If Forced To Choose Only One Modern Major Appliance

[launderess]

Think with trend of smaller families or households nowadays washing dishes by hand is less of a bother. In past with two adults and several children multiplied by at least three meals per day, that's quite a lot of dishes, pots and pans that want washing up daily.

Have always found when cooking or baking if one cleans up as one goes, there is less washing up afterwards overall.

 

[ea56]

Re: Reply#19

I completely agree with you Launderess. To me its just easier to get her done. I hate having unfinished business. When DW’s were fast, like under an hour to complete a cycle I didn’t mind so much, and of course at the time I got my first DW in ‘87 it was a novelty, something that I’d aspired to all my life, since I grew up without one. But the new DW’s that take over an hour, some over 2 hrs., well by that time I’m over KP duties and I don’t want to have to stop watching a program I’m interested in to unload the DW and put everything away. Which would frequently also require drying off some items that didn’t dry completely or wash something that didn’t get completely clean, it happens no matter how careful you load the DW. And I’m sure as hell adverse to getting up in the morning to a full DW that needs to be unloaded, no bueno!

Then 4 years ago this month I experienced the straw that broke the camels back as far as DW’s go with me. I had a fully loaded DW and I was preparing dinner in the afternoon. The DW cycled off, I opened it and when I pulled out the rack everything was still dirty, with the food dried on(I’d selected heated dry). Apparently the pump and motor went out and the water didn’t recirculate and the detergent Pod never released from the cup.

I had to take ALL those baked on dirty dishes out and hand wash them in the midst of preparing a large dinner. Since it was just under a year old I had Whirlpool repair it. They put a whole new motor assembly in it. However by that time I’d been washing the dishes by hand for 3 weeks, even a family Easter Dinner’s worth of dishes. And I discovered that I liked doing the dishes by hand! I immediately found it to be calming and I felt
that I had more time, not less, I always had very dish, pot, pan, utensil, bowl, cup and glass available whenever I wanted to use them. No more having to stop and hand wash something that was in the DW waiting for a full load to start it.

I know most members here think I’m crazy and would never entertain the thought of a home without a DW. I still use my DW in a way. I store the dish rack and drainboard on the lower rack along with the coffee can compost holders and on the top rack I store the dish-mats for putting glassware on to dry if I need to wash a lot a time. I also think the kitchen is easier to keep clean too, with a sink of hot soapy water to use with a dishcloth to wipe off all the counters and the stove top. Much quicker than getting out a spray bottle of cleaner and using a sponge, at least for me it is.

I don’t see myself ever using the DW again. Different strokes for different folks I guess. So Laundress you make me feel not alone in my aberrant behavior, LOL.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 4/21/2022-20:47]

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

With me, personally I would get a modern dishwasher

I’m honestly not really a fan of washing dishes by hand, and I would much rather use a dishwasher, vintage washes and vintage dryers or something I would happily use, I just even washed my dressing gown in some vintage soap powder that would’ve came with the washer when it was new, i’d much rather be putting things through a wringer, compare to toiling over a hot kitchen sink, Kind of the same with vacuums as well I’d much rather have something older because knowing the chaos of using a counterfeit bag in the vacuum leading dust dirt and sand getting sucked into the motor, it’s just easier to shake out a cloth bag 26 times a year compared to trying to mangling the clip That the disposable bag is attached to so that the lid would close Plus they’re just so much quieter and I don’t mind the smell of Vacuum either

 

[rinso]

I would love to be able to afford an induction range. My other appliances are all up-to-date current models.

 

[48bencix]

Washing Machine

Washing Machine because I can do dishes by hand. Also can dry on the line. Our friends built a new house in Martinez in 1953 and had the slide out built in Westinghouse dishwasher. I helped my Mom get a Montgomery Ward dishwasher in 1960. So we used that daily. My Mom got her Bendix in 1944 and so had an automatic washer for our family. I got my first washer in Berkeley in 1967, 1949 Maytag AMP, and my first dishwasher in 1970, a portable, top loading Whirlpool. I had to let the AMP go but got my next washer and dryer, Kenmore used, in 1971 and lugged the dishwasher and washer and dryer to at least 7 different flats and apartments in San Francisco. Most flats and apartments had the hookups. So dishwashers and washers and dryers have been important to me.

With the modern dishwashers which take 3 hours, I load after dinner and clean the kitchen. I run it in the morning, taking advantage of cheaper electricity. Then when done I unload and put everything away.

