It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. But did you know that if you wash your hands of dirty dishes and let a dishwasher do the work, you can save money and water in the long run?
“It's actually more energy-efficient and water-efficient to put your dishes in a dishwasher than to wash by hand,” said Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman. “The easiest way to realize that is that the average faucet pumps two or two and a half gallons of water a minute, so if you just spent five minutes washing dishes, you’d be using as much water, sometimes more than a regular cycle in a dishwasher.”
The folks at Consumer Reports recently put dishwashers to the test and we took Lehrman to Best Buy where she offered up some dirt on dishwashers.
If you are looking to buy or replace one, don't waste money on cycles you won’t use. Lehrman suggests a normal, a heavy and a light wash.
Dishwashers have come a long way, but before you buy one, don't. Jill Scott has all you need to know in part one of her two-part series on dishwashers.
Experts say you should only run your dishwasher when it’s full, but what should you do if you have a few dishes and you don't want them sitting dirty for a week? Well, some machines now offer a rinse cycle. It will rinse them off, so they can sit for a few days, but still use less water than a regular cycle.
Other bells and whistles include a steam cycle, which uses steam to improve cleaning performance.
“In our test we found that it didn't really make much of a difference and it was also pretty pricey,” said Lehrman. “The second option we’re concentrated spray jets and that’s just extra jets pointed in a specific area of the machine where you can put your extra dirty pots and pans and that we did find made a difference, but you can really get your dishes clean without either one of those features.”
Then choose the control panel. Do you want buttons on the outside so you can see options and know where you are in the cycle? Or do you want the sleek look of no buttons at all? Or a mix of both?
Also look inside and check the configuration of the racks. Look for folding shelves and extra compartments to maximize space. Then consider the grinder.
“I bet you wonder where all that gunk goes in the dishwasher,” said Lehrman. “Well, most have a grinder and what it does is chops up all those pieces into small pieces and flushes them down the drain. There are two options in the grinder. Some of them are self-cleaning and others you have to pull out and clean occasionally.”
There's a lot to think about. For more tips and ratings check out www.consumerreports.org so you can get the complete dish on dishwashers.