For all the "hand washing gets things cleaner" folks a little anecdote.
When we first got our bosch i ran a white coffee mug through that had what I thought were permanent coffee/tea stains on the bottom. No matter how much I hand washed those stains were still there. One run through the bosch and it was sparkling white. It washed off YEARS of coffee/tea stains. Noticed this on a few other pieces of dishware. Maybe I just suck and hand washing, but I don't think so.
Or maybe your Bosch is awesome? I have probably only been exposed to lower end models of DWs all these years. Still can't imagine how water shooting at a cup cleans it better than mechanical action? I suppose if it is high pressure (think pressure washer) and very hot that is the trick? Or maybe it is that DW soap is super concentrated with bleach?
Why is this so damn important? Why you say?
Well because like showering we have never been taught the best and most efficient way as children. We also do this task so frequently on autopilot that we could potentially use 2,500 less hours over a lifetime washing dishes. Do this in 15 areas of your life and you have effectively added 10 years of discretionary time to your life. Respecting time and doing daily tasks in a very efficient auto manner is a big deal.
A quote from the web --
"A study out of the University of Bonn in Germany, reported by Pablo Päster in the May/June issue of EatingWell Magazine, found that washing a load of dishes (12 place settings) by hand uses on average 27 gallons of water and 2.5 kilowatt-hours of energy to heat the water—equivalent to running a hair dryer for 2 1/2 hours. (Not to mention the parental energy it takes to get your kid to wash all those dishes in the first place.)
By comparison, an energy-efficient dishwasher uses about 4 gallons of water and 1 kWh of energy per load. (And over the course of a year, using the dishwasher saves more than 400 hours of labor!) Researchers also found that dishwashers cleaned better, as half of the hand-washers failed to reach an “acceptable level” of cleanliness."
The study seems pretty dubious to me? (Dish Washer Institute study perhaps?)
1. Why use hot water. It is not like it is hot enough to kill germs? 2. 27 gallons? Really? So I soak in the same water I rinsed in and fill sink with 2 gallons of hot soapy water. Then I rinse for 3 minutes with 9 gallons. 3. 400 hours per year? Seriously. I've never spent more that 10 minutes per day washing dishes. That is 60 hours total per year. My entire evening cooking, eating, clean up time is less that 400 hours per year?
I'll have to do some more time studies on this and report back. My initial self study showed that hand cleaning the dishes and sitting on the counter to dry was either close to or faster than - scrape/rinse, bend, load, bend, load, bend, load, bend, load, add soap, bend to put away soap, open, bend, take 4 things 4 steps, open cabinets, stretch to load cabinet, repeat 4-5 times ---- Then when ready to eat again - open cabinet, reach, take dishes to place, close cabinet.
I don't care about that water as we are on a well and have excessive water here in Missouri. In drought states I would definitely go with Styrofoam plates. My water takes 3 minutes to get hot, so I just don't bother with hot water either.
Here is a nice link with a
video that demonstrates good dishwashing by hand. http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/12/paul-wheaton-save-water-hand-wash-dishes-dishwasher/I like this quote from the piece ---"I like to wash dishes by hand because when I am done, the dishes are all done. I am not burdening my future self to finish loading. Or to unload. Nor am I leaving a “to do” for somebody else."
Some notes from the piece --
He washed the dishes in what appears to be 4 minutes. (annual time 24 hours)
He did in fact burden himself by loading the dishes in dishwasher to dry?? In my method I simply barely turn and set on counter top on a towel. No bending required at washing. At future need the dish is there ready for the meat. No bending there or reaching into a cabinet. I also set the pan directly on the stove top so that it is ready for me to turn my wrist at next need.
The total amount of water he used is quoted as 1 gallon.
I'm going to try to beat this tonight!
I really like that he is able to use so little water. Have no idea why he chooses to load them in the dishwasher to dry. What no towel or drying rack available?
So what I'm learning here is that there is a spectrum of methods, physical efficiency and CO2 footprints to hand wash dishes.
What I can say for certain is that hand washing done correctly uses far less water than the most efficient DWs (3-8 times less) and that if one uses cold water very little energy is used.
I'll do my personal time study one more time while seeking improvement steps. I will try to get my total hand washing time below 2 minutes.
In the end I may chuck the entire dishwashing thing all together and go for the paper plate, paper cup deal. I did that for a year once and remember as very freeing. Still would need to contend with the pan cleaning and forks though.
On my tombstone ----"I wish I hadn't spent 5 entire working year washing dishes, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, vacuuming and showering"
The minimalist life is slowing sucking me in!