I know some of you don’t own a dishwasher (the electric kind with buttons that does the work for you). We didn’t own one for the first ten years of our marriage, and since I didn’t know the difference, I didn’t mind at all. Today, if our dishwasher were to break, I would go right ahead and do all of our dishes by hand and be just fine.
But I have to say, I am very thankful that I have a working dishwasher. I use that thing like crazy, and find that it saves me a lot of time. We do have to rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, but I’d have to do that before washing them too, so the dishwasher definitely saves me a step.
With the kids gone last week, I found that I only needed to run the dishwasher once every other day. Wow! That felt so strange to me. Why? Because I run it a minimum of twice a day on a regular basis, and if we have company or I’m doing extra cooking for the freezer, I sometimes need to run it a third time. And trust me, the dishwasher is crammed full each time I run it.
Here it is this morning, ready for our boys to unload (and reload after breakfast!).
Plates, mixing bowls, stainless steel pots and pans, utensils, jars, casserole dishes, glasses – we go through a lot of dishes each day. It made me curious…how often do you run your dishwasher?
At least once a day. Sometimes on the weekends it is twice.
I run our dishwasher 1-2 times a day for a family of 7. There are some things that don’t go in the dishwasher, so I normally hand wash every other day.
Typically once a day unless I’m doing extra cooking.
We run it once a day. I start it before I go to bed and one of the kids empties it in the morning (the oldest 2 rotate days). We load it throughout the day. I wash the pots and pans after dinner.
Around every other day for,but I don’t out my pans in there so if I did it would probably be more. My dishwasher doesn’t clean the best. About the only thing it gets clean well is the flatware as long as I don’t pack them in. That’s with the Method detergent pac things. Before that it would maybe get the plates and a couple pieces of flatware clean. Now it usually gets the plates clean as well. The glasses and cups are very hit or miss. There is always some that collect residue and lately I get a dusty feeling on the outside of my plates and glasses. Sigh. Sometimes I’m not sure why I bother. Oh and I put vinegar in to rinse and drain the disposal first. We have hard water so think that is it. Still I am always behind on the dishes and probably spend at least an hour cleaning them everyday and still can’t keep up. There is just about always dishes in the sink. Not sure how others do it. I am always cooking therefore there is always dishes and yes I should do it right away,but there is often something needing done that I have to attend to. Anyway not trying to complain at all. I’m thankful for the food and our dishes. Just wanting to find a better and more effecient way so I can be a blessing to those in my home.
Some things you might try….
1) Make sure the spray arms are not clogged (with food or mineral build-up from the hard water)
2) Check to see if there is somewhere that food bits collect in the bottom. My dishwasher has a screen/strainer type thing in the bottom that I need to clean periodically because food bits collect there, and then they just get sprayed back up onto the dishes.
3) Get some “Lemishine” (found near dishwasher detergent). It is a powder that you add with your dishwasher detergent. We have really hard water, and all my dishes used to come out really coated with minerals. Lemishine makes a huge difference for us.
Gina You can add white vinegar as a rinse agent to help with the hard water. You can add it to the wash machine too if you have hard water. Maybe look up homemade automatic dishwahing detergent. (baking soda, borax, vinegar…)
I meant add more vinegar.
We run it about 3-4 times a day. We have a family of 7 and I cook just about every meal so we create a lot of dishes.
2-4 times per day, depending on the cooking and baking load…
I run it 2-3 times a day – we’re a family of 5.
Always, at least once a day – often twice a day. We are a family of 6 with frequent neighborhood visitors. ;)
A day does not go by that I am not using and loving my dishwasher! I was without one from December 2009 (it died Christmas day!) to February of this year and WOW did I miss it! I use it at least once a day, twice sometimes depending on how much cooking I get done. VERY handy for washing my Mason jars that I use for fermenting veggies- I can’t imagine washing 20 jars by hand haha :)
About once a day under normal circumstances. Sometimes it’s more like once every three quarters of a day. :) We’re a family of five but will soon grow to a family of seven so I’m sure I’ll up that number soon! I love having mine but like you don’t mind washing by hand… if I keep up with it.
Every night. I have 3 boys 1, 3, and 5 and all those little dishes for snacks and tiny yogurt bowls add up quickly!
I no longer own a dishwasher because I would basically wash them before I put them in.I really don’t miss it so I hand wash all during the day so I never have dirty dishes.
I am the same. I actually like washing the dishes by hand. I do the dishes 3-4 times a day as I make things. My stuff gets a lot cleaner than it did when I had a dishwasher, and I feel like everything lasts longer too. The dishwasher is so hard on a lot of things.
