Adjusting to an energy efficient dishwasher is a challenge!

[Miss Mary]

We bought our third DW in 19 years this past Spring. Come to find out that any automatic dishwasher manufactured in the past few years has to be energy efficient now, using less water. Which is a good thing. Ah but there is a catch (several in fact!)

Normal wash cycles are 120 minutes long, on average.

Rinse dishes before cleaning (more so than usual, especially fried egg or spaghetti residue), otherwise you will find baked-on food, that is difficult to remove after a wash/dry cycle.

Don't overload or load DW to capacity. My new DW seems to run best when there are gaps between dishes.

Finally, contrary to what my hubby thinks, the heat dry option is best. We never used it in the past but since our new DW uses small amounts of water, the dishes never seem to completely dry (even if left for a day after the cycle is complete and our jet dry reservoir is full).

After all this, I've often wondered if I'd better off hand washing dishes. LOL We prepare 95% of our meals at home and rarely eat or carry out meals. I often run our DW twice a day (to keep up with the volume of dirty dishes).

Anyone bought a new DW lately? And find it a challenge to get used to using one? Our new one seems so different from our previous automatic dishwashers. It stops and starts a lot too (characteristic of new DW's I'm told as well....).

I guess change is a good thing but this new DW isn't all it's cracked up to be either!

Thanks for reading....
Mary

[CajunMama]

It is a longer cycle. I can't figure out how the cycle can be twice as long as the old dw's and be more energy efficient! And you're so right about scrubbing the plates off more. So the dw uses less water now but you're using more water to rinse your dishes before loading them into the dw???

[Miss Mary]

It is a longer cycle. I can't figure out how the cycle can be twice as long as the old dw's and be more energy efficient! And you're so right about scrubbing the plates off more. So the dw uses less water now but you're using more water to rinse your dishes before loading them into the dw???

The actual DW uses less water and I still pre-rinse dishes before placing them on the racks, but I probably rinse a little longer. And use hot water to rinse. So in the end I wonder - where are the savings here? LOL

When I've prepared a large meal, I've often used so many dishes for prep and dishes that go in the fridge, I like to run the DW before dinner (holiday baking, or weekend times when we've had lunch dishes too). Otherwise it doesn't all fit at the end of dinner. Trouble is if I want to run it by 6, it has to start at 4! Preferably 3:30, so the dishes I put away are not too hot to touch.

Anyway, it's nice having a DW again, when our old went out, we put off shopping because of repeated winter storms. By the time we got around to buying one and then scheduling installation, it was April.

I just didn't expect to have to get used to all this efficiency-quirkiness! LOL

[Cookiely]

You also need to use a vinegar rinse on the new ones more often. Also, as stated rinse more, less soap, don't overcrowd. I'm not sure if its worth it or not.

[Miss Mary]

cookiely - how often do you run white vinegar thru your DW? I've long since used it to clean our coffee maker (once a month or so). Just never tried it on the DW before......

I don't think we have a choice anymore. Got the impression from Consumer Reports and the appliance store we like, that all DW's manufactured after a specific date must be energy efficient.

Now I will say that once I had to run a quick load and I knew all the dishes inside weren't that dirty, with food residue or anything. So I chose light wash. It took 90 minutes, start to finish. That is the fastest I can run a load thru. Our old one was 50 minutes - I loved that short cycle! So much so, that it eventually died.....may it RIP. LOL