Drying dishes in a dishwasher

I have been told that the dry cycle of the dishwasher is the energy hog so I quit using it.

I was going to use something I had just washed in the dishwasher. When I opened the door it was still warm inside.

My question is will the dishes dry faster if I leave them inside with the door closed (while warm) or open the door and let the water evaporate?

Reply to
Terry
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It also is very hard on plastics in the bottom rack.

Leave the door closed.

Reply to
Bill_Moore

Typically, door open. And yes, skipping the heated drying cycle will normally save a significant amount of energy. However, it could be different for your dishwasher/kitchen so I'd suggest you conduct your own experiment versus believing everything you read on Usenet ;-)

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

So far one open and one closed. :) Don't ya just love Usenet?

It reminds me of a thread I started once in a support group.

Can pets get hepatitis?

1) yes 2) no 3) not unless you are having rough sex with it.
Reply to
Terry

Of course that'll only work if you don't use AC. In the summer you'll heat the room with all that escaping heated water vapor and raise your cooling bill.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

I open the door to let the steam out, then close it.

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri

With my Whirlpool 980, I've never used the dry cycle in 20 years. I always just leave the door closed, but then again I don't unload the dishwasher for quite awhile.

Now you've got me curious, why don't you run a couple of tests and then report back?

Reply to
mg

X-No-Archive: yes

I recall reading the book that came with my first dishwasher (I think it was a KitchenAid) and they actually mentioned what they called Flash Dry as a means of saving energy. They said to open the door and pull out the dishracks to quickly dry the load. I find when I do that, the steam from the machine rises out of the machine and the dishes dry quickly.

It occured to me that if the water that you are using in the dishwasher doesn't get very hot doing this may not work very well.

Experimentation is called for as mentioned by some other responderes.

Good Luck!

Reply to
Bubby

Most dishwashers will vent the warm air into the kitchen anyway, although there are some exceptions including some Bosch models that vent the steam down the waste line. In most cases, I doubt the HVAC impact of door open .v. closed will be very significant. In any event, the original question was about which method would dry the dishes faster (not cheaper).

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

Terry-

I've been doing this "no electric heat" dishwasher dry for YEARS.

Here's what I have found works best.

First, always select "no heat" dry so if you forget to intervene, you still will use less energy.

Cancel / end the dishwasher cycle when the dry cycle starts, open the door to let the "steam" escape, close door again & let dishes sit for awhile until the unit cools down, open the dishwasher & let the dishes finish by air drying.

Now this is fair amount of fiddling to save some energy so I shortcut the method to .....wash dishes right before going to bed, cancel / end cycle when dry cycle starts, open dishwasher & let sit over night.....dishes dry in the am.

Having conditioned air changes the equation somewhat;

in the summer if you use AC , the heat & mositures from the dishwasher dry cycle will have to be removed by the AC. If you let the dishes air dry, the AC will still have to remove the extra moisture generated by the dishes drying. I don't need / have AC so I have really done the calcs to determine the best option but my guess it that the AC will do less work if oyu let the dishes air dry.

OR you could figure out a way to dump the moist air outside (like a dry vent)

In heating season, adding some moisture to the house is probably a good thing as long as you don't generate moisture problems (condensation) but a dishwasher load probably doesn't have all that much water (as compared to a dryer load of clothes). BTW the heater will supply the energy to dry the dishes. :)

cheers Bob

Reply to
BobK207

Another Usenet myth. I have a Bosch dishwasher and it does not vent the moisture down the drain. How could it? The trap would stop all but fairly strong air pressure. Also, most dishwashers are tied into the drainline along with either the sink or garbage disposal ahead of the trap, and the moisture would just come up through that route.

Reply to
EXT

The heat and moisture are in the kitchen. It has to escape and evaporate, there is no where to go but the kitchen, either quickly as you open the door or slowly if you keep it closed.

Reply to
EXT

"BobK207" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

Whether you use a dry cycle or not the moisture goes in the house. It may disappear into thin air but it comes out someplace be it out the door, under the dishwasher, under the counter, etc. The rate at which it comes out would be what varies.

Reply to
Al Bundy

Some (not all) Bosch models have what they call "Condensation Drying".

I don't know how well it works in reality but it is most certainly a feature that Bosch advertise and their description of it seems reasonably sensible:

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Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

Leave the door open. Being warm does not help if there is no place for the moisture to go.

In the winter go ahead and use the dry cycle. There will be very little cost since the heat used will go towards warming your home. On the other hand during the summer with the A/C on you take a double hit since you pay for the heat and then you pay to pump it outside.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

True.

Not true (for most dishwashers). Most vent the heat into the kitchen anyway (during the dry cycle). Where else do you think it goes? Opening the door after the rinse cycle has completed and before the drying cycle has started simply vents the heat more rapidly. The total energy released is essentially the same either way.

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

Do you think you will heat the room less if the water vapor is trapped in the dishwasher?

Let me think about this. hmmmm Actually, if the door is open and the water evaporates, it will actually cool the room, specifically the surface that the water was sitting on and the air nearby. Whenever water evaporates, it cools. And it raises the humidity.

But if you left the door shut after the cycle was over, the heat would still disperse in all directions, through the door, the metal top (and the counter above it), the metal back (and the wall behind it), the metal sides and bottom and cabinets and floor next to them. It would take a while and you couldn't sense it, but the AC would still have to remove the heat to reach the thermostat setting.

What about the water that cooled but didn't evaporate? It would still evaporate when you opened the dishwasher door, it would still cool** just as much, and it would still raise the humidity just as much, but it would have taken longer.

**I forget what it is called but it takes a lot of heat to turn water from a liquid to a gas, many times more than it does to raise the temp of water 1 degree. The water absorbs the heat from other things, making the other things cooler.
Reply to
mm

latent heat of vaporization.

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

That is asuming that you're working with cold to room-temperature water. Flip a shower all the way to hot and open the shower door and I can assure you that the bathroom will not be cooling down.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

I have a Bosch dishwasher and it utilizes this condensation drying technique; I'm pretty sure all Bosch dishwasher with stainless steel interiors work the same way.

Overall, it does the job quite well. Drying may take a little longer, but this isn't a problem if you run the dishwasher overnight. Sometimes a small amount of water can remain on various items, such as the bottom of plastic cups and bowls (the ones with outer rings) or on the recessed surfaces of plastic serving utensils. I don't honestly recall if this was a problem with my previous dishwasher (a Frigidaire Pro Gallery) or if it's something unique to Bosch.

The key advantages of this approach are as follows:

1) it's more energy efficient, since no additional energy is required to dry the dishes; 2) it's more sanitary in the sense that it doesn't draw room air through the dishwasher, which may in turn deposit dust and dirt on dishware; 3) it doesn't exhaust heat and moisture into the room which can add to your home's air conditioning load; moisture condenses on the interior surface of the dishwasher and is subsequently disposed down the drain; 4) it's quieter, in that it doesn't provide a direct path for sound to leak out; and, 5) it eliminates the heating element at the bottom of the tub, thereby increasing the amount of usable space inside the dishwasher.

Cheers, Paul

Reply to
Paul M. Eldridge

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