FILE - Various plates, cutlery, a teapot, and plastic containers are pictured in a dishwasher on Feb. 4, 2021. (Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images) Compared to handwashing, running a dishwasher can help families save time and use less water, yet one in five U.S.
households with one say they don’t even use it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that over 89 million homes in America have a dishwasher.
Its most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey published in 2020 found that among those households, over 19% — or nearly one in five — said it goes unused.The reasons why seem to vary, including everything from cultural differences to distrust in technology and preference for doing the chore by hand.
A Reddit user posed this question, garnering many responses. Some said they only use their dishwasher as a drying or storage rack."We only use the dishwasher when we have family over and there are lots of dirty dishes.