steadily dirtier for the next plate. I’m not worried about tasting soap; I’m worried about eating last-week’s chili whether I can taste it or not. Another poster made another point: disinfecting. Soap is not a disinfectant. You need an antiseptic (as used in restaurants that use the 3 sink dish washing method) or hot water (which is the norm for hand washing and dishwashers.) Air drying without rinsing, at worst, will leave bacteria on the dishes. At best, you might give them a good laugh. But, as I stated in my OP (and some people did confirm, tyvm,) this seems very logical and realistic in desert climates like I suspected, as well as limiting showers and baths. However, in most industrialized areas I know of, there are usually two sources of water: tap and recycled. In my city, for example, recycled water is used for all state watering systems, e.g. park sprinklers. Tap water is used for homes and drinking fountains. In Vegas and California, most of their water is recycled. I am rather surprised that Australians don’t enjoy a larger supply of the lower quality water. However, I did notice references to this (that I didn’t understand until this thread) in films depicting ancient China, where the cleanliness of the plates/cups were often criticized. In these old films, dishwashing was when all the plates were dumped into a pail then washed by hand, then air-dried. My father would also insist on wiping all the plates, cups and silverware when we went to Chinese restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![vulcanbb18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vulcanbb18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vulcanbb18)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/77 "2010-10-05T04:50:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Yep I double-checked my kindergarten and restaurant knowledge through a simple google search and I was right: soap sticks to what you are trying to wash off. If you don’t wash off the suds, whatever you are trying to wash off stays. I don’t think that is correct. Take for example this wikipedia extract ([Soap - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap)) : "When used for cleaning, soap serves as a surfactant in conjunction with water. The cleaning action of this mixture is attributed to the action of micelles, tiny spheres coated on the outside with polar carboxylate groups, encasing a hydrophobic (lipophilic) pocket that can surround the grease particles, allowing them to dissolve in water. The hydrophobic portion is made up of the long hydrocarbon chain from the fatty acid. **In other words, whereas normally oil and water do not mix, the addition of soap allows oils to dissolve in water, allowing them to be rinsed away. Synthetic detergents operate by similar mechanisms to soap."** (bolding mine) So it’s not so much that the “soap sticks to the stuff you want to wash off” as much as the soap allows the water wash off what you normally wouldn’t be able to with water alone. If you look up detergent, you’ll see that under the strict definition that water is considered a detergent. Also please note that micelles are not bubbles. So if you don’t rinse, then you have a bit of the water-with-soap-and-“stuff” on there. I’d argue it’s a negligible amount. I’d also argue that most of the bacteria that would make you sick, wont make it past the drying phase on a hard, non-porus surface (like a dinner plate, for example). cheers, ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/78 "2010-10-05T06:58:14Z")
So, in places where rinsing (while hand-washing) is uncommon or frowned upon for reasons of water-conservation, do dish-washing machines also lack a rinse cycle? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/79 "2010-10-05T07:04:23Z")
I don’t think it has anything to do with water conservation in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963/80 "2010-10-05T08:30:59Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I don’t think it has anything to do with water conservation in the first place. Agree. Not rinsing after washing the dishes, and using the tea towel to dry instead was the norm in mine and my grandparents houses long before there was an awareness of water conservation issues. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-australians-wash-dishes/555963.md?page=5)