Greening Your Dishwasher

We are fortunate to have the GE Smart dispense dishwasher in our kitchen. What this particular dishwasher has is the ability to hold an entire bottle of dishwashing detergent in an internal reservoir. With the detergent readily available, built in sensors monitor the hardness of the water and amount of dirt on the dishes to dispense the appropriate amount of detergent and water, using only what is needed.

posted originally from: AT:Hometech

Barring replacing your current dishwasher altogether, Treehugger has some simple tips to maximize the efficiency of what you have. Simple things such as using less dishes throughout the day and skipping the pre-rinse cycle are easily done but just as easily overlooked. Read through them here.

Comments (2)

that treehugger link says this though:

"Smartâ€ washers with dirt sensors were found by Consumer Reports to use â€œsignificantly more energy for heavily soiled loads than did nonsensor models.â€

i wonder if the use of energy is worth the savings in water? anyone know?

The tradeoff between energy savings and water savings would depend on where you live (I'm in a drought area) and where you get your power from (I get wind power now, but used to get coal-fired power).

For me, it'd be worth it, but for someone living in an area not suffering droughts but using a dirty source of electricity, it might be better to choose a different model (or hand-wash).