Serious Q - do you use your dishwasher?

[[DHT]Osiris]

I never heard of this before, that's a really interesting material.

I wonder if this has any application for power generation, imagine being able to create steam without having to actually raise water up and then cool it down again. There has to be a catch though... it almost feels like it's creating energy out of nothing. Does it need to be "recharged" somehow?

Did a little reading on the topic, essentially there's a catch, after the rocks adsorb (not absorb) water vapor, they have to be heated a lot (like 300c a lot) to release the water. At that point they can re-adsorb more water and generate more heat at around 100c. The dishwasher environment is convenient because as long as the water is vapor you can get rid of it via a fan. It's essentially a dehumidifier (in very humid environments) and heater in one, that you gotta supply with electricity. The convenience here is it takes less energy to heat the rocks to activation temperature than it does to element-dry all the dishes.

With regards to steam engines or something, no free lunch there. It's got uses though.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Fuck yes, but I rinse EVERYTHING before it goes into the dishwasher. It's almost clean enough to put it back in the cupboards to be used again...ALMOST.

BudAshes is correct. When done correctly, a modern dishwasher ises about 1/4 the amount of water washing dishes by hand uses...and MIGHT get the dishes cleaner/better sanitized.

Exactly what I do, dishes are rinsed but not shelf clean. Dishwasher finishes and sanitizes.

 

[K1052]

Daily and it's full every time. The last three places we've lived including this one the first thing we do is rip out the garbage builder grade dishwasher and replace with Bosch 800 series. Fast, efficient, effective, silent, and dry. Truly wonderful machines.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Did a little reading on the topic, essentially there's a catch, after the rocks adsorb (not absorb) water vapor, they have to be heated a lot (like 300c a lot) to release the water. At that point they can re-adsorb more water and generate more heat at around 100c. The dishwasher environment is convenient because as long as the water is vapor you can get rid of it via a fan. It's essentially a dehumidifier (in very humid environments) and heater in one, that you gotta supply with electricity. The convenience here is it takes less energy to heat the rocks to activation temperature than it does to element-dry all the dishes.

With regards to steam engines or something, no free lunch there. It's got uses though.

Interesting but yeah I kinda figured there had to be some kind of "reset" process. For a dishwasher I can see how it would save lot of energy though, you can use an element to heat the rocks after the cycle is over, which I presume are contained in a small compartment, so there is less surface area that needs to be heated, and it does not have to happen for as long.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Interesting but yeah I kinda figured there had to be some kind of "reset" process. For a dishwasher I can see how it would save lot of energy though, you can use an element to heat the rocks after the cycle is over, which I presume are contained in a small compartment, so there is less surface area that needs to be heated, and it does not have to happen for as long.

Close to correct, technically heated at the beginning of the cycle so it doesn't adsorb ambient humidity while idle. And yep, it's a box of rocks. Fun to think of that thing just hanging out in your kitchen. Keep the pets out and don't let plastic crap fall in.

 

[WilliamM2]

I read it's 27 gallons to wash by hand. I call bulshit, unless you leave the water running the whole time. I fill a dish pan (1 to 1,5 gallon?). wash the dishes until the other sink is full. Then rinse for about a minute, might have to rinse two sink fulls at most. Water only comes out at 2.5 gallons a minute. Well under 10 gallons.

And none of the water is "wasted", it comes from my well, and then goes back into the ground from the septic system. No loss.

We removed the dishwasher when we remodeled kitchen, so we could fit two more cupboards instead. It's a small kitchen, I'd rather have the space.

 

[lxskllr]

I use <5G water in the actual washing process. Might be 50% more for water lost rinsing. My largest dirty pot is the wash basin. I clean dishes, and rinse over the remaining dirty dishes, so they're getting progressively cleaner as the process unfolds, and take less effort to clean. Flatware gets cleaned a handful at a time, then rinsed altogether.

 

[nakedfrog]

Of course I do, it would be silly not to. Quick rinse in the sink, then into the dishwasher. It takes me maybe 5-7 minutes to put the dishes away when it's done. Washing them by hand would be a waste of time. There's at least 30 dishes in there every time, I can't see how it would be faster to wash them by hand if you're actually getting them clean.

 

[William Gaatjes]

No, immediately after using kitchenware , i clean it with hot water of at least 60C. Then i leave it with a tiny little bit of dishes soap in the sink for about half hour. Then i just quickly clean and rinse. And leave the kitchenware to dry on it's own. The trick is to immediately after use rinse the kitchenware with hot water. At that moment, no dishes soap is needed.
Better for nature, the wallet and your hands. You do have to watch out not to burn yourself with the hot water.
But the dishes are done within 3 minutes afther that half hour waiting. Usually during that half hour eating happens or something else like for example gaming. You can think of a afrying pan, cooking pot, some kitchenware, some dishes like 5 of them. I know how to boil rice in an ordinary cooking pot without stirring like a 14 century witch or warlock. And no burned rice either...

 

[IronWing]

I read it's 27 gallons to wash by hand. I call bulshit, unless you leave the water running the whole time. I fill a dish pan (1 to 1,5 gallon?). wash the dishes until the other sink is full. Then rinse for about a minute, might have to rinse two sink fulls at most. Water only comes out at 2.5 gallons a minute. Well under 10 gallons.

And none of the water is "wasted", it comes from my well, and then goes back into the ground from the septic system. No loss.

We removed the dishwasher when we remodeled kitchen, so we could fit two more cupboards instead. It's a small kitchen, I'd rather have the space.

