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Probably depends on your local water and energy cost/regulations. Energy star dishwashers are so energy efficient that you have to run them basically empty befo
by ashtonkem 6y ago
Probably depends on your local water and energy cost/regulations. Energy star dishwashers are so energy efficient that you have to run them basically empty before it’s better to hand wash. We really should be encouraging more countries to install more dishwashers, counterintuitively.
- greggman3 6y agoI probably need to read the studies in more detail but they always seem to mention "a full dishwasher". Back when I used one it was never full, usually at most 20-30% full and yet it uses the same amount of water regardless. In order to fill it I'd need 4x-5x the dishes and only run it once every 4-5 days and hope that it still got things clean after they'd dried that long and that the machine didn't attract insects for the rotting food inside as waited for their to be enough dishes for it to be full.
- ashtonkem 6y agoThat’s not the right comparison to make. The comparison is between the amount of water the dishwasher uses (regardless of load) and how much water washing by hands uses. Dish washers use a surprisingly small amount of water (3 gallons per load on average). So the correct comparison is “do I run the sink long enough to consume more than 3 gallons of water when hand washing?” Chances are it’s slightly more efficient for you to run the dishwasher half full than hand wash.