You may want to have your dishwasher checked out. Maybe a filter or something is clogged and water isn't spraying the way it should. With that said, I stopped using my dishwasher years ago. Like you, I don't mind doing them by hand, but I also discovered since I started heating my water on the stove to around 160-70 degrees, I only need about 1/3 the amount I used to use. Very hot water cleans much better. Must use rubber gloves though.

I know my dishwasher didn't heat the water, but maybe some do.

I think you still have to be careful about that energy star rating. A long time ago, I saw some news report about how some appliances are rated that way, but really don't meet the standards. Sorry, I can't remember any other details.

Kevin

The water does get hot in the dishwasher. It is just very old, so I bet it never really worked well. It may be like 20 yrs old. Our fridge is a westinghouse, and I bet the dishwasher was bought at a similar time

I do use hot water to hand wash, and gloves. Our stove is gas and so is our water heater so heating the water on the stove wouldn't save money.

I assume they say dishwashers cost less to use than handwashing because we use alot of water to rinse the dishes when we wash them by hand?

Also, the new dishwashers say they use less energy than doing dishes by hand. Can that really be true? I don't mind doing dishes by hand, but if this is true, then it would be smarter to use a dishwasher AND I would save time.
We have a gas water heater. I don't know if that makes a difference. Do these dishwasher heat water themselves or get hot water from our water heater??

Most new dishwashers do use less water than washing dishes by hand. Mine (an ASKO, from Sweden) uses less than five gallons to do a dishload. Given that a kitchen faucet can deliver 2.2 gallons per minute at full force in a house with strong water pressure, even using the water at half-flow in your house means every minute of running the faucet is at least a gallon of water. So you've got five minutes to wash a dishwasherload full of dishes. :-)

Most of the high-end (typically European) dishwashers also heat their own water. Some will heat water as hot as 170 degrees, allowing you to leave your water heater at a lower level.

Why leave the water running for rinsing? Just have a separate pan of rinse water.

"use less energy than doing dishes by hand"

If the poster is really asking about using less energy, washing dishes by hand can't be beat.

I use the rinse water to fill my wash side of the sink.
so, that rinse water is used 2x, once to rinse and then a second time to wash the dishes.
I do not fill up a rinse bucket because of this.
However, I do have a full sink of water by the end of hand washing. I bet that is at least five gallons. If I can fill up a washer full of dishes and use only five gallons for that, I would end up saving because A full dishwasher is maybe 3 sessions of hand washing. We usually only use the dishwasher every other day or so. So, I can see a dishwasher saving water and money used to heat the water, however, It still uses electricity to run.
-renee

The newest dishwashers do use less water and thus save energy, but be advised that this can mean they take longer to wash than dishwashers in the past. Just an FYI