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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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I used to feel that the dishwasher should be full for efficiency, environmental reasons, water bill, and such. Then, I added a water flow meter to my Home Assistant setup.
A full dishwasher cycle uses 4 gallons of water.
Four. Gallons.
Yeah, run that thing when you need it.
For comparison: that's flushing the toilet about three times or showering for about two minutes.
It does work out in my household to run it in the evening or early morning, which aligns with my energy concern's ToU pricing. It also works out that it's usually the coolest at night, so venting the steam into the house either isn't as bad during the summer or helps out in Winter.
There IS electricity, but..... it's also not much. I think I calculated a total cost of about a quarter for mine last year or so....... so yeah, I don't run it because of the ADHD, not because of the cost :)
I should calculate it, but I wouldn't be surprised if my water flow sensor uses more electricity in a year than the dishwasher. It's very low-current, but it's on 24/7.
Some of us live in places with drought issues.
For comparison, my daily shower, with a low-flow shower head, uses 12 to 13 gallons. Hand-washing a large item, like a cooking pot, can take several gallons.
Yep, these days washing dishes by hand almost always takes more water than using a dishwasher
I always hear that but I'm not convinced. If I don't rinse my dishes till their pretty damn clean then they come out of the dishwasher dirty. Been like this on every dishwasher I have used, at my house, at my parents house, at my SO's house when they got a brand new one, at my friends house I can go on I have a decent sample size. If you count all the rinsing and a wash cycle I highly doubt it's less. Plus when I wash dishes by hand I usually have several to do, and use a warm container of soapy water for my sponge. Besides the quart or 2 tops in my dish bin, it uses the same amount of water to rinse the suds off if not less than is necessary to rinse dishes before they go in the machine due to the sponge scrubbing. Maybe all 5+ dishwashers ive used are just shit 🤷
Do you live somewhere with very hard water? That fucks up powder dishwashing detergent IME, but the enzyme-based works fine for me in hard water probably 98% of the time. It has trouble with caked on peanut butter, but I blame that on the angle it was put in usually. If you used enzyme based and don't have hard water then 🤷♂️
My water quality fluctuates but usually around 55ppm, so not terribly hard. I do use some I believe enzyme based tablets for dishwasher and their ok but if it's caked on from yesterday or anything more than a few thousandths thick it seems to struggle. No matter what peanut butter and the dishwasher don't mix gotta wipe that butter knife off 🤣
OH, do you run hot water in your sink first? Most kitchens are arranged so that the sink and dishwasher share a water line, and there’s a fair amount of cold water to clear out first before the hot water can travel through the pipes to get there. If you don’t then the water in your dishwasher will be tepid. A lot of dishwashers struggle to heat it, and cold water cleans worse. Assuming it’s not hooked directly to a hot water line.
I have heard of the hot water first, and may have to run an experimant one of these days lol. But I have had the rinsing so engrained that I would have to consciously NOT rinse them as well to run a dirtier load to see a difference lol. Old habits die hard, at least my water bills cheap enough...