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Paradigm Shifts

Paradigm: a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done

Quick poll:

1) How many of you wash your dishes in cold water?
2) How many of you are absolute in your belief that water has to be scorching hot to clean dishes properly?

My answers were no to the first, yes to the second right up to this morning.

I asked my neighbour, who had this suite last year, if she had hot water in the kitchen last year. No. She said that the water heater for my shower (doesn’t reach hers!) is a Gringo luxury and that most of the residents of Isla make do with whatever temperature their water is as it comes out of their taps.

That didn’t shock me too much. I know that hot and cold running water is a luxury only a very small portion of the world has. But what did surprise me was being told that the dish detergent down here is meant to be just as good in cold water as hot.

Never taking anything at face value, I headed off to do some research. I use blue Dawn dish detergent exclusively. Every time I switch to save money, I regret it. So I Googled “dawn dish detergent cold water” and found a page on Dawn’s U.S. website that had the following paradigm shattering information:

You can wash your dishes in hot or cold water, as our products are formulated to perform in any water temperature. Try helping to save energy by washing in cold water. You’ll find you get a great clean, with less energy used.

WHAT?!

HUH?!

Of course, I had to run an experiment and see if that was true. This was a good day for that because I had a lot of greasy plastic to deal with. I added my usual amount (less here than at Haven where the water is super hard) of Dawn to a bowl of cold water and proceeded to wash everything, rinsing again in cold water.

Guess what? My plastic got just as squeaky clean in the cold water as it does in the hot!

I find washing in hot water so much easier on the joints, but washing in cold is so much easier than heating pot after pot of water on the stove, like I’ve had to do at Haven in the past when I didn’t have running water! Imagine all the energy I could have saved, both personal and in terms of power and propane, if I had done that Google search then!

I came to Mexico hoping to gain a broader view of immense diversity of our world. Cold water dish washing is a small thing, but holds the promise of many even more shattering revelations.

11 thoughts on “Paradigm Shifts”

  1. Well, that is news to me as well. I always thought hot water helped with germs as well but the soap probably takes care of that as well,

  2. I did some more reading about that and modern detergent formulas take care of the buggies, regardless of the water temperature.

  3. I think I told you once before that I washed my dishes in cold water. Well almost cold. I put the hot skillet/pan in the sink add some soap (Dawn) and then run cold water. Never checked the Dawn website to see if what I was doing was good or bad, the dishes seemed to be clean so I was satisfied.

    • I do that, too, in a pinch. I don’t know how hot your skillet gets the water, but in my case, hot enough by my old standards.

      I use the very scientific squeak test to see if my dishes are clean. 🙂

  4. I sure wish I’d known that a few weeks ago when I was having trouble figuring out how to make my water heater work. I would have eaten better if I knew I could wash dishes in cold water and they would be clean.

  5. I rarely use hot water. Not for dishes, nor laundry, nor a shower (well sometimes for a treat). Doesn’t seem to make any difference. I also read that it isn’t necessary to wash your hands in hot water; using cold for a longer time does the same as using hot. Water is a solvent; so, if you soak the dishes in cold water for a time, before washing, it does wonders for making them come clean easier.

    • A hot shower is the ultimate luxury in my book. As for washing laundry in cold water, I do so for everything but sheets and towels. I notice a big difference if I use cold for those. It’s a lot of trouble at Haven to get hot laundry water, so I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t worth the effort. As for hand washing, cold water really hurts my joints.

      I’ve gone without running water of any kind, much less hot, so much in my adult life that for me it’s something I’m really not willing to do without.

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