> Federal efficiency standards transformed dishwashers into marathon cleaners. Modern machines take 2.5 to 4 hours per cycle—a far cry from the quick turnarounds families actually need. The Department of Energy’s push for water conservation limits new models to 5 gallons per cycle, with proposals dropping that to 3.2 gallons by 2027. You get cleaner dishes eventually, but “eventually” doesn’t work when kids need their lunch containers ready for tomorrow morning.
I bought one recently. There's a fast cycle. The manual indicates the option uses more energy and water; it completes in ~30 minutes. All the other dishwashers we looked at had a similar feature.
My family of four is usually just fine with the ~3 hour cycle. It corresponds quite well with our three meals a day; the lunch containers are most certainly clean by "tomorrow morning".
> Your dishwasher demands $600 to $1,200 upfront, plus $200 to $400 when specialized parts inevitably fail. Annual operating costs hit $60 to $130 for efficient models, reaching $218 for older units depending on local energy rates. Compare that to handwashing: immediate results, zero equipment investment, and complete control over timing. The math increasingly favors the sink.
If you value your time (and a lifetime of skin/joint wear-and-tear) at $0/hour, sure. And the sink has its own upfront ($500-$1000; https://www.homedepot.com/b/Kitchen-Kitchen-Sinks-Drop-in-Ki...) and operating (sponges, hot water, more water per washed dish) costs.
Volundr · 2h ago
Yeah I've never understood the complaint about dishwashers taking too long. Are people waiting until they need a dish to run them? We add dishes to ours till it's ~full and run it, which probably results in 2-3 times a week. If there's a dirty dish we need we either run it early or hand wash that dish quickly. In general when we run it it's welcome to take as long as it wants because that's time we spending doing literally anything other than washing dishes.
slau · 1h ago
The amount of water required to wash by hand is exorbitant compared to the efficiency of a dishwasher.
Last time I checked, handwashing is 3 times less efficient in water usage than in the best case scenario (for handwashing), and 40 times less efficient in water usage in the worst case scenario.
Plus, even if we were to assume that somehow a human manages to use the same amount of water, then you’re still warming up the water somehow. It doesn’t become magically hot by exiting the tap, so the vast majority of the dishwasher’s electric running cost would now be shouldered by the water heating unit. Except it’s now 3-40x more water that needs to be warmed up.
sshine · 34m ago
I measured my water usage washing by hand many years ago and can easily match the machine's usage.
The trick is to reuse the water for scrubbing/soaping and "flash rinse" by quickly turning off the water when rinsing.
Also, that's not how I wash dishes by hand any more; I splurge with the warm water used per cleaned item. But I still don't let it run for more than a few seconds. It just feels wasteful.
> you’re still warming up the water somehow
This is somewhat a sunk cost for most people: Unless you turn off the warm water in your pipes, constantly keeping warm water available costs something and using a bit of it costs very little in addition. We really should be thinking of turning off water heating at times when we know for certain it's not being used, and only heat up water anticipating usage. There's a lot of energy to be saved for modern smart homes (or anyone who cares to manually regulate, or simply has to because they're using wood burners and such).
That is assuming you don't use highly isolated water bodies as thermal batteries.
ceejayoz · 18m ago
> We really should be thinking of turning off water heating at times when we know for certain it's not being used, and only heat up water anticipating usage.
That’s what tankless water heaters are for. I’ve had one for a decade, it’s lovely.
heisenbit · 2h ago
The comparison is a lesson in manipulation. Energy cost of the dishwasher vs. no energy cost for hand washing. Last but not least what is not mentioned is cooking. Cooking and eating at home makes a lot of dishes dirty in a short period of time. On top if you have spent time cooking at least I am not so inclined in continuing afterwards in the kitchen to wash up.
yongjik · 8m ago
I just checked my city's website and our residential water rate for 2026 is $2.97 per CCF (which is apparently "100 cubic feet" = 748 gallon, aren't Imperial Units beautiful). So, a dishwasher that's using 5 gallons of water every day will cost us 60 cents per month.
And this is residential water, which is vastly more expensive (and thus less wasteful) than agricultural usage, at least here in California.
Anybody who's trying to optimize this should re-examine their priorities.
* That said, my current dishwasher takes about 2.5 hours to run, and that was never a problem. If you can afford a home in California you can afford more than one set of dishes.
jerlam · 3h ago
Seems like a bunch of random links in support of a predetermined conclusion.
The declining usage of, or presence of dishwashers, isn't supported in any way. Yes, they are more efficient based on a law that was passed in 2013, and another that will come into effect in 2027. The 20% usage statistic doesn't say if that's increasing or decreasing. People watching Tiktok doesn't indicate anything about their current or previous behavior. The claim about tiny homes is contradicted by the same article suggesting that people moving to the city want more, not less dishwashers.
