washing dishes: by hand vs. dishwasher

[paul wheaton]

Three times in the last 24 hours I was told that it is absolute fact that dishwashers use less water. And when I try to explain how I think I use less water than a dishwasher .... well, my message doesn't get though.

So I made this video in a feeble attempt to express myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9kVsnTQh-g

[Garden Green]

I know you posted this some time ago, but I wanted to comment on it anyway. I think it was a great vid and not a feeble attempt to get your message across. I only wish that I had so few dishes to wash. If it isn't a one pot or pan meal, I end up with more than a dishwasher load of dishes to wash, mainly because I make so many things from scratch.

Perhaps that is what those that have said that the dishwasher uses less water meant. I know I couldn't do the amount of dishes I normally have from a several course meal for a family of four that usually has at least one visitor for dinner, in a gallon of water. It just isn't possible. But I do wash things as I go, and my sink looks a lot like yours when I'm washing my measuring cups and spoons and trying to handle pots that come off the stove and then get put in a serving bowl to go to the table so I have less work and a less crowded dishwasher.

I can see both sides of this particular debate but I think it just depends on how many dishes you have to wash. I have to do more than one load daily. Breakfast dishes alone fill our dishwasher up with very little room for anything else.

Anyway, I just wanted to comment! Like the video and I so wish I could have so few dishes to wash in my kitchen!

[paul wheaton]

I think that the important part of the video is that it demonstrates that you can wash the same bunch of dishes with less water than a dishwasher. So, for a typical dishwasher, that would be 15 gallons of water.

I think a lot of folks have a lot of different reasons to wash dishes one way or another - but the idea that a standard dishwasher uses less water than washing dishes by hand is not an absolute fact. And that is what the video attempta to demonstrate.