Discussions with my mother-in-law (see other threads re change of accommodations / condo we’re purchasing from them). Tiny kitchen, and - strangely - the beautifully-remodeled kitchen in the unit we’re getting is missing a dishwasher (also missing a garbage disposal!).
I’ve heard of the portable ones, that you roll up to the sink and connect when you’re ready to do dishes.
BUT, my MIL mentioned that when she was a newlywed and they were living in a tiny apartment in New York City, she had a countertop one.
But I have to ask: Given the limited space in one of these, is it really a time saver to do dishes in one? I mean, you have to at least scrape the dishes clean. It won’t handle pots, so you have to do those by hand anyway. It takes, what, 10 minutes to wash a sinkful of plates and utensils.
Would you bother with one?
(as a side note: the condo has a perfect spot to stash a rollaway “real” dishwasher, and that’s the plan).
My best friend just bought one of these for his office (maybe this very one). There are like 5 dudes that work there and no one can be bothered to wash coffee cups or noodle bowls, so into the dishwasher they go. They are hidden and not rotting in a sink, and my friend can put in the soap and push a button once a day and now the dishes are done.
He mentioned it’d be perfect for his MIL, who is a single gal like myself, and I said naw it’d probably be a waste on us. But then again, I see the week’s worth of not-too-heavily-soiled plates and bowls in my sink, and complete lack of pots & pans, and think it wouldn’t be too bad to have that all hidden away in a magic box that would render them clean while I walk away…
If someone creates enough dirty dishes for this unit to be cost-effective then they might simply wish to consider using disposable dish ware and cups. The costs of detergent, maintenance and the potential damage caused if it were to leak would exceed what someone would pay annually (or even biannually) buy paper plates and plastic drinking cups.
A friend of mine has a similar device for his wetbar/gameroom/mancave. It mostly handles beer glasses and pretzel bowls and works fine. It definitely seems like it would not be terribly useful for a kitchen.
Go for the roll away one, we had one of those for the first couple years we lived in housing and it worked wonderfully. If you are single and only do a sinkful of dishes any way, you might as well go for the rolly one and do the pots and pans at the same time.
I have also had the portable laundry machine - actually 2 of them, one with a spinner and one without. The Hoover 510 was the most common one you found, I can’t seem to find a picture of the single tub version. [you had to manually wring out the excess water as it didn’t have the spinner side, but it wasn’t the type witha mangle.]
Our house, with tiny kitchen came with a dishwasher. Not a counter top type but an undersized, 18" wide, roll over and hook up type. I didn’t know they had such things. And I was suspect it would meet our needs, as, at the time we were often hosting the whole family. It was clear, if it ever broke we’d need to replace it with one the same dimensions.
They are much sturdier and better built than countertop models, I think you’ll find, if you look into it.
But I have to say, I would never go back to a full sized one. This little machine rocks, and held up through many days when we’d have to use it more than once. It wasn’t new when we bought our house twelve years ago, and it’s still going!
The only problem with the countertop ones is they take up counter space, and in a small kitchen, like mine, that’s at a premium.
I could go for a half-height, full width, fitted dishwasher. I live alone and the full-sized dishwasher takes a long time to fill. As long as it will take normal-sized plates. And it would give me back valuable storage space.
I considered getting one years ago because I had the countertop space but the plumbing for a dishwasher (this is common in older English homes). They are more expensive than ordinary dishwashers, and have less power, as well as holding less, but they are still better than washing up if you happen, like me, to loathe washing up. As well as actually doing the washing up and keeping dirty dishes out of the way, they fucntion quite well as actual storage for clean dishes. Put everything in, put it on when full, then gradually take everything out and use it.
Since you just had to ask, perhaps you don’t know what a dishwasher can do. For me the dirty stuff goes directly into the dishwasher, it does not touch the sink, things like shaking bones off the plate into the garbage first, but not any scraping.
The 1/2 size one I am uncertain if it has the power of a full sized one, and not doing pots is a bummer. Also the loss of counter space is usually a steep price to pay. With the full sized one the advantage is clear - no sink work at all, but if you are going to have to do sink work it’s not all that much harder to add a few more items.
Well yeah - most modern dishwashers can handle dishes with some amount of food residue, though I’ve found that some food (rice is a big culprit) causes major problems.
I just don’t think the countertop ones have the same ability to handle much in the way of food residue - so you’d need to make sure they didn’t have anything solid stuck to them - which means scraping.
I can definitely see a narrower “regular” (or any size rollaway) dishwasher being useful - and in fact we’re planning to get one for the parents. Those are more full-featured though.
Adding: I could actually see them being useful for glasses / mugs. No solid residue there, just dump and stick in the machine.
Roll-away or portable dishwashers are great. After it shuts off, you can roll it near the cupboard and easily unload it. I have seen installed ones that made a person carry the clean dishes across the kitchen to put them away.
I don’t know if you can get Fisher & Paykel in the US (a NZ brand available there and in Australia), but they offer something called the Dishdrawer, which is the size of a deep kitchen drawer (maybe 1/2 the size of a standard dishwasher). Can get it extra wide or double drawer too.
Finally, a topic I can address. I have one of these. I don’t cook large amounts at one time so no pots or pans to worry about very often. Living in Europe with a tiny fridge precludes keeping large quantities of homemade pre-cooked meals in the tiny freezer. Dishes, glasses, bowls, Tupperware, it does all very well on the short (30 minute) cycle. For those doubting its ability to clean seriously stuck-on food, mine heats the water itself and has cycles up to 3 hours. At counter height it’s easy to clean the debris filter and refill the salt reservoir on the dishwasher’s floor. It fits on a microwave cart and is sturdy enough to set the microwave on. I put a quick-disconnect on the kitchen sink faucet to ease rolling the dishwasher out of the way.
Girl From Mars, F&P has been selling the Dishdrawer in America for almost 20 years. I tried giving one to my mother about that long ago. Great concept. No bending down to do dishes.
I had one in my house before we had to redo the plumbing, so we put in a regular dishwasher. I did pots and pans, and even did stuck on stuff, it just took a while. I loved it because I bake a lot, and I could do a quick wash on stuff I just used, but would need again, between doing bread and muffins, or something.
The only things it didn’t wash were my big roasting pan and my pastry board, because they were too big, but I didn’t uses them all that often.
It was a time saver no matter how you did the numbers, and especially if you calculated the fact that I really hate doing dishes, and will put them off forever if I have to do them by hand.
Only advice I have is regarding soap: don’t skimp: buy the good stuff, like Cascade, with bleach, and use liquid. It heats up its own water, but for some reason, it didn’t manage to dissolve powdered soap very well. Spending the money for a good brand of liquid soap made all the difference.
RivkahChaya, on my dishwasher you have to use liquid detergent on the short cycle. It isn’t long enough to dissolve the powder or tablets. On the plus side, the liquid detergent lasts forever. I’m still on the first jug and I’ve had it almost a year.
