Water consumption in dishwashers

The benefits and the need for a dishwasher for some housewives still seem contrived. Why do we need such an assistant who spends a lot of energy and detergents? But be that as it may, everyone notes its main advantage in saving personal time. However, this is not the only advantage of the dishwasher, in addition to time, it also saves water, and this is not so little, given the constantly rising tariffs. Different dishwashers consume different amounts of water, we will figure out what is the flow in liters.

Conventional Dishwasher

By ordinary dishwasher we mean narrow floor (for 9 sets) and full-sized (10 - 14 sets) middle class dishwashers. Typically, the water flow in such machines varies from 9 to 14 liters of water. And most often it’s cold, since in most cases dishwashers are connected to cold water supply, this is reasonable both from an economic point of view and from a safety point of view.

Note! Hot water contains more impurities that can affect the units of the dishwasher.

Why is the water consumption for the washing cycle so small with so many dishes? This is explained by the principle of the machine. After all, she, having collected water, uses it several times during washing, while the water constantly passes through the cleaning filter, which is important. Then the machine draws water for rinsing and again draws water for the final rinse. At the same time, water is sprayed under very high pressure, water passes through the rocker arms with great speed, washing the dishes. This technology does not require a large amount of water.

Here are some examples of ordinary dishwashers, worth up to 40 thousand rubles, which are popular in the market. The water consumption for the washing cycle in these machines is shown in the table.

• Bosch SPV 53M00;
• Bosch SPV 58M50;
• Bosch SMS 50E02;
• Bosch SMS 40D12;
• Electrolux ESL 95201 LO;
• Hansa ZWM 606 IH.

Economical and compact dishwashers

Today, a consumption of 9 liters is not the limit for a dishwasher. Premium cars, as well as small dishwashers, can consume no more than 7 liters of water. This is achieved thanks to certain technologies, as well as the design of the dishwasher. Reduced water consumption is reflected in its cost, usually a premium class dishwasher.

• Bosch SPV 63M50;
• Siemens SN 66M094;
• Smeg STA13XL2;
• NEFF S51M65X4;
• Smeg BLV2VE-2.

The listed models are narrow and full-sized, the flow rate of water for one cycle is presented in the table. These dishwashers can really be called economical, because water consumption is 40% lower.

Important! If the dishwasher has a half-load function, and it is likely to be in such dishwashers, then the water consumption will be reduced by another 20-30 percent, certainly not by 50%, as some people think, but this is already good. At the same time, energy consumption will also decrease, but in time the machine will work as usual.

Separately, you need to see how much a compact or small dishwasher spends on a washing cycle. The difference in water flow with narrow dishwashers is not large and is only 2-3 liters, some models do not have a difference in water consumption, at the same time, they can wash less dishes. Therefore, whether there is a saving or not, decide for yourself. So, we looked at how much water the following compact dishwashers spend:

• Candy CDCF 6;
• Bosch SKE 52M55;
• Siemens SC 76M522;
• Electrolux ESL 2400 RO;
• AEG F 55200 VI.

Note! The actual consumption of water in the dishwasher may differ from the one stated in the passport by 1-2 liters, whether this is of great importance, probably not, but still I would like the information in the instructions to be accurate.

Is there any savings?

Now we analyze if the difference is how much a dishwasher spends water and how much a person spends to wash the same amount of dishes, does the machine actually save water or not?You can talk about saving water consumption only if you have meters for water supply, if they are not, then the consumption of water in the dishwasher does not matter.

If you take, for example, a narrow Siemens SN 66M094 dishwasher with a capacity of 14 sets and load 63 items into it, for example:

• 18 plates
• 14 cups
• 2 pots
• 3 salad bowls,
• 1 chopping board
• 1 teapot
• 24 cutlery,

then in about three hours in intensive mode, she will spend 10 liters of water.

We tried to wash half of the set of dishes that the dishwasher washed, that is 34 items. The entire process took 20 minutes. At the same time, the water turned off when the dishes had to be soaped. As a result, 23 liters of hot and 20 liters of cold water were spent, a total of 43 liters. For just one wash, the figure seems impressive.

If we translate the savings from liters to rubles, then this is what we got: for 1 year of daily operation of the machine, 8280 liters can be saved, the average cost of hot water for 2016 in Moscow is 130 rubles. So, a dishwasher saves 1076 rubles of your budget on hot water. Savings on cold water will be 108 rubles.

Conclusion! A dishwasher will save 1184 rubles per year on water. But this is subject to the economical use of water during manual washing, there are those who spend 100 liters of water per day on washing dishes, which means that the economy of the machine will be even greater.

Of course, this is a small amount, and to talk about real savings, you still need to calculate the consumption of electricity and the cost of detergents. With regard to electricity, the saving of water covers the consumption of electricity by about 3-4 times. About 830 rubles for detergents will remain. For a year, this money may not be enough, depending on what to wash and what to pour, but we can say that the total costs of manual and machine washing are approximately equal. However, there remains a big advantage in favor of the dishwasher, it will save your time, which you can spend with pleasure.

Thus, the dishwasher, even according to conservative estimates (at a water flow rate of 14 l), saves water. But here saves or not your family budget, count yourself. Everything will depend not so much on the model of the machine, but on what detergents you will use to wash the dishes. Whether these costs are worth several minutes of rest after work, in our opinion, are worth it.