Comment by alexpetralia | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexpetralia | Hacker News Reader

I handwash all dishes and can go through maybe 50+ in about 5 minutes. My approach is very efficient.

* First, get every dish wet (so that the food will rinse off easier), just a quick splash of water the surface of every dish.

* Then, soap your sponge and begin cleaning. Stack all dishes off to the side sensibly (plates on bottom, bowls on top, silverware atop that). Don't put your sponge down to rinse off anything.

* After you soap and stack eveything, begin rinsing.

* Put the entire stack (or half of it) under the faucet. The running water from the top will flow down to the bottom, making it easier and faster to wash each subsequent dish.

* Run your hands through each dish as you rinse with water to detect and remove any remaining food.

Finally you are done! This method is great because it reduces redundant action (putting down, picking up sponge) and because it "compounds" others (lets the same water rinse multiple dishes). Also, always remember to wash dishes when you have downtime while cooking - you will have no "prep dishes" to clean by the time you eat, and instead only eating dishes.

I know that hand washing is water-inefficient, compared to modern machines, but I find it a very satisfying activity. When I was working from home I found it a great activity to use as a break from work.

Yes, I also use very little water! Only the rinsing part at the end, which maybe takes 2 to 3 minutes on low (much of the water is reused).

there are other considerations as well. a dishwasher has a breakeven point of about 2 people eating ~2 meals a day (e.g., 4 place settings a day), because that's the least amount of dishes you need to run it once a day. anything less, and it becomes an additional cognitive load rather than being a mindless convenience. moreover, stuck-on food becomes extra dry overnight and that generally leads to less clean dishes. if you're a single person looking for an apartment (or even a couple who eat out all the time), you should consider a built-in dishwasher negative value because it's priced in to the cost but you likely won't use it (a washing machine is always nice to have though).

+1 for cleaning as you go while cooking.

When my wife cooks, the kitchen looks like a crime scene when she's done.

It's cleaner than when I started when I cook.

i do this same method and i don't know how you could get through 50(!) dishes in anything less than 15 minutes, unless they're not thoroughly cleaned. 5 minutes is the time it usually takes to do ~1 set of dishes (7-10 items), though that's partially because it lacks the compounding effects you mention.

My method is almost the same. Dishwashers are a scam.

I really do not understand dish washers: you have to clean the dish 80% before going into the washer, so why not spend the 10 seconds to actually wash the thing? I've timing both and hand washing beats dishwashers by an significant amount every time.

This is an understanding based on a very incorrect usage of dish washers. Dishes are supposed to go into the dishwasher dirty, without rinsing. Any food garbage is supposed to be scraped off roughly (ie scrape off actual pieces of food but dont worry if a few rice stick to the plate).

Dishwashers save on water and energy. They are convenient for bulk washing of dishes. Dishwashers need to be used correctly to be optimal, just like any other technology.

For a family of 4 with 2 preschoolers it is absolutely necessary to have a dishwasher.

Anyone who is sceptical of dishwashers and their merits needs to watch the Technology Connections video on dishwashers.

> For a family of 4 with 2 preschoolers it is absolutely necessary to have a dishwasher.

We did fine with two preschoolers and no dishwasher.

I maintain that a 'touch once' is always faster than 'pick up, drop, pick up again, drop'.

Furthermore: the second I see friends puzzle about 'where do I put this in this almost full dishwasher', I know they would have been faster doing it by hand.

> Dishwashers save on water and energy.

No, this is not true. I've measured and it depends. The dutch advisory site 'milieucentraal.nl' comes to the same conclusion: it depends.

I suspect it likely could be if you're spraying everything to rinse it; use a few basins with a good sized rinse with sanitizer or bleach (measured -- ideally use a ph strip to avoid going too far here) and you can use quite a small amount of water for a good number of dishes. Of course, bothering to fill the basins for only a few dishes could be a waste, but when you're doing a whole family worth, you shouldn't need to run the sink while you're cleaning.

> Any food garbage is supposed to be scraped off roughly (ie scrape off actual pieces of food but dont worry if a few rice stick to the plate).

This is the part that takes 80% of the time, because you have to bring every dish to the garbage can that might not necessarily be next to a dishwasher.

> Dishwashers save on water and energy.

Both of which are negligible compared to the amount of water used for, say, heating and showering (not to mention the water that goes into agriculture for food you eat).

> Anyone who is sceptical of dishwashers and their merits needs to watch the Technology Connections video on dishwashers.

Or they just use very few dishes and figured out a method that works for them.

Incorrect usage? Put dishes in with food on them: food gets heat baked onto the dish. So, a brief rinse fixes that, while a 5 second wipe with a soapy sponge eliminates the need for the dishwasher entirely.

I run the dishwasher once every 2 days and I almost never have any issues with food sticking. I don't rinse anything, it all goes into the dishwasher and comes out clean 95% of the time.

Do you cook? I've never seen a dishwsher that can clean a pot, or pan or baking dish that was used to cook food. I feel like every responding does not cook. It would require significantly high pressure water jets, with computer vision scanning and robotic hands rotating an item with cooked in food to be cleaned. I think none of you are cooking. You're just rinsing fast food dirtied plates.

Yes, I do. Pans are usually not a problem, pots are not a problem unless there's something really stuck/burnt to the bottom but even then, washing it twice usually does the trick. Baking trays are the only thing that I clean by hand because they're too big to fit in the dishwasher.

Well then, what brand and model washer? I literally just had a 2 year old washer Lg removed and replaced with ordinary shelves & drawers because the thing was absolutely worthless, not cleaning worth a damn.

It's made by a company called Candy (EU) but unfortunately I don't have the exact model number. I can't say how it's going to hold up over time since I've only had it for around 2 years since I moved in.

The only advice I have in this regard is making sure you're loading it correctly and not overloading it to the point where water spray can't reach your dishes.

You've probably come across these videos already but just in case you haven't, Technology Connections released 2 videos on the topic of dishwashers that could be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6-eGDpimU

Thank you!

modern dishwashers literally tell you _not_ to rinse and place dished in directly. i love seeing this 'hack' and knowing that it was a _total_ waste of time and energy. i can fill my dishwasher in 1 to 2 minutes, do _no_ washing at all, and 1 hour later all my dishes are spotless and sanitized. the damn thing runs at 35 decibels so i can't even hear it.

> you have to clean the dish 80% before going into the washer

No you don’t. You just empty the dishes and put them in the washer. That’s it.

> I've timing both and hand washing beats dishwashers by an significant amount every time

If you count the time the dishwasher is running, yeah sure. Otherwise it’s just pushing a button.

Some dishwasher tips from one month ago:

Gut epithelial barrier damage caused by dishwasher detergents and rinse aids

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33822149#33823456

This guy plays Factorio

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