10 Essential Dishwasher Tips to Save Money and Boost Efficiency

If you regularly use your dishwasher for kitchen cleanup, you’re likely already saving water, energy, and money. Washing dishes by hand isn’t just an often tedious chore. It’s wasteful and inefficient too. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, employing a modern Energy Star-certified dishwasher will use less than 50% as much energy as handwashing and save approximately 8,000 gallons of water in a single year. Those energy and water savings are good for the environment and your wallet alike.

A few everyday practices and maintenance tasks can help you maximize your dishwasher’s saving potential. Below are 10 tips to keep in mind at home.

10 Dishwasher Tips That Can Save You Money

Paying a little attention to how and when you use your dishwasher can make your machine more efficient, which in turn results in financial savings that grow over time. Here are some tips to take advantage of.

1. Run your dishwasher only when it’s fully loaded.

It doesn’t pay to run a wash cycle with a half-full or nearly empty dishwasher. You’ll save money, energy, and water by delaying a cycle until you have a full load’s worth of dishes, and you’ll probably extend the lifespan of your dishwasher as well.

If you find yourself running the dishwasher prematurely to clean one or two dishes that you use quite often, consider upping your inventory so that you’re more likely to have a similar clean dish on hand.

2. Don’t overcrowd your dishwasher or obstruct the sprayer arms. 

Run full loads, but don’t overload. There comes a point when loading too many items in your dishwasher counteracts the efficiency of running fewer cycles. The water and detergent within the appliance needs to be in contact with all surfaces of each dish. If dishes are stacked vertically or too close together, the internal mechanisms of the dishwasher won’t be able to wash away oils and other food remnants. 

Also consider how the size or placement of your dishes might affect the movement of the sprayer arms in the dishwasher. Sprayer arms typically rotate within the appliance to evenly distribute water across the plates, bowls, cups, cutlery, and so on. Some cookware, like an oversized plate or long-handled cooking utensil, could be oriented in such a way as to block the sprayer arms’ motion. Think of it like putting a stick in the spokes of a bicycle wheel. 

To check for an obstruction, you can manually spin the sprayer arms to ensure clearance after you’ve loaded the dishwasher. The worst case is you just have to wash the oversized cookware by hand.

3. Maintain an appropriate water temperature.

There’s definitely a Goldilocks zone for a dishwasher’s water temperature. Too cold and you risk not adequately sanitizing your dishes and leaving an oily residue or food debris on your cookware and tableware. Too hot and you waste energy by heating water more than is necessary. Some dishes can’t hold up to superhot water as well.

The ideal temperature for most dishwashers is around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. You can likely set this temperature at your water heater, calling on the help of a professional technician as needed. But always refer to the owner’s manual for your dishwasher for more precise information.

4. Keep the dishwasher trap free of debris.

The bottom of your dishwasher likely has a removable trap that catches food particles and other debris. If you don’t remove and clean the trap somewhat regularly, food remains build up, which can cause inefficient cleaning, unpleasant odors, and dishwater drainage problems.

Figuring out how to unclog a dishwasher trap is usually straightforward. Open the dishwasher and look for the trap on the bottom surface of the machine. The trap is often cylindrical, and you may have to remove the bottom dish rack to access it. Gently twist and extract the trap, then scrape off any debris into the trash. Rinse the trap with some soapy water before returning it to the dishwasher and locking it into place. 

How often you should clean your dishwasher trap is dependent on how diligent you are about wiping down your dishes before loading them into the machine. If you tend to load your dishwasher with dishes that have plenty of food residue, clean your trap every two or three weeks. If you wipe and rinse your dishes before loading, you can get away with cleaning the trap two or three times per year.

5. Regularly clean and inspect seals, gaskets, and nozzles.

Damaged seals and gaskets can lead to some of the most common dishwasher problems, including leaks. The door gasket, for example, can become warped or corroded due to prolonged exposure to heat and humidity. This keeps the gasket from forming a tight seal when the dishwasher door is closed, allowing water or steam to escape and impairing the appliance’s cleaning and drying efficiency.