This government study from 2015 which seems to be the source of the "20% don't use weekly" stat suggests that it's mostly the poor who don't use their dishwashers:
I'm guessing it's because their dishwashers are old and broken, and they can't afford to get a new one, not that they would because they rent.
comrade1234 · 2h ago
My dishwasher's manual says that it's more efficient to rinse even a few dishes in the dishwasher instead of hand rinsing (rinse, not a full wash). The manual shows the energy and water used for each function but I just can't bring myself to believe it...
(I live in Switzerland where water is so cheap they don't even put individual water meters on each apartment in a building but the electricity to heat the water up can be pricey)
krackers · 1h ago
There's a technology connections video about this where he does an actual comparison of water usage.
TheChaplain · 2h ago
I quite don't understand the issue, yes they do take some time to do the dishes but modern machines have very efficient water consumption compared to hand washing the same load.
Mine takes about 3.5h to clean in eco-mode. I set it to run just before I go to bed so it's everything is crisp and dry well before I wake up.
The win for me is time, less dry hands and a little happiness that I've not wasted too much clean water.
unnamed76ri · 3h ago
The article talks about the expense of a dishwasher while totally ignoring how much money it costs people to order food delivery all the time.
Dining out is 285% more expensive than making food at home. I’ve never gotten food delivered but that adds additional costs of course.
TheChaplain · 1h ago
Also the amount of plastic garbage that piles up. One container for the noodles, one for the chicken, 2 or more small ones for sauces/condiments, utensils and so on..
delichon · 2h ago
Am I unhygienic? I grew up with a dishwasher, but since leaving home I just give a dish a ten second scrub in hot water with a sponge and dish soap, make sure there are no visible food particles, and set it out to dry. Am I flirting with danger by failing to sterilize my plates? I have room for a dishwasher, I just don't see the point.
ceejayoz · 2h ago
Dishwashers aren't a huge difference from a hygenic perspective. (Assuming you periodically replace the sponge, use hot water, etc.)
It's time that's the main factor. Ten seconds per dish becomes a lot if you have a lot of dishes, and some dishes take longer than that - delicates like champagne glasses, large pans, caked-on stuff, etc.
whatevaa · 1h ago
Inexpensive delicate glasses might not survive a dishwasher. Not everything is dishwasher safe.
jmclnx · 23m ago
>Limits new models to 5 gallons per cycle, with proposals dropping that to 3.2 gallons by 2027
This is why. Where I live, I and everyone can leave showers on 24/7 and there would still not be an impact in the amount of water in our area.
The only impact would be due to water treatment throughput. The various water departments refuse to increase throughput because they do not want to spend. Even with the current throughput, there is absolutely need for these water limits here.
We are being forced to live in a desert because of the Western part of the US.
BugsJustFindMe · 41m ago
In what bizarro-world universe does a 4 hour cycle prevent dishes from being clean by the next morning? Does this family sleep for fewer than 4 hours at night?
> Developers squeeze kitchens into spaces where full-size dishwashers become luxury items rather than standard fixtures.
I mean, ok, but that's just depressing capitalism making everything shittier, not actually a personal choice people are rationally making for themselves on the merits.
> Meanwhile, your DoorDash habit means fewer dishes hit the sink anyway. When dinner arrives in disposable containers, that $600 to $1,200 machine starts looking like expensive counter space you’ll never reclaim...
It feels nuts to talk about a doordash habit in one breath and the cost of the machine in the next. A "doordash habit" costs more than the price of a top of the line new machine every year.
Ekaros · 40m ago
Well here you are not supposed to run dishwasher or clotheswasher during night due to risk of water damage. They are supposed to be observed while operating.
BugsJustFindMe · 38m ago
I have never heard of this, and I've lived in a lot of different countries. Where are you?
Ekaros · 29m ago
Finland. This mostly comes from insurance companies. But both water and fire risks seems to exist. Even if they are somewhat rare.
ceejayoz · 15m ago
Even with that, dinner at 6, bed at 10 leaves plenty of time. Or you use the speed cycle.
I just pop a $30 leak sensor by my washer. The only water damage I’ve had was a broken pipe in the walls.
pj_mukh · 2h ago
Gawd, this is extremely unpopular to say in some circles especially in California (looking at you Boomers of Sierra Club), but a West Coast Manhattan project on how to sustainably desalinate Ocean Water would make most of these “lipstick on a pig” solutions moot.
“Don’t use too much water in the dishwasher, don’t grow almonds, don’t build too many apartments, we don’t have the water”
Getting screamed at with all this while living next to a literal Ocean of water is just so tiringly frustrating.
BugsJustFindMe · 25m ago
> project on how to sustainably desalinate Ocean Water would...
...be an engineering challenge that the world has not solved yet. We use a lot of water. I don't think you understand the scale of what you're talking about.
All 16000 desalination plants in the entire world combined produce[0] only about 8% of the amount of fresh water the US uses[1].
I bought one recently. There's a fast cycle. The manual indicates the option uses more energy and water; it completes in ~30 minutes. All the other dishwashers we looked at had a similar feature.
My family of four is usually just fine with the ~3 hour cycle. It corresponds quite well with our three meals a day; the lunch containers are most certainly clean by "tomorrow morning".
