The Real Bev wrote
Lou wrote
Tim Watts wrote
Bill wrote

Transition from "American Dream" living to "3rd world country" living.

Do dishes by hand.

That often consumes more water with today's efficient dishwashers.

That's true. According to the user manual for my dishwasher, the
most efficient cycle uses less than 6 gallons of water to do a full load.

However, for the cost of the dishwasher, it's possible to buy enough
water to float a boat. In my municipality, the water department
calculated that filling my pool (approximately 20,000 gallons) cost
about $20. So the price of a lower end dishwasher costing around
$300 would buy around 300,000 gallons of water at that price, which
is enough water to wash an awful lot of dishes. But then there's
the cost of heating the additional water washing by hand would use
over what the dishwasher uses.

Especially if you just rinse off your dish after you use it.

No thanks, I prefer not to bother.

You don't have to use hot water, though, so that complicates the calculation.

Still, it's no contest as far as I'm concerned - a dishwasher is far more convenient than washing dishes by hand, and
is a home appliance I wouldn't want to be without.

Yeah, me too. Washing machine in spades.

That's what I thought until I actually used one.

Thats what I know when I keep using one.

You have to rinse/scrape all the crap (especially dried egg) off the dishes before you put them in the washer

No you dont. I dont bother at all and it works fine.

I dont even bother with the things that the food is cooked in either.

-- especially if it takes you several days to fill the washer.

It takes me 9, and I dont bother.

If you air-dry them to save on electricity, some of the items (cup/glass bottoms, for instance) don't dry.

Mine always do. And I have no choice on the air dry, thats all the dishwasher can do.

If you have enough dishes to more than fill the washer
you can either let the extras hang around until you have enough to run another load or wash them by hand.

Or have enough of a clue to start the dishwasher when its full.

The squeaky-clean feeling of the dishes that the washer DOES clean is nice,

Yep, leave hand washed for dead.

but that seems marginal unless you're way more anal-retentive than I am.

Nope.

And I HATE washing dishes anyway.

And the dishwasher leaves the alternative for dead when
washing the grill/shutter for the kitchen exhaust fan etc.

And I wouldnt even bother to brew beer if I had to wash the emptys by
hand. I only ever got started when a mate of mine told me that the 375ml
glass bottles are fine in the dishwasher and I proved that he was right.