When I cook, which is every meal, I start by filling the sink with hot soapy water. I “wash as I go” and by the time dinner is on the table there are only serving dishes and tablesettings. As soon as we are done it goes in the hot soapy water (maybe another sink full) and everything washes off with ease. My dishes are cleaner and I’m convinced I use less water and less fuel to heat it. We are a family of four and we host lots of family get-togethers, also. For casual family gatherings (cook-out, pizza, etc, I’m happy to break out the paper plates.
This is exactly how I do it! I love that when dinner is over there are almost no dishes for me to wash.
We have 3 little ones and I usually run it 1-2 times a day depending on what is going on. Once in a blue moon I’ll run it three times.
Once a day (family of 5), but larger items are done by hand and when doing those, I will typically wash a few other things with them. Ours broke earlier this year, and we didn’t get it fixed for 2 months. It was actually kind of nice because we always had all of our dishes cleaned all of the time because I can’t stand a sink full of dirty dishes!
I run mine once every 2-3 days depending on how much I’ve been cooking and how lazy I am about handwashing the pots/pans! We are a single-parent family of 3 (my kids are 13 and 10) and for some reason we still manage to fill up that dishwasher frequently! I do most of my cooking from scratch, so that always makes for more dishes, but it’s a small price to pay to know what’s in the food we eat. My dishwasher takes 2 hours to run (at least on the cycle I prefer), so running it more often seems indulgent in terms of electricity usage. I like that it has 3 racks, though (top rack is for utensils) and my dishes get really clean.
2-3 times per week. It’s just my hubby and I and my septic tank is relieved
Family of 5 and usually twice a day, crammed full. We didn’t have one for the first 20+ years of marriage. But after the kids came along, our oldest is 11, it felt like all my time was spent doing dishes. We’ve probably had the dishwasher four years, and I would give up any other appliance in the house before I would give up my dishwasher. Favorite appliance ever!
I run mine once a day for my 2 boys and I. When dad returns from Afghanistan this month, and him wanting to eat all the foods he didnt get to eat down range, it may go up to 2-3 times a day! I won’t mind though because daddy will be home! :)
Thank you for willing to have your husband gone for a period of time to serve our country
I don’t know how you do it. We have 4 kids now, but we had no kids when my husband was in Afghanistan and I barely made it!
We run our dishwasher once a day for a family of seven. The trick is to turn your dishwasher on and set a timer for 10 – 15 mins. When the timer goes off unload those dishes and rinse them off with hot water and set them in the dish drainer to try and reload the dishwasher with the rest of the dirty dishes. Run it again set your timer for 10- 15 mins again and repeat. We are able to get all our dishes washed in one run of the dishwasher including pots and pans. We eat all our meals from home and I cook most everything from scratch so we go thru a lot of dirty dishes.
We are a family of 8. My husband voted to run it 3 times a day to help me. It has! Now I can load some of the pots and pans that I used to have to find time to wash in between the meals. I teach school from 8-12 A.M. and afternoons are full of chores and time together. It has been a big help.
Oh, are there supposed to be times that it isn’t running?
Love it! Exactly! LOL!
Love it too!!!!!
We run it a minimal of 3 times it is usually going all day. We are a family of 11 and we make every meal from scratch.
We try to only run it once and hand wash the others. Sometimes, however, we do it twice.
Hi Laura,
Glad you asked! I run my dishwasher about every other day. Oh there have been times where I’ve had to run it every day, but not very often. Probably the reason being is that we tend to use certain dishes more often than others. My husband has favorite cereal bowls, so I tend to wash them by hand, it’s quick to do that. Doesn’t take much water or effort. Also we always use use up our teaspoons quickly, and trust me I have about 25 of those. So I sometimes will take those out of the sink, that seems to never stop piling up and soak them in a coffee cup of soapy water and just wash them up quickly, again not much effort, time and water. Also may I mention that once a week I place a cup (8oz) size of vinegar right in the middle on the top rack. This cleans my dishwasher as well as make things sparkle more. Once dishes are done, carefully open drawer, dump the yucky water out of cup and rewash it.
The dishwasher just sparkles. Have a great day.
Paula
We live in an apartment right now and our dishwasher doesn’t work properly (although maintenance would say otherwise). So I haven’t used a dishwasher for about 2 years, since we lived in our previous house. About a year ago I started to use glass for almost everything and I am curious: do dishwashers cause etching on glass (from the detergent)? I have been a little worried about using a dishwasher in the future because I don’t want to ruin all the glass that we bought (or acquired). Does anyone have experience with this?
Laura, my experience with etching of glassware came when I lived in a home with one of those salted water softeners. Haven’t had the problem since I lived there. Hope this helps.
