Dish Washer - Important points . Review on Choosing a Dishwasher

I have been using dish washer (seen my cook use it) since 1990. Used about 15 international brands. In all different shapes and sizes, commercial, domestic etc. Finally I decided to buy one for home use when it was launched in India.

Lets look into how dish washer (domestic use) cleans utensils. Well, its just water churning around with a pressure of about 10 kg/cm2 hitting all the surface of utensils.

So cleaning of utensils will depend on--

1) water temperature

2) water force - pressure developed by pump

3) Number of high pressure nozzles in machine - to cover all surfaces

4) Quality of water - machine should have salt dosing

5) Quality of detergent

6) Quality of de greaser

No. 5 and 6 depends on what you use after buying machine, but from no. 1 to 4 you must consider before buying machine.

Utensils are arranged in 2 shelves, so you will get machine in the market with following combinations:

1) Bottom nozzle only - cost Rs 20,000

2) Bottom and middle nozzles - cost Rs 25,000

3) Bottom, middle and top nozzles - cost Rs 30,000

So ideally you should go for a machine which heats up water above 70 deg C, have top, middle and bottom nozzles, developes a water pressure of at least 8 kg/cm2 and has a salt additive chamber.

Now lets work out economics of it,

A domestic help in Mumbai costs Rs 600 - 900 a month, as they charge Rs 200 ~ 300 per work that is a) cleaning utensils b) sweeping and mopping floor c) washing clothes. So basically you will be paying for cleaning your utensils 300 for bai + 100 for scotch brite and vim bar in a month. Maximum outgoing is Rs 400 in a month and you save space in your already small kitchen, which the machine would have occupied.

If you consider a dish washer which will give you good cleaning, will cost you Rs 30,000, will consume an electric power of 2 KW and should last for say 15 years. If you have a small family of 3 to 4, you will need to run dish washer once a day. If more than that, you will run it twice a day. One cleaning cycle will be 2 hrs so 20 rs on electricity bill per day. Monthly consumption of salt, de greaser, and detergent will be between Rs 200 ~ 500 depending on detergent quality you are using. So On rough estimate, 200 per month cost of machine + 600 cost of electricity + 300 cost of detergent = Rs 1100 per month. It can increase only, but can not reduce as you may have to repair your machine in the 15 year run. So safely consider Rs 1500 per month.

Seeing the above 2 calculations, you may think that its better to keep bai for Rs 400 than to invest in dish washer for Rs 1500 and also save on precious space in the kitchen.

No, If you can afford, go for dish washer. If you have some knowledge of microbiology, you will appreciate my views. Normal tendency in the kitchen is to keep a scotch brite dipped in vim powder to scrub utensils and keep a wet cloth to wipe the table. The bacteria grows and multiplies in scotch brite, spreads to all your utensils and wet cloth spreads bacteria to all the places that you wipe again. These can be eliminated only if you use fresh machine washed cloth for each use and fresh scotch brite for each time you wash your utensils. To reduce bacteria growth in scotch brite, I have seen a soap case like UV chamber selling in European market, where you keep scotch brite overnight to eliminate bacteria.

Next most important aspect is water droplets. The utensil should be completely dry before you serve food. One drop of water on utensil has done the damage. Water borne bacteria has been consumed with food and it will multiply. Adults are not much affected by this as immune system is strong, but its children which are most affected. Dish washer guarantees germ free utensils for you.

Earlier my son will have dysentery or running nose every month. But since the time I started using dish washer, these occur once a year. Again if you buy one nozzle dish washer, it will remain as show piece, as quite a few utensils you have to clean again. 2 nozzle will give you better results. But if you are spending 20,000, I suggest spend another 10,000 more and get a 3 nozzle machine.

I have been using Siemens 3 nozzle dish washer for 3 years now. I bought it for Rs 31,500. No complains. Only hitch, quality of detergents and rinse aid (de greaser) available in India is not as good as available abroad. May be in another 2 to 3 years we should be getting quality detergent as Finit and Colgonit Power balls.