All the Pros and Cons You Need to Know About Getting Yourself a Dishwasher
The life-long debate about whether a dishwasher is actually beneficial or not isn’t an easy one to conclude. Dishwashers have made it much easier for us to go about our daily lives while an annoying chore is taking care of. But is a dishwasher really saving you that much?
We’re going to weigh the pros and cons for you here so that you can make the best determination for yourself. Keep in mind that we’re not going to discuss the finer points of the different kinds of dishwashers so these pros and cons will be more generalized to encompass all their faults and disadvantages. First, we’re going to weigh the pros.
Dishwashers Save Time
Instead of slaving over a sink full of water and soap, all you have to do is stack the dishes and glasses into the dishwasher, add the soap, and let it do its job. There are plenty of other chores you can do around the house while it’s running, allowing you to get more done in your day. Or, you could spend more time with your family having fun.
And there’s no need to towel-dry them afterward either; a decent dishwasher has a dry cycle built in so that once it’s done, you can put your cutlery and plates directly into the drawer and/or cupboard.
Reduces Chances of your Tableware Breaking
Dealing with soapy water makes everything harder to grasp, and there’s no better way to ruin the day than dropping your favorite glass or saucer onto the ground. A dishwasher, on the other hand, will keep all of your tableware safe while it runs its cycle.
No More Dishpan Hands
Have your hands ever felt dehydrated and rough after you’ve washed the dishes? This is a common result and can leave your palms feeling grimy all day. But with a dishwasher, your skin can remain softer and chemical-free; no need to keep slathering them with lotion all the time.
Dishwashers Are Safer
The more you wash and rinse your dishes and cutlery by hand, the soaper your water is going to get. If you have sharp knives in your sink, reaching for them can lead to some serious accidents. Dishwashers, on the other hand, have special racks where you can place sharp knives, eliminating the risk of your hands getting cut while cleaning them.
Your Kitchen Looks Cleaner
Having a sink full of dirty dishes is not going to impress anyone. Dirty dishes can also give off a bit of an odor. Instead, ruck your dirty dishes away into your dishwasher so that your kitchen looks and smells cleaner. It’s easier to just keep all that grime tucked away.
More Sanitary
Washing dishes by hand is actually less sanitary than you think. That sponge that’s been sitting out by your sink and that dish towel you use to dry them off? They’re likely full of germs and bacteria that you’re spreading around on your dishes instead of actually making them cleaner. A dishwasher uses extremely hot water to kill any germs and bacteria that might be lingering on your plate, leaving them sanitary. Most dish liquids are also capable of getting through those thick layers of grease and caked-on food, which you wouldn’t be able to get off with just a sponge and elbow grease.
Saves you on Water
Many people are convinced that washing your dishes by hand actually uses less water, but that’s not true. With the state of technology today, dishwashers are becoming more efficient with the amount of water that they use to get your tableware clean.
Dishwashers are great at getting the job done, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not without their faults. Here are some of the disadvantages of adding a new dishwasher to your home.
You Have to Wait
Remember how we said that getting a dishwasher saves you on time to do other things? This same point can also be considered a disadvantage if you need a plate right away. You could easily and quickly scrub a plate that you need right then and there; instead, you have to wait for the cycle to finish before you can pull out a plate.
You can See the Results
You won’t be able to see how clean your plates really are until your cycle is done; we’ve all been through that disappointing moment when we open our dishwashers and discover that there’s still some food caked on. That means running it all through another cycle again or doing what you were trying to avoid in the first place: wash it by hand.
Increased Costs
Although a dishwasher will save you on your water bills, the costs have to go somewhere. Using a dishwasher will increase your electricity bill each month from use, especially with how much power is used to heat up the water to a hot enough temperature.
There’s also the costs of the dishwasher itself and the installation process. Dishwashers can cost anywhere from $250 to $1,000 or more if you want one with all the works. Having one installed by a professional plumber will also cost you a pretty penny so you’ll have to include that cost into your budget as well.
Some Tableware Won’t Work
There are some plates, cups, and mugs that are just not dishwasher safe, which means that you would have to hand wash them anyway. That means that you may not have as much free time to yourself as you originally thought.
Buying a new dishwasher is a consideration you should carefully think over before splurging on a new appliance. Consider the elements of your lifestyle: are you busy throughout the day, do you work outside of the home, how many people do you live with, what your utility bills are like each month, et cetera. Knowing where you stand financially and how you generally go about your day will help you to make the best decision for you.
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