Dishwasher

The average household does about 215 dishwasher loads per year. Most conventional dishwashers use about 10 gallons per load while Energy Star qualified models use about 5 gallons of water per load.

Let your dishwasher do the work ...

  • Wash only full loads. The average American household uses about 23% of its water running the clothes and dish washer.  Just one partially full load can waste 5-10 gallons of water.
  • Consider replacing your older dishwasher with a new Energy Star-approved dishwasher and you could save about 5 gallons per load.
  • If you hand wash your dishes, consider this: Running the average kitchen sink faucet for just four minutes can use the same amount of water as a conventional dishwasher. 
  • Be sure to scrape food residue from dishes instead of rinsing. Rinsing can waste 2.5 gallons of water per minute, and most new dishwashers don't require it.