Dishwashers Use Less Water
July 10, 2008 by Peggy
I know.
There are a lot of variables involved when measuring hand washing and automatic dishwasher cleaning of dishes.
But if you’re feeling guilty about your nifty kitchen appliance, take comfort in the University of Bonn’s study. This careful study included 113 participants and attempted to control as many variables as possible.
The German study found that dishes cleaned by modern dishwashers were not only cleaner, but that the dishwasher uses less water, energy and soap. Plus, there’s the significant time savings involved with dishwashers. And that’s important if you want to read your favorite blogs!
Get more details from Bonn: A European Comparison of Cleaning Dishes by Hand. The first article under “Publications” explains the experiment in detail.
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The uses less soap part is probably only true if you use the RIGHT amount of soap. You only actually need 1 tablespoon in the pre-wash cup and 1 tablespoon in the wash cup. This is WAY less than filling the cup. If you have hard water, add more soap. If you add too much soap it is what makes your glasses look foggy over time.
Even Ed Begley agrees that an Energy Star dishwasher uses less water than handwashing. And he was dead set against using a dishwasher for a long time. I wish I had the space for one, but my kitchen is way too small.
So for now it is hand washing for me, but I try to use as little water as possible. And I’ve found the 7th Generation dishsoap is better than Method dishsoap. The Method was harder to rinse off.
Sunnydaydreame, You’re right. Most people use too much soap when they hand wash and in the dishwasher.
Jodi, I hope I didn’t make the hand washers feel guilty! Even with dishwashers, most of us still have a few items that have to be hand washed — wooden chopsticks and cutting boards, etc.
I wish I had a dishwasher then I would only have to do one load a day instead of 3-4 sinkfuls.
Peggy, nah you didn’t (at least not me anyways). It’s just what I have to do for now. I try to do the least amount of “loads” as possible. But we have all 4 of us home 24/7 (dh is not working due to an injury) and the various kids in and out. It’s hard to not slip back into using the paper products again. It would be so much “easier” and worse at the same time.
Peggy, you rule! Thanks for making me feel less guilty LOL!! Actually, we always wait until the washer is completely full before running it, and we opt out of the drying cycle, so I do think it is a good choice.
Everyone I know who has a dishwasher rinses their dishes first and washes pots and fragile stuff by hand. They generally don’t fill the sink to do this but instead leave the water running, it makes me cringe! We fill the sink with water plus a squeeze of 7th generation. We rinse the dishes with cool water into a dish tub and water plants with the rinse water. The dishes air dry in no time at all.
Do you know if the energy to dry the dishes and manufacturing and disposal cost of the dishwasher is considered in the equation?
Diana,
The study does take into account all energy used by the dishwasher when running, including drying. However, I didn’t see anything in the study regarding manufacturing and disposal of dishwashers, but sinks and faucets require some manufacturing as well…