Quote Originally Posted by Animeniax View Post
Boiling water kills bacteria, but no one would hand-wash with water that hot. I don't even know that a dishwasher can use water that hot (it pulls hot water from the tap, same as your sink, with no reservoir to boil the water (it's not like a coffee maker).
I had a look at some Metos brochures (Metos being a major manufacturer of such appliances in Northern Europe) and it looks like the typical machines for a restaurant or institutional kitchen of a reasonable size can draw between 10-15kW of power. So they definitely are heating water. Furthermore, the same papers said the washing temperature is around 65C because the detergents prefer such temperatures, with the finish rinsing 85+C for sanitization.

Quote Originally Posted by Animeniax View Post
Besides the waste of water, I think over-sterilization by using the dishwasher weakens the immune system. Like the article quotes, eating from bacteria-ridden dishes for decades hasn't had ill effects on people.
The same brochure also ended with an anecdote that no matter how much effort is being invested in the kitchen to prepare wonderful food, it's all wasted if the customer gets dirty utensils.