Serious Q - do you use your dishwasher?

[ch33zw1z]

Yep, once a day it’s full enough to run and saves water and time. I don’t scrub the dishes first, but I do brush off / rinse them prior to putting in the dishwasher.

Not everything goes in there either. No pots or pans, no specialty glasses where the paint or decoration can wear off. Those get hand washed. Same with plastic containers, hand washed

 

[zinfamous]

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.

I just fill a large bowl with my utensils, healthy amount of dawn, and water. That water gets shared among most of the dishes. Depending on amount, I may use another clean-bowlful of water to distirbute. There is absolutely no way I use even a gallon of water to wash my dishes by hand. That's just silly.

Granted, it's camping style and it's not like my dishes are super clean, but it works for me. I also have an instant hot water dispenser and if I need real sterilization, I deploy a blast from that.

It would sure be a different story if I had family dishes to deal with.

 

[I'dluv2]

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.

DD605 and for the most part it's been great. Dishwasher was here when we moved in 6 years ago, and 1 of them needed a new circuit board.

 

[Captante]

Get the great Cascade pods and you can use the 1 hour wash! Less time, and what I would guess is less energy since it's quite a bit less time.

Costs three times as much per wash, does an inferior job and saves a whopping 5 seconds max. (they're very pretty though lol!)

Pods are just terrific.

 

[MrSquished]

Costs three times as much per wash, does an inferior job and saves a whopping 5 seconds max. (they're very pretty though lol!)

Pods are just terrific.

I've tried other detergents on a 1 hour wash and they don't do as good of a job. Only with these thermonuclear pods that Costco sells from Cascade have I managed to turn a one hour wash into a pleasant experience just about every time.

 

[Captante]

Consumer reports disagrees about the "good job" pods do and about the price per load/money savings.

The only "plus" to those things is convenience.


Cascade really did a GREAT job with color coordination though! (priorities!)

 

[MrSquished]

Consumer reports disagrees about the "good job" pods do and about the price per load/money savings.

The only "plus" to those things is convenience.


Cascade really did a GREAT job with color coordination though! (priorities!)

I just use the good ole' eye test. This is the shit that worked in my dishwasher. Also, I only buy my pods, and my laundry detergent, at Costco. I would look at other options if I bought them at a regular grocery store. They are pricey. Not to concerned with a couple dimes here or there on a per load cost if it works well.

 

[Captante]

The difference is that Consumer Reports compares a wide variety of detergents in different machines objectively.

 

[IronWing]

It's getting intense in here.

 

[Muse]

I just fill a large bowl with my utensils, healthy amount of dawn, and water. That water gets shared among most of the dishes. Depending on amount, I may use another clean-bowlful of water to distirbute. There is absolutely no way I use even a gallon of water to wash my dishes by hand. That's just silly.

Granted, it's camping style and it's not like my dishes are super clean, but it works for me. I also have an instant hot water dispenser and if I need real sterilization, I deploy a blast from that.

It would sure be a different story if I had family dishes to deal with.

You do rinse the dirt/dawn from them thoroughly, right? That's what uses most of my water, also washing reasonably-clean my scrubbing implements of the food/grease/detritus when done.

 

[Muse]

Serious Q - do you use your dishwasher?​

Or does your dishwasher use you? The Medium is the Message.

 

[zinfamous]

The difference is the Consumer Reports compares a wide variety of detergents in different machines objectively.

Honestly the only people that I know these days that continue to trust Consumer Reports are really old people, because there was essentially no other resource in the day.

They have long been a bit of a backwater, ime

 

[Captante]

Honestly the only people that I know these days that continue to trust Consumer Reports are really old people, because there was essentially no other resource in the day.

They have long been a bit of a backwater, ime

I rarely read it myself anymore except for a glance at ratings on the website .... any time they actually manage to test something you're interested in they still do a very good job but the subject matter is limited at best.

These days you have to watch 27 freaking "unboxing/hands-on" Youtube/Tik Tok/whatever video "reviews" to get a clue about anything! (and then you always have doubts because the tested items seller might be a "sponsor" lol)

 

[Ken g6]

Yes, god almighty yes.

This! I hate hand-washing dishes!!! To the point where when my last dishwasher broke I used paper plates until I could get a new dishwasher.

I didn't have a dishwasher until I got this house, and it's my favorite appliance that I didn't have before.

single man, takes less to wash than to load the machine.

Single too but I disagree. I guess I like packing and arranging stuff more than messing with a squishy, dirty sponge. I only wash once or twice a week, but my dishwasher and tabs have no problem with almost any dried, stuck-on food.

 

[esquared]

This thread is enlightening about what gets folks amped.

