Hand Dishwashing

[supersurgilator]

For those of you that might on occasion or regularly handwash your dishes, I was wondering if you leave the water running constantly (while scrubbing other dishes) for rinsing or not.

 

[thomasortega]

NEVER!

It's a waste of water.
If i'm doing manually, first i wash everything (or enough to fill the sink with scrubbed dishes) and then i open the faucet to rinse, always throwing the used water on the next idem.

 

[dirtybuck]

My Procedure For Doing Dishes

1. Clean out both sinks with a bit of Comet/Ajax and baking soda.
2. Fill sink about 3/4ths full with HOT water, add liquid dish soap (Ajax, Joy, Palmolive, etc,).
3. Put regular dishes in sink (plates, glasses, silverware) but NO greasy pots or pans. Let items soak an hour or so until water has cooled down a bit.
4. After time limit has expired, come back and wipe down dishes, glasses, etc. and put in other sink.
5. IF there are pots and pans and greasy items that need to be washed (which there usually are), drain dirty dish water, rinse out sink and refill with warm (at first) and then switch to HOT water. Take dishes from other side and submerge and rinse in filling sink. Put in drainer.
6. Again, add some dish soap to the water, put in pots and pans and let soak for a bit. After these are wiped down and scoured, put in other sink. Drain dirty water from main sink, rinse pots and pans, and then put in drainer.

This may seem and sound like a very roundabout method, but it's what works for me. And, (in my opinion) it actually SAVES water instead of letting it run.

 

[maytagbear]

The only things I regularly wash by hand

are my hands and the rest of myself!

My maternal grandmother sold appliances in the late 40s to early 50s, and said "honey, don't be a dishwasher, buy a dishwasher!"

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[cornutt]

Many years ago, I lived in an apartment in Florida that had a one-bowl sink and no dishwasher. My procedure was to spread a towel and set a large bowl on the counter next to the sink. Then, I filled up the sink and started washing. As I washed each item, I placed the small items in the bowl and the large items on the towel. Once everything was washed, I drained the sink, and then spread another towel on the other side of the sink. Then, I turned on the hot water. I took the bowl and set it under the water, and then I rinsed each of the large items and placed them on the fresh towel. By then, the items in the bowl were rinsed by the water flowing into the bowl. I turned off the water, drained the bowl, and spread all the small items on the towel to dry.

When I was a teenager, I worked in an ice cream shop. We had things called "dip wells" for the ice cream scoops. A dip well is a small narrow sink, about 6" deep. You put a tube in the drain and the water builds up until it overflows the top of the tube, so the dip well has a constant amount of water in it. We kept hot water running in the dip wells all day long! No telling how much that would cost now.

 

[3beltwesty]

Here I have a dishwasher but rarely use it. I just hand wash right after the items are used.

If I used the dishwasher all the time for the stuff I use it would be massive waste. If I waited to the dishwasher is full it might take a few months and investing in more pots and pans.

 

[hoover1100]

Sadly

I have no room for a dishwasher in my current flat.

I always clean the bowl and the sink/drainer after i wash up, so they're clean for the next time.

I always wash in the hottest water possible (my hot water tank is set to 60c) with a dish brush, and a scourer for badly soiled pans (never cloths or sponges)

I always rinse under the hot tap, but it is always shut off between rinsing items, otherwise I'd just be pouring perfectly good hot water down the drain lol.

Once I'm finished most things are almost dry on the drainer, so I dry them off with a cloth (giving them a bit of a buff) and put them away.

Won't be long now, and I can get a dishwasher again

Matt

 

[dj-gabriele]

The only thing I wash by hand is the pressure cooker that never comes clean under the rim when put in the dishwasher, plus the top with the rubber seal is not dishwasher safe. I just pour a liberal quantity of detergent on the sponge and rub away all the dirt and then rinse under hot water. After that, just dry up the thing and put it away... I'd say that for washing a single item I waste more water and energy than the dishwasher for the whole cycle!

 

[dirtybuck]

Lawrence

I truly wish I could follow your grandmother's advice, but there are NO automatic dishwashers in my apt. building...only manual.

In 35 years of apt. living, there's only been 6 that have had dishwashers.

 

[combo52]

HAND WASHING DISHES

Wow after reading your description of how you hand wash dishes Bill I was tired,LOL. I think thats the best reason for having a DW I have seen in a long time. 3BW it is far more efficient to use a DW to wash dishes even for just one person than running hot water to the sink area of your house 2 or 3 times a day. With a gas water heater the water heater will come on for a while every time you wash 2 or 3 dishes. If you are just one person and it takes you a full week to assemble a full load in the DW the machine will only use 6-8 gallons of hot water per load and if that is only once per week thats far less water and heating energy than doing it by hand 15 or 20 times.

