Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dead Dishwasher

Well....not exactly dead, but might as well be.  I'm at a turning point in my relationship with dishwashers.  I've committed to so many of them and they've done nothing but let me down.  It's not me I promise.  I really do stay with my appliances until "death do us part"!  But,  my dishwashers all start doing a lousy job after just a few years of doing an ok job, but never really a great job!  Yes,  I've cleaned them with all the cleaners...to no avail.

I've just about decided never again to buy a dishwasher.  Then....sometimes when the dishes pile up and I've a lot of other responsibilities demanding attention...then I think about getting a new dishwasher. 

But for what?  Just to be let down again?  I've also thought, "Maybe this is a nudge in the right direction.  You know, my decision to phase out appliances that perform chores I can do easily by hand or without electricity, like hang clothes out,  wash dishes, mix and chop things for everyday things....(I do use a food processor and mixer for the big stuff)....

Wellll....I've just about decided...No new dishwasher.

In case you don't know how to wash dishes by hand.  Here's a vid on how to, and which is better....By Hand or Dishwasher?  I think I know.

5 comments:

meboo said...

I have been thinking the exact same thing! When unloading my dishwasher, I always have dishes that I have to rewash. In fact, yesterday, I washed all my dishes by hand, dryed them, and put them away. It actually felt really good to have all my dishes clean and no dishes in the dishwasher.

Tiff said...

I always prewash mine which my mom thinks is sooo weird but I think of the dishwasher as more of a sanitizer than anything else. I get the food off and it steams the germs off. Then the other day someone was talking about when dishwashers were new and how his mother refused to buy one because she thought there is no way a dishwasher can get things clean enough. Lol! Funny how differently people think. Off to watch the video now to see who is right. Probably the guy's mother. Older people always seem to be right about these things. Lol!

Hana said...

I truly believe that dishwasher does not wash my dishes as well as I can. Firstly, having 100 year old plumbing, my disposal backfeeds to the dishwasher, resulting in finely ground mixture of food and dish powder stuck on glasses. Secondly, many times, there is a thin white film on the dishes, possibly the dishwasher powder. Frustrating and dangerous.

The only reason why I don't wash dishes in hand is that dishwasher uses so much less water than handwashing. Of course I use only two full sinks of water (wash and rinse) but dishwasher apparently uses only 5 gallons of water, which I am sure is less than 2 sinkful.

Anonymous said...

For years, I mean YEARS (like 25 yrs) I lived without a dishwasher, or a microwave. I always lived in older houses/apartments. I was so used to living without a dishwasher, that when I'd visit my mother, I would just absentmindedly start washing the dishes by hand & she would say "what are you doing?"

All that being said, my wash-by-hand technique isn't quite like the guy's in the video, as I'm not a huge fan of having to turn the water on & off all the time.

As an aside, and I detest double bowl sinks, I can never get my big pots & pans in there to get them clean.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Tiff. I scrub everything off my dishes with steel wool (or a rag if I can't use steel wool) and uses the dishwasher to make sure I got all the soap off and then sanatize.