Appliance industry warns....

[Robert Green]

That recommendation is to prevent horrific scalding accidents, especially to children. Take a look at some of these burns and perhaps you'll agree that slightly cleaner dishes from much hotter water might not be worth the societal trade-off of horribly burned children.

I guess I am old-fashioned but if trimming the HW temperature a few degrees saves some little kids from death or horrible maiming, my choice would be to protect the kids and elderly who in many cases are unable to protect themselves.

[Robert Green]

I mounted a toilet paper roll inside a kitchen cabinet door for the same reason: Keeping as much grease as possible from going into the drain. Cheaper than paper towels, that's for sure.

[Stormin Mormon]

Sherman tanks probably have no star rating either, but I'd drive one right over the top of that Sonata without having to increase the idle speed on the Sherman tank.

[Ashton Crusher]

Liberals/progressives don't put up their OWN money to do stuff, they put up OTHER people's money.

[Ashton Crusher]

The only Gvt handout that ever did me the slightest bit of good. But still a stupid program.

[gfretwell]

But it does explain why commercial dish washers work better with less water.

[Robert Green]

Agreed. And you don't find very many kids or elderly people working in a commercial kitchen. At least you're not supposed to find them there. So it's not really an issue for them.

However, don't dishwasher have built-in heaters that can raise the temperature of the wash water internally? Never owned one, so I am not sure how they are designed. Not sure that heating water inside the unit is a tradeoff worse than using too much water, though. (-:

[Cindy Hamilton]

If I don't have any children or elderly in my house, why shouldn't I set the water heater wherever I like?

Cindy Hamilton

[Tekkie®]

Oren posted for all of us...

That was our first insight at the future...

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

So YOU are to blame for this mess! :)

[Tekkie®]

Oren posted for all of us...

The septic tank cleaners around here used to spray the goodies on the farmers fields with EPA approval. Then somebody came up with the heavy metals scare, so that stopped. Now they use who knows what and the septic guys take their shit to is anybodies guess.

[Tekkie®]

Oren posted for all of us...

Did you give him tweezers, gloves? Was he from Philly?

[Tekkie®]

Robert Green posted for all of us...

The winner gets to write history...

[gfretwell]

DC used to have a contractor (Bevard) who hauled away the sludge in big red tractor trailer tanks that looked like elongated concrete mixer tubs (because they were). They hauled it down to Southern Md, mixed it with the silt that remained from their sand and gravel business and after sitting in the sun until the stink went away it was sold to developers as topsoil.

Recently we got some sod here in Florida and when it was wet, we could clearly smell sludge in the soil. It is an unmistakable smell. I guess I know where our sludge goes.

I have never understood where the heavy metal thing came from. Do that many people eat heavy metals? Must be all of that Led Zeppelin they listened to in the 70s.

[Stormin Mormon]

Well, now, you wouldn't want to violate the law, would you?

Surely, you don't want Jones to come back, Squealer said, as he pranced back and forth in his most convincing manner, wisking his tail back and forth for emphasis.

[gfretwell]

I thought I was saving the world by getting that smoking, oil dripping death trap off the road ;-)

My wife traded it for a new Lincoln.

[Robert Green]

It sounds like you're never planning to be elderly or have youngsters or elderly people as guests. Or get so sick that you might make a serious mistake. I hope that works out for you! (-:

But seriously, keeping the tank set lower saves energy, too.

My question is what do you gain by amping up the temperature? Most people almost always temper the hot water with cold water in order to use it. I dropped my HW temp way back and I haven't noticed any serious problems. So it seems to me raising the temperature of the water is wasteful because you're going to temper it anyway to be able to use it.

I've been reading about life in the Old West and thank my lucky stars every day that I can turn a tap and get hot water. Back in the old days hot water was a very precious commodity and filling a bath tub with it took enormous effort.

[Robert Green]

There's gold in them there hills (of sludge)

[gfretwell]

Back in the 70s when we were first told that 140-160 hot water setting was wasting energy, health officials were saying if you had a dish washer, the hotter water was important to sanitize your dishes. That idea went by the wayside in the mean time. I wondered why they didn't heat the water in dishwashers but I have not heard of one that actually did it. It would be pretty easy since there is already a 1kw heating element in there but it may be a problem because a 15a circuit might not handle the heating element and the motor at the same time. The "economy" setting disables the heater anyway. Dishes air dry or just stay wet in a humid climate.

[Robert Green]

That makes sense that dishes should be cooked at the same temperature as meat to kill microbes. I would hope those germs never got to the dish in the first place, but I did a stint as a dishwasher at IHOP many, MANY moons ago and there's no telling what people put on their plates. (-:

That's probably the reason because if it really is necessary to raise the temp to 160F, then someone would have done it by now just as a selling point. I wonder, though, since most dish/flat ware is non-porous if it is actually just as good to thoroughly strip the surfaces of any particles. I sent a lot of dishes back through that had dried egg on them, one of the most mucilaginous substances in the world.

And moldy if you leave them in the dark long enough. (0: