Well that depends on how good a job you do when you hand wash them. If
you (or the dog perhaps) lick them clean and then run a damp clothe over
them before putting them away, I'd feel safe in saying the dishwasher
uses more water. OTOH, in general, if you rinse the dishes under fresh
running water (not everyone does and the British don't generally rinse
them after washing at all) the dishwasher probably uses less water than
hand washing, if its always fully loaded.
For example the new GE Profile dishwasher (no connection to GE just the
first one I ran across) claims the ability to clean 16 place settings
using as little as 5.6 gallons of water per cycle. (from
http://www.appliancemagazine.com) Don't know any other specific figures
but other manufacturers will have similar perhaps some lower water
usage. Doesn't take much hand washing to use up 5.6 gallons of water.
You can always try to measure/estimate how much water it takes to fill
the sink and then to rinse the dishes when hand washing so you can
compare your actual usage to whatever dishwasher you decide on.
Get the dish washer (because your wife wants it, of course) and then use
that as leverage to buy some parts for a Lotus!
Mike
----------
>From: <ken.landaiche@nokia.com>
>To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
>Subject: Dishwashers (still no car stuff at all)
>Date: Fri, Aug 16, 2002, 12:21 PM
>
>
> Well, if things are this slow, I won't feel bad about asking a slightly
> off-topic question. :) (and I liked Tim's answer, too.)
>
> My house uses a rather small septic system, so I have never gotten a
> dishwasher because of the load I expect it would put on the leach lines.
> Now my wife wants us to enter the 20th century.
>
> The question: do dishwashers actually use more water than hand washing the
> same dishes?
>
> Ken
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