A survey found that electricity costs and operating times for compact dishwashers vary widely by product. In some cases, annual electricity costs differed by up to twofold, and operating times by more than an hour.
The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) on the 10th released the results of its tests and evaluations of six compact dishwasher models (for 3 and 6 place settings), including those by Samsung Electronics and Cuckoo Electronics.
Annual electricity costs were lowest for Cuckoo Electronics (model names CDW-CS0620TGPE and CDW-A0310TW) at 25,000–27,000 won, while Chefbon (model names WQP6-8204V1 and WQP4-6201) ranged from 42,000 to 47,000 won, a gap of up to 1.9 times.
The disparity in electricity costs was driven more by drying method than by product capacity. Chefbon and Minix (model name MNDW-110G), which use heated air drying, had relatively higher electricity costs, while Cuckoo Electronics and Samsung Electronics (model name DW30CB300CW0), which use blown air or natural drying, were comparatively lower.
Samsung Electronics had the shortest operating time on the standard cycle at 1 hour 9 minutes. Chefbon was the longest at 2 hours 32 minutes, a difference of up to 1 hour 23 minutes. The washing process did not vary much among products, but the drying process ranged from 2 minutes to as long as 1 hour 34 minutes depending on the model.
All six products earned high marks for washing performance, cleaning dishes left with rice grains, coffee, and more for over two hours. Drying performance was relatively stronger for heated air models, while blown air and natural drying models were at a "good" level.
Noise was lowest for Samsung Electronics at 53 decibels, and the other five products were all below 60 decibels. Water usage was about 10% of hand washing, and safety evaluations found no issues with any of the products.