London - It’s the gizmo most of us can’t live without.
But while 70 percent of people in Britain have a dishwasher, they simply don’t trust it to do its job.
Almost two thirds say they’ have such little faith in the machines that they often avoid using them altogether.
Others admit mollycoddling the appliance by giving cutlery and crockery a good rinse before putting it in.
In total an astonishing 60 percent of us end up washing pots and pans by hand after they’ve been through the dishwasher, because they’re still dirty.
The love-hate relationship with the dishwasher is revealed in a survey of 3,000 adults which set out to find the least trusted home appliance.
An overwhelming 71 percent of respondents voted the dishwasher the most likely appliance to underperform.
And a further 48 percent also said it was the one machine they expected to break down.
The washing machine was voted the second least trusted mod con, getting marginally more marks for underperformance than the kettle. The lack of trust in the dishwasher, however, has failed to put a dent in its popularity according to the report by Vileda.
It is the one item, aside from the cooker or oven, that we demand in our kitchen.
Some housebuyers will go so far as to reject a property if it doesn’t have a dishwasher. “Dishwashers are now a staple of most British kitchens,” said Vileda spokesman Lindsey Taylor.
“It’s the first thing we insist on in a new kitchen other than a cooker. Yet, surprisingly, it is the home appliance we trust the least - the one thing we believe is most likely to under-perform and break down.
“We carried out the study because we wanted to test the public’s relationship with its domestic appliances.
“We rely more and more on gadgets and gizmos making our domestic lives easier and more efficient.
“We really can’t live without a lot of things that only ten years ago we considered to be luxuries.”
But could there be another motive for our distrust of dishwashers?
The survey also found more than half the nation (56 percent) enjoys the therapeutic effects of washing pots, pans and dishes by hand. - Daily Mail
* Use our comment form below to tell us which household appliance you trust the least? The Lifestyle team are very unsure about vacuum cleaners.