We're lazy, I admit it.

June 10, 2008 3:17 PM

We're contemplating moving into a house with no built-in dishwasher... without which we cannot live! What are your impressions of portables? What are good some good brands, and are there any caveats to hooking them up that we should be aware of?
posted by TheNewWazoo to home & garden (21 comments total)

why are you not just installing a dishwasher? are you renting?
posted by thinkingwoman at 3:28 PM on June 10

I had a portable at my apartment last year and it was actually really nice. The only difference between a "built-in" and my portable was that it had to be hooked up to the sink when you wanted to use it, and it had wheels... the wheels were used to bring the dish washer closer to the appropriate cabinets. Don't know the brand, but they exist!
posted by pwally at 3:29 PM on June 10

the single most infuriating thing about smaller dishwashers, which I presume to be a feature with most portables, is that you will find it difficult to fit dinner plates in them. I currently have what should be a decent-but-slightly-smaller dishwasher in my apartment and the rotating arm that is supposed to spray water all over the dishes can't swing around when I put a regular-size plate into the compartment upright. the only remedy here is to lay them flat onto the rack or angle a few plates until they touch each other, which has caused one or two to chip already. the loss of capacity per washing routing has become so bad that I rarely use the dishwasher nowadays.
posted by krautland at 3:31 PM on June 10

I have a portable Maytag. You might have to screw/unscrew some things on the faucet to make the hose hook up properly, but that's it. They're very easy.
posted by hjo3 at 3:33 PM on June 10

I have an ancient portable Kenmore dishwasher that I bought at a garage sale for $2.50 (yep, you read that right). It works great. It sits in the empty space between our kitchen sink countertop and the door to the basement, and it looks just like a built-in when its not in use. So, if you have a space for a portable to sit, where the hose can still reach your faucet when they need to, it won't be a hassle at all. If, however, you'd constantly be having to move it around, then you'd be better off just installing a built-in (unless you're renting).
posted by amyms at 3:34 PM on June 10

I've had multiple in my life. I highly recommend the Kenmore, not the cheapest one, but midtier (some heating, water jets, etc.).

Just as all dishwashers are not the same, the same goes for portables. (They don't have to be necessarily smaller than a built-in.)

You put a little connector on your faucet and just link it up. The one with the butcher block top served as a kitchen island/cutting table for years.
posted by Gucky at 3:49 PM on June 10

Get the kind that rolls around that you can put things on if you need counter space. Get the kind that goes on your counter if you need floor space.

Bring a plate with you to the store to make sure it fits.

If you go for the cheaper brands, get one with a good reputation for service or get them from a store with a good service/warranty policy. Stuff breaks.

Buy white vinegar to run through the machine once a week or so. Makes a huge difference.
posted by sondrialiac at 3:57 PM on June 10

We had a portable, and it was fine. We would have gone built-in, but we didn't have the space. We just rolled it to a corner when it wasn't in use.

But don't bother buying Kenmore or Maytag. Seriously, look at Danby. You'll get a stainless-steel tub for about half the price you'd pay for either of the two big brands, and it's a fact that Danby makes the actual dishwasher for at least one of them anyway. We got a 5-year in-home warranty with ours, manufacturer standard.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 4:14 PM on June 10

My wife and I bought a lightly-used Danby countertop model a month or two ago. It is a bit too small, but it works just fine. We set it on top of a wheeled pantry thing, for an effect similar to the larger ones with countertop on top (except with shelves below rather than a work surface above). I'd trade up to a larger portable in a second if we could afford/justify it, but that won't be the case for some time.
posted by onshi at 4:52 PM on June 10

A few years ago I had a Kenmore portable similar to the one Gucky described. This was for a rental place, and we later moved it into a house we bought. If we had ever remodeled the kitchen, I would have had it installed under the counter.

It was essentially a regular-size Kenmore dishwasher on wheels with a metal cabinet and a butcher-block countertop. It worked just fine. The only caution I have is that the countertop is not a cutting board, even if it looks like one. I put my microwave oven on it.
posted by Robert Angelo at 7:08 PM on June 10

The only caveat I would add is to check out your floors, if you have to move the dishwasher every time you hook it up to your sink, you'll quickly get tired of lifting it over a lip in the doorway or even if you have tiled floors. Most newer portables seem to skimp on the quality of the wheels, so check them if possible, stay away from the ones that look chintzy. There's a lot of weight bearing on those things, so they should be as good as possible.
posted by jeremias at 7:26 PM on June 10

I haven't used a dishwasher since 1993. I finally have a portable Kenmore with the butcher block (not) top. It is easy to hook up. But, I HATE it. It leaks, takes forever (an hour or more. I could wash twice as many dishes in half the time) and the dishes just aren't as clean as when I do them by hand.
Unless you really want to spend the money and you have tons of dishes, I say just do without.
posted by nimsey lou at 7:46 PM on June 10

If you have the space, consider getting a regular dishwasher instead of a portable (if you need wheels, you could always support it on a couple furniture dollies). My friends did this and the hookups seem to be pretty much the same.

