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Comment by goodmythical | Hacker News Reader

Can is doing an awful lot of heaving lifting there.

Given that my sink cannot contain 20 gallons of water and that I do not even fill my sink full to do my dishes by hand, I cannot possibly be using 20 gallons of water to do my dishes when I do my dishes by hand.

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You don't rinse them after washing?

I don't apart from when I'm initially filling the washing up bowl and doing some cups and glasses. My theory is that the washing up water has less surface tension and thus runs off the crockery better when they're draining/drying.

Where does this leave us then? All the dishwashers include a rinse in their standard cycle, so should it be surprising that you can save water by cutting corners like not rinsing?

Dishwashing machines probably have more need to rinse the dishes as they are using more concentrated formulations. I don't know if it's safe to lick dishwasher tablets, but I hope it's safe to lick dishwashing liquid, though probably not very nice.

You have to subtract out evaporation and water shrinkage.

Agreed. I was trying to make the point dishwashers use less water than washing by hand [1]. To what extend I haven’t found much research.

BTW many people have water running constantly while doing the dishes.

[1]: https://www.epa.gov/watersense/start-saving#save-indoors

I understand, but the point is that they don't do so categorically.

They might, and even probably often do, but not always.

If the intent is genuinely water conservation, it is important to understand that there may be situations in which the dishwasher is not the most conservative option.

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