Time and time again we hear about the green credentials of owning a dishwasher.  There is no denying it’s a greener option, especially considering how much water it saves compared to washing the dishes by hand (between 30 and 40 litres per wash, if you were wondering).

We all love doing our bit for the planet, but if you are anything like me you might find yourself asking ‘what does owning a dishwasher actually do for me?’

Well what if I told you that owning a dishwasher gives you the most valuable gift of all, something that money just can’t buy; the gift of time! It might seem inconsequential; it only takes a few extra minutes to wash the dishes by hand. However over the course of weeks, months and years these minutes can add up.

I have conducted an experiment over the past couple of weeks to try and find out exactly how much extra time it takes to stand in front of the sink instead of using the dishwasher. During week one, I washed the dishes by hand, and during week two, I used the dishwasher.  To oversee the experiment, my ever supportive girlfriend was stood by with a stop watch in her hand and a look of bemusement on her face (mainly because I was voluntarily doing the housework).

So with the results in, I can tell you that on average it takes 11 minutes, 17 seconds longer to wash the dishes by hand than to load and unload the dishwasher. I’ve had the calculator working overtime, and you might be surprised to see how the figures add up...

If it takes 11 minutes, 17 seconds longer to clean the dishes by hand...

and the average person washes their dishes 6 nights a week....

and the average person in the UK enjoys 22,411 days in their adult life...

it means you will be hand washing the dishes 19,209 times!

That is 252,871 minutes longer doing the dishes than if you used a dishwasher.

That’s 4215 hours

That‘s 176 days

That’s 25 weeks

That’s nearly 6 months extra cleaning time!!

6 months of your life stood behind the kitchen sink washing dishes! We all have a point in our day where we wish that we could just have one minute to ourselves, and here is a humble kitchen appliance that is offering us a full 6 months.

My mind is already racing with ideas on what I would do if I was given 6 months of free time. Learn to play the guitar, travel Europe, maybe write that detective novel I’ve always talked about. Time is a commodity that us Brits are famously short of, so maybe it’s time we start taking back those odd minutes here and there and start spending them with the people we love, doing things we enjoy.

People much wiser than me have said that you can’t put a value on time, but my monthly pay slip tells me differently. So while the calculator is out I thought I would crunch these figures too.

The UK minimum wage tells us that the absolute lowest value of an adult’s time is £6.08 an hour, which would mean that the 6 months you spend in front of the sink is worth a minimum of    

£25,627.20

Not bad for an appliance that you can buy for under £200! In fact, more than enough to pay for those guitar lessons...

Like any other aspect of electronic technology, the kitchen appliance industry is constantly looking to improve. Manufacturers work tirelessly to make their products faster, more efficient and increasingly powerful.  They are driven by a passion to produce the best products, as well as a desire to stay ahead of their competitors by offering consumers the most advanced, sophisticated appliances on the market. Sometimes this can be done by adding revolutionary technologies, such as LG’s ‘Direct Drive’ mechanism in its washing machines, or sometimes it can be as simple as making a machine more efficient to improve its energy rating.

So how does this affect us here at Appliances Online, and more importantly, you the customer. Well, as the manufacturers improve their products and introduce them to the market they go through a period we call the ‘range change’. This involves taking the current models out of production, and replacing them with the new and improved appliances.

The product upgrade isn’t always noticeable, often manufacturers simply improve the internal functionality of an appliance following feedback from their engineers and customers. These improvements go towards showing that manufacturers do take on board your comments regarding the performance of a machine, and they look to make advancements in future models.

As I mentioned above, sometimes the changes can be more grandiose and visible, be it a fancy new button that increases the performance, or a whole new function that changes the way you use the appliance altogether. These technological advances really do make Appliances Online an exciting place to work during the range change.

Saying that, we do receive feedback advising that on the rare occasion, the range change can be a frustrating time for customers. If you have spent hours researching the right machine, reading reviews and trawling across the internet to make sure that it’s perfect for you, I can understand the irritation of then finding out that the product is no longer in production. However, hope is not lost, as we are available from 8am – 10pm 7 days a week to advise you of the replacement model, so your research will not be in vain, and you can have the latest model hot off the press.

Here are some examples of recent product upgrades:

The Beko CDA646W Fridge Freezer is being replaced by the CS6914W

The Samsung RSG5DUMH_MSI Fridge Freezer has been replaced by the RSG5UUMH