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Includes about 10 litres of metered water per cycle at GBP 3.70/m3. A full dishwasher on eco beats typical hand-washing on both water and energy for a full load; a half-empty machine does not. Unmetered homes can ignore the water share.
What The Dishwasher Cost Calculator Works Out
- Cost per cycle: kilowatt-hours per cycle x the electricity rate, plus about 10 litres of metered water at GBP 3.70 per m3. A modern machine's normal cycle uses about 1 kWh, roughly 30p all-in at the current Ofgem price cap rate; eco cycles trim toward 23p and older or intensive programmes push past 43p.
- Per year: the per-cycle cost x cycles per week x 52. A five-cycle household spends about GBP 80 a year on running before tablets, salt and rinse aid at 15p to 20p a wash.
- Versus washing up: a full load hand-washed under running or repeatedly refilled hot water uses 30 to 60 litres of heated water, comfortably above the machine's 10, so a full dishwasher on eco beats typical washing-up on water, energy and hygiene (60 degree plus final rinses outdo any hands).
- Water supply, litres and rate (advanced): switch to unmetered to zero the water line, or edit the litres per cycle (energy labels quote it per 100 eco cycles) and your water company's combined rate.
- Consumables and all-in figures (advanced): tablets, salt and rinse aid per cycle. Salt and rinse aid are not upsells in hard-water Britain; they protect the machine and the glassware whatever all-in-one tablets claim. Supermarket own-brand tablets test competitively at half the price.
- Hand washing comparison (advanced): edit the litres of hot water a sink-wash uses and whether it is heated by gas (at the current Ofgem cap gas rate) or electricity, for the annual cost of washing every load by hand and the saving either way.
- Off-peak cycles (advanced): the saving from using the delay timer to park cycles on a cheaper overnight rate. The eco cycle is the counterintuitive winner: longer but cooler, it lets time and enzymes replace heat.
- Fuller loads (advanced): half-full cycles halve the machine's advantage, so pairing two half loads into one saves nearly a whole cycle each time. Scrape, don't rinse: pre-rinsing under the hot tap gives most of the saving back.
- Eco cycle instead (advanced): the annual saving from running your cycles at 0.75 kWh rather than the current setting. Cleaning the filter monthly keeps the efficiency honest, and the appliance buys back its price mostly in the hour a week it returns to the household.