A New Approach to Dishwashing:
Transforming Everyday Leisure Time
LG Electronics 'Dishwashing Lifestyle Awareness Survey' - Awareness of Water Waste in Hand Dishwashing
With the normalization of dual-income households and heightened hygiene awareness following the COVID-19 pandemic, dishwashers have established themselves as leading examples of so-called "housework-liberating home appliances," alongside dryers and robot vacuum cleaners. Dishwashers are now seen as both a hygiene solution-managing dish cleanliness through high-temperature sterilization-and as appliances that reduce housework time, thereby expanding leisure time and transforming the landscape of home life. Major manufacturers such as LG Electronics are responding to these lifestyle changes by introducing dishwasher lineups with enhanced sterilization performance and user convenience, accelerating market expansion.
The Normalization of Dual-Income Households and Time Poverty: A Paradigm Shift in Home Appliance Consumption
The rapid rise of dishwashers as essential appliances is rooted in the absolute lack of time available for housework. According to the National Data Office's "Proportion of Dual-Income Couples by Age Group," as of 2024, dual-income households account for 48% of all households, nearly half. This means that one in two couples both work, making the efficiency of housework after work hours directly linked to leisure time.
The imbalance in the distribution of housework is also cited as a factor driving demand for dishwashers. According to National Data Office indicators, the average daily housework time for married individuals is 54 minutes for men and 171 minutes for women, with women still spending more than three times as much time as men. This gap often becomes a source of conflict in dual-income households.
In fact, according to LG Electronics' "Dishwashing Lifestyle Awareness Survey" conducted from February to April 2025 with 20,020 adults nationwide, 56.2% of married respondents said they had felt resentment toward their spouse due to dishwashing. This demonstrates that housework, including dishwashing, can lead to relationship fatigue.
Changing Hygiene Standards After the Pandemic: Questioning Hand Dishwashing
With increased attention to health and hygiene following the COVID-19 pandemic, the belief that dishes are only truly clean when washed by hand has begun to be re-examined through objective hygiene data. According to research from the University of Furtwangen in Germany, 362 types of bacteria were detected on kitchen sponges, and some samples contained up to 5.4 billion bacteria per square centimeter. This has raised concerns that the tools used in hand dishwashing can actually act as carriers for bacteria.
Given that common food poisoning bacteria and other harmful germs are killed at temperatures of 70-75°C or higher, the perception is spreading that dishwashers, which use hot water around 80°C or steam at 100°C, are more advantageous from a hygiene perspective than hand washing, which cannot maintain water above 40°C for long periods.
Numbers Shatter Preconceptions: Dishwashers Are Cleaner and More Water-Efficient Than Hand Washing
However, doubts about cleaning power have not easily disappeared during the spread of dishwashers. In fact, in a survey of 1,965 men and women in their 50s who do not use dishwashers, more than half (53.6%) responded that "dishwashers are not as clean as hand washing."
But comparative experimental data refute this notion. In a comparative experiment conducted by Professor Lee Ji-hyun's Sensory Science Laboratory at Pusan National University using identically soiled dishes, dishwashers scored 91.7 points for cleaning efficiency, far surpassing hand washing (73.3 points). Dishwashers showed particularly outstanding performance with deep containers, cups with narrow openings, and greasy frying pans-items difficult to clean thoroughly by hand.
The difference in water usage was also significant. A 12-place-setting dishwasher uses about 14.3 liters of water per cycle, whereas hand washing under running water averages 150 liters. In other words, hand washing uses more than ten times as much water as a dishwasher. According to the survey, 68.7% of respondents were unaware that hand washing is wasteful of water, but this data analysis proves that dishwashers are also a rational choice from a resource efficiency perspective.
The Evolution of Dishwasher Technology: Beyond Cleaning to Management
In response to market changes, manufacturers are developing technologies tailored to Korean kitchen environments, further solidifying the trend of dishwashers as essential appliances. Since launching its 100°C TrueSteam dishwasher model in 2019, LG Electronics has continuously improved hygiene, capacity, and convenience to keep pace with rapidly changing lifestyles, introducing a heat-drying model with enhanced sterilization during the pandemic, a 14-place-setting large-capacity model in 2023, and an energy efficiency grade 1 model in 2025.
LG Electronics' "Dios Dishwasher" series, which incorporates this advanced technology, is recognized for not only its cleaning performance but also its enhanced sterilization and drying capabilities, alleviating hygiene concerns. The product uses 100°C TrueSteam technology to achieve sterilization performance that eliminates 99.999% of 28 types of harmful bacteria and viruses, including those that cause food poisoning. This allows hygiene-conscious households to manage dishes without a separate disinfection process.
Additionally, it is the only dishwasher in Korea equipped with a water softener device that reduces lime scale in tap water, preventing white water stains on dishes after drying and addressing visual cleanliness. The triple drying system, which combines water-cooled condensation drying, automatic door-opening drying, and hot air drying using external air, also helps manage internal moisture and odors.
Baek Seungmin, Kitchen Solution Marketing Manager at LG Electronics Korea Sales Division, stated, "According to our own survey of over 2,400 dishwasher users, 8 out of 10 said they would not want to go back to the days before owning a dishwasher, indicating a very high level of user satisfaction. Technological innovation and enhanced hygiene management functions tailored to changes in users' eating habits will continue to drive growth in the dishwasher market."
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