1-2 for a family of 6, but I handwash nothing. And anything that is “handwash only” goes in the dishwasher too.
At least once a day, usually twice, for my family of four :)
Once a day for our family of 6 BUT I handwash a lot! I don’t put pots and most plastics into the dishwasher…I spent so many years with a dishwasher that didn’t work very well, and I basically used it as a sanitizer. But now I have a brand new one and I’m learning that I can put more and more in there because it actually works! Not rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher is a wonderful thing :)
We have a dish drawer – not as big as a full-sized one and we can’t put pots and pans in it. Now that we have a toddler we’re running it every day (used to be every 2-3) plus a bunch of hand-washing.
Never!!! Ours doesn’t work properly. Dishes get dirtier. Always been that way even though we have been the only owners of our home, and the dishwasher came with… I suspect that either the builder put in a refurbished one or a very very cheap one or there is buildup or something. It’s never been worth the trouble. We are a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children)and no one other than me seems to understand to reuse some items (i.e., cups)instead of getting new and I desperately want a working one, but alas we wash by hand.
We run the dishwasher every other day for a family of five. Though we have some of hand wash only items like pots and pans, anything wood/wooden handle, butcher & paring knives, plastic, knives used for peanut butter, china, silver & good glassware (not that we use the later 3 that often). I also do not pre-rinse (eco-friendly :), just scrape/compost any food scraps. I use Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent and items usually come out clean. I load the dishwasher after dinner and throughout the day, then my husband hand washes the rest after dinner and breakfast. Obviously, If I’m cooking or baking, additional loads might need to be hand washed.
At least once a day for our family of 4! I use the dishwasher more on the weekends when I’m cooking more. On the weekends I have been known to run it 3x in one day! Typically, it’s just once a day, though.
I’m a real food cook that does lots of freezer cooking, preserving, hospitality, etc. We have four kids, and we homeschool. So, that’s meals for 6, three times a day, plus snacks. We were running our dishwasher 1-2 times a day (or 3 times for having company, holidays, etc). We moved a couple of months ago into a house with no dishwasher. I have to admit, it’s been harder than I thought it would be. My kids are pretty young, with only the oldest two (ages 7 and 8) able to help with dishes much. It pretty much falls to me to wash all that. I’m missing my dishwasher, and its quickly moving up the list of things to save for.
I run ours 1-2 times a day. We have a family of 12. I cook all our meals, but I do use paper plates for lunch if possible.
Our family of nine runs it 3 times per day and we really could run a fourth load if we could find the time! :)
Family of six – Once a day, but we never fit them all in. Maybe twice a day is our answer!
For a long time, I ran our dishwasher at least 2x a day. We did a kitchen remodel last year and put in two dishwashers! They each get run once a day unless there was tons of company or a huge baking/freezer cooking day!
Once a day for us! We’re only 4, and I try to hand wash the big stuff, but if I’m doing a lot of cooking it’s twice. We didn’t have a dishwasher for a couple of years, and I thought it was no big deal at the time, but I’d hate to go without one now!
Usually once or twice a day – I wash the big stuff by hand (le creuset pots, mixing bowls, placemats, knives, cutting boards) once at night, unless I’m on a cooking spree and am trying to clean as I go. Except the Bosch mixing bowl, I detest hand washing that thing, so it always goes in the dishwasher.
Although lately, it’s been 3-5 times a day/night because I’ve been slowly slogging through washing the 190-some canning jars I received from relatives last week so I can get those clean and ready to go for this harvest season. Not a bad problem to have, just takes some time. :D
When all 4 of my kids were home, we ran it usually after every meal, so 3x a day. And more if we were doing a lot of baking. Now that 3 are in college, it is just once a day. I am so thankful for the dishwasher!
Oh, wow, this is a surprising topic to me! I run the dishwasher for our family of 4 every other day, but I hand wash all large items, including mixing bowls, pots and pans, knives, large utensils, large tupperware, etc. That might be why I don’t have to run it as often, but I like to pack the dishwasher with regular dishes, silverware, cups, bowls, etc. and try to conserve the water and soap and electricity by doing it that infrequently. I guess it never occurred to me to run it with everything and as often.
I run it at least once a day for our family of 6 but sometimes twice if we have company or I am doing lots extra cooking. I hand wash all large items, including mixing bowls, pots and pans, knives, and all plastic storage containers. If I put those in the dishwasher it would be a minimum of twice a day and sometimes three times.
Depends on how often my husband loads it!
I cook, he washes-match made in Heaven in my book :)
We are a home ed family of 4; the kids (13 and 10) and I are home all day, every day most of the time but I still manage to get away with running the dishwasher every other day. I have gotten very good at stacking the machine and usually run out of dishes (I have 16 place settings) before I run out of space.
