Why is the dishwasher a great invention not popular in China?

The following article comes from Inspur Studio, the author is Inspur Studio

Washing machines, floor scrubbers, dishwashers, the three major tools of modern clean life. However, for Chinese people, washing machines are already available at home, and the sales of floor scrubbers are also rising.

Dishwashers have been used in China since the late 80s, but thirty years later, dishwashers are still not as popular in every household as they are in Western countries.

Chinese, why are they so dishwasher-friendly?

How dishwasher the Chinese don't like to use

The dishwasher, which until now looked like a "human kitchen toy", is actually nothing new.

As early as 1886, the world's first modern dishwasher using water pressure was patented in the United States. It is said that the main reason why the inventor, Josephine Cochran, created this machine at that time was because he felt sorry for his own porcelain plates, because he did it himself or washed it by hand, and he broke too many plates [1].

Soon, however, this invention not only saved Josephine's countless heirloom porcelains, but also freed the hands of many European and American housewives. One hundred years later, in the 1990s, the dishwasher ownership rate in the United States had reached 45% [2].

In the decades that followed, dishwasher ownership in other European and American countries caught up, and by the 2010s, most households in most countries also owned dishwashers. For example, in European countries such as Denmark, Spain, and France, the ownership rate of dishwashers around 2010 was around 70%, 60%, and 55%, respectively [3].

More European and American housewives choose to use dishwashers Picture worm creativity

However, this silky rising market has suffered a tragic loss in China.

At the end of the 80s, dishwashers entered the Chinese market and were ready to do a big job, but they didn't expect to be directly beaten into the cold palace by the Chinese people.

The exponential growth of the market in Europe and the United States is simply beyond the reach of the domestic market. In 2000, Little Swan Dishwasher, one of the largest dishwasher brands in China, sold only 13,900 dishwashers a year, which is a pitiful amount compared to the sales of 2.6 million household washing machines and nearly 80,000 refrigerators and other household appliances [4].

However, Little Swan may have sold a lot, because in 2000 the overall dishwasher sales in the country were less than 100,000 units, and the penetration rate of urban households was less than 1% [5].

According to a 2001 survey of consumers by China Business Daily, many consumers who have a wait-and-see attitude towards dishwashers do not buy dishwashers, mainly because they have more than enough to wash the dishes themselves, and "there is no need to change this good housework habit" [5].

Compared with European and American families, Chinese are more inclined to wash dishes by themselves Picture worm creativity

Today, perhaps few people see dishwashing as a "good housework habit" anymore, but the dishwasher market is still in jeopardy.

According to the White Paper on Household Dishwasher Consumption released by the Shanghai Jiaodian Household Appliance Business Industry Association, as of the end of 2020, "the number of washing machines per 100 urban households in mainland China reached 99.7, but the number of dishwashers per 100 households was only 2" [6].

That's right, 98% of Chinese families, after every meal, still have to do it themselves, clean up the oil.

But apparently, no one takes up washing dishes as a hobby. Therefore, Chinese who obviously don't like to wash dishes, why do they still not like to use dishwashers?

No dishwasher, mainly the kitchen can't fit

Initially, when dishwashers first entered the Chinese market, the reason why Chinese did not buy it was simple: they could not afford it.

At the beginning of 2000, the per capita disposable income in urban areas was only 6,860, and a dishwasher cost 1,500 to 3,000 yuan, which is equivalent to spending half a year's income to buy a dispensable dishwasher [7][5].

But now, more than 20 years later, the per capita disposable income has reached nearly 40,000 yuan. Tens of thousands of refrigerators and TVs are taken down casually, and thousands of dishwashers are naturally no longer something that is dissuaded by price. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, in February this year, the average online price of domestic dishwashers was 3,705 yuan, which is more than enough for ordinary families to buy an ordinary dishwasher [8][9].

So, why do Chinese still not like to use dishwashers?

Of course, there are some minor problems with dishwashers: for example, they take too long to clean, they need special detergents, and they have to throw out leftovers before washing...... Many people will think that the bowl has already been washed with this kung fu bowl.

But for young people, these minor problems may not be a problem compared to actually washing the dishes yourself – throwing out the dishes and buying a detergent sounds much easier than washing the dishes three times a day in the morning, noon and evening.

Dispose of leftovers before putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher Picture worm creativity

The main reason why Chinese do not buy dishwashers may be that there is really no place to install them.

Indeed, from the beginning of this century to the present day, there has been an increase in per capita living space. According to the national census data, the per capita residential floor area in mainland China was 21.81 square meters in 2000, and in 2020 it has increased to 41.76 square meters, almost doubling the original level [10][11].

However, this increase is not significant in regions with higher per capita incomes, such as Shanghai and Guangdong, where the per capita floor area of housing was just over 30 square meters in 2020, ranking lowest among provinces and cities in the country [10].

In other words, the per capita income in a big city can afford a dishwasher, but there is no place to install it, and in a small county town, people may have a small two-storey building but their income cannot keep up.

Moreover, from a national perspective, although the housing area has increased, the kitchen is still the same.

Around the 90s, although there was a reform of the housing system, but due to the limitation of the area of each house, the kitchen area was only about 3.5 to 4 square meters, until the full implementation of the housing commercialization reform in 98, apartment buildings sprung up in major cities, and the kitchen area rose to 6~8 square meters. As a result, only a few years later, in 2006, when the "National Six Points" policy was introduced and the small apartment policy was implemented, the kitchen area decreased again [12][13].

A 60-square-meter small and medium-sized house should have a living room of about 15 square meters, a master bedroom of nearly 15 square meters, a second bedroom of about 10 square meters, and a bathroom of less than 10 square meters.

