How often do you run your dishwasher?

[Anonymous]

Family of 7. Once a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you people who are running it twice a day waiting until it's full?

Family of four, we do once every 2-3 days. I hand wash pots, but we put our tupperware in it.

Me again. Are you using a different cup every time you get a drink of water? I'm just trying to figure out how you can possibly generate so many dishes.

I am reading everyone's replies with dismay because we have high usage of dishwasher and practically every appliance in the kitchen.

For example - for breakfast we all fix a variety of small portions of food for ourselves. If it is eggs then one person will make a boiled egg, sliced perfectly, another wants scrambled eggs with tons of veggies, another will opt for stuffed cheese omelette...then the same goes for the breads and how they are toasted - ranges from open flame roasting, to pan toasting, to broiling to using the toaster oven...variety of yogurts and what gets chopped and mixed into it, variety of cold and hot cereals...a lot of cooking, a lot f snacking (we are skinny people though), tons of chopping, washing....each person with very different likes and dislikes. And everyone is a germaphobe and will not use anything that hasn't been sanitized by the dishwasher. We could all compete on "Chopped" or "Top Chef"and would not be faulted for cross-contamination.

Essentially our entire family congregates in the kitchen (at least in the mornings and weekends) and act like we are chef bosses and we use dishes and utensils like we have a staff of sous chefs and dish washers...except we do not have a staff of dish washers or sous chefs...we have a much abused dishwasher that keeps going on.

The only upside is that everyone in my family cooks and can easily feed themselves and others. They also will keep loading and unloading the dishwasher. The downside is that to get such food emancipated kids and husband I had to let go of the kitchen and it is one crowded space where everyone is making something. And we have tons of dishes (40 place settings) and so we are not washing because we are running out of dishes. Yes, we run it when it is full and we cannot put anything else in.

[Anonymous]

Family of four. We usually run it once a day but sometimes twice. Today was a snow day for my kids so I made them a hot breakfast and later in the day we made homemade pretzels so between those things and dinner prep and lunch dishes that was once. For dinner I am going to use it again with the crockpot and rice cooker which take up most of the bottom shelf not counting dinner dishes, etc... so today we'll run it twice. I try not to wash much by hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 people, 1x per day. Not that we generate enough dishes for 2 loads but our dishwasher has a long cycle (2 hours) so if we ran it 2x per day it would be running for 4 hours a day which would mean dishes would pile up in the sink.

Have you tried the quick cycle? If your dishes are only sitting dirty for a few hours it probably is more than enough to get them clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once a day for family of four...who all pack lunches in reusable containers.

I hand wash pots..

Ditto

[Anonymous]

Hand washing uses a lot more water than using dishwasher.

[Anonymous]

Single dude who eats out a lot.
Once every 2-3 weeks

[Anonymous]

Every 2-3 days. Family of 3, but kids friends are over lots. Plastic lunch containers get handwashed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every 2-3 days. Family of 3, but kids friends are over lots. Plastic lunch containers get handwashed.

Meant to add that I run it on heavy cycle since the stuff is in there for awhile sometimes.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the "what?" poster back on page 1. I'm always curious what the op is like when I see these kinds of posts. Who cares how often someone else runs their dishwasher? I can't fathom that being an interesting conversation, ever.

I know. I know. This will kick off at least 1.5 pages of what a b@tch of a poster I am and how people here are so snarky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you people who are running it twice a day waiting until it's full?

Family of four, we do once every 2-3 days. I hand wash pots, but we put our tupperware in it.

Me again. Are you using a different cup every time you get a drink of water? I'm just trying to figure out how you can possibly generate so many dishes.

I am reading everyone's replies with dismay because we have high usage of dishwasher and practically every appliance in the kitchen.

For example - for breakfast we all fix a variety of small portions of food for ourselves. If it is eggs then one person will make a boiled egg, sliced perfectly, another wants scrambled eggs with tons of veggies, another will opt for stuffed cheese omelette...then the same goes for the breads and how they are toasted - ranges from open flame roasting, to pan toasting, to broiling to using the toaster oven...variety of yogurts and what gets chopped and mixed into it, variety of cold and hot cereals...a lot of cooking, a lot f snacking (we are skinny people though), tons of chopping, washing....each person with very different likes and dislikes. And everyone is a germaphobe and will not use anything that hasn't been sanitized by the dishwasher. We could all compete on "Chopped" or "Top Chef"and would not be faulted for cross-contamination.

Essentially our entire family congregates in the kitchen (at least in the mornings and weekends) and act like we are chef bosses and we use dishes and utensils like we have a staff of sous chefs and dish washers...except we do not have a staff of dish washers or sous chefs...we have a much abused dishwasher that keeps going on.

The only upside is that everyone in my family cooks and can easily feed themselves and others. They also will keep loading and unloading the dishwasher. The downside is that to get such food emancipated kids and husband I had to let go of the kitchen and it is one crowded space where everyone is making something. And we have tons of dishes (40 place settings) and so we are not washing because we are running out of dishes. Yes, we run it when it is full and we cannot put anything else in.

How big is your kitchen? How many members live in your household? Where do you store (and why do you need) 40 (!) place settings?

[Anonymous]

Is it surprising to know that some households prepare more food at home resulting in more dirty dishes that require washing? Should we also discuss how many loads of laundry we do each week? Maybe how often the toilet is flushed would be a good topic too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hand washing uses a lot more water than using dishwasher.

+1

[Anonymous]

Two adults three kids. Daily.

[Anonymous]

Wow! We run ours twice a day and sometimes 3. We are a family of 6 but we eat dinner and breakfast together at home most days. What’s the best brand of dishwasher? Mine is a GE profile that is still going strong.