Dishwashers
ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers use advanced technology to get your dishes clean while using less water and energy.
- Trim your utility bills — Do you have a dishwasher made before 1994? If so, you're paying an extra $35 a year on your utility bills compared to owning a new ENERGY STAR certified model. Replace one of these old dishwashers with ENERGY STAR and save enough money to pay for dishwasher detergent all year.
- Save loads of water — A dishwasher built before 1994 wastes more than 10 gallons of water per cycle. A new, ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher will save, on average, 3,870 gallons of water over its lifetime.
- Save the environment — Approximately 65 percent of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal and natural gas, which releases greenhouse gases and other air pollutants into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change and air quality problems. ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers use less energy than conventional models, which helps reduce air pollution and combat global climate change. By reducing water consumption, ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers also help protect our lakes, streams, and oceans.
- Find out more ways to save water and help protect our nation's water supply.
Advanced Technology
Dishwasher technology has improved dramatically over the last decade. New ENERGY STAR certified models include several innovations that reduce energy and water consumption and improve performance.
- Soil sensors test how dirty dishes are throughout the wash and adjust the cycle to achieve optimum cleaning with minimum water and energy use.
- Improved water filtration removes food soils from the wash water allowing efficient use of detergent and water throughout the cycle. The final clean-water rinse assures your dishes come out sparkling.
- More efficient jets use less energy to spray detergent and water over the dishes when cleaning.
- Innovative dish rack designs maximize cleaning by strategically situating the dishes.
Saving Water Helps Protect Our Nation's Water Supplies
Using water-saving techniques can save you money, and diverts less water from our rivers, bays, and estuaries which helps keep the environment healthy. It can also reduce water and wastewater treatment costs and the amount of energy used to treat, pump, and heat water. This lowers energy demand, which helps prevent air pollution.
It's not just the dry western areas of the country which need to be concerned with water efficiency. As our population continues to grow, demands on precious water resources increase. There are many opportunities to use household water more efficiently without reducing services. Homes with high-efficiency plumbing fixtures and appliances save about 30 percent of indoor water use and yield substantial savings on water, sewer, and energy bills. Start saving today.
Top Five Ways to Save
- Stop leaks. Check all water-using appliances, equipment, and other devices for leaks. Running toilets, steady faucet drips, home water treatment units, and outdoor sprinkler systems are common sources of leaks.
- Replace old toilets. The major water use inside the home is toilet flushing. If your home was built before 1992 and you haven't replaced your toilets recently, you probably could benefit from installing high efficiency toilets that use 1.6 gallons or less per flush. A family of four can save 16,000 to 27,000 gallons of water per year by making this change.
- Replace old clothes washers. Washers are the second largest water user in your home. If your clothes washer is old, you should consider replacing it with an ENERGY STAR certified clothes washer. Most ENERGY STAR clothes washers use four times less energy than those manufactured before 1999. To save more water, look for a clothes washer with a low water factor. The lower the water factor, the less water the machine uses. Water factor is listed on the Product Finder.
- Plant the right plants. Whether you're installing a new landscape or changing the existing one, select plants that are appropriate for your climate and use a suitable landscape and irrigation design. Consider landscaping techniques designed to create a visually attractive landscape by using low-water and drought-resistant grass, plants, shrubs, and trees. If maintained properly, climate appropriate landscaping can use less than one-half the water of a traditional landscape.
- Provide only the water plants need. Automatic landscape irrigation systems are a home's biggest water user. To make sure you're not over-watering, adjust your irrigation controller at least once a month to account for changes in the weather and install a rain shutoff device, soil moisture sensor, or humidity sensor to better control irrigation.
For more information on how you can save water, visit EPA's Using Water Efficiently: Ideas for Residences.
Current Specification Effective Date: January 29, 2016
Dishwashers originally earned the ENERGY STAR label in June, 1996. ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers are 12% more efficient than non-certified models and are more efficient than models that simply meet the federal minimum standard for energy efficiency.
What else should I look for when buying a dishwasher?
Check the yellow EnergyGuide label.
The EnergyGuide label tells you how much energy it takes to operate a dishwasher. Use it to compare the energy use of similar models and estimate annual operating costs. Learn How to Use the EnergyGuide Label.
Choose the right size for your home.
Standard-capacity models hold more than eight place settings and six serving pieces, while compact-capacity models hold up to that amount. If you have to operate a compact model more frequently, over time you may use more energy than you would with a standard model.
Choose a dishwasher with several wash cycle options.
If your dishes are only slightly soiled, you can use a light or energy-saving wash cycle, which uses less water and operates for a shorter period of time.
Related Information:
Dishwasher vs. Hand Washing Dishes
If you still wash your dishes by hand, you're wasting more than just time.
Save money.
Washing dishes in a new ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher rather than hand washing can cut your utility bills by about $40 per year.
Save time.
Instead of scrubbing, rinsing, and drying each dish, just load them all in an ENERGY STAR dishwasher and press start. Using an ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher can save you over 230 hours of personal time over the course of a year. That?s almost 10 days!
Get better cleaning.
ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers have features which result in better cleaning. For example, they boost water temperatures to 140 degrees, which allows for improved disinfection compared to hand washing.
Save energy and water.
Thought you were efficient? A new ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher uses less than half as much energy as washing dishes by hand and saves more than 5,000 gallons of water each year!
Save the environment.
Because they use less energy, ENERGY STAR certified products reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels. By reducing water consumption, they also help protect our lakes, streams and oceans.
Dish Washing Best PracticesBest Practices
Take advantage of these best practices to save more money on your utility bills.
Scrape don't rinse.
Rinsing dishes can use up to 20 gallons of water before the dishes are even loaded. Save yourself the rinsing - just scrape food off dishes. ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers and today's detergents are designed to do the cleaning so you don't have to. If your dirty dishes sit overnight, use your dishwasher's rinse feature. It uses a fraction of the water needed to hand rinse.
Load it up.
Dishwashers use about the same amount of energy and water regardless of the number of dishes inside, so run full loads whenever possible.
Skip the heat.
Select the no-heat drying option. It gives good drying results with less energy.