I note you are happy with your arrangement, Lurker. I am now just wondering why some stipulate cold water and others can use hot.
The following makes sense to me. I did notice last night when I stopped the dishwasher when it had only being going a few minutes to add some more stuff, that the water coming in was cold at that initial stage.
There's a reason why most dishwashers come with a cold water inlet only.
Three problems are likely if you connect a typical dishwasher to a hot tap:
Usually, the hot pipes will be cold until water is run through them so the fill water will not be hot anyway. You get to pay for heating the water twice โ once to heat the pipes and once to heat the cold water that came out of the pipes you are paying to heat;
IF the water is actually hot when it fills the dishwasher, the wash will not be as good, for reasons others have pointed out above, namely hot water to start with tends to SET the food onto the crockery;
The drying cycle on most dishwashers depends on a cold water fill at the end to condense the steam. If you have you dishwasher connected to hot only, by the time the dishwasher gets to the end of a wash cycle, the water inlet probably will finally be hot, just when you need it to be cold โ doh!
Many years ago when dishwashers used a LOT more water, premium brands like Meile had hot AND cold inlets, to save TIME on the wash cycle. These days with wash water consumption of only a few litres, it's completely irrelevant. (Note that the total water consumption is divided between the wash, several rinses and the drying cycle. So if the total consumption is 10 litres, like my Bosch, less than three litres is used for the wash. This is not enough water to preheat the pipe from my HWS.)
