To Save Water Should You Wash Your Hands Of Hand Washing Dishes? : The Salt : NPR
Ed Osann
"I think it's generally recognized that washing by machine would involve less water " says  Ed Osann  water efficiency project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council . "In part  it comes down to someone's washing technique."
According to  Osann   when people wash by hand  they often use the same method. They fill one sink basin with sudsy water for soaking and run the faucet in the other basin for rinsing. That's an efficient way to do dishes from a time perspective  but not from a water perspective. The Department of Energy sets standards that a full-sized dishwasher can use no more than five gallons of water per cycle  and a compact dishwasher no more than 3.5 gallons.  Osann  says that's probably less water than most people's dishwashing styles use. Because heating water requires energy  using less water also translates to being more energy efficient.
Today  both  Osann  and Amann say people should scrape plates clean  rather than rinsing them  before putting the plates in the dishwasher. For small households that tend not to fill the dishwasher quickly  Amann suggests the rinse cycle  which generally uses only half a gallon of water and still effectively cleans dishes that haven't been sitting in the dishwasher too long. (I tried this approach. My dishwasher's rinse cycle worked well on peanut butter  but remnants of Greek yogurt stubbornly stuck around.)
For those who can't break their manual scrubbing habits   Osann  recommends filling up a large metal pot  rather than filling up the sink  to do washing in. Nonetheless   he  makes a final plug for the dishwasher. "People could be more cognizant of their use of water while washing dishes by hand. Are people likely to do that when friends are over for Thanksgiving? Probably not."
"I think it's generally recognized that washing by machine would involve less water " says   [TGT] water efficiency project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council . "In part  it comes down to someone's washing technique."
According to  Osann   when people wash by hand  they often use the same method. They fill one sink basin with sudsy water for soaking and run the faucet in the other basin for rinsing. That's an efficient way to do dishes from a time perspective  but not from a water perspective. The Department of Energy sets standards that a full-sized dishwasher can use no more than five gallons of water per cycle  and a compact dishwasher no more than 3.5 gallons.   [TGT] says that's probably less water than most people's dishwashing styles use. Because heating water requires energy  using less water also translates to being more energy efficient.
Today  both  Osann  and Amann say people should scrape plates clean  rather than rinsing them  before putting the plates in the dishwasher. For small households that tend not to fill the dishwasher quickly  Amann suggests the rinse cycle  which generally uses only half a gallon of water and still effectively cleans dishes that haven't been sitting in the dishwasher too long. (I tried this approach. My dishwasher's rinse cycle worked well on peanut butter  but remnants of Greek yogurt stubbornly stuck around.)
For those who can't break their manual scrubbing habits   Osann  recommends filling up a large metal pot  rather than filling up the sink  to do washing in. Nonetheless   he  makes a final plug for the dishwasher. "People could be more cognizant of their use of water while washing dishes by hand. Are people likely to do that when friends are over for Thanksgiving? Probably not."