> Your dishwasher demands $600 to $1,200 upfront, plus $200 to $400 when specialized parts inevitably fail. Annual operating costs hit $60 to $130 for efficient models, reaching $218 for older units depending on local energy rates. Compare that to handwashing: immediate results, zero equipment investment, and complete control over timing. The math increasingly favors the sink.
If you value your time (and a lifetime of skin/joint wear-and-tear) at $0/hour, sure. And the sink has its own upfront ($500-$1000; https://www.homedepot.com/b/Kitchen-Kitchen-Sinks-Drop-in-Ki...) and operating (sponges, hot water, more water per washed dish) costs.
Last time I checked, handwashing is 3 times less efficient in water usage than in the best case scenario (for handwashing), and 40 times less efficient in water usage in the worst case scenario.
Plus, even if we were to assume that somehow a human manages to use the same amount of water, then you’re still warming up the water somehow. It doesn’t become magically hot by exiting the tap, so the vast majority of the dishwasher’s electric running cost would now be shouldered by the water heating unit. Except it’s now 3-40x more water that needs to be warmed up.
The trick is to reuse the water for scrubbing/soaping and "flash rinse" by quickly turning off the water when rinsing.
Also, that's not how I wash dishes by hand any more; I splurge with the warm water used per cleaned item. But I still don't let it run for more than a few seconds. It just feels wasteful.
> you’re still warming up the water somehow
This is somewhat a sunk cost for most people: Unless you turn off the warm water in your pipes, constantly keeping warm water available costs something and using a bit of it costs very little in addition. We really should be thinking of turning off water heating at times when we know for certain it's not being used, and only heat up water anticipating usage. There's a lot of energy to be saved for modern smart homes (or anyone who cares to manually regulate, or simply has to because they're using wood burners and such).
That is assuming you don't use highly isolated water bodies as thermal batteries.
That’s what tankless water heaters are for. I’ve had one for a decade, it’s lovely.
And this is residential water, which is vastly more expensive (and thus less wasteful) than agricultural usage, at least here in California.
Anybody who's trying to optimize this should re-examine their priorities.
* That said, my current dishwasher takes about 2.5 hours to run, and that was never a problem. If you can afford a home in California you can afford more than one set of dishes.
The declining usage of, or presence of dishwashers, isn't supported in any way. Yes, they are more efficient based on a law that was passed in 2013, and another that will come into effect in 2027. The 20% usage statistic doesn't say if that's increasing or decreasing. People watching Tiktok doesn't indicate anything about their current or previous behavior. The claim about tiny homes is contradicted by the same article suggesting that people moving to the city want more, not less dishwashers.
This government study from 2015 which seems to be the source of the "20% don't use weekly" stat suggests that it's mostly the poor who don't use their dishwashers:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=31692
I'm guessing it's because their dishwashers are old and broken, and they can't afford to get a new one, not that they would because they rent.
(I live in Switzerland where water is so cheap they don't even put individual water meters on each apartment in a building but the electricity to heat the water up can be pricey)
Mine takes about 3.5h to clean in eco-mode. I set it to run just before I go to bed so it's everything is crisp and dry well before I wake up.
The win for me is time, less dry hands and a little happiness that I've not wasted too much clean water.
Dining out is 285% more expensive than making food at home. I’ve never gotten food delivered but that adds additional costs of course.
It's time that's the main factor. Ten seconds per dish becomes a lot if you have a lot of dishes, and some dishes take longer than that - delicates like champagne glasses, large pans, caked-on stuff, etc.
This is why. Where I live, I and everyone can leave showers on 24/7 and there would still not be an impact in the amount of water in our area.
The only impact would be due to water treatment throughput. The various water departments refuse to increase throughput because they do not want to spend. Even with the current throughput, there is absolutely need for these water limits here.
We are being forced to live in a desert because of the Western part of the US.
> Developers squeeze kitchens into spaces where full-size dishwashers become luxury items rather than standard fixtures.
I mean, ok, but that's just depressing capitalism making everything shittier, not actually a personal choice people are rationally making for themselves on the merits.
> Meanwhile, your DoorDash habit means fewer dishes hit the sink anyway. When dinner arrives in disposable containers, that $600 to $1,200 machine starts looking like expensive counter space you’ll never reclaim...
It feels nuts to talk about a doordash habit in one breath and the cost of the machine in the next. A "doordash habit" costs more than the price of a top of the line new machine every year.
I just pop a $30 leak sensor by my washer. The only water damage I’ve had was a broken pipe in the walls.
“Don’t use too much water in the dishwasher, don’t grow almonds, don’t build too many apartments, we don’t have the water”
Getting screamed at with all this while living next to a literal Ocean of water is just so tiringly frustrating.
...be an engineering challenge that the world has not solved yet. We use a lot of water. I don't think you understand the scale of what you're talking about.
All 16000 desalination plants in the entire world combined produce[0] only about 8% of the amount of fresh water the US uses[1].
[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00489...
[1] https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/cir1441
But don't worry. We're working on improving desalination too.