We’re always trying to do our part to save the environment, especially when it comes to being in the kitchen. Whether that’s cleaning the garbage disposal with lemon juice and vinegar ice cubes or purchasing popular tea brands with compostable bags at the grocery store, we’re more conscious about how our actions can impact the planet. You may have noticed a few appliances in your house use the word “eco” for certain settings, particularly the dishwasher. While your first thought might be, “Of course I need to use eco-mode while running my dishwasher,” users on Reddit have some advice about the right and wrong times to flip the switch because the setting isn’t actually an end-all-be-all of sustainability.
According to one Reddit user, you should only “use eco[-mode] whenever you’ve got a bunch of mostly clean dishes” and switch to heavy-duty mode when dealing with dishes that have harder, baked-on residues. While eco-mode has its benefits, the user also advises that “you shouldn’t be using the same settings for every cycle.” Another user agreed, saying that using eco-mode “really depends on how dirty your dishes are.” It’s also best to use the eco-mode setting when you aren’t in a rush, since it can often take much longer to complete the cycle than other modes.
The dirty details about using eco-mode on your dishwasher
If you’re fairly unfamiliar with eco-mode, it’s a cycle option on the dishwasher that cleans your dishes using less water and lower temperatures. These two features are what give the setting its name, since less water consumption means less impact on the planet and lower cleaning temperatures mean the pump uses less energy to heat the water, both of which also save you money. Eco-mode utilizes a method of cleaning that essentially douses everything in soapy/detergent water over and over again until the pieces are clean, which uses less energy since there’s very little heating involved but takes more time to complete.
Eco-mode’s benefits may outweigh its cons, but it’s still important to heed Reddit users’ advice and switch up the cycles now and then. Another Redditer experienced a catastrophic failure with their dishwasher because the detergent pods they had been using weren’t completely dissolving on eco-mode, causing a buildup that led to leakage. Detergent pods are specifically designed to dissolve under intense heat ranging from 120-160 degrees Fahrenheit, which doesn’t always happen when using the eco-mode. To save yourself some money on the water/electric bills and stay mindful of the environment, don’t forget to take care of the health of your dishwasher and follow some of these other hacks that will make dishwashing a breeze.
