What's the most water efficient way to wash dishes?

I probably should not be admitting this, but I have put a fair amount of effort into learning to wash dishes quickly and with minimal waste. Some observations:

Dried food on the plate is bad.
Too much soap leads to lots of water waste.
Done right, no reason to have the water running during the soaping.
The water used to rinse one item should become part of the rinse for the remaining
There is no smart way to clean oil. Leave it for last!.

 

That presumes wrong. I've already licked 'em clean, to the chagrin of my 100 pound black lab ... as well as "she-who-must-be-obeyed".

There you go ... wasting perfectly good food ... that should never make it to the dog. so ... by the time my better half runs the dishwasher excessively and my over kill ... we work out to average ... sort of.


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Sounds like you need a better dishwasher then.

I just wait until the entire sink is full (about 5-7 days worth of dishes), then load the dishwasher to the max. Spick and span every time, no prerinsing/prewashing/presoaking. The dishes have week old food dried on when they go in, and sparkle as they come out. Before I stack them dry in the sink, I just scrape off the big stuff into the trash or compost.

 

When washing by hand or in the dishwasher, for foods that are particularly hard to clean (grits, lasagne, etc.). I soak the dish well before washing. My goal is to use all the water that comes out the kitchen faucet at least twice before it goes down the drain or out to the plants. We have a high efficiency Bosch DW that uses very little water - I don't believe I could wash by hand with less.

I am trying to make up for the crimes of my parents, who would soak everything, then rinse and scrub under constantly running (full-blast) water before putting in the none-too-water-efficient dishwasher.

 

Again, Consumer Reports tests this exact kind of thing. You should NOT prerinse your dishes. If one or two comes out slightly unclean, THEN wash it again! Modern dishwashers get dishes clean and sanitary--you are living like you have a 40 year old dishwasher.

 

I agree with this post to a point........you can't beat a good dishwasher, when you have very good water pressure already coming out of your faucets. It's this pressure that will get the dishes clean, of you only have a trickle of water out of the faucet, then don't get a dishwasher......they do not increase your water pressure.

As for leaving dishes pile up in the sink, that's grouse. Put soiled dishes in the dishwasher until you get a full load, then wash the full load.

 

This sounds like a dish-wetter, not a dish-washer.

Dad's machine did the same for most of the top rack. After several failed attempts to locate any plugged filters or plumbing, I convinced him to replace it with one that actually worked.

 

Or you can get pressure boosters installed.

The gross dishes in the sink would be worse when put in the dishwasher next to the clean dishes. Or are you suggesting I actually unpack my dishwasher at some point? Much easier to just pick out dishes from the dishwasher as you need them and then before the next load, unpack the couple things that remain.

And things don't generally grow unless there is a good supply of water. So if you leave your dishes dry with no prerinsing you avoid growths better suited for a lab...

 

Sounds like you need one of those dual-drawer dishwashers. Just like some single guys should have two laundry baskets, one for clean, the other for dirty.


As for water pressure, cleaning power, and pressure boosters, the water faucet needs only enough pressure to fill the machine. The machine uses it own pump to pressurize the jets to do the washing.

 

I looked at some dual drawer ones but they don't dry as well. Not a problem if you go Euro style which is air dry anyways, but for forced heat dry, not so much.

I have 3 laundry baskets. Tops, Bottoms, and dirty.

 

As for water pressure, cleaning power, and pressure boosters, the water faucet needs only enough pressure to fill the machine. The machine uses it own pump to pressurize the jets to do the washing.[/QUOTE]

Perhaps this is true, I don't know, it's been sometime since we purchased our machine. But I do know that our manual says that it is suppose to start running (fill with water) within a certain time, to make sure you have enough pressure.
Maybe the new machines do have their own pressure booster pump. Our does not.

To purchase a booster pump & valve would add hundreds of $$$$$ to the cost of the machine, making it not very cost effective.

You put your soiled dishes in the washing machine, when they are cleaned........you remove them back to the cabinets.

 

Get a dog

Sorry, couldn't resist, and we allways load the dishwasher, and let it sense how dirty rhe dishes are.

 

I had to retrain my DH to not wash the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher... but now, he's happy with a good scraping with a rubber spatula before loading the dishwasher.

We wash full loads; no heated dry; biodegradable, earth friendly cleaner only (this month, it is Ecover brand).

We use less dishes overall, as I cook rarely, and we eat a lot of raw, fresh food out of hand - grapes, apples, oranges, etc. I also reuse plates and utensils as I deem appropriate - the fork I test the potatoes with, and scoop out the coconut oil with, becomes the fork I eat with. A plate that has held toast can later hold crackers and hummus.

You'd be surprised how easily things wash when you don't have animal products burnt onto them. No cheese or meat, and casseroles rinse clean easily. Soup pots don't have to be sandblasted.

We probably run the dishwasher about three times a week.

 

Perhaps a more inteating question is, what is the total carbon energy foot print of various easing method. Machine uses energy in addition to the water and the water heat.

Icarus

 

Ok, this is probably as extreme low water/detergent/technology use as
you can get...

I was in a severe minimum cash out flow situation and was able to
wrangle a place to stay for free that was bare minimum, maybe 200 sq
ft, total living space. The closet-sized kitchen had a sink, tiny 'fridge,
and ancient microwave.

I found that slight water movements, or more specifically repeated
least small pressure waves overnight would loosen just about anything
stuck to a plate or pot, including coagulated cheese.

The secret was setting the faucet to drip single drops. The drops fell
into the dirty plate/pot, initially filled with about 1/4" of hot water and
a drop of detergent. In the morning all that was required was a quick
swipe with a sponge -- I can't stand dish clothes -- and rinse.

My "system" got quite sophisticated. For more than one dirty dish/pan,
I built a tower of a tall glass with a plate on top. I notched the edge of
a plastic plate so it would drip simultaneously from three points on the
rim. Bingo, up to three plates/pans at a time.

Necessity is the mother of invention, desperation it's father.

Did I ever tell you about my Microwave Baked Potato Pizza?

 

Awesome.