For many, dishwashers are an irreplaceable kitchen appliance that saves a great deal of time and effort for busy individuals. You may be wondering how long you should expect to wait before your dishes are ready to unload and put up.
Today’s dishwashers may take anywhere from 1-4 hours to complete a cycle, with an average run time of 2.5 hours for a normal load. Most dishwashers come with low, medium, and heavy cycles, which vary in length. While 1-4 hours may seem like a long time, it actually helps your machine to conserve water and saves on your household energy costs.
There are multiple types of cycles that dishwashers can run and you’ll want to ensure that you know when and how to use them and an estimate of long they should take.
Frequent dishwasher users often aren’t aware of proper protocol for these machines, such as not running a load overnight or while nobody is at home in case it overheats.
How Long Is a Dishwasher Cycle?
If you’re in the market to replace your old dishwasher, you may be shocked when you realize how long the cycles are on the fancy new appliances.
Modern dishwashers often have sensors that can determine how dirty the water is and therefore, how many rinses are necessary to leave your dinnerware sparkling.
When determining how long you’ll have to wait to unload your dishwasher, you’ll want to understand the different types of cycles that your dishwasher can run and what they are best used for.
With so many options to choose from these days, it can be difficult to know which one to choose from.
Normal Cycle
In most cases, this will be the cycle you want to choose when running a load in your dishwasher after dinner.
When dishes have an average amount of soil, this cycle won’t use up extra water trying to rinse off large amounts of food remnants.
Users should expect this cycle to take between 2.5-3 hours. While you don’t necessarily need to pre-rinse your dishes, you should ensure that there’s nothing particularly stubborn remaining that would require extra rinse cycles to remove.
Heavy Cycle
If you have heavier dishes with some hard, baked-on food remnants, you’ll need to bring out the big guns to get them fresh and clean again. In this instance, you’ll want to opt for the heavy cycle or the pots and pans cycle.
This cycle can take around 3-4 hours, depending on which brand of dishwasher you own.
This gives the burnt-on food particles plenty of time to break down and release from the dishes and even better, you don’t have to bother with any pre-rinsing before you load the dishwasher.
Quick Cycle
Sometimes referred to as an express wash, this cycle is unsurprisingly the fastest option on many dishwashers. You should expect it to take around an hour to complete, making it significantly less of a time commitment than a multi-hour heavy cycle.
The combination of a high-pressure rinse and piping hot water helps to clean dishes in record time, though it uses more water than other cycles, making it the least energy-efficient option.
You should opt for this cycle if your dishes are only lightly soiled or if you have done a pre-rinse/wash before loading them into the machine.
Delicate Cycle
If you need to wash your fine china or other fragile glass items, you may want to check to see if your dishwasher has this specific setting.
Once chosen, the machine will reduce the temperature and water pressure so as not to damage delicate items such as crystal champagne flutes.
While not likely to be an everyday occurrence, this type of cycle is nice to have during the holiday season when you’re using crystal and other types of special occasion dishware.
On average, you can expect this type of cycle to take between 80-90 minutes.
Anti-Bacterial Cycle
If you see this cycle option on your dishwasher, you may be curious if you should be using it all the time. After all, you likely always want your dishes to be rid of bacteria.
This cycle is intended for items such as cutting boards, baby bottles, and other plastic containers and it uses an extra high heat setting to remove 99.9% of bacteria.
When you’re looking to get something sterilized, this is the cycle to choose. Expect the cycle to run for up to an hour.
Auto Cycle
Some dishwashers feature an auto or sensor cycle, which automatically allows the dishwasher to detect how dirty your dishes are in order to choose the most suitable cycle.
If you’re lucky enough to have an appliance with this ability, you don’t need to worry about this list as your smart dishwasher does the work for you.
Depending on which cycle your dishwasher chooses, the run times will adjust accordingly. You should be able to check the built-in timer to determine how long until your dishes are finished.
Can You Stop a Dishwasher When It’s Running?
If you forgot to add a bowl of your favorite mug to the dishwasher and you’ve already started it, you may want to add it to the current load. To do so, you’ll have to either press the pause button if your dishwasher has this feature or press the power button.
In short, yes you can stop the dishwasher while it’s running. Ideally, this won’t happen very often and the cycle can carry on as normal. However, accidents happen and sometimes it’s necessary to stop a dishwasher even though it hasn’t finished yet.
If your dishwasher model does not have a pause button or if the power button isn’t working to stop the cycle, you can simply open the door.
This should automatically cut the cycle short and you can load up extra dishes and close the door again, which should resume the previous cycle.
Another example of when you may need to stop a dishwasher while it’s running is when you mistakenly chose an incorrect setting and you’d like to alter it.
It’s best to be cautious when opening your dishwasher once it’s already started, as you may find that some hot water spills out and can cause a low-level burn if it makes contact with bare skin.
Is It Bad To Stop a Dishwasher Mid-Cycle?