Once a week or so, wipe down the door gasket and inspect it for damage. Also examine the interior of your dishwasher for clogged nozzles on the sprayer arms. Food debris or minerals from the water can build up on the nozzles, decreasing the dishwasher’s efficiency. You can resolve clogged nozzles by gently wiping them with a damp cloth.

6. Wipe down dishes before loading them into your dishwasher.

Dishwashers are expressly designed to rinse residue from dishes, so thoroughly rinsing your dishes before loading them into the machine usually isn’t necessary—in fact, it tends to be a waste of water. But it’s best practice to do a cursory wipe of the dishes with a cloth or sponge to remove larger crumbs, sauce remnants, oils, and other debris. Fewer food particles will circulate during the wash cycle, and you’ll be less likely to encounter a clog in your trap, drain, or air gap.

7. Use energy-efficient cycles.

There’s no need to keep your dishwasher stuck on the cycles that consume the most energy. If you’re wiping your dishes before loading them into the machine, the heavy load or extra long settings probably aren’t required. 

Similarly, you might consider skipping the dry boost features that some washers have. The extra heat uses more electricity, and normal drying cycles usually suffice—you may just have to blot a few clean dishes with a dry towel if there are some lingering drops of water.

Also check if your dishwasher has an eco setting or other mode to boost the appliance’s energy efficiency.

8. Periodically clean interior surfaces.

It is also important to routinely wipe down the interior surfaces of the dishwasher. Soapy residue, food remains, and minerals from your water can gradually accumulate into a film. Over time, this fine layer of grime can prevent your dishwasher from effectively cleaning your glassware. You may start to see streaks on your plates, bowls, cups, and silverware, and in turn waste time, money, and energy by rewashing them in the dishwasher or by washing them by hand in the sink.

To clean the inside of your dishwasher, all you really need is a warm, damp, and soapy rag. Wipe down the interior walls and the inside of the door, and also be sure to clean the ceiling and floor of the dishwasher, getting under and in between the sprayer arms. 

9. Treat your home water.

Hard water, or water with a significant amount of dissolved minerals, can also make your dishwasher less effective. The mineral content makes it harder for the soap to do its job, and a soapy film may remain after the dishwasher’s cycle has completed. 

So: how to stop a dishwasher from suffering from hard water? There are a few options. One is to install a water softener in your home. If your dishwasher suffers from hard water, your sinks, showers, and washing machine are probably affected as well.

You could also install a localized dishwasher water softener device, or simply add dishwasher salt—or even standard coarse salt—to the dishwasher whenever you run a cycle.

10. Use the appropriate detergent and rinse aid.

Consumers have a variety of dishwasher detergents to choose from. There are pods, powders, liquids, and gels. Some are formulated for harder water. Make sure you’re picking the right one.

Consult with your dishwasher’s user’s manual to determine if the manufacturer recommends a specific kind of detergent. If there is no specific recommendation, you might defer to pods, which have sometimes been shown to be more effective than powder and liquid or gel varieties. That said, powder detergent may be good at minimizing streaks, so it could be a good option if you tend to wash a large volume of glassware. 

Whatever you do, don’t use dish soap in your dishwasher. You’ll quickly see a plume of soap suds emerge from your dishwasher and spill across the kitchen floor.

You can also prevent spots and streaks by using dishwasher rinse aid. This lowers the surface tension of the water, making it—and the calcium, magnesium, and other minerals dissolved within it—less likely to adhere to ceramic, glass, plastic, and metal surfaces. 

How Much Does It Cost to Use a Dishwasher?

We sometimes think of home appliances as luxuries that consume excess energy, but dishwashers—especially well-maintained ones—can actually save you money and time. The cost per cycle varies by model and your local electricity and water costs, but the U.S. Department of Energy states that a standard energy-efficient dishwasher can cost you somewhere between $35 to $50 per year to run. Considering about one cycle per day, that’s less than 10 cents per use.

Finally, remember that you can avoid the expenses associated with repairing a malfunctioning dishwasher by maintaining warranty protection throughout the appliance’s lifetime. Learn more about Liberty Home Guard’s dishwasher warranty protection by calling us.