# Hand washing vs. Dishwasher redux

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-washing-vs-dishwasher-redux/933164>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 17, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-washing-vs-dishwasher-redux/933164 "2021-02-17T20:33:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-washing-vs-dishwasher-redux/933164/21 "2021-02-22T20:25:44Z")

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> [@jjakucyk](#):
>
> That said, I don’t think the sort of pump used in a dishwasher is as high-power as you’d find in a hot water heating system, because it’s not pushing water through long lengths of pipe. I just don’t know what it is.

Some googling shows typical dishwasher circulation impeller pumps drawing about [60-90 Watts.](http://www.ermec.com/catalogos/2017/impeler%20pumps%20JE%20comp.pdf)

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**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-washing-vs-dishwasher-redux/933164/22 "2021-02-22T22:28:51Z")

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That’s actually surprisingly low. Turn off a few lights and you’ve offset the dishwasher pump.

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**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-washing-vs-dishwasher-redux/933164/23 "2021-02-23T21:57:50Z")

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> [@jjakucyk](#):
>
> > [@Chronos](#):
> >
> > Sure, a dishwasher is going to spend some energy to move water around, but it’s negligible compared to the energy for heating.
> 
> Is it? Never underestimate the amount of energy used by pumps, fans, or compressors, especially ones that run for a while.

Better than estimating (over or under) is measuring. I just ran a normal load of dishes through my (almost) brand new Bosch 300 series dishwasher I installed 2 weeks ago.

Plugging the dishwasher into an EM100 energy meter I got the following data:

Total run time: 2:16:42  
Max wattage: 1,184W  
Max Amps: 10.14A  
Power used: 0.7 KWh

Based on my most recent power bill I’m currently paying 7.69 cents per KWh. So that load of dishes cost me 5.38 cents in electricity. Others can do some calculations with these numbers and make analogies from them, but to me a nickel’s worth of power is indeed negligible.

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