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Post by Cybermortis on Jun 6, 2013 13:54:37 GMT
{A spin off from the Handwashing thread}
Are washing machines really better than handwashing, or just more convenient?
There are many people who dislike dishwashers, claiming that they do not get plates as clean as washing them by hand. When it comes to handwashing clothing however people seem to claim that machines are better.
There are several things to look at;
Amount of water used/environmental impact. (Would also include the amount of cleaning solution needed)
How clean the clothing/plates are.
How long it takes - logically washing machines should be capable of handling a much greater volume of clothing per hour.
Comments?
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Post by the light works on Jun 6, 2013 14:19:22 GMT
also, which causes more wear and tear on the clothing/dishes?
for my part, I absolutely hate that my wife runs my non stick skillets through the dishwasher. they seem to only last for 6 months, or less; while hand washed ones can last over a year.
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Post by privatepaddy on Jun 6, 2013 14:23:44 GMT
{A spin off from the Handwashing thread} Are washing machines really better than handwashing, or just more convenient? There are many people who dislike dishwashers, claiming that they do not get plates as clean as washing them by hand. When it comes to handwashing clothing however people seem to claim that machines are better. There are several things to look at; Amount of water used/environmental impact. (Would also include the amount of cleaning solution needed) How clean the clothing/plates are. How long it takes - logically washing machines should be capable of handling a much greater volume of clothing per hour. Comments? Were any of my aunts and my mother still alive the phrase "don't be daft" would definitely be uttered. I remember the families first washing machine, it had an agitator and a wringer to wring out the cloths.It would be a brave man that tried to take that away from my mother  |
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Post by Antigone68104 on Jun 10, 2013 16:51:32 GMT
also, which causes more wear and tear on the clothing/dishes? For clothing, there's a common perception that anything tagged "hand wash only" can go through the washing machine on a "delicate" cycle. I know someone who took every bit of a metallic iron-on transfer off a t-shirt this way ... which wasn't her original plan. |
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Post by silverdragon on Jun 14, 2013 7:23:00 GMT
Machine was every time.
We just got a new Washer.
Its so much better than the old.....
And a lot quicker, more economical, but, more important, better at washing.
You just CAN NOT, for any given load of clothes, hand-wash clothes in that number as good as the machine can.
We are talking a 7 to 8 kg load here..... Kids clothes.
You hand-scrub for that long.?..
Dishwasher?.... take one hour worth of washing up (6 place settings for big family Sunday lunch) and have the machine do it with less water and less heat than a washing up bowl?.... priceless.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jun 14, 2013 12:24:46 GMT
No one was arguing that machines could handle larger loads faster than a person. The question is if they really get clothes or plates cleaner than washing by hand.
The jury (well, my personal one) is undecided when it comes to washing clothes - it is possible that hand-washing could potentially get clothing just as clean as any machine (assuming identical cleaning solution) but that most people are unwilling or unable to put enough effort in to do so.
When it comes to plates however, well I have yet to find a dishwasher that can deal with dried or baked on material as well as a human. In fact I used to wash pots in a Kitchen for a living, and the only items the machine could handle well were the customers plates. Everything else had to be washed or re-washed in the sink half the time. Hell, I used to be able to wash more plates than the machine when I was really moving - it was the cutlery that slowed me down.
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Post by Antigone68104 on Jun 14, 2013 18:50:18 GMT
I suspect a dishwasher would be better at sanitizing dishes, since the water temperature can be hotter ... but if the hand dishwasher is using a sanitizing solution (we used bleach when I worked at a summer camp), that difference would go away.
This should be an easy test to set up -- identical garments for the wash-clothing test, identical dishes/flatware/pans for the dishwasher test. Use measured amounts of appropriate staining material on the test items. For the pans, stick them in an oven after staining, same temperature and same time.
We'd need some way to precisely measure how much water each method used. Giving the handwasher the same amount of soap as the dishwasher or washing machine gets would be simple.
Dishes could also be treated with that test strain of e.coli, to see whether a dishwasher really gets items sanitized.
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Post by OziRiS on Jun 15, 2013 0:53:47 GMT
And let's not forget that 'clean' and 'sanitized' are not two sides of the same coin.
You can have 'sanitized' without having 'clean' and vice verca, presuming that 'sanitized' means bacteria free and 'clean' means no visible residue.
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Post by silverdragon on Jun 16, 2013 6:29:49 GMT
can anyone here honestly say the first plate and the last item washed get the same detailed care?...
Especially if its a large load after a heavy meal?
I think rather what I was trying to point out that a large run of hand-washing any items, by the end of it, will the items be as clean....
Machines never get tired? cranky?, annoyed?.... just plain fed-up....
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Post by OziRiS on Jun 18, 2013 12:49:34 GMT
The only person who should ever be giving detailed care to a large load after a heavy meal is a plummer! Sorry... Couldn't resist...  |
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Post by silverdragon on Jun 24, 2013 8:35:26 GMT
Bad Oziris... Naughty....
But LOL...
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Post by the light works on Jul 5, 2013 17:53:00 GMT
this just occurred to me. one of the things that my mother noticed after she broke down and started using the dishwasher that was standard equipment in her new house: her "family heirloom" bakeware was losing the patina of age that bakeware used for cooking animal parts tends to develop with time. - pans that had bonded on cooking stains were coming cleaner than handwashing with anything but sandpaper could get them.
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