My ex (though really his mom i guess) taught me you can just run a half empty dishwasher. I grew up without a lot of money, so we weren’t running the dishwasher until it was full (big family, so pretty often). But when you’re one or two people, it never fills up so I was just hand washing dishes, hating my life. They ran the dishwasher every night no matter how full or empty it was. At 9pm, the dishwasher started. It’s stupid to say it changed my life, but now I just run it whenever I want. I also run my washing machine all the time and folding half loads is so much better, I no longer hate laundry.
My wife was like this when we met. She also grew up more poor than me. I still see her washing a lot of stuff by hand that should be in the dishwasher. Old habits die hard. The unspoken agreement is when we run out of a utensil, or get down to one, we run the dishwasher.
One thing my mom taught her through me is not putting good kitchen knives or any wood through the dishwasher.
The dishwasher is generally more efficient than handwashing. It reuses the water, so you’re using less water. In terms of electricity usage, I’m seeing around 2 kWh for one load.
My ex (though really his mom i guess) taught me you can just run a half empty dishwasher. I grew up without a lot of money, so we weren’t running the dishwasher until it was full (big family, so pretty often). But when you’re one or two people, it never fills up so I was just hand washing dishes, hating my life. They ran the dishwasher every night no matter how full or empty it was. At 9pm, the dishwasher started. It’s stupid to say it changed my life, but now I just run it whenever I want. I also run my washing machine all the time and folding half loads is so much better, I no longer hate laundry.
My wife was like this when we met. She also grew up more poor than me. I still see her washing a lot of stuff by hand that should be in the dishwasher. Old habits die hard. The unspoken agreement is when we run out of a utensil, or get down to one, we run the dishwasher.
One thing my mom taught her through me is not putting good kitchen knives or any wood through the dishwasher.
Also, wood utensils, cutting boards, etc. need oiling. Just cheap mineral oil should do.
It’s like 3 gallons of hot water and a bit of soap.
Should cost less than 0.50¢
seems like a waste of energy
The dishwasher is generally more efficient than handwashing. It reuses the water, so you’re using less water. In terms of electricity usage, I’m seeing around 2 kWh for one load.
I mean it seems like a waste to run it if it is not full.
Intuitively, I get it. But unless you just have a couple of dishes, it’s hard to beat a dishwasher.