Boil Water Advisory and washing dishes?

My town received heavy rainfall and minor flooding last week. We have been under a boil water advisory for a week. It seems mostly precautionary. I have dipped into my emergency supply of bottled water for drinking. But what about washing dishes? Any tips? Would you wash with hot water from the tap? If not tips on how to boil water and get an optimal temperature to wash?Boil Water Advisory and washing dishes?
Use the largest pots you have and boil the water on your stove. Let it cool enough so that you can use it to wash your dishes. Pour the water into your sink. One side for washing and one side for rinsing. The water in your hot water tank is not hot enough to kill any organisms that may be in your water. So boil before using...:)Boil Water Advisory and washing dishes?
My advice is that using rubber gloves helped, as it meant I could start right away, even while the water was very hot. Report Abuse

Your welcome!! I'm glad it's back to normal...Thanks.:) Report Abuse

When you're in a boild water situation, you want to wash your dishes in boiled water as well. You put on a pot of water and fill up to 1/2 inch from brim. Bring water to a rolling boil and keep it at that boil for 8 minutes to give time for the heat to kill all the bacteria in the water. Then pour into the sink over your dishes. Do the same for your rinse water too.
Washing your dishes would be best done using the hottest water that you can stand with a liberal dose of a chlorine based sanitizer such as bleach. The boiling water point is to kill most of the bacteria in the water. Using a boiling hot water rinse for the dishes would also be a very good idea. Water borne bacteria can be deadly or just a long time of discomfort.
If you dont want to boil the water for washing dishes, which I strongly recomend, another very good way to do it is fill one side of the sink with hot soapy tap water. Fill the other side with plain hot tap water and add about a quarter cup of liquid bleach. After you wash the dishes, let them air dry. Do not use a towel because a towel will wipe off the bleach before it has a chance to kill the germs and bacteria. Also, using a towel can redistribute any missed bacteria, germs, food particles, which turns your dishes into large petri dishes. Eww I know but true.