A dishwasher makes sustainable attainable.

Dishwashers put the eco in economical. With all the water, electricity, time and money you’ll save in comparison to washing up by hand – especially when running the eco programme – the environment and members of your household will thank you for getting an appliance.

Do you imagine the inside of a dishwasher filled to the brim with sloshing water? Then you’ll be surprised by the appliance’s roughly 10-litre consumption. This low number is possible because a system of pumps, filters and spray jets recirculate the same water throughout the cleaning cycle. And because each jet fires under high pressure and at clever angles, it flushes nooks and crannies, removing tough stains.

By comparison, washing a pile of dishes of the same size by hand requires about 117 litres in a sink and even more if you’re washing up under a running tap. That's over ten times as much water! ¹

¹ _{Study published in SOFW Journal no. 3/2006 by the University of Bonn in which over 100 participants from various European countries handwashed 13 place settings.}

It's hard to believe that a machine, which plugs into an electrical socket, clocks up fewer kilowatt hours than old-fashioned elbow grease. The energy consumption question literally boils down to how the water is heated. Most newer dishwashers do the job more efficiently than a boiler. That’s partly because their lower water consumption means less heat energy is needed per load. We found that by the time you’ve filled up your sink and put on your rubber gloves, you’ve used 2.73 kWh energy, while a dishwasher’s power consumption is just 0.96 kWh per cycle – almost three times less. ²

² _{Study published in SOFW Journal no. 3/2006 by the University of Bonn in which over 100 participants from various European countries handwashed 13 place settings.}

The murkiest part of the post-meal clean-up isn’t the dirty dishwater, but what’s lurking in the equipment you use. Sponges, scourers, dish towels and the sink itself – are breeding grounds for E. coli and salmonella. Although an appliance isn't a sterile environment, the water for washing is heated to a much higher temperature and the machine’s contents are in contact with the scalding stuff for longer. This kills 7 times more bacteria than washing up in the sink, making a dishwasher the more hygienic choice. ³

³ _{A comparison of the efficiency of manual and automatic dishwashers for the removal of bacteria from domestic crockery, published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies in July 2007.}

It takes about 15 minutes to stack and empty your dishwasher. When you roll up your sleeves to do the dirty work, you’ll be busy for about an hour. With a dishwasher in your household, you gain 45 minutes of free time with each load. That adds up to 210 hours each year – or a three-week holiday. ⁴

⁴ _{Internal Bosch research comparing doing dishes with a dishwasher versus hand-washing. 60 min (hand washing) - 15 min (with dishwasher) = 45 minutes savings per cycle *280 cycles per year (210 hours per year).}

With a Bosch dishwasher, it’s easy to put your finger on the most sustainable choice. Just press the button to start Eco mode. This energy-saving programme only consumes up to half the electricity of Auto mode.⁵ Thanks to its longer wash cycle, the water doesn’t need to be as hot and the dishes soak for longer. The upshot is lower water and energy consumption.

With Eco mode, you'll be doing yourself and the environment a favour by making it one of your favourites.

⁵ _{Values may differ between models.}

Our models with ActiveWater Eco take water-wise to new heights with a genius level H2O IQ. Thanks to the intelligent water-saving function, these machines produce perfectly clean, hygienic results with a mere 6.7 to 7.5 litres when running Eco mode. ⁶

⁶ _{Values may vary between models.}

Drying your dishes requires heat. And to generate heat you need electricity, right? Not as much as you’d think. The reason is that Bosch dishwashers with PerfectDry use a mineral called zeolith, which extracts humidity from the air and releases heat in the process. Machines with this drying system use significantly less power. Best of all the process can be reversed by reapplying heat to release the stored water, so the zeolith never degrades or needs to be replaced.