Oh, yeah, I'd wash hats in one, but I don't think I'd cook seafood in it. Ick. They were pretty good for older computer keyboards, too, if you had a coffee spill, but not for the current ones.

But I don't quite get the point of any DW quite that small, and I say that as someone who has looked at houses where a dorm fridge, a hot plate, and a toaster oven were the kitchen.

NO!!

NO!!!

No. And no to a counter top DW.

Why not? It looks like a much better lobster cooker than a dishwasher..

1/2 gallon of water per load? I say you will end up with very soapy greasy "cleaned" dishes that are not sanitized.

There is one good thing about this counter top dishwasher. After it gets moldy, you just put it inside a regular dishwasher to have it cleaned.

dcarch

Someone said you could use it for sous vide, but I don't understand exactly how.

Or why you would want to.

1/2 gallon of water per load?

Well, I do know people who do dishes by hand using that little water. Don't forget this thing only holds two place settings, so mmmmaybe. But I think it would still be easier to wash by hand, and more energy efficient, if you're careful about water use.

I think it might do well. 10 minute sterilizer, not bad. My first NYC apt kitchen was a shoe box. After student years living out of a backpack I was thrilled to have a kitchen. So no dishwasher was needed with so few plates, cups, silverware. And that would have taken up my entire counter space...so no. Could not afford it back then anyway. Other countertop models already available hold much more.

I recall a friend cooking, or heating up/keeping warm, some covered holiday side dishes in his dishwasher. Maybe also lobster, can't recall exactly.

I do like that it has a very advanced heating system and adding the water without hooking it up to a sink is good design. Good for someone somewhere.

I've seen other, more traditional countertop dishwashers. They work fine on the dishes. They don't pull a lot of electricity and don't use more water than washing by hand. I don't know if they're a savings like fully loaded full sized ones are however. It doesn't look like this uses more resources. It also looks like you could use this as a drying rack. In a micro house or camper this might be a good thing. It would need a spot to be put away however, which is iffy under those circumstances.

It might be good for renters who just want an automatic dishwasher for
their few dishes. After living for a year with all dishes and clothes
washed by hand, and a garbage strainer bowl in the sink, the big
requirement for my next apartment was a dishwasher, garbage disposer and
laundry. I love my appliances!

I'm not sure about the lobster, though it's harmless if the machine is well cleaned and free of detergent residue. While "sous vide" refers to the vacuum sealing, so yes, you could cook a vacuum sealed pouch in this, the whole point of sous vide is the precision circulator. Some ovens are trying for that kind of accuracy, which is easier with water than air if I remember right, and are using steam. Without a precision adjustable temperature gauge, however, there's no reason for this. An immersion circulator smaller than the vacuum sealer can be used with any vessel.

No, I would not, and I do not want a countertop dishwasher. We store dirty dishes in the dishwasher until it is full, and so we do not hand wash just a few dishes if that is all we have. We end up using the DW twice a week, at most. I do hand wash pots and pans, as I need to use those every day and cannot wait for the DW to be full. I use very little water when washing, as I do not leave the faucet running while I am washing. I turn it on only to rinse at first, then I wash without running water, and then I rinse when I'm done. I also do not leave the faucet running when I shave.

No to the lobster in anything but a proper lobster pot. We stopped using our dishwasher several months ago unless we have a party. For two people, washing the dishes by hand is much cheaper and faster than using a dishwasher.

You can always cook a lobster on your car's engine while you drive.

No. But I'd really like using my stock pot right about now...

Haha, Ricky. I can remember when cooking on the engine was a thing back in the 70s.

Nope, no cooking in the dishwasher, although my brother used to put foil wrapped burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches on the manifold of his 1969 Impala to warm them for lunch....

