Many people consider it a luxury to have a dishwasher. The appliance saves time by allowing owners to just throw in dishes, silverware, pots and pans without having to scrub away over the sink. It turns out though that one in six Americans don’t even use a dishwasher for washing dishes.
The news comes from a YouGov.com survey that asked 5,400 people, “What do you primarily use your dishwasher for?” You would think 98% of responses would be “to wash dishes,” but it was actually a mere 60%. Twenty-five percent said they don’t own a dishwasher, but then that left about 16% who used it for other things.
Among the other uses were “to dry hand-washed dishes (5%),” “to store kitchen items (5%),” “nothing (5%), and interestingly, “other (1%).”
So what could that “other” be? Well it turns out, there is a faction of folks out there who use the dishwasher to cook their food. A woman on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates cooked a lasagna in hers to save money on her monthly gas bill.
As far as the breakdown of respondents, those earning under $40k a year were more likely to not own a dishwasher, with 36% of them not having one. Those making $40k-$80k were in a similar boat, with 30% not having the appliance. Meanwhile, only 11% of those making more than $80k reported not having a dishwasher.
However, when it came to not using the dishwasher to wash dishes, income level didn’t matter too much. Of those making $40k who have a dishwasher, 14% didn’t use it for washing dishes. That number was 10% for those making $40k-$80k as well as for the $80k+ crowd.
See more stats from the survey here.