The tabletop dishwasher is dead.
No, not the full-sized dishwasher that sits on your kitchen countertop. We’re talking about that other kind of countertop dishwasher that’s been around for a good 25 years now. The kind of dishwasher you can bring with you when you go camping. The kind of dishwasher you can place on top of a desk or table to wash a couple plates worth of dirty dishes in dorm rooms and apartments without kitchens. The kind of dishwasher that plugs right into the faucet, saving space and money.
Yes, the end of an era has arrived: The portable, table-top countertop dishwasher is no more.
But why? Why would manufacturers stop making something so convenient? For starters, it’s not quite as popular as it used to be. A lot of college students are opting for full-size dishwashers in their dorms because they have access to them at home and because they were raised with one in their kitchen growing up. They’re also becoming more familiar with the newer models (like the SHE3ARF5UC) that are so quiet, you can run them while studying or even sleeping (no more waiting for them to finish). And finally, there’s now an
After 33 years of production, the portable countertop dishwasher is no longer being manufactured. We imagine many will mourn this news.
Manufactured by Danby Products Ltd., the last of the small tabletop dishwashers rolled off the assembly line in Findlay, Ohio sometime in June of this year, according to a company representative. The company is now focusing on the sale of its larger models and other products.
While portable and compact dishwashers have been around for decades, beginning in the early 1980s with models from brands such as Hotpoint and GE, new designs have become increasingly popular over the past few years as people look for ways to fit full-size appliances into smaller kitchens and tighter budgets.
Portable dishwashers are popular with renters who are not allowed to install built-in models or those who cannot afford a more expensive appliance. They can also be an option for households where someone has limited mobility or uses a wheelchair since they can be hooked up to any sink. The countertop design also makes them easier to load and unload than traditional models.
Today, we say goodbye to our trusty tabletop dishwashers. The world will never be the same.
I’m not sure when exactly I realized that portable dishwashers were a thing of the past. I think it was somewhere around the time that I started seeing more and more standalone dishwashers for sale on Craigslist for practically nothing. A few months ago, we sold our old portable dishwasher for $25 and replaced it with a new one (a GE), which cost about $200 at Home Depot. It seems that as people upgrade their kitchens and get rid of their old table-top models, no one is buying them. We were lucky to unload ours at all.
So what are the reasons behind this demise? Why did they fall out of favor in the first place?
The most obvious reason is that people upgraded to built-in dishwashers with their new kitchens or remodels. But did people really decide to buy a new kitchen just to accommodate a built-in dishwasher? I doubt it. I think it was more likely that as countertops have gotten larger, there was simply no room left for the portable dishwasher. They took up precious space and prevented you from opening your cabinet doors all the way because it stuck out
“It was a good run.” That’s how appliance giant GE is choosing to acknowledge the discontinuation of its line of portable dishwashers, the last-remaining tabletop dishwater models currently on the market. All portable models will be phased out by the end of this year, and although GE has been circumspect about offering a reason for the decision, one suspects that it’s because most buyers are opting for more traditional, full-sized dishwashers.
The compact dishwasher will have no shortage of mourners, however. It’s not just for those who lack space in their kitchens; it’s also for people who live in high rises and lack dishwasher-ready plumbing. And like all kitchen appliances—a category that regularly spawns new gadgets and gizmos—it was something of a status symbol. The portable dishwasher was a signifier of an entire lifestyle: young, mobile, and ready to travel at any moment (or at least be ready when your landlord inevitably kicks you out).
The tabletop dishwasher also proved useful in a variety of other ways: Its compact size meant that it could be stored under sinks or in closets with ease—and that when it wasn’t in
They are no more. After nearly 20 years, the last portable dishwasher was discontinued in May of this year.
Rest in peace portable dishwasher. (Flickr: John Gress)
It’s hard to say exactly why portable dishwashers were discontinued. The concept of a portable dishwasher is no different than that of a portable washing machine, which people have been using for decades. Portable dishwashers have always been a niche product compared to full-sized models and likely not very profitable — perhaps that was the reason for its demise.
Portable dishwashers ran off water supplied by your kitchen faucet, much like a washing machine. If you had a double sink, the second side would be blocked off by the “water supply” arm of the machine, making the sink unusable while the machine was running.
It was possible to hook up your own plumbing to make both sides of the sink usable. However, most people didn’t bother with this extra work because these machines were typically used in rental apartments that didn’t allow for any plumbing changes anyway.
If you’re one of the 70% of Americans who rent instead of own a home, chances are you’ve used a portable dishwasher at some point. Unfortunately, those days are coming to an end.
Portable dishwashers are small machines that sit on top of your kitchen sink and use the faucet for water. They were popular among apartment dwellers as an alternative to handwashing because they require no plumbing or permanent installation. But now that portable dishwashers are being discontinued, renters will have to get creative with their kitchen space again.
“The downfall was that people didn’t really want them, honestly,” says Justin Haverty, general manager of home appliance retailer Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery in Chicago. “They were pretty expensive for what you got.”
Haverty believes the rise of built-in appliances and dishwashers is what led to the fall of the portable machine. “It became more common to have a built-in dishwasher than not have one,” he says. “[Apartment dwellers] didn’t want water all over their floor and they didn’t want to hang a towel over their door like in college anymore.”
When General Electric discontinued the sale of tabletop dishwashers in 2006, the company cited low sales and an increase in demand for under-the-sink units as their reasons.
But the truth is that they stopped making them because they realized that dishwashers were never actually meant to be portable. They are portable in the same way that a baby’s car seat is portable. It’s not like you would ever use one in your home for more than a year or so, but if you have one, you might as well take it with you when you go on vacation or move. A dishwasher is meant to be stationary and plugged into an outlet at all times. The only good thing about having a portable dishwasher is that you can bring it with you when you move and do not need to buy another.