Many dishwasher detergents contain bleach already, it's the least expensive way to sanitize dishes. I use the dishwasher to santize all my canning equipment. My old doctor told me to put the kids' toys in the dishwasher when they were small and everything went into their mouths from the floor. He also said to put the toothbrushes in there every couple of weeks during cold and flu season, or to replace the toothbrushes.

He never told me to cook a lobster in there, though...

Annie

Before sous vide was on the radar - I remember reading somewhere in a foodie publication that salmon, wrapped in heavy duty foil, was easily cooked in a dishwasher on the top rack (alone, no detergent). Never saved that one. But to torture a lobster to slow death - no.

I live on Cape Cod and am not unfamiliar with cooking live lobsters. The best way we know how to cook them is to plunge them head first into boiling water. Instant death. But Switzerland doesn't see it that way

http://www.dw.com/en/switzerland-bans-boiling-live-lobsters-in-animal-welfare-reform/a-42104175

I don't know the real truth of lobsters, and have only cooked one, ever, but what I have learned (true or not) is that lobsters die immediately in boiling water and that the squeal you hear is steam pushing through the openings. Also, that if you're going to use any other preparation, you drive a knife into the brain first to kill it.

I can't click Seagrass's link right now, but from the title I have to think that the eaters have still won the war. If you're calling inhumanity, that would be capturing, binding and chilling live lobsters (makes them slow), piling them up in foam boxes, flying them around the world with dubious air pressure, and putting them in tanks that keep them technically alive, but where they can barely move and are still bound, awaiting the slaughter. The boiling water is so much the least of it! Even if it isn't instant death, it's quick. And probably a big relief following the brutal days after capture.

But I swat bugs dead and don't even eat them...

I was thinking about lobster cruelty. At least here they come out of the sea and get killed quickky and eaten..... only because we're beside the sea. You see them in tanks being quite lively.

Plllog, this is also in the article:

The government also outlawed the practice of transporting crustaceans on ice or in ice water, ruling they should be kept in their natural environment instead.

Personally, I think the current way of cooking crab commercially (first you snip off the eye stalks) is even crueler.

No, I would not cook a lobster in a dishwasher.

But seriously, that tiny dishwasher must be one of the most useless gadgets I've seen in a long time. Two place settings (and no pots for cooking, so presumably you're just eating those frozen meals)? Quicker, easier and cheaper to just do a quick hand wash.

presumably you're just eating those frozen meals)?

While I entirely agree about hand washing being easier, it's only fair to point out that many folks in places like NYC mostly order in. It was a joke for years in the Kitchens forum that all you really needed in a NYC apt was space for place settings and flatware and one drawer for menus.

Also, many people never put pots in the dishwasher because they don't like how they come out, are worried about the handles becoming less secure, etching, etc. With the latest dishwashers that use much less heat, some of the concerns are different, but the new enzymatic detergents can still be hard on stuff. And many, like Lars, prefer to handwash a pan or two and run all the smaller stuff less frequently. Depending on your water usage, even drought conscious as Lars is, and depending on your exact dishwasher and settings, putting the pots in and running half empty more often might possibly still save water. Or not. I put my stainless pans in the dishwasher, but obviously not the cast iron or carbon steel, and most of the rest are enamelled. I stopped putting them in the dishwasher when I started getting chips.

A lot of people don't cook for every meal. Yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, a sandwich and salad for lunch, cleaning the sharp knife immediately as one ought as well as the cutting board, and a proper dinner, and the little DW is full for one, and maybe can fit the dishes for two if they're used conservatively. More handwashing of knife, board and pan(s) but less bother over all, and having the thing on the counter would be the same as having a dishdrainer.

Then, too, it's hard cooking for one or two. Even those with larger families often cook a lot on the weekend and use the cooked food in different ways through the week. It's easy to have pot free, heat and eat meals of homecooked from scratch foods, most days, even without freezing.

OTOH, if one has ownership of the kitchen, and funds, one can install a single drawer dishwasher, or an 18" wide one. The little countertop model is surely for those who don't have any access to those.