First off, I can see the benefit if you are washing up and don’t have a second sink to chuck waste liquid.

The other 95% of the time, it just gets in the way. Getting rid of cold tea/gherkin jar remainders/anything is just made more difficult and/or less hygienic when there is a sodding big ugly plastic awkward bastard bucket in the way.

I’ll stop the rant there. MIL, I love you really.

Something tells me this won’t win the thread of the week award.

This actually reminds me of a thread on another forum titled “what’s your favourite motorway”

Anyway

Only have 1 sink*, and like to be able to rinse stuff straight away

Uses less hot water

Coz Mum did

Presumably it keeps hold of germs thus topping up my immunity……..🤷

* I believe our sink dates to 1936ish, cast iron and may well outlast me. We do actually have 2 sinks in the “Scullery” but these are very large stone things better suited to washing a weeks worth of clothes by hand. These are from 1904ish.

This actually reminds me of a thread on another forum titled “what’s your favourite motorway”

Now I think about it, I posted on that thread too.

You should see me at parties ……

Never used one, never will. I find the use of them weird. My family never used one either

I have never understood this grim British habit either. The bowl gets filthy underneath. Why? Why?

The bowl gets filthy underneath. Why? Why?

Stick it in the dishwasher with the plates?

Cutlery scratches the sink metal. I can understand not having one if you have a dishwasher, though.

You can clean washing up bowls as well, apparently.

Possibly goes back to the days of ‘we can’t afford to replace that sink; use the bowl to protect it”. Or, more simplistic you, a great ploy by Addis et al, as the latest ‘must have’, in the 50s.
Personally, I think it’s just a place for germs and crud to accumulate.
Bygone era.

Not a bowl user here either, just one sink and draining board. It does mean making sure everything is empty of gunky water before filling it up. Otherwise a stray pan of mucky water thing gets emptied down the toilet.

We do have one for when we’re car camping on sites as they’re handy then.

Double post

Odd British affectation? Never understood it either.

First off, I can see the benefit if you are washing up and don’t have a second sink to chuck waste liquid.

This I could never understand, once you’ve put the fist object to be washed in the bowl of water, everything after that will be washed in dirty water, plus it’s covered in soap suds that you need to rinse off. Every other country washes dishes under a running tap…Weird habit.

Saves water.

Kitchen sinks about twice the volume of the plastic basin.

Dropped thing doesn’t smash/mark the porcelain

Can rinse the dishes in the other half.

Realistically though all that gets washed in the sink is the sharp knifes and the odd thing that didn’t make the dishwasher run.

When I had a metal sink, I don’t think I used one. We’ve now got a horrible ceramic thing, the sink is huge so a bowl uses about a 3rd of the water. Plus a ceramic sink loves to chip and smash anything you might tap against it!

Every other country washes dishes under a running tap

Which plays into the hands of dishwasher manufacturers as it meant they could claim they use less water than washing up (in Europe but probably not the UK)

We don’t rinse our stuff off after washing. I do rinse off plates and pans (as we finish with them/clear the table) before washing to minimise gunk in the washing up water.

Order of washing up is glasses, cups, bowls, plates, cutlery, pans them oven trays too. From least mucky/greasy to most.

Draining board Jenga is fun too if no one is drying up!

Steel sink here, and not an enormous one.

We don’t rinse our stuff off after washing.

you know Fairy Liquid* isn’t edible, right? Don’t you ever wonder why all you food tastes ever so slightly…soapy?

*other dish detergents are available

Not a bowl user here either, just one sink and draining board. It does mean making sure everything is empty of gunky water before filling it up. Otherwise a stray pan of mucky water thing gets emptied down the toilet.

You’d think that strategy would work but we’ve got a bowl in the toilet too. Came as a set.

No dishwasher, everything washed up by hand
Pot sink
Bowl protects pot sink
Bowl protects delicate items
Bowl keeps water hot for longer

I knew marriage of p20 was the right thing when his hatred of bowls in sinks was as strong as mine. Domestic bliss in our house. 😛

Bowl keeps water hot for longer

Bowl keeps water dirtier for longer…

Bowl uses less water, allowing you to change it more often.

Ceramic sinks.
Nearly every single mug we own has a crack of some sort in it, if it lasts a month, hence the bowl.

The mugs still get cracked falling off the ridiculous double-decker chrome style over utility drainer the other half insists on having over a single-decker plastic thing 😂

The sinks are massive so you need about half of Ladybower to submerge a cup. With the bowl it’s much, much less.

As for dirty bottoms, tip the water away and as you do, give your bottom a quick swoosh too. It’s fairly straightforward.

You can also get a bowl that matches your kettle and wows guests. What’s not to like about that?

Which plays into the hands of dishwasher manufacturers as it meant they could claim they use less water than washing up (in Europe but probably not the UK)

Even in the UK, dishwashers still use significantly less.

