I am sure that this topic has been discussed somewhere on this board, but I will pose the question again...

Which do you prefer: washing your dishes by hand or by dishwasher? Why? Which method saves more energy and water, in your opinion?

My husband "washes" the dishes by hand and then puts them in the dishwasher... (not too energy efficient!) I mostly hand wash my dishes. There's something calming to me about a sink full of soapy water and my radio playing softly as I wash my dishes. (Strange, I know)

I wash dishes in the dishwasher and pots and pans by hand!

98% dishwasher, only wash by hand when needed too!

Dishwasher all the way! I hate washing dishes by hand. Maybe I am lazy. I do soak all my dishes first, I guess I like to play in the soap a little. After breakfast I will fill up the sink with hot soapy water and throw all the dishes in, I will add the lunch dishes in too. Than after dinner, I will up the dishwasher with all the dirty dishes. I always wait until everyone is in bed and than I start the dishwasher. I like waking up to clean dishes. With this said, I do wash stuff by hand. If I do not have room to get everything done in one load, I will wash the extras.

__________________


Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

This question came up a few months ago and I did my own little version of 'Mythbusters' to test the theory of hand washing vs. using the dishwasher.

I read my dishwasher manual and discovered that my dishwasher uses 11 gallons of water per load in the energy saver mode. I don't know how much electricity it uses, but it does seem to run for a long time. We use natural gas to heat our water.

Then I checked how much water my sink holds. Max is 5 gallons. I usually only fill it up halfway or less, which would be about 2 - 2 1/2 gallons. If you add in rinsing, I'm only using anywhere from 3 - 4 gallons of water handwashing vs. 11 gallons of water using the dishwasher.

Each family is different, but for me, handwashing my dishes is the frugal way to go. Now, if someone invents a dishwasher that uses less that 5 gallons of water per load, I may reconsider my decision.

__________________
Every time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, "I'm sorry. What'd you say your name was again?" ~ Margaret Maron

Interesting!! I should try the same test in my kitchen. Some days, it seems I am doing dishes ALL DAY LONG! Plus, I tend to keep the water running while I do dishes, and let out water as I go too. Definitely not good!

Frugal or not, a dishwasher is what gets used in our house!

I handwash and I have to admit I don't care for dishwashers. It just might be that I have never owned a good one but I always found myself handwashing them afterwards anyway.

We do them by hand. One side of the sink (always the same side) gets hot soapy water, the other, plain hot water. The dishes soak in the hot soapy side, then get handwashed, put in the hot clean side for rinsing, then stacked to dry.

We had a dishwasher - rather I did when I moved in - but DH flooded the kitchen on his first try, and refused to use it again. I sold it. I'm used to doing them by hand now. I also clean the sink out after each "load", and scrub it with Comet or the like frequently.

__________________

You make a good point. I love mythbusters. However, I only run my dishwasher every 2 days. If I washed them all by hand, I need to do it twice a day = 4 handwashings vs 1 time running the dishwasher. The time savings is worth it to me.