How much time does dishwasher save you?

[Bankai]

I spend an average of 15 minutes a day washing dishes. This adds up to almost 2 weeks a year of unpaid and boring work. How much time does dishwasher save on average/at what point does it make sense to buy one?

[Stahlmann]

I also heard that reasoning in many places (especially in "corporate success literature"), but I tend to disagree.
There is optimal time you can spend on projects (=more money) in work (if you have that possibility at first place).
I assume that most people are tired enough after 8h (at least...) of working, so washing dishes can be nice exercise.
Of course, if you can find side hustle that pays well just calculate in your new kitchen device, because this can be game-changer.
I think you can buy old-mechanical (easy to repair, easy to maintain) dishwasher as the "new device" to help you .
This the same as jacob who owns a car (at least at time of this not so recent interview between MadFientist and Mr 4HWW), but under his complicated/advanced conditions it makes sense.

Unfortunately, I think many people wash 2x their dishes and with ERE mindset it's possible to live without this device in small family unit.

[7Wannabe5]

How much time does access to "city juice" save you over pumping the well in your yard? How much time does access to well with pump in your yard save you over walking down to the lake or stream to fill your jugs every morning? How much time does access to jugs save you over having to walk down to the water every time you need a drink or a wash?

[enigmaT120]

Jobs like washing dishes and sweeping the floor aren't boring to me. Jobs where I have to pay attention to subjects that don't interest me are boring, like my paying job.

[SavingWithBabies]

I'm more interested in the amount of water saved. Of course, one could use wash tubs in the sink and be very careful to minimize water usage. But the dishwashers are getting more efficient too:

The average dishwasher uses 6 gallons of water per cycle; the average Energy Star-rated dishwasher uses 4 gallons per cycle, and their energy use ranges from 1.59 kWh per load down to 0.87 kWh per load.

And:

These numbers indicate that it's possible to be more efficient when hand-washing, but it's pretty tough.

source

The second thing I value with a dishwasher over sink washing is a big drying rack that is fairly accident/kid-proof. Our current rented living space came with a dishwasher and it's been great with kids. It feels like a luxury not a necessity but I like one enough to have one when we buy a living space. As kids, we were the dishwashers in our household. We definitely used a lot of water.

[cmonkey]

There is a whole slew of stuff you aren't supposed to put into dishwashers and so ultimately you have to wash those by hand anyway. Also the newer ones don't do a very good job in my experience and so you either have to lightly wash before hand or after the fact. You're likely spending 15 minutes loading/unloading anyway, but with the appliance you do this 15 minutes + 15 minutes of 'finishing up'. Best to just wash them as you go throughout the day. Don't let them pile up, its better to do 2 or 3 small batches with like 1-2 inches of water in the sink than one large batch in the evening when you are tired.

[Scott 2]

I make my wife do it Big perk of being married.

I hate doing dishes by hand. Dishwasher is one of the luxuries I will always make a point to afford.

[jacob]

When I'm cooking on my own for myself, I can clean up in about 1 minute with most of it done while I'm cooking. With others involved ... not so much.

See the last steps here: http://earlyretirementextreme.com/cooki ... han-4.html
(For the record, I can do a few other meals like this in a similarly expedient fashion.)

So it's physically possible to be very efficient. However, if I was drowning in dishes due to an untrainable spouse and kids, I'd strongly consider it. Compare to how few handwash their clothes. It's possible, but it demands constantly staying on the ball. Most people won't/can't .. and so are saved by laundry machines.

[GandK]

I'm more interested in the amount of water saved.

Electricity was the bigger deal in our case.

We switched to hand washing our dishes, and around the same time stopped using the clothes dryer. IIRC the two together save us around $40/month.

Time for dishes is probably 20 minutes/day for our household of 4. Usually a bit longer if I used the oven.

[George the original one]

When I'm cooking on my own for myself, I can clean up in about 1 minute with most of it done while I'm cooking. With others involved ... not so much.

This! It's not so tough cleaning up after yourself. A dishwasher is about break-even with two people (most sinks don't like more than one person using them at a time) and the dishwasher is radically better when you have more than two people to clean up after.

Some things that ordinarily shouldn't go into a dishwasher, like meltable plastics, can be washed if you remember to turn off the drying cycle. The drying cycle is where most of the energy is wasted anyways.

[BRUTE]

brute enjoys doing the dishes. 1 minute sounds about right, depending on meal.

[wood]

0

As was pointed out, some items need handwashing anyway (e.g. cooking pots).

Wash and organize while cooking. This way no time is lost. Leave dishes until you start cooking your next meal.