 

[rp2813]

I avoid hand-washing like a plague but we all have some items that aren't dishwasher safe. 

 

When I wash by hand, I never leave the hot water running.  I have a large single sink and I don't use a dish pan.  I will use whatever hand-wash-only pot or pan as my dish pan instead.

 

Water is too precious a commodity to leave it running when not necessary, and that includes while brushing one's teeth.

 

[appnut]

It's just me.  It's extremely rare I wash anything by hand.  I just keep accumulating whatever dishes I use thorughout the time it takes to fill up the machine.  I run it about once or twice a week.  I've been known to wait for 7 to 10 days before it has been run--based on cereal bowls and coffee mugs lol.  With added diet guidelines, I"m cooking even more and will probably be running it 2 to 4 times a week.  I am my mother's son.  If it can't go in the dishwasher, it's not used at all, if extremely rarely. 

 

[luxflairguy]

I hand wash all my silverware which is usually my Grandmother's silverplate. And I also hand wash all my good knives. The knives because it's better for them and the silverware because I'm using the old 7.7% phos. Cascade gelpacs which with the high water temp I use in my Kitchenaid rapidly discolors the plate and it's more work to have to polish it all (16 place settings) than hand wash what we use. I never machine wash any of my sterling. I keep a small Pyrex rectangle on the counter to hold the dirty silverware.
Oh, and I keep the water running. The water heater is on the far side of the house and I finally get HOT hot water by the time I'm ready to rinse!
Good question!

 

[dirtybuck]

LOL!

John, although it looks quite tedious, it's pretty effective...and I've got some soaking right now that need to be wiped down and rinsed.

Ralph, I'm one of "those people" who brush my teeth in the shower.

 

[jerrod6]

SS cookware

I have a mixture of Stainless Steel cookware.  Some of it says "do not use in Dishwasher"  some of it says "safe to use in DW" so I end up mostly doing the pans by hand.  There are times I will put the "safe" SS in the Dw and it comes out great.

 

I usually run hot water into the sink, squirt some Palmolive aloe dish detergent in there then wash each pan one at a time.  I start by washing it in the suddsy water, then rinse it then I sprinkle a few shakes of Bar Keepers Friend on it, and wipe with a damp cloth to finish it off, submerge back into the sudsy water wiping again, then turn the faucet on and rinse under a spray stream.....Then repeat for the next item.

 

I also wash my good set of chopping and carving cutlery knives by hand and for these I wash each one returning it to the sink.  After all have been washed I pick up in a group and hold under running water to rinse.

 

If I only have a few items instead of running water in the sink I will  use Dawn Direct foam and wipe each piece with it then turn on a spray of water and rinsing everything at once. 

 

None of this is usually a problem because I have to wipe the cook top and grates after each use so there has to be some level of water and suds in the sink to accomplish this.

 

[hoovermatic]

I shared an apartment in Australia with an American girl who used to hand wash dishes under running water - used to drive me insane. Such a WASTE of water and we were on a meter!! Mind you, when we eventually did get a dishwasher in the place she would run it with about 6 items in so equally wasteful.

 

[laundromat]

I prefer dishwashers over hand washing because the dishwasher can heat the wash and rinse water so hot,up to 180F,that all the grease,grime and bacteria are gone.If you have another half or family living with you,it just makes more sense to have a dishwasher and not do dishes by hand.I prefer them over hand washing because of my own experiences with them and how I can wash a full days worth of dishes all at once without getting my hands to turn into Prunes and raisins.I get enough of that at my other weekend job.

 

[iheartmaytag]

About the only thing I wash by hand are pots and pans.  Leave the water running?  Never.

Usually fill the sink with enough water for my planned job, using Dawn original scent.  I wash  the stove top first before any grease gets on the cloth or in the water. 

Then cabinets, then pans.  I run water only enough to rinse, then invert the pan(s) and allow them to air dry in the sink before putting them away. 

 

The remainder of my dishwashing involves Cascade and a touch pad.

 

 

[elginkid]

I start by plugging the left sink bowl, (with the dirty dishes in the right bowl) and turning the hot water on high, with enough soap to get the suds going, and then I keep the water running slowly as I wash the dishes. The slow water fills the sink, while at the same time rinsing what I'm working on. I can easily get a sink full of dishes done without draining the bowl I'm working in. If there happens to be a lot of dishes, I gauge how much water to let out, and repeat the process to keep the water hot.

 

[whirlpolf]

constantly running water? you must be kidding...

Gray water for soaking heavily soiled items, burnt-in pots or greasy deep-fryer bowls and the like (from shower, bathtub, washer or even best: from the first hot cycle of the dishwasher).

