“It’s okay to cook, but not to wash dishes.” Is the dishwasher really a magic tool that can liberate the hands of today’s young people?

For a qualified foodie, one should never skip any of the three meals, and wash as few dishes as possible. However, washing less is still washing, and not washing is the best.

Source | pexels

The editor really wants to own a dishwasher that can "free up hands", but when making a plan, he found that in China, not many families buy dishwashers just to free up hands.

Most people don’t know much about dishwashers, and they even have prejudices against them. For a long time, dishwashers were labeled as “IQ taxes”, until some positive feedback began to appear in recent years.

Washing dishes has been a pain for many people! I believe everyone is thinking, is it necessary to buy a dishwasher? Before that, let's first understand how the dishwasher was invented.

1

The history of dishwashers

Did you know that dishwashers have a history of more than 160 years? Their birth was actually related to an American socialite?

In 1858, American socialite Josephine Cochrane hosted a banquet and entertained guests at home as usual. The joy of the party made her happy, but not long after, a piece of news from the servant made her depressed.

In order to prepare for these banquets, Cochrane bought a lot of exquisite porcelain tableware, but although the tableware was beautiful, it was very fragile. Whether it was the servants or she herself who washed it, it was easy to bump and break it. After careful consideration, she decided to make a machine that was faster, cleaner and safer than hand washing.

Since his ancestors were all engaged in engineering and manufacturing-related work, Cochrane successfully designed a dishwasher that uses water pressure to clean dishes. This was the world's first machine that uses water pressure to clean dishes. This cleaning method has also become the cleaning basis of modern dishwashers and has greatly promoted the development of modern dishwashers.

After that, it was not until 1929 that the German company Miller manufactured the first electric dishwasher, which was only automated in function and could not be put into household use. In 1954, the American General Electric Company produced the first electric tabletop dishwasher, which was adjusted in shape and volume, and had the prototype of a household dishwasher.

Then in 1978, Miller produced the first dishwasher controlled by a microcomputer, and since then dishwashers have gradually entered Western households.

Dishwashers took a century of development to be put into use in the West. In Asia, Japan was the first country to start researching dishwashers. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Japan had microcomputer-based fully automatic tabletop dishwashers .

Dishwashers were popular in my country in the 1980s, but they were too expensive for most people to afford and had little market. It was not until 1998 that the first fully automatic cabinet dishwasher was produced in China.

As of now, dishwashers have been designed in many types, such as desktop, cabinet, and built-in, which can be used in different scenarios and are widely used in restaurants, hotels, and homes. Their functions are also gradually becoming more comprehensive, capable of cleaning, disinfecting, drying, removing impurities, and preserving, etc.

Table dishwasher

Source: A shopping website

Old built-in dishwasher

Source: A dishwasher brand

2

How does a dishwasher work?

There are two types of dishwashers based on their working principles. One is the automatic flushing dishwasher , which uses high-temperature water and detergent to decompose the oil and residue on the surface of tableware. The high-pressure jet of water will flush the surface of the tableware in all directions, and finally soak it in hot water to decompose and remove the oil and food residue on the tableware, achieving the dual effects of cleaning and sterilization.

The other is an ultrasonic dishwasher , which uses ultrasound to make water molecules generate tiny cavitation bubbles, causing a large number of bubbles to explode on the surface of tableware, and using the shock wave generated by the explosion to destroy the dirt on the surface of the tableware to achieve the purpose of cleaning.

Ultrasonic dishwasher

Source: A shopping website

3

Why don’t Chinese families like dishwashers?

According to the survey data in 2020, the penetration rate of dishwashers in the West has reached 70%, and in Japan it can reach 30%, while in China it is only 2%. In fact, there is a reason why the penetration rate of dishwashers in China is not high.

First, there is the issue of price . Many young consumers are willing to spend money on some "lazy" products, but dishwashers, the so-called "light of laziness", make it impossible for people to be lazy. Dishwashers are not cheap. The average price on the market is more than several thousand yuan, and the expensive ones can reach tens of thousands of yuan. The price is much higher than the common household appliances, which is unacceptable for most Chinese families.

Dishwashers are more expensive

Source: A shopping website

Secondly, the differences in eating habits and ideas between China and the West have affected the use experience of Chinese families. Dishwashers originated in the West. Compared with Western food, Chinese food is more oily, soupy, and has more residue. In order to clean it thoroughly and prevent residue from clogging the drain, the tableware needs to be manually cleaned before using the dishwasher and then put into the dishwasher.

The shapes of tableware in the East and the West are also different . Traditional dishwashers cannot properly place Chinese tableware, which greatly reduces the cleaning effect. Chinese people advocate the traditional concept of saving and simplicity, unlike Western families who use a lot of tableware for every meal. Chinese people are used to washing dishes after meals, and small families such as families of three need to wash even fewer dishes per meal.

Source | Pixbay

In addition, dishwashers are inconvenient to use . Currently, the operating time of dishwashers on the market is very long, ranging from half an hour to three hours. Many people also report that dishwashers are prone to cockroaches, and they must clean up the residue every time. After the long dishwashing time is over, they must turn on the heat dissipation in time and put away the dishes to prevent bacteria from breeding and odor.

Finally, there is an unsolved problem, that is, there are things that cannot be washed in the dishwasher, such as wooden products, plastic products, silver and aluminum tableware, etc., which are easily damaged by high temperature and high pressure. Many netizens put the newly bought tableware in the dishwasher, and the patterns on it were washed clean, which made people laugh and cry.

People buy dishwashers so that they don’t have to wash dishes, but in actual use, meal residues need to be pre-processed, and the dishwasher needs to be cleaned up after washing, which takes a lot of effort.

The above are the disadvantages of traditional Western dishwashers. However, in order to make it more convenient for Chinese families, many domestic home appliance brands have improved their dishwashers based on the usage habits of Chinese families.

Dishwashers are gradually becoming "localized" and becoming more and more suitable for use in Chinese families, so their sales have grown rapidly in the past two years.

4

What are the advantages of dishwashers?

In fact, dishwashers are still very useful.

From the cleaning point of view, traditional hand washing is very laborious and easy to not clean thoroughly, but the dishwasher uses spray technology to clean, with high water pressure and strong cleaning power. The dishwasher generally uses high-temperature water of about 70 degrees when working, which can effectively remove grease and bacteria. Therefore, the cleaning ability of the dishwasher is completely unquestionable.

In terms of energy saving, dishwashers do have a longer working time, which will increase electricity consumption, but they save a lot of water compared to hand washing. A survey shows that since most families are used to washing dishes with running water, the water consumption for a single dishwashing is about 30 liters. After testing, the water consumption of dishwashers on the market is about 10 liters per wash, which is much less than hand washing.

Hand washing consumes more water

Source: pexels

In addition to washing dishes, dishwashers can also wash vegetables, fruits, and even crayfish. It’s very interesting to think about it.

With the development and progress of science and technology, the storage capacity and placement of dishwashers are constantly adjusted, and the drying and disinfection functions are innovated . Dishwashers are becoming more energy-saving and intelligent, and the disadvantages of traditional dishwashers are being solved step by step. Many domestic brands are rising rapidly and competing with each other. The dishwasher market is no longer dominated by foreign brands, and the price of the market will also decrease in the future.

Source: pexels

Dishwashers have brought great convenience to people and improved their quality of life. I believe that in the near future, more and more Chinese families will be able to "free their hands".

People who like to eat can show off their food without any burden, and families no longer have to argue about whose turn it is to wash the dishes. However, the editor has discovered a new problem: with a dishwasher, who puts the dishes into the dishwasher after dinner?