27 gallons sounds like a commercial kitchen four sink system, not home dishwashing.

 

[WilliamM2]

27 gallons sounds like a commercial kitchen four sink system, not home dishwashing.

It was from a Consumer Reports study. They test consumer products, not commercial.

 

[nakedfrog]

A typical kitchen sink fixture is 1.8GPM, so that's about 15 minutes of water usage at full capacity.

 

[quikah]

Weird so many people don't seem to understand how to use a dishwasher, You don't need to scrape except for very select things like baked on cheese or something. Even then, if you add some pre-wash detergent it will usually remove most baked on stuff.

I have never used the heated dry, the only items that are ever still slightly wet are the plastic containers. All stone/metal ware is so hot the water just evaporates.

Pro tip. Do NOT use the dish washer tablets or liquid detergent. Just get the box of powder, easier to use the correct amount. Fill your cup and add some to the pre-wash cup if you have very dirty dishes.

Obligatory Technology Connectios video on the topic.

 

[JeepinEd]

We have a Fisher Paykel dishwasher that has 2 separate drawers, 2 washers in 1. Just wife and I and if wanted we could never unload them completely again.

What model do you have? My wife and I love F&P dishwashers and have owned two of them. The problem is both dish washers have had a lot of issues, mainly due to the logic board failing. I replaced three logic boards (ebay saved me lots of $$ on these) and fixed one. I found a lot of cracked solder joints in their circuit boards. The plastic case for the logic board also became brittle due to the constant heating. We finally gave up and purchased a "normal" dish washer - KDTM804KPS, which does a superior job of washing dishes.

 

[biostud]

Close to correct, technically heated at the beginning of the cycle so it doesn't adsorb ambient humidity while idle. And yep, it's a box of rocks. Fun to think of that thing just hanging out in your kitchen. Keep the pets out and don't let plastic crap fall in.

View attachment 82139

Our little zeolite box. I guess you didn't expect a dishwasher thread to contain fascinating chemistry/physics info.
On ECO our dishwasher uses 9.5L water and 0,736kWh including drying.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

View attachment 82146
Our little zeolite box. I guess you didn't expect a dishwasher thread to contain fascinating chemistry/physics info.
On ECO our dishwasher uses 9.5L water and 0,736kWh including drying.

I've legit been reading about it all day. Zeolites are fascinating. I wonder what happens if you try to directly split the absorbed H2O through direct application of electricity to free the stuff up for more water absorption.

 

[nisryus]

Only used mine once. It took too long to do its work so we wash by hand instead. Plus we pre-scrub so we don't really used much water to wash and rinse.
I just recalled when my in-law lease their condo out an year ago, the almost new GE dish washer (one year old) broke after the tenants had used it for four months. Got a tech to come out to fix it, then it broke again after a month.

 

[Brainonska511]

It took too long to do its work so we wash by hand instead.

I don't understand this criticism at all. Why does it matter if it takes 1-2 hours to go through the cycle for standard items?

 

[Thump553]

We use our dishwasher for everything but (most of) the pots and pans. We have a very small kitchen, no spare counter space to dry dishes, A couple of addition "pro" tips:

1) We recently switched over to powder-works a lot better than liquids and those silly hyper-expensive tablets. With powder or liquid you also have to fill the jet-dri dispenser-which on our dishwasher is a real PIA. I end up sitting on the floor with the door half open and still get spills.

2) You need to clean out the drain on the dishwasher periodically. There are multiple youtube videos on how to do this, involves some (easy) disassembly. Until about a year ago I never knew this. Suffice it to say that there is some really nasty accumulations in the drain. Now I clean it out every six months or so.

3) Dishwashers, like all modern appliances, are essentially unrepairable.

 

[Captante]

Cascade powder (shiny green box) is by far the best "bang for the buck" IME.

Stick with liquids/gels if you have small kids though! (the dust is some scary stuff!)

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Dishwashers, like all modern appliances, are essentially unrepairable.

Simply untrue. It's a big collection of parts bolted to the frame connected by hoses and wires. It's no more complicated than an average PC build. Now whether it's worth it to repair is another story... A few failed parts and you reach the cost of a new one which is pretty damned annoying. That has more to do with economies of scale though.

The same goes for washers and dryers btw. Microwaves are about the only things not actually worth repairing since anything other than the fuse dying is likely going to cost far more than a new one will.

 

[MrSquished]

That said, I don't put my chef's knives through the dishwasher. No reason to ding up the blade.

And I don't put my cast iron pot or pan in the dishwasher either. I don't want to harm the coating.

I enjoy using some fairly high end Japanese knives. On the knives subreddit I am on every once in a while is a photo of a gorgeous beautifully crafted knife after a significant other puts it in a dishwasher, or tries to cut something super hard and frozen with a fine Japanese gyuto or santoku. It's horrific.

 

[biostud]

I don't understand this criticism at all. Why does it matter if it takes 1-2 hours to go through the cycle for standard items?

The eco system with or dishwasher takes 4 hours, so I usually let it run overnight.

 

[MrSquished]

Squirrel is not just going to live off-grid, he is going to build himself a mansion with two dishwashers and fully luxurious living. Without any infrastructure. lolol

I do appreciate the good chuckle.

 

[nakedfrog]

The eco system with or dishwasher takes 4 hours, so I usually let it run overnight.

I'm not even sure how long my dishwasher takes to run, I'm pretty sure it's over an hour or two. It doesn't really matter, because I'm probably not putting the dishes away until the next day anyhow.