patrick_g
Elite Member
alchemysa said:Thats a nice line spun by dishwasher companies but anyone with a dishwasher knows its bogus. That theory relies on not pre-rinsing any dishes, efficiently stacking the dishwasher to the absolute max everytime, using the most economical setting everytime, conveniently ignoring any trays, pans or saucepans that will need to be hand scrubbed anyway, and having a dishwasher that will perform faultlessly without any need for servicing for about 20 years.
I've fixed a few dishwashers over the years and i can tell you they are probably the worst designed of all home appliances.
I guess we are both right, sort of, except for the anyone with a dishwasher part. I do not doubt your opinion regarding your personal experience.
However, I stand by my original statement,
"Hand washing of dishes is less energy conservative than a good dishwasher and typically takes more hot water."
The most important word in my claim is probably GOOD.
With a GOOD dishwasher pre-rinsing is not usually needed. Most good dishwashers have a fair disposal built in. If you really burn some BBQ or such, you may not get acceptable results in any dishwasher. I can remember the commercial "strippers" I learned to use on KP in the service. They would almost take the porcelain off a pot but still on occasion there would have to be some hand scouring. We rarely need hand scouring in our kitchen which is a good thing since I am the duty scourer.
I have had several poor dishwashers over the years that I would gladly concede to your condemnation. Any dishwasher that you have to essentially wash the dishes by hand before loading them in the dishwasher is in the category you describe (lots of units are in this category) but I have a dishwasher that does not require "pre-washing" and virtually never fails to produce satisfactory results. That, plus it is so quiet that most of the time you don't realize it is running.
Our home has a great room with the kitchen off to the side in an "L" open to the great room and the dishwasher is in an island in direct line with our seating for watching TV, reading, listening to music and just talking with friends and not very far away. The washer rarely is noticeable and then mostly if something is being rattled by powerful jets of water. I like the delayed start feature but SWMBO does not voluntarily use it, go figure. I have run loads on the most poerful cycle in the middle of the night and you can't hear it any where in the house with a door between you and the great room.
The dynamic range in performance and noise between various brands and models of dishwashers is quite wide especially between economy models and top of the line models in good brands. I have done no extensive testing, just made observations from my limited personal experience but did rely on Consumers Reports for guidance as I have considerable faith and trust in their methodologies and protocols. Even if it was a fluke, we still ended up with a powerful quiet dishwasher that requires little or no (usually no) prewashing, does a terrific job (it must to get by SWMBO), and is so quiet you can hardly tell when it is running.
MY wife and I both like the ability of the dishwasher to use hotter water than we can stand, keep it hot, and even use a really hot dry cycle for sanitation if we want. Sure we could bake dishes in the oven or something but the dishwasher is more convenient for us. If in those instances when we may run a cycle that heats the water more and does a sanitize dry and the cost is a break even or a couple cents more than regular cycle, it is still a GOOD thing, for us.
Again, I'm sure you have accurately related your personal experience and it does agree with some of my experience but remains in sharp contrast to our current situation.
Pat
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