 

[henene4]

Define "Modern"

If I can go to the 80s or 90s for the rest, I'd probably go to a moder dryer.

In the EU, a modern dryer uses less than half the energy and is way gentler - it's heat pump.
80s early 90s washers and dishwasher can be pretty decently efficient.
Not quite the same as today's efficiency, but not terribly Bad.
And DWs could be had pretty quiet aswell!

If we go back to the 60s that gets a lot harder.
I'd probably get a modern dishwasher. Just because they are so quiet.

If the question is anything fully automatic the one I'd definitely get would be a washer.
Washing dishes is done in 15min, hanging clothes is fine.
But washing the number of items by hand that I have... Yeah no - there's a reason the washer was the first big automatic thing for appliances.

Everything afterwards was just icing.

 

[ea56]

I believe the term “Modern Appliance” is a general term referring to the the concept of these appliances as part of our accepted way of life from the 20th century on. Not to be confused with these appliances as they are known today.

For instance, when washing machines, dryers and dishwashers were first introduced they were “modern”. Today they are common place for most people.

So the question in the OP is really, which of these three modern conveniences could you personally not do without given the choice between the three.

Eddie

 

[iej]

Vacuum cleaners aren’t major appliances, but I could more or less live without one if I had to, especially in a house with hardwood floors. You can sweep and wet mop most surfaces and other surfaces can be dusted.

It’s also worth remembering that wall to wall carpets probably came about because of vacuum cleaners, rather than the other way around. They would have been very difficult to maintain otherwise, and most pre electric era homes didn’t have them. They’re very much a post 1920s/30s thing.

They’ve gone back out of fashion again, but all through the mid 20th century they were extremely popular in this part of the world anyway.

 

[ea56]

Really, when you think about it a washing machine would have to be the one of the three that changed the life of the American housewife the most! I know many are simply horrified at the prospect of thrusting their hands into a sink of hot water to wash dishes.

But compare washing dishes to washing ALL your laundry by hand! Think about having to scrub sheets, towels, blankets and heavy coats and jeans on a washboard, then rinsing them, having to lift these heavy, water laden items out of the water and then wringing the water out by hand. Oh hell no!

There is absolutely NO comparison between the intensive labor required to wash laundry by hand as opposed to hanging wet laundry on a clothes line or washing dishes in a sink. Just sayin’. That’s why Monday used to be known as laundry day, because it took the whole damn day to do it!

Eddie

 

[launderess]

No less than the Vatican among others claim automatic washing machines are the best thing to happen for women and girls.

Remember watching British television series "1900 House" where a modern family goes back to live in Edwardian times. Families all over UK were fighting to be chosen, and the Bolwers were over moon when they made cut.

Within few days of living in that Edwardian home Mrs. Bowler was mean tempered and reduced to sitting and weeping most of day. She just never imagined how difficult life was for an housewife then including things like laundry.

Personally found all her moaning rather odd. Fully automatic washing machines did not become wide spread in UK until well after WWII. So it was either something like Hoover TT, going to wash house or doing things by hand for good number of households. Mrs. Bolwer surely had a mother, grandmother or older female family members who could (or should) have warned her about what was to come.

 

[iej]

I think people have lost all sense of perspective on that era, other than seeing it through pretty sepia photographs, all of which were showing the best of it. It's far enough out of the collective memory that it's forgotten.

If you consider that when KFC in England ran out of chicken, due to a glitch in their delivery system a couple of years ago, people actually called 999 to report it to the police. Things have moved a long away from tolerance of Edwardian drudgery, although a lot of labour abuses are now just hidden, out of sight / out of mind somewhere far away, but that's another thread entirely.

Life was very rough in Edwardian times both at home and at work, unless you were a member of at least the upper end of the middle classes, in which case you probably just paid someone else (probably a pittance) to do it for you.

In terms of home life the big changes in the US probably happened earlier than in Europe simply because of WWII. The kinds of dramatic changes you saw in the US in the late 40s and 50s happened a decade or so later in Western Europe, probably in the late 50s and into the 60s, particularly things like the widespread adoption of appliances - although there were always outliers. I know my own late grandparents (born in the 1920s) were definitely early adopters of washing machines and whatever else came along.

A combination of rising disposable income, mass manufacturing and modern technology being available at a reasonable price changed everything and there were also enormous social changes both driven by those technologies and that were driving their adoption too. There were a confluence of factors going on as societies modernised in the 20th century.