Then some fresh hot water with dish liquid, then a quick dip in pure hot water to rinse off the dish soap. (Never running water, always an extra bowl right next to me to dip and rinse.)

Once that bowl has cooled down too much, I add it to the wash water (the detergent water) and I'll get myself another small bowl of "hot-dipping" rinse water.
After that comes the drying rack. *Shrugs*

Tip of the day: Should you ever encounter a pot with extremely tough or heavily burnt-in stuff (like when you forgot and there were some first signs of smoke, the carbonation-type of "burnt-in", just boil it up with laundry detergent (not dishwasher powder) and let it cool down overnight. (Watch out, it will boil up and come up foaming over the top in seconds, so be careful and very swift!).
The next day you don't need any steel scrubbers or brillo pads or what have you. It just wipes away, just like that (a Finnish trick that works like a charm): No scratches, no scrubbing. Stainless steel will keep its shine.

 

[3beltwesty]

Folks who I know who use DW's all the time often use more dishes, cups. They often let stuff harden and then one has to use hot water.

One really often does not have to use hot water if one washes right away.

Heck I worked in a grade school cafeteria and washed a few thousand plates and dishes. For me using a dishwasher just costs alot more than had washing. The dishwasher is so big I could us it once

In a way it is sort of funny. I vist their house and one has a glass of water and if it is set down for a few minutes; somebody has grabbed it and now it is in the dirty sink soaking, or the dishwasher already. Thus if one is there helping another on a project, one's glass if not held on to goes away. Many folks get off on using a DW and having a guest have to use 6 new glasses in a few hours, to me it is absurd. ok so I get to use a weeks worth of plates, dishes and glasses i a hour!

Often the reason folks use a DW is they allow stuff to dry and thus one has to use more work to do the cleaning.

When in California in an apartment for 20 years, I did not pay for the water; or hot water too. The DW was used maybe a few times each year when folks visted. Thus even if the electrical cost was paltry, it was quicker to hand wash than use a DW.

 

[3beltwesty]

Probably most folks are better off with a dish or clothes washer, than a hand method, since they really have never mastered the hand method. Thus the machine does a better job than a poor hand attempt. In Indiana back in the 1960's we washed by had with a family of six most of the time, the Tappan dishwasher rarely worked and was constantly being fixed.

 

[miele_ge]

"Honey don't be a dishwasher, BUY a Dishwasher!"

Lawrence I love that!

 

I will have to tell my sister in law that - although she has a GE Monogram dishwasher in her new kitchen.  I doubt that she will use it much. She still likes to do them by hand! 

 

<span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">à</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">chaque</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">goût</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">de son</span>

 

[mavei]

I hate hand washing dishes and will only do it when necesssary. I'd rather use the portable dishwasher.

 

[petek]

It's rare for us to handwash anything save for a few things that aren't dishwasher safe (don't use those often) or if I need to use something right away. On average we run the dishwasher once every 3 days

 

[mixfinder]

Hauling Water

We grew up with out running water and hauled water from town in 2 ten gallon milk cans when were at the laundramat.  To this day my mother has a cow if anyone runs water in the sink, takes long showers or wastes water.  As an apartment manager we saw a spike in water and sewer bills system wide when immigrant populations rented because they refuse to use a dishwasher.  When I was in China several years ago there was a country wide public service effort to get people to use dishwashers and stop the constant stream of water down the sink.  Glassware and silverware come out spot and streak free while handwashing them often shows streaks.  I put everything but the refrigerator in the dishwasher.  It it can't take the heat, out it goes.  If the dishwasher can't clean without prerinsing, out it goes.  When I am baking or cooking I put sudsy water in the first pan or bowl to be used and the wash it transferring the soapy water to the next refilling it with the rinse water from the bowl before until extraneous cookware and countertops are clean, the rest is stowed in the dishwasher and the kitchen has no clutter.  I take 3 minute showers, wash full loads etc.  It is a dream to be in the country again.  My water and sewer bills were legend in Seattle second only to the highest power bill of anyone in the building.  Cold is the temperature of poverty and as God is my witness (picture Scarlett and her turnip) I will never be cold again.

 

[gmmcnair]

Dish Pans

I can hand wash with the best of them (grandma and great grandma taught me), and I never leave the water running....that would have elicited an ugly reaction from either one for sheer wastefulness.

I still have two small dishpans for my hand washing. I fill the wash pan with comfortably hot water and Ajax Dish liquid. I fill the rinse pan up with VERY hot rinse water.

I wash the dishes, dip into the rinse tub, and drain in a Rubbermaid dish drainer. Once the wash water starts to get dirty, I empty that, and soap out the dishpan. That is then filled with very hot rinse water.

I then add dish soap to the rinse water (which is now just comfortably hot and still clean enough for wash water), and start again.