Let Dishes Air Dry to Save Even More Money?

I know people who never use their dishwasher. Yes, that’s right… they NEVER use it. I think that’s insane! We literally use our dishwasher everyday. Yes, everyday. As such, it’s a significant energy user in our household. Perhaps we’re the “insane” ones?

Regardless, according to some estimates not using the heated dry setting on your dishwasher can save anywhere from 15-50% of the dishwasher power consumption. Certainly, that’s a wide range and I’d imagine it depends on the make, model, and energy star ratings, among other factors I’m not aware of.

The point is that there’s almost NO point in drying dishing using the heated cycle… unless you’re in a hurry. Recently, however, we’ve been air drying our dishes and with good success.

No doubt there’s not much to it: use the heated setting or don’t. 🙂

I say don’t.

So long as you can opt to run the dishwasher and then let it sit overnight to dry there’s honestly no reason not to, especially if you’re a heavy dishwasher user like we are.

The ONE step I would suggest is to run the dishwasher early enough before you go to bed to check for overturned cups and bowls that are now filled with water. Just dump the water that collected into the sink, return the cups/bowls to their correct position, and then close the dishwasher to let it finish drying overnight.

Of course, you could do this in the morning and let them dry during the day instead… do whatever works best for you.

Last, there is the belief that you can save even more money by not using the dishwasher whatsoever opting, instead, to wash all the dishes by hand but that seems like far too much work to me!