Hellobee Boards

I run it once a day usually and we are a family of 4. I can't really imagine running it 2-3 times a day...

Didn’t vote in the poll — We run it about every other day as a family of 3, and only when it’s full. I’m a SAHM.

Exact same as you: once a night whether it’s full or not because otherwise things will somehow backlog into a disaster!

Four adults one toddler and we run it 2-3x a week.

I voted every day, but it’s really more like every other day. We have a family of 4 and use it for eveyone’s dishes, cups, silverware, etc. if there’s room we’ll put pots in there too, but usually those are hand washed.

I can’t even imagine needing to run a dishwasher 3 times a day. Probably the only time we’ve done it twice in one day is for a party or holiday when we need everything clean.

Once a day if I am cooking a lot of the meals, less if we are eating leftovers. I would only run twice in a day if I was doing a lot of extra cooking for the freezer or something (and we were probably backed up on regular dishes too - by I do usually wash everything I possibly can in there including pans and prep bowls)

@hypatia: your “chemical reaction” line made me laugh out loud So true.
I can’t fathom running as often as she does though. She must not do a full load each time! I can’t figure out why she’d do that though.
And I would tell her husband though that paper plates might end up costing more though. It’s not cheap to always be buying them (trust me, I know). Especially if she’s truly using 3 LOADS Worth of dishes in a day!

It’s funny because I was just giving this some thought the other day. I was running it every other day, maybe even less than that, every two days or so. We were 2 adults and a 3yo up until 2 months ago. Now we have a newborn. We do use paper plates pretty often and order out a lot. I wait till it’s very full because my mom drilled in my head that you have to wait till it’s completely full.
Then one day after the new baby was born I didn’t feel like handwashing all of his 7pm-7am bottles (I don’t have enough and they are damn Dr Browns) so I went ahead and ran it when it was like 25-50% full. I realized that I HATE unloading the dishwasher with a passion because I wait till it’s super full and it becomes so much more of a burden. It’s so much more tolerable when I do it daily and it only takes me 5 mins to put stuff away.
So that’s what I started doing a week or so ago. Unless it truly has nothing in it or ridiculously little, I’m running it nightly. Usually a days worth of bottles/parts and silverware and my sons milk and water cup for the day. A couple coffee mugs. Maybe a couple bowls and plates. I run it before bed and that way it’s done in the morning, I quickly put it away and I feel so much better that my sink AND dishwasher are empty.
Previously, dishes would pile because I was running it. Then I would procrastinate for like a full day on unloading (truly my least favorite chore) so dishes would continue to pile up. And then my husband would say “don’t you need to unload the dishwasher?” And then I would rage and tell him he can do it himself if he’s so concerned. Then after unloading I would stand there for another 15 mins or more rinsing and loading the dishes, then handwashing what I now couldn’t wait for in the dishwasher while I wait for it to fill up, and whatever ended up hiding under the pile that is handwash only. Rinse and repeat

So yeah. Daily now and it’s so much better.

We run it once a day at least. On the weekends if we end up eating 3 meals, it'll be up to two times. We are a family of 6.

On Easter me and my siblings and our families all celebrated at my parents' house and we ran the dishwasher 4 times a day. It was a lot of plates and glasses...

once a day, typically either after the kitchen is cleaned in the evening, or after breakfast if it wasn't quite full. I usually unload it after breakfast (or lunch if we didn't run it until later) and do a quick tidy up then.

we are a family of four, I am a SAHM. Me and the 1.5 year old are basically always here, my husband is here all day three days a week and my daughter is here all day 4 days a week.

We don't run it every day, but sometimes more often than every other day. Maybe like 5x a week? Family of 4, I largely WFH and we have a nanny at our house. We wait until it's full to run and don't use paper plates. I really enjoy "dishwasher tetris" and unloading the dishwasher is probably my favorite chore.

Probably every three days or so, maybe more often now that I stay home.

Family of five and we run once a day, sometimes every other. I hand wash pots but most everything else goes in.
We do set it to run after 9 pm to save on electricity, and it only uses a couple gallons of water.

I can't imagine running it 2 to 3 times a day, no way can it be full!

I think I run it at least once a day on the weekends because we cook all meals at home, but during the week, it's every other night. If I do it any less, it starts to reek.

I would say maybe once every other day. We are a family of 4 and have a surprising amount of cups used, even when I try to limit it to one water and one milk cup a day for the kids. However, DH and I have been packing lunch most days and I will sometimes pack breakfast too. On the weekends, we might run it more than once if I have one of my batch cooking days or we have my parents over. But I never run it when it's half full. Too much guilt in me from my parents on how wasteful that is.

I voted twice a week but it’s more like every other day sometimes every third day.

Lately I’m more apt to put stuff in there that I’d normally hand wash if it means that it’s full enough for me to run it. But usually I hand wash pots and pans.

If the roles were reversed I’d honestly be pissed at my DH if he were to run the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. I can’t see how that’d be done in a non-wasteful manner unless they have a large family. And the suggestion to move to paper plates instead would also be a non-starter for me.

@jape14: I also like unloading the dishwasher! I feel like it’s so satisfying putting everything in its rightful place.

We run it either every day or every other day. We hand wash pots/pans/ knives/ some other cooking gear. I could see if you put literally everything in there and your dishwasher had a particularly bad configuration that it would fill up after each meal, but I'm a little baffled too, honestly.

Run almost every night, unload almost every morning.

@Hypatia: we wait till we have enough things to fill it. Usually takes a couple days to fill up. We don't want to waste water by running it half empty. We also wait to run it at night because our electricity is free after 9pm

The voting options didn't work for me. We're a family of three and we average running the dishwasher every other day. We cook dinner almost every night. I cannot fathom why anyone would run the dishwasher 2-3 times a day.

@cnidaria: @josina: @Mrsbells: where do you guys live that utility cost vary based on time of day!?