Replace my kitchen cabinetry with dishwashers : why doesn't everyone already do this?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, I got a quote “per linear foot” to rebuild my kitchen, which had all of it’s cabinetry removed to rebuild the wall behind it. It’s somewhere between $115 and $200 depending on how nice the replacement cabinetry is.

And, I noticed that the way I actually use the kitchen cabinets is : I cook food. I put all the utensils and pans in the dishwasher after. I run the dishwasher. If I’m lucky, for the next meal the stuff I need is already in the dishwasher and I can just remove it and use it. Eventually, I have a sink full of dishes, so I remove the “unused items” from the dishwasher, put them in the cabinets, and reload. The dishwasher is just acting like a cache for the most commonly used dishes.

A nice dishwasher is about 3 feet wide and costs about $300-$900. Hmm…

So, instead of having cabinets, why don’t I install like 6 dishwashers and mount a countertop directly above them (I’d just buy a single long piece of prebuilt countertop, the kind that has the formica already installed from the hardware store. This would be relatively simple to install as it would not need all the skilled and expensive labor for the cabinet doors)? It would cost almost the same.

I’d organize all my dishes into sets. “standard breakfast, standard lunch, standard dinner, extra guest set, and like 2 dishwashers worth for a complex cooking task”. All dishwashers need to be the kind that have integrated disposals. I’d need to buy additional dishes to make these sets work, but they’d all be inexpensive, relatively sturdy dishes and silverware from walmart.

After every meal, I’d just shake off any large chunks of leftover food into the sink, and dump the unscraped dishes right into the dishwasher that the set goes to. Hit the button. I was thinking I could even purchase dishes that all have the same color or theme and then paint or purchase fronts to the dishwasher doors that match.

Advantages :
1. No unloading
2. I have 6 dishwashers, so if one fails, I have 5.
3. While 6 dishwashers means 6 times the things that can go wrong, in practice they also each have 1/6 the workload. I could possibly “rotate” dishwashers every 3 months or so where I move all the sets over by 1 to even out the per dishwasher load.
4. Dishwashers with a “sanitize” cycle use extra hot water to kill basically all the bacteria. Leaving the sanitized dishes inside the dishwasher until ready for use is probably the cleanest possible way to maintain my dishes, instead of stuffing them into a wooden cabinet that roaches occasionally pass by and leave various bits of debris in. I’m aware that in practice this probably rarely matters, foodborne illness usually comes from the food itself being improperly prepared or contaminated and not the dishes.

Disadvantages :
1. All those water hoses and sewer hoses means a lot more potential for a leak than if I just have 1 dishwasher. I’d have to setup some kind of 6 way tee to connect them all to water, etc. I’d also have to upgrade the electrical wiring or something to handle the worst case of them all running at once.
2. Machines age when time passes, not just from workload. I’m sure that 6 dishwashers would cost more money in repairs and replacements than just 1.
3. I’d need more dishes, a few hundred bucks worth all told.
4. People would go WTF when/if I tried to sell the house. I’m hoping at least some folks would see how awesome it is, though…

2

Just a couple points off the top of my head.

Dw’s are 24" wide not 36". Your unit price just went up 50%.

You need supports for the counters on each side. Best is a 3" filler with return panel. So there’s another 6" killed out of every 30".

Any place selling you cabinets by the linear foot is a place that is ripping you off.

3

May I just say that I wish I’d read this idea about 15 months ago, before we redid our kitchen?

Honestly, I’ve always said that, if I ever get to design my dream kitchen*, I’d install two dishwashers and just rotate, but your idea is much, much more elegant and efficient. I think I’m supposed to say something about subscribing to your newsletter…

*Current kitchen is far better than what it replaced, but done on a budget and not entirely my ideal. Still pretty damned good, but not perfect.

4

It’s not unheard of…well 6 is probably unheard of, but I’ve heard of people installing 2 dishwashers so they can just work from one to the other. The last person that I heard of that did that lived alone so it was sort of a bachelor pad thing. I’d guess a husband would have a hard time convincing his wife to give up all that cabinet space just to avoid unloading the dishwasher. Also, he redid his own kitchen (as well as added a second floor, on his own, to his one story house) so when it’s time to move, pulling out the extra dishwasher and dropping in a cabinet probably won’t be a big deal.

On a side note, a family friend has two dryers. They have 5 kids so doing laundry took a long time since the dryer takes about twice as long as the washing machine. Two dryers kept things moving along.