A couple of things help me keep loads to a minimum:
1) the kids have to keep track of their glass for the day – no, they may not get a new glass every time they get thirsty
2) my pots and pans never go into the dishwasher, as it would make the life-time warranty null and void
We usually hand wash during the weekdays, but machine wash on the weekends. Sometimes we do it twice a day on the weekends. We have so many dishes to wash, I found the opened dishwasher “shelves” (whatever they are called) make a better area for drying the dishes than the tiny dish drainer next to the sink. It can hold a lot more dishes to air dry!
BTW, my husband bought our LG dishwasher a few years ago. It was expensive and had all the “bells and whistles”. But I am very disappointed about its performance. It is also hit and miss on what it cleans, sometimes making us have to restart the load with more soap because it did such a poor job! My husband would rather us wash by hand than have to pay for another machine. we don’t have hard water. I think it just doesn’t have a powerful sprayer, even when set on the Power Spray setting. Plastics sometimes come out greasy, and glasses NEVER get clean. I have had luck with some Pyrex and Corning Ware, but only on the bottom rack. (Oh, yeah, that’s what the word was, not “Shelves”, lol). But we are so busy on the weekends that we resort to washing what we can in the dishwasher on the weekends and saving the hand washables for the following week.
What a great looking morning casserole! There’s only the two of us but we run it a couple times a day. I load and my honey unloads. I wash EVERYthing in the dishwasher, and I don’t rinse unless I have to, which isn’t much. I cook from scratch and my husband is a big eater, so we dirty lots of dishes. I like knowing everything’s sanitary, love those sparkling dishes, and it’s such a great timesaver, especially at canning time, for cleaning and sanitizing those jars!
Once/twice a day, but if my dishwasher broke, I’m not sure I would need to replace it. I like the feel and look of hand washed dishes much better than after removing from the dishwasher, and we are family of four, my older daughter is quite keen to hand wash too (maybe because she doesn’t have to do it on a regular basis;-) so I think it may work. And I would have more space for another cupboard;-)
Probably only 1-3 times each week…maybe…and depending upon who is doing it. I actually LIKE to hand wash as I go, so with washing most as we eat usually means taking a few days to all week to fill the dishwasher. Admittedly, we usually use the same dishes over and over so it saves us effort also to pull out and put away multiple dishes, etc. Additionally, the added work of scrubbing before putting dishes in the washer + drying some afterwards + already washing special and/or larger dishes already just adds to my preference.
I’ve found that the best trick for getting dishes clean in the dishwasher is to soak them in hot soapy water before you put them in. My dishwasher doesn’t work that great but we run it twice a day and when I cook I throw everything into the sink so it’s ready to go whenever we load the dishwasher. When my dishwasher broke I used it to hold the dishes to “dry” them when we had to hand wash them.
Twice per day for our family of 5, but if I do extra batch cooking or canning, then three.
My pet peeve with the dishwasher? I can’t stand to start making a meal if the dishwasher is full of clean dishes. I have to unload it and clear all dirty dishes or glasses of the counter before I can start cooking a meal. That way, I can clean as I go. I put used cutting boards, chopping knives, mixing bowls, utensils, etc. in there when I am finished with them. That way, at the end of the meal, there are only the table dishes, and a couple of cooking pots to clean up. Usually whoever cooks doesn’t clean up after. The rest of the eaters clean up.
3 times a day for our family of 9- and wash some dishes by hand :)
Once. We run it every night, then it gets emptied every morning. We have a family of 4, and I am a “moderate” cook.
I’m weird. Once every other or every 3rd or so day during the school year. I just noticed last week that we run it more in the summer, and I even ran it two days in a row one day last week! I don’t put mixing bowls and bigger stuff like that in my dishwasher, though… maybe that’s why I can do it that way with 7 people in the house?!
I run out of dishes before I run out of dishwasher space, and I’ve even arranged meals so that we’re using bowls if all of our plates are already in the dishwasher. Such a dork!
Once a day minimum. If I’m doing a lot of cooking/baking on the weekends or have company, sometimes 3 times a day. But there’s only 3 of us.
Once a day and I am only one person. I cook all my meals and prefer to have clean plates, cups and utensils every morning.
So tell me you run the dishwasher every meal pretty much or more? I saw some to do it twice a day to do it three times and more. I was checking to see as i’ve been trying to conserve water more than in the past as I realized we were using it like it never runs dry.
Since the house is empty during the day sometimes evening if it’s a long one, no plates or other items are used. So that might be why we run it less.