How much does it cost to run a washing machine in the US?
The middle washer of each DOE product class uses 181 to 745 kWh a year at DOE's test of 295 cycles, counting an electric water heater and an electric dryer. Your ZIP turns that into dollars: electricity is priced on the tariff your utility files, or your state's average where none is on file. The source and its date sit beside the figure.
Scope Residential clothes washers on file with DOE, 1,279 models, at DOE's test use of 295 cycles a year.
What each class costs on your rate
Type your ZIP. The kWh below are the registry's; only the rate is yours.
What these numbers assume
Each line says what is not on file, why, and what the page does instead.
- Use: DOE's test of 295 cycles a year. Your laundry may be more or less; the test is the same for every drum size, so a larger washer shows more kWh.
- Scope: every yearly kWh here is for a home with an electric water heater and an electric dryer. IMEF counts the machine, heating its water and an electric dryer's work on what the spin leaves wet.
- Not published: what the water costs you a year. Why: water and sewer rates are set by thousands of local utilities and no free national source publishes them. Instead: The gallons above are filed at DOE’s test, so you can price them on your own water and sewer bill.
- Not published: how many watts a washing machine draws while it runs. Why: no registry files a power draw or a run time; DOE files efficiency and water per cycle and ENERGY STAR files kilowatt-hours a year, neither as a wattage. Instead: The kWh a cycle above is the energy a whole cycle takes; it is what a watt figure would be multiplied into, and no run time is filed to get back from it.
- Not published: the figure for a home with a gas water heater, a gas dryer or line drying. Why: DOE's rating assumes electric water heating and an electric dryer and files no split between the machine, the water heating and the drying. Instead: The kWh above is the electric-home total; a home with gas or a clothesline uses less, and no registry splits it.
Why published running costs disagree
Running-cost figures for the same washer differ from one site to the next. Most multiply a wattage by hours a day by a rate, but no registry files a washer's power draw or run time, so that wattage is a guess. The figures here start from the efficiency each model files, IMEF, and DOE's published test use, and price them on your utility's filed tariff where one is on file. Each step is written out on the method page.
Find a washer that costs less to run
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