The Portable Dishwasher

Portable dishwashers are less and less common because built-in dishwashers have been included in even modest homes and apartments for years. Still there are those who live in places where there is no built-in dishwasher who wish to have a machine do the dirty work. My wife has said for years that she'd rather live without a washing machine than live without a dishwasher because you can take your clothes to a laundromat, but you'll always have to wash the dishes. We had portable dishwashers for years and I've learned a little about them.

Portable dishwashere fall into two categories: a built-in dishwasher that has been given wheels, sides, and the plumbing hookups and a dishwasher that has been designed as a portable. These used to be top loaders, and you can still find the top loader design today.

There are inconveniences with portable dishwashers. They must be moved to the sink and hooked up to the faucet (thereby rendering the sink faucet inaccessible during the cycle unless there is a bypass valve, which our Whirlpool had). Then they must be moved away from the sink and stored somehere in the kitchen. Still, we used three portables before we moved to a house that had a built-in. My wife always said that she would rather have a dishwasher than a washing machine because you could take your clothes to a laundromat, but you would always have to wash your dishes. That Whirlpoo I mentioned above had single wall construction, and it sounded like there was a 747 in our kitchen, but itdidn't deteer us from using it.

Should you get one? Here are the questions: 1) Do you have a place for it in the kitchen? 2) Do you mind the moving of the appliance and the intermittent loss of the sink? If you own your house, could you build one in? You will need 24 inches of cabinet width. I know people who have paid to have dishwashers built-in to apartments they intend to rent for years.