The other point I would make is that people tend to idolise early and mid century appliances in terms of their extremely high build quality and lovely materials. They were wonderfully made machines in a lot of cases, but they were never the machines that most of the population could afford. The second half of the 20th century and today's tech centric, but often cheap and cheerful mass manufactured machines might not be quite the masterpieces of quality and craftsmanship their ancestors were, but they also are highly affordable which has made them ubiquitous. The reality of it in the early days of those technologies is that only a privileged % of the population could afford to be early adopters. In a UK context, the first automatic washing machines cost almost as much as a small car, which is why they were such a rarity. Just think of a market where the base, entry level price was similar to small commercial Miele and you could see why most households took a while.[this post was last edited: 4/23/2022-06:47]

 

[panasonicvac]

To me

It kinda depends honestly. If I lived somewhere and had a laundromat nearby, then I would choose to have a dishwasher. If I lived somewhere with no laundromat nearby, then I would choose to have a washing machine. And if I lived somewhere that had a HUGE sink to easily wash clothes and dishes off completely clean, then I would choose to have a dryer. But if I overall had to choose only one appliance no matter where I would live at, then I would certainly go for a washer. I could have a high pressure flow faucet and strong detergent to easily clean dishes to where I wouldn't need a dishwasher but it is always nice to have. And I could hang my laundry up to dry like what my grandparents in Utah used to do. I had a neighbor of ours who owned a log cabin and a ranch up in the mountains, but they didn't had any of the three appliances and with no laundromat nearby. At least the last time I was there which would've been almost 11 years ago so I'm not sure if they since added any or not until the time of their passing. And I have a friend of ours that also owns a log cabin up in the mountains and they have a stackable top load washer and dryer but no dishwasher. Makes me wonder now if they ever regretted not putting one in when they first built the place. Thank goodness though that we have stackable washers and dryers. If my grandfather up in Montana only had a washer up at his log cabin instead of his stackable set, he would've had a harder time drying off his clothes cause his place is one of the coldest areas in the country. Especially with his age and health declining.

 

[askolover]

I'd have to choose a washing machine.  As much as I love having a DW (since I was 3 years old) I can't do laundry by hand.

 

[foraloysius]

For me it would definitely be the washing machine. I have a covered balcony where I can hang laundry and otherwise a drying rack in the bathroom would work, it's big enough.

If I wouldn't have a dishwasher, I would do less cooking I suppose, take more short cuts. And I would think twice about baking a cake that causes a mess.

But doing laundry by hand would be the worst. I have a separate spin dryer that would come in handy, but it still would be a lot of work compared to the other household tasks.

 

[tolivac]

For me-the washer.Don't think its practical to do clothes manually.I can do my dishes manually-since I don't use too many at a time.

 

[mrsalvo]

I’d have a washer.
I wash a lot of dishes by hand, it’s just myself here at the house, unless I’m doing a lot of cooking or not feeling well.

 

[vacerator]

A central Vac system

I have one, but it's great! No bags, less dust in the house because what gets past the filter all gets exhausted outside. I empry it and clean the filter witha dry brush twice per year.
Otherwise a Miele S8 unique.

 

[gizmo]

I've already made the choice...

I don't own a dryer or dishwasher. (Though I have spare parts ones in the shed for fixing other people's appliances.)

 

I have a Miele washing machine in the house and will in future set up working "collection" washing machines in the new shed. We don't need a dryer here and I'm not interested in dishwashers. I'd have to sacrifice a cupboard or two pot drawers to install a dishwasher, a compromise I'm not prepared to accept.

My partner often washes the dishes, or starts them and I finish them.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I can’t stand washing dishes by hand so the dishwasher seeing as how mine holds a lot of kitchenware dependably doing a great job…

So what if either of my laundry equipment, washer or dryer or BOTH fail in the middle of a load, I go out and replace with another GE or Whirlpool from days of old…

I’ll cook with a coil-top electric range just to get self-cleaning more likely than on a gas stove or get a gas range that I hope is as reliable as any new…

As for the fridge—I’m dieting in the face of rising food prices and I have all that ice cream I take a few spoonfuls of then wondering how I’ll finish or why I bought, so if anything that’s a fridge/freezer combo not too far from when they made ice and not kept cool with a block of ice, our homeowners
Insurance covers us for the loss and I put a box of remnants of spoiled food out on the lawn which my ten-year-old Whirlpool ice and water dispensing side by side could one day become…

(There!)

— Dave