Which? research reveals how little water dishwashers use compared to hand-washing

Effectiveness of cleaning is a combination of heat (DW>hand), chemical (DW>hand), energy (toss up, pot brushes and scourers vs water blasting) and time (DW>hand in the sense that you can wash your dishes for hours – no-one wants to stand at the sink for that long)

So strong chemically hot water that can be filtered to remove solids and so stay ‘clean’ for longer and be recirculated over and over wins that argument. As the dishes aren’t immersed in the sump water, as long as the filtration is good enough you only need enough to ensure the pump is kept full and so some very efficient DW can manage with ridiculously low amounts.

We have one in the Belfast sink in Ireland; Uses less water, less chance of cracking the porcelain sink (already cracked once by Mrs kilo chucking boiling water in it!!!) easier to clean out the waste (take bowl out and throw contents over hedge).

But washing up bowls are brilliant for soaking aching feet whilst sat on the sofa watching TV too don’t forget

Even in the UK, dishwashers still use significantly less.

But that was assuming you change the bowl of water every two place settings, who does that???

What a time to be alive.

It’s 2021 and it still amazes me that some folk either don’t have a dishwasher, or those that do still wash anything (based on it fitting) by hand.

I’ve pretty much always had one, first house bought at 21 and installed before a washing machine and my folks got a dishwasher when I was 5 years old. In 1970, so over 50 years ago…

The bowl gets filthy underneath.

And we have cleaning products for that. Also don’t stick the bowl back in the sink before cleaning out the foam and other muck from washing up.

Bowl keeps water dirtier for longer…

That thing with the valve on it attached to the sink. That’s a tap! Change the water when it’s dirty, it’s not rocket surgery.

I’m assuming that with TJ’s background in nursing one could eat out of his sink with little risk to health. I would be loathe to do the same in anyone else’s.

Worried about stuff getting stuck under the bowl – use a sink basket to put your bowl in, simples.

As above, stops lovely posh sink from getting scratched etc, also stops mugs and glasses from shattering to a zillion pieces when kids chuck them in from time to time.

But dishwasher FTW

Dishwasher user here so much more efficient in every way, just a well established fact so let’s just move on.

But in the dark ages before the dishwasher we used a sink bowl. There are benefits to bowls in sinks most have been covered but they probably are traditional from back on the day before running hot water and drains in sinks where the dirty water was thrown out onto the street or into the garden.

Change the water when it’s dirty, it’s not rocket surgery.

So fill the bowl with clean water, add fairy, wash item, put on rack covered in soap suds, empty bowl of dirty water, refill with more clean water and more fairy, wash another item, put on rack covered in soap suds,  empty bowl of dirty water, refill bowl with clean water add more fairy, wash item and repeat ad infinitum….

vs

turn on tap, add fairy to sponge, wash item, rinse off soap, put on rack..no cracking of mugs (it never leaves your hands) no cracking of sink (item never leaves your hands) repeat to finish…

Washing with another bowl in the sink is an unhygienic and stupid way of washing up, it’s why ever other country in the world doesn’t wash up like this….

Personally, I think it’s just a place for germs and crud to accumulate.

If you don’t use one are those accumulating somewhere else (like your plug, chain, overflow) that you aren’t really paying attention to. I see no reason why a plastic bowl should be dirty.

Every other country washes dishes under a running tap…Weird habit.

Wait. what? Surely not. We’ve a relative abundance of water here – surely countries with less are not pissing it down the drain to wash plates that could be done in a basin?

you know Fairy Liquid* isn’t edible, right? Don’t you ever wonder why all you food tastes ever so slightly…soapy?

its not inedible. its perfectly harmless at the quantities consumed. if you are leaving tastable quantities you are using too much and/or doing something weird with the way you dry your crockery.

 surely countries with less are not pissing it down the drain to wash plates that could be done in a basin?

You only need to have the tap gently running with water, I tried at Uni with a bunch of flat-mates who tried to argue this, and we filled the bowl with the run off water. After I’d washed everything under a running tap, it just about managed to fill a bowl.

its not inedible.

Great reasoning, Rinsing everything after you’ve washed it, you’re not eating off slightly soapy, slightly manky dishes, that apart from the first thing you’ve washed are being “cleaned” in increasingly dirtier water. I reckon most people do it because that’s how their mum’s did it, and they don’t think about it. Once you start to think about it, you soon realise it’s pretty pointless and horrid. Plus when that soft plastic bowl gets scratched, that’s a home for bugs

Washing up bowls make cheap seats for outdoor sex ponds. Do I win five pounds?

We used to just use the sink until we got the dog, now only a bowl in the sink as nothing needs rinsing now.

turn on tap, add fairy to sponge, wash item, rinse off soap, put on rack..no cracking of mugs (it never leaves your hands) no cracking of sink (item never leaves your hands) repeat to finish…

Are you on a water meter? Cos you bloomin should be wasting all that clean water.

Washing with another bowl in the sink is an unhygienic and stupid way of washing up, it’s why ever other country in the world doesn’t wash up like this….

It’s not the UK vs. rest of the world. It’s North/Midlands vs. South in my experience.

Having experienced my wife’s family ‘washing in dirty, soapy bowl then just leaving it to dry’ technique I can confirm that this method results in everything tasting of soap. How some people seemingly can’t detect this baffles me.

Probs harps back to when we had porcelain sinks and people getting sick n tired of cracks and chips when the washing up gets chucked in.