Once only found in the kitchens of the wealthy, dishwashers have had a steady growth since they were first introduced to the UK in the 1950s, with nearly 50% of homes having one at the last count in 2018.
However what was once a kitchen workhorse is now standing unused in many homes as families return to washing up by hand, assuming it is a cheaper way to deal with dirty pots during the cost of living crisis. While there's no doubt a dishwasher saves water, whether it saves energy is not so straightforward.
Looking at water use first, you would have to be amazingly mean with water to use as little to hand wash your dishes as a machine does. Recent research by consumer group Which? showed that even the least water-efficient dishwasher still only uses half the amount of water compared to washing by hand, and the most water-efficient full-sized dishwasher uses almost 10 times less water to wash the same amount of dishes as hand washing them.
