Does the eco function on a dishwasher still save money

kingbullit

A man who came to service our dishwasher recently told my partner that it is no longer economical to use the eco function on a dishwasher as the price of electricity has risen so much. I'm dubious but she gets very annoyed whenever I continue to use the eco function. Is there any truth to this "expert" advice?

Keep_pedalling

Well with more expensive electricity an Eco wash will cost more than it did but so will any other program you use, so if your eco setting saved you money previously it will now save more proportionally so the advice was just BS.

Spoonie_Turtle

Do you have a smart meter in smart mode, or an energy monitor?  If so the way to settle this is to do a non-eco wash and an eco wash, see how much each uses, and compare.  You'd need to make sure the other variables are the same though, same kind of load (full, ideally) and if using the smart meter method, running nothing extra at the same time.

Or if your manual tells you how much electricity each type of cycle uses, while it might be fully accurate as the dishwasher is no longer new, the relativity will be the same - one type of cycle using more than the other.

kingbullit

Keep_pedalling said:

Well with more expensive electricity an Eco wash will cost more than it did but so will any other program you use, so if your eco setting saved you money previously it will now save more proportionally so the advice was just BS.

I think the point of contention is whether the price of the electricity used for a  3 hour eco wash is greater than the water saved.

QrizB

kingbullit said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Well with more expensive electricity an Eco wash will cost more than it did but so will any other program you use, so if your eco setting saved you money previously it will now save more proportionally so the advice was just BS.

I think the point of contention is whether the price of the electricity used for a  3 hour eco wash is greater than the water saved.

To answer that question you need to know how much water and electricity each type of cycle uses.

Does the manual tell you? The manual for my washing machine does, but I'm not going to try washing dishes in it!

TheElectricCow

kingbullit said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Well with more expensive electricity an Eco wash will cost more than it did but so will any other program you use, so if your eco setting saved you money previously it will now save more proportionally so the advice was just BS.

I think the point of contention is whether the price of the electricity used for a  3 hour eco wash is greater than the water saved.

That’s the sort of thing that you can only really know by having knowledge of the consumption figures for each cycle of your particular machine as there can be a lot of variation between brands and models.

Generally I’d expect an Eco cycle in a dishwasher to use the least electricity though, I know that’s the case with mine. Length of the cycle doesn’t necessarily correspond to the amount of energy used, something like water temperature would have a far greater impact (which is what Eco might typically adjust). 

According to manufacturer specs, my dishwasher on eco consumes ~1kwh electric and ~12l water. That’s less than 2.5p in water for me and at standard rates would be in the region of 30p on the electric bill. Electric will have the greatest cost impact here, and generally speaking Eco is likely to be the most energy efficient cycle, therefore the cheapest to run.

retiringtoosoon

The expert is true. With dishwashers it’s usually much cheaper to heat water to 60 rather than the eco setting of 50.
🤔

lohr500

The expert is wrong in our case! At least if the manual is correct.

On Eco our Hotpoint LTF 11M132 uses 0.83KWh and 8 litres water per cycle. 
The next best cycle is Auto Normal which uses 1.15 to 1.30kWH and 14.5 to 16.0 litres of water per cycle.

Water consumption doesn't bother me as we have a spring water supply, so unmetered.

markin

Often the Eco only refers to the water use, not the power use, so look up the manual.

Qyburn

lohr500 said:

The expert is wrong in our case! At least if the manual is correct.

Same with ours, also a Hotpoint. The three hour Eco program uses least electricity and least water. As I understand the theory with current detergents, time spent in contact  makes more difference than higher temperatures. 

DullGreyGuy

markin said:

Often the Eco only refers to the water use, not the power use, so look up the manual.

Not sure where you are getting that from, when shopping around for dishwashers all the models we looked at Eco reduces water and electricity use