For the handwashing question I answered Other because we don’t handwash anything before it goes in the dishwasher. Scrape off any solids and, except under very rare circumstances, it’s ready to go in the dishwasher and it comes out squeaky clean.
Lots of assertions on that page, not many actual facts. I expect the comparison has been made between a dishwasher vs washing everything under a constantly-running stream of hot water. I know for a fact that I handwash using less water than a dishwasher, without even really trying.
This whole dishwashing thing annoys me to no end. Get up from the table and wash your dish, unless you are entertaining, etc.
Me no like dishwashers.
Pots and pans are cleaned in the sink; plates are rinsed and put in the dishwasher. I do not soak pots and pans (or the rare hand-washed dish) unless there is something extremely sticky on it.
Can you elaborate on why you feel this way?
And get me another block of ice for the icebox while you’re at it.
My good pots (copper core)and my good knives (wustof) go in the dishwasher always. I don’t like washing dishes but I’l l rinse them off if they need the food debris off before they go in.
I seriously doubt it. The energy star rating is less than 6 gallons a cycle for standard sizes. 6 gallons in a typical sink is about a depth of 7 inches. Maybe you’re a super efficient dishwasher, but it doesn’t pass the smell test.
I am not the poster who said that, but I also hate dishwashers. I think they give dishes a slight but still unpleasant smell, but the main reason is that hand washing dishes is a chore that I enjoy. I find it relaxing, and I’m one of those people who really likes her dishes and kitchenware, choses them carefully, and likes handling them. Upon retracing, I realize this sounds odd.
I don’t fill a sink. I half-fill a plastic washing-up bowl like this one. That’s less than 1.5 US gallons. I’ll have to empty and refill once for a typical family meal. Twice for a messy one - and theres a little more water used for rinsing before and after, but I use easily less than 6 US gallons in total.
I am surprised though, at the energy star spec of 6 gallons - this is lower than I expected - certainly lower than it was last time I checked, so I concede I’m quite close to losing the water frugality war now.
I wonder how many people arguing this case actually have a modern dishwasher, though? It’s all very well to talk about how your automatic dishwasher is efficient, if you do actually have an efficient dishwasher.
I think it’s easier to wash the dishes and be done with them. I hate loading and unloading a dishwasher, despite always having dishwashers.
I don’t know… do all my actions have to be rationale? 
I would fill the sink with water and wash the pots and pans if there were enough of them. But usually it’s just a skillet, a good knife, and a cutting board that need to be done, so filling the sink would waste water.
The dimensions in your link give the bowl a volume of 4.7 gallons. Half is 2.35 gallons, not 1.5. And you’re talking about one meal. Dishwashers can easily hold enough dishes for several meals, depending on how many pots/pans you use. There’s virtually no way you are beating a modern dishwasher.
Energy star specs are based on average energy use, if I am not mistaken. So if all the dishwashers on the market average out to 6 gallons per cycle, those under that are labelled as energy star.
LOL. Nitpick fail. Those are the maximum external dimensions, including the 2cm rolled flange edge, and measured at the widest point of the bowed edges, and at the top rim - as you can see from the photograph, the bowl is quite significantly flared. To be slightly more anal, I would also point out that all of the corners are radiused.
You would not have been able to tell from the illustration that the height measurement also includes some small dimpled feet to prevent the bowl forming a seal over the plug hole.
Anyway, since local topology constrains me to filling the bowl only on its inside, and local gravity imposes a regime of starting the fill from the bottom, The amount of water in the bowl when filled to half the internal height is indeed less than 1.5 US gallons.
Actually, on weekdays, it also includes the breakfast bowls/plates, and a few cups and glasses. On weekends, we do generate more washing up, necessitating multiple sessions.
I would have to buy additional cutlery, crockery, utensils, pots etc to take advantage of this - and would then have to move to a house with a kitchen large enough to store them.
I expect it’s a closer match today than it’s ever been in the past, but you’re not making it a fair fight - you’re comparing optimal dishwasher usage/performance against my ordinary routine. To what extent do people actually use their dishwashers optimally, and without consuming additional water for pre-rinsing, etc?
I would very much like to see the underlying data.
Snerk. If I tried to fill up my sink to 7 inches, the last half-inch would be all over the draining board and the floor. How big do US sinks get, anyway?
I just measured my sink. 27cmx33cmx12cm(-ish) fill depth means a sinkload is a bit under 11 litres, versus 17.8 it says on the (not particularly water-efficient) dishwasher (about 3 gallons vs 4.5 in your terms). So the hands still win in water-efficiency terms.
Mind you, I do use the dishwasher, because I don’t want to wash a bunch of dishes every night. But I don’t do pots and pans, firstly because I don’t trust the dishwasher to deal with baked-on gunk and secondly because it’s incredibly space-inefficient. One wok or frying pan in the dishwasher and that’s nearly the entire bottom layer gone, leaving no space for the accumulated plates and bowls of the day. So instead, the dishes get packed neatly in the washer, and the pots get done by hand.
Dishes don’t so much get pre-washed as de-stickified before going into the dishwasher - anything that’s dried on or particularly adherent gets knocked loose. If there’s room, the pots go in there, except for the biggest ones. Same with big mixing bowls. The things I end up hand washing are stacked on a towel on the stove to dry (we have a ceramic-top stove.)
Since there are only two of us here most of the time, it might take 3 days to get a full dishwasher load, so after I load what I have, I’ll run a rinse cycle, just to make sure nothing is drying and sticking to the dishes in the machine.
Well, this one is 8" deep, this one is 9.5" deep, another8", and here’s a cheapiethat’s only 6". I don’t think I’ve seen any shallower than 6" and I may have seen some as much as 10" - it’s been a while since I’ve had to buy a sink.
I don’t own a dishwasher and don’t have room for one in my kitchen, so all dishes get washed by hand. Limited space, single sink, so I soap up a sponge, scrub the dishes and rinse under the running water from the tap.
Anyone ever used one of those small counter-top dishwashers?
Definitely not. Lord knows my actions aren’t all rational!
I was curious, since the dishwasher is such a fantastic labor and time saver for us. We cook all the time, have lots of dishes and pots and pans, so we fill and run the dishwasher on average every other day. It just works well for us.
To be empirical, I just measured the actual capacity of my washing up bowl. I filled a Pampered Chef mixing jug to the 2 Quart mark and poured it into the plastic basin. 4 times - 8 quarts filled it to about 2CM from overflowing.
So my basin holds 2 gallons, half of which is certainly less than 1.5