refrigerator temperature issues

Posted on: 5 August 2015

If your dishwasher has quit working, you might be debating whether or not to get it fixed. Maybe you don't generate enough dirty dishes to use it every day and you figure you could just wash them by hand. There actually are sound reasons to use a dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes. Consider those factors before deciding to shut the dishwasher door for good.

Using Less Water

You probably use more water when washing a load of dishes by hand. Consider that a dishwasher can rinse an entire load at once, whereas you may run water every time you want to rinse a pan, glass or flatware. Filling a sink with cold water and dipping the items in it uses less water, but that rinse water quickly turns soapy and you have to drain it and start over.

Using Less Energy

Dishwashers heat their own water rather than drawing it from the household water heater. This is a more energy efficient process, unless you have a tankless water heater.

In addition, homeowners may keep their water heater set at a scalding-hot temperature for one reason: to clean dishes thoroughly. That's not necessary when a dishwasher is in the house. 

Saving Time

Washing dishes by hand takes substantially more time than loading them into a machine. You can easily spend an hour washing a large load of dishes by hand. Think of how much less time it takes to simply pack all those objects into the dishwasher. Multiply that by the number of days every week you wash dishes and you might be looking at dozens -- if not hundreds -- of hours. 

Unless your dishwasher is decades old, you shouldn't have to rinse even heavily soiled pots and pans before loading it -- although you do need to scrape food off.

Considerations

Of course, the best way to manage your dish washing is to only run the appliance when it's full. Also, you'll save energy if you open the door to dry the dishes instead of using the machine's drying cycle. If you prefer to have the machine dry the dishes, use the no-heat setting if your dishwasher has one. 

If your dishwasher is more than two decades old, it doesn't have the more stringent energy-saving and water-saving features of newer models. You might consider buying a new one instead of getting the old one fixed, especially if the repair bill will be relatively high. 

For more information about appliance repair, contact a company like A OK Appliance Service.