What the Cafe CDT87***N*** costs to run
The Cafe CDT87***N*** is certified by ENERGY STAR at 240 kWh a year, about average for its category to run among dishwashers currently certified.
The $45 figure above uses the simple average of all 51 published state rates. Pick your state for the real number.
Cafe CDT87***N*** against the category
That's 3.4% above the dishwasher category average of 232 kWh/yr, and ranks 444 of 737 certified dishwashers for annual running cost, 1 being cheapest. The category average comes from every dishwasher ENERGY STAR currently certifies (737 models), not an outside benchmark, about $2/year above that average at the national rate. See the methodology page.
What sits beside it in the ranking
Cafe CDT888**V*** ($45/yr, 240 kWh/yr) costs a little more to run than the Cafe CDT87***N***. Cafe CDT858**Z*** ($45/yr, 240 kWh/yr) costs a little less.
Same brand, different models
Cafe makes 9 ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers; this one ranks 8 of 9 for running cost, between the brand's cheapest, the CDD220**W*** at $29/yr, and its priciest, the CDT888**V*** at $45/yr.
What this adds up to over time
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical dishwasher's service life at 9 years; run the Cafe CDT87***N*** that long and it costs about $406 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Shopping for a new one
The Cafe CDT87***N*** is already efficient for its category at $45/year. If you're shopping and comparing options, this is roughly what a well-chosen new dishwasher costs to run.
Worth comparing a few current certified models before deciding.
Protecting what you have
Whether or not the Cafe CDT87***N*** ever needs replacing, a repair is the more common failure for a dishwasher, one a protection plan budgets for ahead of time.
Sourcing
The full Dishwasher category page shows all 737 dishwashers ranked by cost; the state-rate guide covers the half of this number that isn't the appliance. The 240 kWh/yr figure is ENERGY STAR's own certification, not a wattage estimate; exact dataset IDs are on the data sources page.