Guides

The cheapest time to run a dishwasher on Octopus Agile

Last updated: 10 August 2026

The dishwasher habit almost everyone has — stack it after dinner, press start, walk away — is close to the most expensive way to run it on Agile. Pressing start at 6:30pm puts the heating elements to work right at the top of the evening peak. The fix costs nothing: same plates, same cycle, one extra button press.

The short answer

Stack the dishwasher after dinner as usual — then instead of "start", use the delay button to aim the cycle at the overnight trough, which on Agile usually means somewhere between midnight and 6am. Wake up to clean dishes that cost a half to a third as much. On days with a strong midday dip (sunny days especially), a lunchtime run can be nearly as good if that suits your kitchen better.

Why the dishwasher is the easiest appliance to shift

Of all the big appliances, the dishwasher asks the least of you. Nobody is waiting on the result the way they might wait on a wash, it makes less noise than a spin cycle, and — helpfully — most dishwashers use the simplest kind of delay timer: a start delay in one-hour steps. "Delay 6" means "start in six hours", no arithmetic required. (If you've ever been caught out by a washing machine display that means something entirely different, see our delay-timer guide.)

The one wrinkle hour-step delays do have: half-hourly prices don't respect whole hours. If tonight's cheapest stretch runs 1:30am–4:30am and it's 8:45pm now, no whole-hour delay lands your cycle exactly on it — the honest question is whether "delay 5" (1:45am start) beats "delay 4" (12:45am start) given the actual prices either side. That comparison across every offered delay is exactly what Cheap Hours scores for you.

What a cycle costs, roughly

A dishwasher's energy goes on heating water, so the cycle you choose matters as much as the hour. Typical figures are around 1–1.5 kWh for a normal or auto programme, and a little less for eco. As an illustration, a 1.2 kWh auto cycle on a day peaking at 35p/kWh with a 10p overnight trough:

• Started after dinner, into the peak: 1.2 × 35p = 42p
• Delayed into the trough: 1.2 × 10p = 12p

A daily dishwasher household saves roughly 30p a day on those numbers — the thick end of £100 a year, from one appliance, with zero change to how you live. The savings guide adds up the rest of the kitchen.

Eco mode and cheap hours multiply, not compete

Eco programmes run longer but cooler, using less energy overall — the long runtime is the point, not a flaw. On Agile they pair beautifully with overnight delays: the 3–4 hour eco cycle that feels slow at 7pm is irrelevant at 2am, and a long cheap window swallows it easily. Cheaper kWh × fewer kWh is the best arithmetic on the tariff.

Two practical notes. First, tell your scheduling (and Cheap Hours) the cycle length you actually use — an eco cycle can be twice the length of an auto one, which changes which delay setting fits the cheap window. Second, if your dishwasher's "auto-open" door release matters to you for drying, aim the finish before you're up so the steam has cleared by breakfast.

Small habits worth keeping

• Run it full. The cheapest cycle is the one you didn't run; half loads waste both water and your cheap window.
• Set the delay after 4pm when tomorrow's prices are published — the whole night is visible and the choice is informed, not hopeful.
• Skip pre-rinsing under the hot tap — scraping is enough for modern machines, and hot-water rinsing quietly spends what the delay timer saved.

Keep reading

• The cheapest time to run a washing machine — where the timer arithmetic gets interesting
• How much can you actually save? — the whole household added up
• The fourteen Agile regions — why your trough isn't your cousin's trough