I have a small kitchen, so I don’t want to buy a full-size dishwasher. But I want one that is fast, and that can clean up dishes when I’m on the road. There are two ways to do this. One way is to buy a portable dishwasher, which I did. The other way is to use a full-size one in your kitchen as well as your car or RV: you can take it along with you.
I haven’t done this before because my dishwasher has always been in my kitchen, and for me the only advantage of a portable dishwasher is that it helps me fit more dishes into my tiny kitchen. But now I’m trying the portable idea because once I got past the initial learning curve, it was surprisingly easy to use.
I think the portable dishwasher has its place, especially if you have a small kitchen. If you do have a small kitchen you might also be interested in my article on freestanding full-size dishwashers: http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/2011/01/07/the-benefits-of-using-a-portable-dishwasher/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_
A portable dishwasher is the ultimate in convenience. But the main reason to buy one is that it’s environmentally friendly. The dishwasher needs water, electricity, and a place to live. And the dishwasher doesn’t need any of those things (except water, obviously). So a portable dishwasher saves the planet.
It also saves you money. A portable dishwasher uses much less electricity than a regular one; and even if you have to run your dishwasher at times you’re not going to use it, like on weekends when you’re camping or something, it’s still cheaper than hiring someone to do it for you.
A portable dishwasher is a great idea, and it can be really useful. But you have to think carefully about the trade-offs. Portable dishwashers are usually powered by electricity, not by water. That means they need to be plugged in, which means they take up space next to your kitchen sink. They also tend to be heavy, expensive, and difficult to clean. A good portable dishwasher will use less water than a conventional dishwasher and will probably cost more than it would have if you bought a full-sized one.
But there are some upsides as well. It will probably save you money on your utilities bill because you aren’t running the dishwasher all the time. And if you do have a full-sized kitchen sink, then you won’t need all that plumbing or electrical work done.
You might even want to buy an adapter for your water supply so that you can use it with your garden hose rather than with your kitchen sink faucet.
If you need to wash dishes quickly, you can use a portable dishwasher instead of a washing machine.
Portable dishwashers are also cheaper than washing machines, because they don’t need plumbing. And because they are easy to store, they make it easier to move into an apartment with no space for a washing machine.
Portable dishwashers have other advantages too. They can be used in the sink or on the countertop, like a regular dishwasher. So they save it real estate that could be used for other things. They can also be used with metal utensils, so kids can play in them if you leave them out in the kitchen. And by not needing plumbing, portable dishwashers use less water and energy than ordinary dishwashers.
The point here is not just about saving money but about getting the best bang for your time and money. If you spend $500 on a washing machine, you have to spend at least $200 to get it back by saving on electricity and water–before even factoring in the cost of detergent and time spent doing dishes.
A portable dishwasher is better than a regular dishwasher for the same reason that a small, easy-to-use computer is better than a big, complicated one: it makes your life simpler.
The Dishwasher Divas know how to make things simple. We’ve been doing it since 1997, when we invented the portable dishwasher.
Compared to traditional dishwashers, portable dishwashers are smarter and faster. They wash more dishes at once, and they do it more efficiently. They’re also safer, cleaner and cheaper. And they fit into small spaces without taking up much room or looking too silly.
If you want to buy a dishwasher that doesn’t take up much space, doesn’t take up much energy or look too silly, and does everything you need from a dishwasher — but better — we have something for you.
A portable dishwasher is an object of the future, and not just because it is on a roll. It doesn’t even look like one; it looks like your grandmother’s under-the-sink unit, or the kind of thing that used to be called a “handy”–in other words, like a machine that was made more than fifty years ago.
The first portable dishwasher was invented in 1922 by Arthur Koestler, a Hungarian physicist and writer who’d left Vienna for England. Had he lived to watch his invention’s long decline from its early promise to its current obscurity, he might have regretted that he didn’t patent it.
You can get a portable dishwasher for about $200. That’s about how much it costs to get an electric pot and spoon from an Amazon warehouse. But if you want something to wash your dishes in when you’re camping, or if you’re living in an apartment and don’t want to use your oven or microwave–or if you want something as cheap as possible so you can take it on vacation with you–you will be better off with one of these newfangled machines made by companies like Hotpoint and Bosch. The old ones really do work better than the new ones, because they have
Today’s dishwashers come with lots of “features” that are really just gimmicks to make you buy more expensive models. Why not just buy one that does all the work for less?
In fact, it turns out that there is no such thing as a portable dishwasher. It’s impossible to take one from one place to another without sacrificing some of its benefits. The idea that there might be a portable dishwasher is like the idea that you could build a computer using only paper clips.