KitchenAid KUDS30FXSS 24-in. Built-In Stainless Steel Dishwasher Review

Electricity Use

Energy consumption wasn’t too bad—at least by comparison to its water use. The 1 Hour Wash drained 0.64 kWh of electricity, while the Normal and Heavy Duty washes consumed 1.00 and 0.90 kWh, respectively. This makes for an energy cost of about 7 to 10 cents per cycle.

Water Use

Here’s where the KUDS30FXSS is an environmentalist’s nightmare: it soaked up 6.63 gallons of hot water on the 1 Hour Wash alone. This figure climbed to 7.08 and 7.54 gallons for the Normal and Heavy Duty cycles, respectively (which makes for a water bill of 6 or 7 cents per wash). We’ve tested dishwashers that use up to 9 or 10 gallons per cycle, so this is by no means an abhorrent level of inefficiency, but it’s still significant.

Yearly Running Cost

Based on the estimation that the Normal wash is used 50 percent of the time, the above data make for a yearly operating cost of $39.60 -- a few bucks higher than most other machines we've tested. This is pretty darn high, and is due almost entirely to its high water consumption. Also interesting is the fact that the Normal Wash is more costly than the Heavy Duty, since it uses more electricity and lasts a few minutes longer.

As mentioned, we didn’t find this to be much of a downside considering the KUDS30FXSS’s superiority in other categories, but it’s certainly worth considering as a consumer.