Dishwashers. Do you have one? Why?

I am thinking about getting a dishwasher but am a little hesitant. I have had little experience with them and they always seemed to smell funny.

How often do they need cleaning out? How much extra water & power do they use? Any recommendations on brands? Do they really turn the glasses cloudy?

As you can tell, I have no idea so any information would be a great help!

Yes, we have one. Why? Cause it come with the house :D We have a F&P twin draw one. It's a fantastic dishwasher, can't fault it really. We've never had the problem of our glasses going cloudy.

I LURVE my dishwasher. Its a LG and it works really well- I've never had to clean it out (maybe I am dodgey about this!), and it doesn't make my glasses cloudy. I would run it 2-3 times a week and just use those little 'pellet' things you can buy- super easy.

As far as smell, they can smell. But you can get these little lemon things that you hook in the dishwasher and they make it smell all yummy.

Oh, I also like my LG because it has child-lock. Important when there are all those pretty lights!!

Yep, mine came with the house too :lol: I'd nevert had one before but I seriously loooove it and wouldn't be without it now.

I just run a Finish Dishwashwer cleaner through it once a month, use bi carb for washing powder and vinegar for rinse aid. I've heard that when stacked properly they use roughly the same amount of water as hand washing everything.

I am awful with handwashing so I love mine. I still handwash some items that are better not going in, or take up too much space so stop a heap of other things going in. I often get distracted whilst washing up, so the water goes cold and I need to refill. So for us using a dishwasher uses less water.

We used to use the tablets, but have found out that can cause issues with over foaming and are not really recommended, plus depending on your machine they can't be used on the ecocycle. Also when we looked at the cost it was cheaper to powder with a rinse aid. Am still yet to try bicarb and vinegar.

There is a filter that is meant to be cleaned out every wash, I do it about every 2-3 washed. It catches all the large food bits, so is best to be kept clean to keep the machine running properly and to keep smells at bay.

We dont have one. Our house didnt come with one but over the last 3 years we have gotten used to doing without it. If you rinse the dishes before you put them in thedishwasher I think that helps, I also think they are only wrthwhile if you are going to use it at least every day or every second day as I think the dishes sitting in there dirty would make it smell funny.

At my mums house we had this little lemon thing that hung off the dish rack inside the dishwasher that gave off lemon scent.

yep, we have it cause i am lazy! ours doesnt smell unless it has been sitting there unused for a few days and this rarely happens. we had a power outage last year when there was a really bad storm, lost power for a few days, can you believe it I HAD TO HAND WASH!

I hate handwashing. I got a dishwasher for my first Mother's Day last year...best thing ever! Mine doesn't smell as I don't leave dirty dishes sitting for longer than a day.

we had a dishwasher till friday night when it leaked all over floor and shorted power!!!!!!!

Its more than 8 years old and been dodgy for a while eg tablet needs to be balanced inside as flipy door fell off etc so we need a new one!

I got the joy of hand washing everything and emptying water out bowl at a time still not completly empty not sure how to finish it!

So will be looking for recomendations!

I don't like dishwashers

It feels like it takes longer and you are ALWAYS looking for your favorite knife ... that's in there ... because you did not wash it since lunch. You have to wash some stuff with the hand, so I just feel like it's more work than just washing the dishes and getting it done with.

I actually like doing dishes, especially during winter. I just like cleaning things.

At the moment I have a maid full-time 5 days a week :o I KNOW HOW LUCKY AM I!!!! (sorry just had to throw that in there somewhere ... I'm so lucky .. .THANK YOU DH) So not really getting my fix of doing the dishes, but come weekend the kitchen is mine, all mine mwhahahahaha.

Thanks very much.

I wash dishes at least twice a day and it gets annoying as I know I am missing out on time with the boys. I also work full-time so time with the kids is extra precious (except when Dora the Explorer is on as I am not allowed in the room because I am "too loud" apparently LOL!).

Looks like it will have to wait though. The second TV just blew last night and the washing machine has decided to work when it feels like it. Hurry up the end of financial year sales!!!!

we love ours! its an asko, we use a tsp of the aldi powder it lasts ages, i clean it with citric acid every now and again just on a normal cycle. you do need to clean the filter etc... regularly too

I too am tired of washing up all day long and not having that time with my girls..so...we are going dishwasher shopping tomorrow before bub number 3 comes in 2 weeks... YAY!!!

We just had ours replaced as the last one (over 20 yrs old) died. I have to say I've never ever heard of dishwashers smelling, I think if they are they mustn't be cleaned properly which you must do. As the finish ad says would you wash dishes in a dirty sink ;)

We use tablets (because I am lazy) and vinegar. I've never had a problem with losing knives...

We bought one in January because DH was going away and my pelvis was dodgy and it was the only way I could do dishes. I cant do them now but DH actually puts them in and we dont have a big pile of dirty dishes any more when he is supposed to be doing them. We put a dishwasher cleaner bottle through when it starts getting smelly and it goes back to smelling lovely again. Milk is the worst culprit for making it smell.

Sorry to Hijack, but Bicarb and Vinegar, do you just fill the powder and rinse aid dispenser as much as you would with powder and rinse aid? I have sooooo much vinegar at the moment (White, Apple cider, Balsamic) which would be the best to use - White or apple cider?

White or distilled vinegar is what you use. I've not used bi-carb so I'm not sure of that one.

ali- Yep just fill it up like normal, bicarb instead of powder and vinegar instead of rinse aid. Definately white (or distilled) vinegar, no other kind or it will smell funny... the bicarb works great for plates, cutlery, glassware etc, but not so good for baked on pots and pans stuff. I hand wash them.

How do you go with the bi-carb with baked on stuff?

Sorry Niliac, think I edited at the same time you were posting. Not so good (see above ;) )

I was thinking that the cider vinegar might give it an appley smell but if it will just reek then not so good. But it does have a bit of colour to it so would that just make the dishes dirty again?

Umm.. to be honest ali I'm not sure, I'm never used anything but white...

The discolouration of the vinegar suggests impurities, so IMO it wouldn't work as well, would no doubt smell bad (cider vinegar doesn't generally smell like apples IMO) and could leave things sticky or discoloured. Just a hunch, but my guess is thats why they suggest to use distilled/white vinegar.

So I'd keep the other vinegars for salad dressings and reductions ;)

I have one. Why? Because when we moved into this house there was a big hole in the kitchen for one which drove me nuts. So we went and brought one to fill the hole.

I very, very rarely use it. Seems to take longer to stack, wash, unstack, put away etc etc than to hand wash. We use it after big family dinners, parties, bbq's etc and that's about it.