Ideal Bite

offensive title.

I was surprised to read this tip because I only run dishwasher when full! Or at least when the top or bottom racks are full... although these days we do run it every night but that's because it's full! thanks for all the great tips...

i can't stop thinking of the cocktail. self-cleaning underwear? where does the liquid go if it's being repelled?!?

...washers use the same amount of water regardless of the load. Some actually only fill with the amount of water needed FOR that load. But of course the energy savings are minimal. The best energy and money saver is to air-dry clothes as much as possible instead of using the dryer.

Newer dishwashers have a Smart Wash setting which senses how much food debris is on the dishes and only uses enough water to get that off. Also, you can now buy dishwasher "drawers" which run separately or together, so if you have a bunch of coffee mugs or glasses, you can just run the top drawer and save half the water. Lastly, newer clothes washers have several water settings from mini-load to huge. Only takes a second to select the least amount of water to do that particular load of laundry. Do't forget to donate your old working appliances. It's unlikely that your clothes washer and dryer will both break beyond repair at the same time.

speaking of dishwashers, do you have any recommendations on eco friendly dish detergent? i just bought one brand that did not clean my dishes AT ALL. between the wasted water from an extra cycle that still did not get them clean, and now throwing out the whole box...ugh!

We found that waiting until the dishwasher was full sometimes meant dried-on food that didn't come off -- meaning rewashing or prewashing. So, we run it every night. It's typically full or darn close, and we're not spending so much time and water prewashing. I like Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent. Comes in a cardboard box with a cardboard spout!

Please also post that washing your dishes by hand only conserves water if you aren't RUNNING your water and hand washing each dish under it one by one. I think this confuses people... hand washing your pile of dinner dishes is only conserving water if you fill 2 sinks, turn off your water, and do it that way. Otherwise, running hot water for 25 minutes adds up in your water and electricity bills too! And uses more water than a dishwasher set on energy save.

My Maytag Neptune only adds enough water to wash the clothes that are in there. It actually 'weighs' the load so it can add the appropriate amount of water. I love it!

I bought my dishwasher specifically because of its variable settings and energy savings. The dishwasher has two convenient settings, a prewash option that lets you run 1 gallon of water through the dishwasher and keeps all your dishes wet for a few days so that food doesn't stick to them, as well as a half-load option that uses much less water. For those who might say I'm wasting water using this option, I say this: I can rinse the dishes by hand and use MORE than one gallon, or use the prewash setting. The other features of my dishwasher is that it doesn't have a heat element, the dishes dry from the heat of the water. Talk about energy savings!