Chinese kitchens have a small usable area and no extra space to install a dishwasher Picture worm creativity

Compared with the kitchens of European and American countries, they are much larger. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, the average size of a single-family home and multifamily home in the United States was about 235 square meters and 105 square meters, respectively – the average kitchen area in the United States is between 25 and 11 square meters based on 11% of the kitchens[15][16].

Going back to a 5-6 square meter Chinese kitchen, if you want a regular dishwasher, how much space do you need?

There are three types of dishwashers on the market today: tabletop, sink and built-in. Among them, the desktop and sink type, as the name suggests, are dishwashers placed on the countertop and placed in the sink, and both types of dishwashers have a common flaw: they cannot wash the pot. If you spend thousands of dollars on a dishwasher and end up having to wash the pots, you definitely don't think it's worth it. Therefore, a built-in dishwasher that can wash pots is the choice of most people.

Built-in dishwashers have a large interior space to meet the needs of more people Picture worm creativity

In the case of the foreign brand Whirlpool, a standard built-in dishwasher is about 0.6 meters wide and long, and about 0.8 meters high [17]. If the kitchen area is 5 square meters, leaving a distance of 0.6 meters in length and width outside the cabinet will affect movement, and if it is embedded in the cabinet, the necessary cabinet space will be reduced by about 0.25 cubic meters.

According to scholars' calculations, the necessary storage space in the kitchen of a household is about 1.24 cubic meters, which means that installing a built-in dishwasher will reduce the necessary storage space by nearly a quarter [18].

Therefore, the dishwasher that can fit in an American's 11-square-meter kitchen, and the 5-square-meter kitchen of an ordinary Chinese can't really fit.

Besides, about 15% of the country's population lives in rented houses, and it is a bit thankless to pay so much for a rented house to install a dishwasher [10].

On this level, the dishwasher, the average person is indeed a bit unattainable.

Chinese, hand-washed believers

While it's true that most kitchens don't fit, the dishwasher may be cleaner than if you wash it by hand.

Nowadays, domestic dishwashers usually use high temperature and high pressure and all-round spray technology, you only need to put the bowl in, and it will accept 72 degrees of hot water in all directions, so as to effectively remove the oil stains on the surface of the tableware [19].

Dishwashers launched by brands such as Midea and Fotile can not only wash dishes, but also fruits and vegetables. According to a study by China Agricultural University, ultrasonic dishwasher fruits and vegetables also had fewer pesticide residues compared to hand washing [20].

Some dishwashers have the function of washing fruits and vegetables Picture worm creativity

Not only that, but the dishwasher is also more energy-efficient. Foreign studies have shown that dishwashers consume 50 to 80 percent less water and consume 6 to 40 percent less energy than hand washing [21].

The China Consumers Association's comparative test report on household dishwashers also gave the same results: the electricity and water consumption of dishwashers were less than those of hand washing, and the difference in water consumption reached 16L – about 10% of the water consumption per person per day. In other words, a dishwasher can save about one-fifth of your daily water consumption by washing dishes twice a day [22][23].

The main reason is that the dishwasher uses a circular flushing method to clean the dishes, while hand washing is mostly cleaned with running water, which will cause more waste of water resources.

Hand washing is often done under running water, which is more likely to cause a waste of water resources Picture worm creativity

In the case of a large number of bowls, the dishwasher actually washes faster. Experiments with consumers in the UK have shown that it takes only 9 minutes to fill the dishwasher and take it out, compared to 60 minutes when washing all dishes by hand [24].

In this way, spending the money of a dishwasher is actually equivalent to saving money once and for all, saving money and protecting the environment.

However, even if the dishwasher washes are fast, clean and environmentally friendly, many Chinese still believe that hand washing is king, and this distrust is the same as the skepticism of washing machines decades ago.

Indeed, when the washing machine first entered China in the 80s, there was a stage of "not adapting to the water and soil". For example, the voltage in rural areas is unstable, the water pressure in cities is insufficient, the water quality in the north is hard, and the rainy season in the south is prone to bacterial growth [25].

The same is true for dishwashers, such as Chinese bowls that can't be cleaned at the beginning, and Chinese dishes that can't be cleaned with deep mouths [5][26].

Therefore, in the face of foreign cleaning machines, the Chinese still maintain the habit of hand washing for many years. According to a 2013 domestic study, although washing machines have long been introduced into ordinary people's homes, more than 20% of Chinese households still rely on hand washing, and nearly 40% of households use both hand washing and machine washing [27].

The notion that "washing clothes with a machine is better than washing them by hand" has only become known in recent years Picture worm creativity

Compared with laundry, the habit of Chinese hand washing dishes is more durable. Until 2023, according to Mintel's market report on dishwashing products, in China, the dishwasher ownership rate is only 35%, and hand washing dishes is still the main way to wash dishes. Even among those who own a dishwasher, 64% still wash dishes by hand occasionally.

And for the dishes that have been washed in the dishwasher, most consumers are still not at ease. Mintel data shows that more than 60% of sophisticated consumers will wash their dishes with water after the dishwasher because they are concerned that detergent will remain in the dishes [28].

However, the detergents that can be used have actually passed the national food safety standards, which clearly require that the level of residue in the detergent will not be harmful to human health under the recommended conditions of use [29].

National standard for food safety detergent GB 14930.1-2022

So, if you're still worried about dishwasher hygiene, you might want to take a risk. The last step to free your hands may be destined to fall on the dishwasher, which is known as the "last appliance".

Author | Lin Qifan 

Picture Editing | Fruits 

Content Editing | m six 

审核编辑 | 波   比 

WeChat edit | Wang Ming: Okay

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