Today, I washed my hands at the kitchen sink while making lunch, and was unexpectedly chastised by my partner because she had just started the dishwasher. Apparently, she has recently come across something that has convinced her that running the hot water in your sink means the water that enters your dishwasher will be hotter (checks out), and thus the dishes will be cleaner. I tried searching startpage to see if this is real, but I couldn’t make it through even one llm-slop-ticle about it before my eyes rolled back into my head, so here I am asking y’all: chat, is this real? Doesn’t my dishwasher have a heating element? Is there any meaningful difference between heating the water with a hot water heater vs a dishwasher, other than I can’t use my sink while the dishwasher is filling and I have to pour a bunch of cool water down the drain?

    • Gerudo@lemmy.zip
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      9 days ago

      I noticed an improvement preheating the water. It’s also probably more energy efficient than letting the dishwasher do it, if it can at all.

    • Rothe@piefed.social
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      8 days ago

      If you live in the US. Dishwashers works very differently in Europe for example.

      • Sir. Haxalot@nord.pub
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        8 days ago

        Indeed. Both apartments I’ve lived in (in Europe) had the dishwasher hooked up to the cold water feed, so preheating the water would absolutely do nothing at all.

        • Natanael@infosec.pub
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          7 days ago

          Reliably having 3 phase 230 V (thus 400 V delta between two phases) makes a big difference from single phase 120 V. Usually rated at 16 A too, available from each phase pair.

          Almost 10 kW available at the peak (although almost nothing made for regular homes use it that much, aside from electric cars).

          https://everycalculators.com/kilowatt-calculator-3-phase.html

          As compared to a US outlet typically limited to 20 A at 120 V in one phase, giving you 2,4 kW (a quarter) or 15 A at 1,8 kW.

    • sapphironZA@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      He also said that with modern detergents, you should do colder washes anyway, as the hot water has little benefit.