'Green' dishwasher: Energy efficient (yes), cleans dishes (no)

It seems blindingly obvious that if you’re going to build a dishwasher (or washing machine, or whatever) that consumes much less power than its predecessor, you would expect it to do so without sacrificing its ability to actually do the job.

Well, it seems some companies beg to differ. In the rush to get their appliances certified by Energy Star, we presume, various manufacturers forgot to actually test whether their machines did the business. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

Amid concerns about energy consumption, Americans are increasingly encouraged to buy energy-efficient appliances. But while some of the latest products can offer significant energy and water savings, they can be double the price — or have kinks that can result in clothes and dishes needing to be washed twice.