Home Cleaning Calculators
Dishwasher vs hand washing.
Enter what your dishwasher uses per cycle and how much water you use washing by hand. See the yearly cost of each, the water difference and, if you want, the value of your time. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Your numbers
Result
Fill the form and press Calculate.
Worked example
A dishwasher run 5 times a week (260 cycles a year) using 1 kWh and 12 litres a cycle, with $0.30 of detergent, at $0.15 per kWh and $3 per cubic metre costs $39.00 electricity + $9.36 water + $78.00 detergent = $126.36 a year. Washing by hand with 40 litres a day, half of it hot, heated at $1.00 per 100 litres, and $0.10 of soap a day costs $43.80 water + $73.00 heating + $36.50 soap = $153.30. The dishwasher saves $26.94 and 11,480 litres a year. Add 20 minutes a day by hand against 5 by machine at $15 an hour of your time and the gap grows to $1,395.69. These are example inputs: replace them with your own.
How it works
Dishwasher per year = cycles x (kWh x electricity price + litres / 1,000 x water price + detergent). Hand washing per year = 365 x (litres / 1,000 x water price + litres x hot share x heating cost per 100 litres / 100 + soap). Your time, if you value it, is minutes a day x 365 / 60 x hourly value for each method.
Comparison with ENERGY STAR. ENERGY STAR states that a new certified dishwasher uses less than half as much energy as washing dishes by hand and saves 8,400 gallons of water each year, and that washing in a new ENERGY STAR dishwasher rather than by hand can cut utility bills by about $220 per year. Those are ENERGY STAR's figures for a typical comparison; your result depends on how you actually wash. The tool uses yours.
Hand-washing water. This is the number people most often misjudge. Measure it once: fill the basin you use, add any rinse water, and count the litres.
Sources and basis (pages opened 2026-10-08): ENERGY STAR, Dishwashers (Dishwasher vs. Hand Washing Dishes).
FAQ
Is a dishwasher cheaper than washing by hand?
ENERGY STAR says a new certified dishwasher uses less than half the energy of hand washing and saves water. Whether that holds for you depends on how much water you use by hand and what your energy and water cost, which is why this tool takes your own figures.
How much does a dishwasher cycle cost?
Energy per cycle x your electricity price, plus water per cycle x your water price, plus detergent. The yearly total above breaks each part out.
Should I count my time?
Optional. Enter an hourly value and the minutes you spend by each method to include it. Leave the value at 0 to compare money only.
Where do I find my dishwasher's kWh and litres?
On the EnergyGuide or ENERGY STAR label, in the manual, or by measuring one cycle with a plug-in energy meter and a water meter.
Does rinsing before loading matter?
ENERGY STAR says rinsing dishes before loading increases the total water and energy used and recommends scraping instead.