Keep a minimum set of plates, glasses, forks etc. so dishes don't pile up because lazy.

[BMWalter333]

IMO you have to wash the extra food and debris off dishes anyways before you put it in the dishwasher, it's not worth it.
Just put on an awesome podcast or audio book while you wash dishes and you will actually be spending 2 weeks a year learning something new and productive.

[stayhigh]

Considering initial cost, space taken, extra electricity, dishwasher tabs etc it's not efficient solution for me. What I don't like the most, it's not kind of "put it in, press the button and forget it" machine, so it's a big NO for me. Doing dishes straight away or putting them into the water to soak in, makes it very easy and fast.

[vexed87]

Have to say, I was very against the idea of getting one, then when we bought a house, the previous occupier left theirs behind. Having previously struggled with a half size model, this larger unit is a bit of a revelation. Much better washing pots, pans etc.

I agree with the points that others raised about dealing with others who are less conservative with the number of dishes they use and pile up through the course of the day. Saves a bunch of time if you get guests too.

Regarding the energy usage of the drying element, I worked it out and it was costing us 0.02p/cycle to keep the drying element on. We always wash on eco mode to conserve water. So far the energy cost is negligible. A ballpark 65% efficiency loss of heating water by electric Vs gas, saving 65% of peanuts is still peanuts!

You just have to be careful to only start the machine with a full load, or your efficiency rating vs hand washing plummets. We buy the dirt cheap Costco/supermarket own brands and save a bundle there. Downside of having a larger machine is you need more dishes and glassware to justify switching on the unit, so if you only have one dish, cutlery etc per person it rarely makes economic sense or saves time.

[jacob]

Downside of having a larger machine is you need more dishes and glassware to justify switching on the unit, so if you only have one dish, cutlery etc per person it rarely makes economic sense or saves time.

This cuts both ways. With a machine, one needs to add the cost of owning enough dishware to fill it. (Same with laundry machines btw ... and this is why I used to own 14 t-shirts whereas now I own 7, Stahlmann ). Conversely, when handwashing it makes sense to limit the amount of dishware to make it impossible to pile up an unmaneuverable amount. Not being able to swing the faucet is a good sign that one owns too many for handwashing.

[Scott 2]

Conversely, with someone else washing the dishes, I just kept buying dishware until it stopped running out. Much better than complaining about pace or timing of doing the chore.

[Stahlmann]

...
This cuts both ways. With a machine, one needs to add the cost of owning enough dishware to fill it. (Same with laundry machines btw ... and this is why I used to own 14 t-shirts whereas now I own 7, Stahlmann ). Conversely, when handwashing it makes sense to limit the amount of dishware to make it impossible to pile up an unmaneuverable amount. Not being able to swing the faucet is a good sign that one owns too many for handwashing.

Give me a chance! I've been here since 2016 and forums tend to be not friendly for reading them for old content (or maybe it's my preference). I try to save data and use famous query in Google, but I'm not always satisfied with results.
I'm mainly basing on old blog entries (more convenient).

But you really don't own laundry machine? I'm suprised.
I thought you changed somehow your living "skills" after staying in one place.

Stuff like dishwasher, electrical vacuum, microwave are dire cheap in Consumerland anyway.
Maybe I don't see this minimalism side of ERE yet.

PS. Has you described your feelings here about buying a car? What model is it?
I've seen it first time in beforementioned topic without any details Nice deal if you found something that can be repaired almost by self.

[jacob]

With the risk of derailing ...

Washing machine: Currently own an old top loader, just like grandma. Last place we occasionally handwashed in the tub but hand wringing was no fun.
Dryer: No. We line dry outside in the summer and inside in the basement in the winter.
Vacuum: We got one as a wedding gift. It's not very useful currently because we have tile/hardwood floors. (Using a broom/mop to clean).
Microwave: Cheap/used. The plate spinner is broken. It's a bit annoying having to shift the food to move the hotspot but easy enough. I don't want to toss it just because it's not perfect.
Dishwasher: None. We had one in the apartment we rented previously. I don't miss it. I grew up handwashing dishes since age 6. It builds character
Car: Subaru Outback 2002. It was useful for the renovation/fixing up the house---hauling construction materials would have been hard otherwise. DW currently uses it for work and gets reimbursed so cost of ownership is ~$0. I'm not proud that we own a car whereas DW still has a hard time imagining life w/o it.

[BlueNote]

The dishwasher saves my wife tons of time.

Now before someone verbally neuters me it should be noted that I am the dishwasher.