• bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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    18 hours ago

    I’m assuming dishwashers have their own water heater (if at all) since you typically only connect to the cold supply line? And they can’t be that powerful as they are fed from a regular 120v line and only draw maybe 7-10 amps, which includes the jet pump.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      All modern dishwashers do indeed have some type of water heater. Not all of them have a drying heating element anymore, since excising that was the quickest way to massively reduce the total per-cycle energy consumption regardless of all other factors. IIRC by something like around 60%.

      Additionally, American (unlike many European) dishwashers are almost without exception designed to be connected to a hot water line rather than cold; Typically your home’s water heater is more efficient (or at least superficially cheaper, given that so many homes still have goddamn gas fired water heaters) at heating water than the dishwasher itself is, and certainly faster since the majority of homes have a storage tank heater that can be expected to already be full of hot water. The less heating the dishwasher has to do to the water the better its energy consumption rating will appear, which the manufacturers love. (Offloading the energy requirement for heating the water to your central water heater also shifts the cost/blame to the water heater and away from the dishwasher, allowing them to put a smaller number on that yellow Energy Guide label, even if taken from the big picture view this is prima facie bogus.)

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        17 hours ago

        Just checked my DW and yup, sure enough, it is connected to the hot line. I was thinking of the refer line. I’ll be honest I never really put much thought into it and now I feel silly.

        I actually am American lol. I’m an electrician by trade, so I was thinking more in terms of the equipment on board of the DW itself, but this is much more logical now that I think about it. I let plumbers do their thing and avoid installing/servicing appliances for customers (although I did just pull a 24" hair snake out of my shower drain this morning, smelled wonderful).