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to stop a dishwasher while it’s midway through a cycle, though it’s best to set it and allow it to run through completion.
However, it’s not going to hurt your machine and it should run as normal after you’ve closed the door again and resumed the washing process. In some cases, you may need to restart the cycle.
If you’re adding extra dirty dishes to the machine, you may find that depending on which part of the cycle the dishwasher was at, they won’t get as clean as the others.
If the small detergent hatch has already released and cleaned your dishes, adding a dirty dish after this point will likely mean they don’t get properly washed.
In some cases, it’s best to simply let the cycle finish and add the dishes to the next load. Due to the high heat that dishwashers operate at, you may release steam once you open the door.
It’s recommended that if you need to open your washer mid-cycle, you stand back so the hot steam doesn’t hit you in the face.
Read more: Can You Stop a Dishwasher Mid-Cycle?
Can You Run a Dishwasher Overnight?
Many people would find it convenient to load up the dishwasher with that night’s dinnerware and turn it on before going to bed. However, this is not generally recommended as it presents several potential risks to your home.
According to Scott Wolfson of the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recommendation is to not run your dishwasher overnight. Similarly, you shouldn’t run these types of appliances while you’re away from home either.
Dishwashers have the potential to overheat. There should be a cut-off switch that is automatically triggered when this happens but it doesn’t always function properly.
Various incidents and even fatalities have occurred from dishwashers that were left to run overnight, usually from the result of a fire that went undetected.
If you choose to run your dishwasher during the evening, it’s fine as long as someone is awake to raise the alarm if something goes awry and the machine starts smoking.
Even the most up-to-date and modern technology has the opportunity to malfunction and it’s not worth the fire hazard to run a dishwasher while you’re asleep.
When using the delay timer feature, you’ll want to be careful that it doesn’t cause your dishwasher to turn on during the middle of the night while everyone is asleep.
You can set it to begin during the early morning or evening when demand is lower, prices are cheaper, and while you’re awake and able to keep an eye on things.
Read more: Can You Run a Dishwasher Overnight?
Why Do Dishwashers Run For So Long?
Perhaps you remember your dishwasher a few decades ago taking significantly less time to wash the same amount of dishes. Isn’t modern-day advanced technology supported to make things quicker and more efficient?
Well, today’s dishwashers are assuredly more efficient. This doesn’t mean that they’re faster though and on average, they take more time than older dishwashers to complete the same cycle. This is because they’re using less water and energy, in accordance with the current federal energy standards.
In order to be more energy-efficient, something had to give and in this case, something was time. It’s not uncommon for dishwashers to take 2-3 hours to complete a normal cycle and while this can be annoying at times, it’s beneficial for everyone in the long run.
Ideally, your dishwasher is relatively quiet and doesn’t cause much of a ruckus when it’s running. If it’s making loud and strange noises, this may be a sign of another issue.
Another reason why your dishwasher may be running for so long is if it’s on the longest cycle option, which is usually reserved for the dirtiest of dishes.
To wash off hardened food, your machine may run for another 30 or so minutes to ensure the dishes have enough time to get clean.
How Can You Tell If a Dishwasher Is Running For Too Long?
Naturally, you may have cause for concern if your dishwasher seems to be taking forever to finish. If you just got the dishwasher and you aren’t sure how long the cycles should regularly take, you can check out the user manual for that particular brand and model.
If the times you recorded have major discrepancies with the times in the user guide, you may want to call in a technician to determine the cause of the issue. However, if they’re about where they should be — don’t worry about it.
Of course, if you’ve had the dishwasher for years you may have lost the original pamphlet that came with it. In this case, do a quick search for the brand and you should be directed towards the information that you’re looking for.
Referring to the quick cycle guide above can give you an estimate of how long each cycle should run on average. If your dishwasher is set to the heavy cycle dial and it’s taking 3-4 hours to finish, you can rest assured that this is within the normal range.
Have you seen these awesome clean/dirty-indicators that you can put on your dishwasher?
How Do You Fix a Dishwasher That Doesn’t Stop?
If you notice that your dishwasher is taking significantly longer than normal to complete a wash cycle, you’ll naturally want to resolve this issue quickly.
There can be several reasons for a washer that goes on for a prolonged period of time and you’ll have to determine where the issue lies or call in a professional to examine your machine.
In some instances, your dishes may be extra dirty and the dishwasher may sense that they need extra time to be fully cleaned. When this happens, it may automatically choose the longest cycle option and therefore, your dishwasher will run for longer.
This can also be the cause if your home has hard water or a mineral buildup, causing the dishwasher to default to a longer setting due to the sensors getting thrown out of balance.
Dishwasher cleaning tablets can be a quick and easy solution to this issue and should be used monthly.
Regular dishwasher maintenance can save you money and a headache in the long run. If you use the appliance daily, it’s inevitable that it will need a little extra TLC and maintenance at some point to stay running efficiently.