5

We have two dishwashers, and I am very, very glad we decided to do so. It’s so nice to have the extra DW room when we have a gathering. Even when it’s only the two of us, it’s nice to complete filling one and be able to start loading the other.

Having 6? No thanks. There will be plumbing, maintenance and replacement issues, and I don’t need to have six machines.

6

Why doesn’t everyone do this? For one thing, you lose the drawers at the top of the lower cabinets. Those are useful for storing stuff that’s easily accessible. Also, I keep stuff other than dishes in the lower cabinets. Stuff like pots, pans, food, etc. And while those dishwashers might be purchased cheaply, they will also be cheap, low-end appliances. And you’ll have to pay to connect water supply and drain lines to all of them. Normally, with one dishwasher, the drain goes to the sink next to it. How are you going to drain the sixth dishwasher in a row?

If you want to save money, use open shelves below your countertops rather than enclosed cabinets. Or just buy low-end cabinets; IKEA has some that are cheaper.

7

My grandmother had two ovens, one above the other. She never, as far as I know, used the one on the bottom. This struck me as wonderful, especially when I reached my full height - Gram was tall also (6’), and she, like me, must have found it easier to use at that height rather than having to bend over.

I have always thought that it would be equally great to have the dishwasher elevated. Someday, maybe.

8

As Dewey pointed out, it won’t seem like a very elegant solution when the plumber is in the middle of installing 6 hot and cold water connections, along with 6 drains.

9

We had a ‘blank wall’ on one side of the kitchen. My friend left a circular, folding-leaf table when I bought the house. One leaf was folded down and the table was against the wall, in the corner. It supported the microwave oven, with the toaster oven on top. Next to the circular table was an Ikea table that was about 3 feet by 5 feet. I had ‘counter space’, but not drawers or cabinets. Consequently, stuff got piled on top and underneath. It was a mess.

I bought four, two-foot wide cabinets and an eight-foot fake-marble (laminate) countertop from Home Despot. Now we have four cabinets, each with a half-shelf, four drawers, and counter space that’s at the proper height instead of table height.

Total cost was something like $675.

10

Don’t underestimate this part. It’s not a matter of upgrading a bit of wiring.

You will need additional circuits. Depending on the dishwashers’ specs, potentially an additional circuit for each. Each of those will have to be run to the main breaker, which may itself need to be upgraded if it’s not rated for the additional load.

11

In short, between the electrical and plumbing that will be needed, you’re not going to save any money.

12

I basically did something like this for my laundry room. Easy, fast, cheap and works like a charm. Lot’s of storage now.

13

A kitchen remodel is next on our list, but dishwasher elimination is what we are considering. We use our dishwasher for Thanksgiving and Xmas eve dinners that we host. Other than that, we try to use it occasionally just to keep the seals from rotting.

14

far better is to install a shower/tub surround in the kitchen.

you then have space for a huge linen closet in the bathroom.

set dish racks on the walls of the surround. your dishes get washed while you shower. use the hand held shower head to get the glasses and cups thoroughly rinsed.

15

Only one water connection, just the hot. As for the drain, you don’t have to connect it to your sink. You can take the drain from the washing machine, loop it up really high, then send it back down through a hole in the floor and drop it into a waiting drain pipe that already has a trap plumbed in. In this situation, I can imagine a PVC pipe running under the 6 dishwashers with a trap under each one. I’d probably talk to a plumbing pro or the city inspector to figure out the venting issue though. Just one at one end? One vent for each dishwasher? Two vents for the system? Maybe just one vent if the pipes are oversized? I’m really not sure, but there’s probably a code for it, it’s probably similar to how the venting works with bathroom that have multiple stalls/urinals.

16

You would also need a better electrician/plumber/handyman to prevent that short. :smiley:

17

It’s ‘temporary’. I still want to re-do the whole kitchen. When I do, the recent additions aren’t going to, or probably won’t, match. The SO hated the tables and jumble, and I couldn’t stand it anymore either. So I went for cheap, quick, and easy until I can do a full remodel.

Oh, I also put up my pot hanger above the counter. I’m likin’ it! :slight_smile:

18

You’re right. I had a Bosch in my last house that had both, but those are very rare.

19

Bosch is getting more common, I was thinking of looking them one my current one dies…do they need hot and cold?

20

We’ve been shopping for dishwashers for my mother’s house. One thing I noticed is that the stores always have the decibel rating of the machine listed. Is that a new requirement?