View attachment 82176

Want to get the RWNJs panties in a bunch?
Maybe a few lefties too.
Talk about banning gas stoves.
The righties in congress are shitting bricks about it now.

"The Republican-backed Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act"

 

[Zeze]

Honestly the only people that I know these days that continue to trust Consumer Reports are really old people, because there was essentially no other resource in the day.

They have long been a bit of a backwater, ime

That sucks. There are really no unbiased reliable reviews for appliances then. I hate the idiot masses' user reviews. Zeze Zelensky zinberly zinny zin zin zinfamous.

 

[Captante]

There actually is a guy who does decent appliance reviews and teardown repair guides on YouTube. Too lazy to check his channel name at the moment sorry.

 

[zinfamous]

I rarely read it myself anymore except for a glance at ratings on the website .... any time they actually manage to test something you're interested in they still do a very good job but the subject matter is limited at best.

These days you have to watch 27 freaking "unboxing/hands-on" Youtube/Tik Tok/whatever video "reviews" to get a clue about anything! (and then you always have doubts because the tested items seller might be a "sponsor" lol)

very true. I think CR is still useful as a general guide, but there remain other options now to cross-reference, and depending on the topic, may or may not be better.

Youtube reviews are.....trash for the most part.

Then of course, when you are trying to search for "Best rated whatever," all you really get are bot-written advertising sponsored top ten lists of the same garbage over and over, which is really just summarizing the top ten sold versions of that appliance....which are probably fueled by the same collection of top ten internet lists in some ouroboros of self-funding marketing nonsense.

I think the only good source are specific forums where knowledgeable people actually contribute their experience with products, plus their own actual expertise with how these products are built and why they are better than others, etc. ...but this information is very hard to find from one product to the next, because the Google really focuses on the advertising funded trash lists that are designed to only ever filter to the top of searches.

 

[zinfamous]

There actually is a guy who does decent appliance reviews and teardown repair guides on YouTube. Too lazy to check his channel name at the moment sorry.

I mean, if you're looking for good locks, there is of course the Lockpick Lawyer or whatever...but you can spend hours on his videos, simply learning that no lock is ever safe from any kind of mildly-competent lockpick, and also that his videos are now mostly Red-Letter-Media-like informational + meta snuff films in a way.

....so you kinda end up back at the beginning with not knowing what the fuck you should get, despite getting great information from an obvious expert, and a bit of confusing entertainment along the way. Oh and you just wasted about 5 hours (or more) having really learned nothing.

 

[Captante]

I mean, if you're looking for good locks, there is of course the Lockpick Lawyer or whatever...but you can spend hours on his videos, simply learning that no lock is ever safe from any kind of mildly-competent lockpick, and also that his videos are now mostly Red-Letter-Media-like informational + meta snuff films in a way.

....so you kinda end up back at the beginning with not knowing what the fuck you should get, despite getting great information from an obvious expert, and a bit of confusing entertainment along the way. Oh and you just wasted about 5 hours (or more) having really learned nothing.

This guy does a pretty decent job cutting through most of the BS.

Ben's Appliances and Junk (Youtube)



Although the process CAN be time-consuming I nearly always succeed in finding the information I'm looking for by being persistent and thorough.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I have a 2-year-old LG dishwasher. Use it every day or two. It does a pretty good job without pre-scrubbing; I do put detergent in for the pre-rinse cycle though, and run the hot water from the faucet first so it's up to temp.

The dishwasher recirculates the same hot water for most of the cycle, so it doesn't use that much water - normal for a modern machine. I turn off the heated dry cycle to save time and energy.

 

[Captante]

Not sure ANY Korean major appliance (or vehicle having owned one!) would be my first choice .... they are fancy/shiny and high-tech though!

 

[biostud]

We like Bosch, but even so we had to get a new circuit board for our washing machine within two years, but it was covered by the warranty.

 

[Captante]

We like Bosch, but even so we had to get a new circuit board for our washing machine within two years, but it was covered by the warranty.

The "best" (read: longest lasting and most fixable) appliances have as FEW circuit-boards of any kind as possible.

For example if you stumble upon an "old school" Maytag belt-drive clothes dryer for sale JUMP on it ... it might just last the rest of your life with a little TLC and a new belt every few years. (direct-drive = mostly unfixable)

 

[biostud]

The "best" (read: longest lasting and most fixable) appliances have as FEW circuit-boards of any kind as possible.

For example if you stumble upon an "old school" Maytag belt-drive clothes dryer for sale JUMP on it ... it might just last the rest of your life with a little TLC and a new belt every few years. (direct-drive = mostly unfixable)

Yup, but on the other hand low energy and low water consumption, is also worth something...