The Green Clean Dish Washer

Your dishwasher seems pretty harmless. It just hums away, loyally cleaning all those dishes and not complaining about dish pan hands. But slight tweaks in the way you run your dishwasher could have a big impact on your utility bill and environmental footprint.

Here are some quick tips on making your dishwasher just a little bit better…

• Never run your dishwasher until it is full.

• Only use dish washing detergent that is natural, biodegradable and phosphate free. Like THIS BRAND for example.

• Don’t pre-rinse your dishes before loading them into the machine. Most new models do not require pre-rinsing. Just get the big pieces off.

• Air dry your dishes. Turn off the heat dry function, its unnecessary. If you have a problem with spots, use Wave Jet.

• Reduce the number of dishes you use by using the same glass for water throughout the day rather than grabbing a new glass for every drink. Keep an eye on the number of dishes you use and look for ways to reduce that number.

• Most dishwashers heat the water coming into them. However, they also draw water from the hot water heater. So its doing the same job twice and charging you for it. Lower the temperature on your hot water heater to 120 degrees so you aren’t paying to heat it twice.

• You can make your own dishwasher soap at home using this recipe: Mix baking soda and borax with dishwasher soap. Fill a container half full with the dishwasher soap then a quarter baking soda and quarter borax. You can also use vinegar instead of Jet Dry in the rinse dispenser.

Flickr CC User: scalespeeder