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Dishwashers?


DeepBass9

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I have never had such a newfangled contraption in our house, but how feasible are they for off grid use? Do they all heat their own water, or can you use hot water from the geyser(solar)? If they do heat water, how much power do they consume for a cycle? I assume the power use for the actual washing will be similar to a clothes washing machine. Does anyone have some real numbers?

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You do get hot-fill models according to the interwebz, but I've never seen one. You can feed it water that's around 40-50 degrees to minimize heating costs (it has a thermostat), possibly by using a temperering/temperature control valve and using a balanced supply. Consumption per cycle is around 1kwh (yes... not kidding), but it will depend on the model. We have Bosch unit.

Peak power use is around 1.8kw, but since it only heats a small amount of water that's only for a short while. The new ones use as little as 6.5 liters of water, the older ones are around 15-20 liters (it uses less than you do for a hand wash, especially when fully loaded). I think it uses a little more than a clothes washer but this will depend: Clothes washer might not heat the water as much (30 degrees recommended to make the enzymes work well, vs 50 degrees on the dish washer), but then you can also tell the clothes washer to do a cold wash. So overall, the dishwasher should lose that competition.

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We have a LG inverter drive dishwasher thingamie. I'll look at it rated power usage in the morning as I  don't want to wake the two orphaned goats in the kitchen, the buggers will never go back to sleep and they are NOISY . Discovered that it uses more power in its Eco mode than in its normal cycle. It does use less water though. Only a bunny hugging eco warrior marketing wimp could have come up with that drivel.

Addition: Come to think of it that marketing gem was probably produced by Bell Potties & Co.

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We also have goat lambs hopping everywhere now, cheeky little bokkers!

Is cold water used anywhere in st he cycle, can you not just connect up the dishwasher to the hot tap anyway? 

Water use is not really a issue, and if it uses less that a hand wash anyway, that's an unexpected bonus.

1KWh is a lot but doable. In summer between about 8 and 5 should be no problem. If it is necessary to run the generator to power it, it will be R5 or R10 per cycle.

Do they have a pump for the sprays, or do you need high pressure water in the tap? I have about 3m head on the hot water and 6 m on the cold.

I will investigate further.....

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51 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

Is cold water used anywhere in st he cycle, can you not just connect up the dishwasher to the hot tap anyway? 

So long as your hot tap is a degree or two cooler than the dishwasher's operating temperature. Have a look at Alan Falck's Solar thermovalve project. I don't know how to copy links using a tablet.

I noticed when I used the ecomode we used about 200W between two distinct heating cycles.

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2 hours ago, DeepBass9 said:

Is cold water used anywhere in st he cycle, can you not just connect up the dishwasher to the hot tap anyway? 

On the shortest cycle (really meant for washing glasses, not for any fatty stuff) it has a cold rinse cycle followed by a short warm cycle (about half an hour, 45 degrees on the final wash). The other cycles use hot water only far as I can tell. Those cycles are 1) Eco cycle, 3 hours at 50 degrees, 2) Normal cycle, about 1.5 hours at 65 degrees, 3) Dirty cycle, 75 degrees (and we never use it).

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Our 12+ year old BOSCH dishwasher has 4 settings with 3 different temperatures. There's no hot water in the washing room so I rely on it heating up the water itself. 55deg is generally good enough for all our dishes. The inverter hardly notices it, and the heating cycle is probably 30 minutes or so, two or three times - can't remember. So as a general rule of thumb, we only ever switch it on after 10am

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Got a defy inverter type unit.
On eco mode it heats 2 times. 15 minutes the first run and 10 the second one.

Uses around 1800w on the heating phase.
One thing I picked up the one day is it actually heated for n 3rd time, thought I had it on a different mode and left it at that.
Then a month or two later noticed that 3rd spike again and remembered the rinse aid light was on and I did not fill it up.
Turns out it detects that and does a kind of "steam" cycle to help the drying to prevent water marks when rinse aid is not available.

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22 minutes ago, viper_za said:

Uses around 1800w on the heating phase.

Same on the Bosch. 1.8kw when heating. I don't think it even takes 15 minutes on mine but truth be told I haven't measured it.

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On 7/10/2017 at 0:25 PM, DeepBass9 said:

I have never had such a newfangled contraption in our house, but how feasible are they for off grid use? Do they all heat their own water, or can you use hot water from the geyser(solar)? If they do heat water, how much power do they consume for a cycle? I assume the power use for the actual washing will be similar to a clothes washing machine. Does anyone have some real numbers?

Hi S

We've been using a dishwasher for more than 30 years. My wife says if only she knew, she would have bought it before a lounge suit.

When we prepared for our move to off-grid living in the Western Cape, I thought that we would greet the dishwasher farewell. I bought a couple of power meters and tested the consumption of the major clients. After seeing the results, I told the dishwasher that it (she) would be the first to climb onto the truck bringing our furniture. The figures are like everybody indicates.

We recently replaced that Siemens with a Bosch. The manual reckons that its default program is its most economical one. It takes 3h 30min. We try to only operate it when the sun is shining. The last 50 or so minutes is used for drying. We would sometimes when it is late afternoon and there's less than an hour left, switch the machine off and open the door for the load to dry by itself.

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On 7/13/2017 at 9:20 PM, Jakes said:

The last 50 or so minutes is used for drying.

It does this essentially by rinsing with hot water, so that the hot utensils dry on their own afterwards. It works well except for plastic stuff.

On 7/13/2017 at 9:20 PM, Jakes said:

switch the machine off and open the door for the load to dry by itself.

Most of the energy is already spent at this point, but we do the exact same thing. Last 15 minutes or so, open the door so it dries faster, and the plastic stuff can dry too. Otherwise you have to dry the plastic by hand.

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