It all depends, of course, on whether you mind having tubes hanging out in plain sight. Also if they block the cabinets, that's not such a great thing. But if you have room... I'd go for the regular one, and then it can be actually installed in your next house.
posted by GardenGal at 8:10 PM on June 10

Alas, we're renting, and the owner is unwilling to make the modifications to the kitchen necessary for a built-in unit.

How do the units drain? Is there a separate pipe that gets fed into the sink drain?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:41 PM on June 10

> I'd go for the regular one, and then it can be actually installed in your next house.

Most of the full-size portables I've looked at can be converted to a regular unit -- the wheels come off, back panel removed, hose connectors removed, etc. That's how mine works.

> How do the units drain? Is there a separate pipe that gets fed into the sink drain?

In my experience, they drain through the bottom of the same connector that attaches to the sink faucet. I.e. the waste water pours out the bottom and goes down the sink's drain. (Two hoses actually go into the single connector piece, one for fresh water, one for waste.)
posted by hjo3 at 9:16 PM on June 10

I grew up with one of these (a rolling, full-size Kenmore), and would have no qualms about buying one again if the space I was in required it. the 'butcher-block' top was where the mail and all the other assorted detritus we carried into the house ended up, before it was sorted and went on its merry way.
posted by pupdog at 3:29 AM on June 11

We use a portable in our house. Works great, but there are a few things to be aware of.

One is that your sink is pretty much unusuable when the thing is running. The sink must be empty, and you need to be sure to take out any sort of drain cover you might have--don't want backups. You also need to be sure you go ahead and draw whatever water you'll need for the next hour or so, since the faucet will be tied up.

Also, it will leave marks on the floor when you move it. The things are heavy, so they will put ruts in a wood floor.

The biggest thing, though, is not to leave the water on all night. This puts contant pressure on your faucet system, and the systems aren't built for that. This is especially important if you have a sprayer hose. We came down one morning to find hot water saturating our hardwood floor--the sprayer hose had come disconnected due to the pressure. Not pretty.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:49 AM on June 11

For what it's worth, if you're renting long-term and the owner has any flexibility at all (is the owner springing for the portable?)...it's possible to install a dishwasher without major modifications to the kitchen. We installed a full-size dishwasher in a dishwasher enclosure purchased from Ikea across the kitchen from where the sink was. I think it took about $450 worth of plumbing and electrical work (we needed hot water run from where the sink was to the new dishwasher and needed a dedicated dishwasher-friendly electrical outlet), which included installing the dishwasher. It was really very straightforward and required basically no remodeling. (It did take several calls to find a plumber who was willing to do the install---most of them were like "dishwasher enclosure? what's that? it sounds weird...")

Before that, we had a portable dishwasher, and it was a huge pain (although not as big of a pain as having to hand-wash all the dishes would have been). You can't use the sink while the dishwasher is running, and the dishwasher is noisy. So you have to plan carefully when you are going to run the dishwasher, as opposed to being able to run it when it's full. Trundling it back and forth across the floor is a pain.
posted by leahwrenn at 8:55 AM on June 11

I have a GE portable dishwasher that I love, love, love. I purchased it second-hand, but the folks who bought it bought it in 2004 and still had the manual and receipt to prove it. They bought it at Best Buy, FWIW.

It's a better dishwasher than the one that's installed in the house I've since moved to. It has whirly bits on the bottom and top; the built-in only has them on the bottom. Plus, my portable had a deeper top rack that would fit my wineglasses; the built-in doesn't.

I didn't find mind that difficult to roll and my kitchen was so cramped and tiny that I had to store my dishwasher all the way across the house in the living room closet.

I would guess it's standard on most portables, but mine had a retractable hose and electrical cord that kept everything tidy.
posted by 100watts at 9:27 AM on June 11

All the comments here seem to cover everything. But I'll add my 2¢...

I have a portable, and for the 3-4 times I've used it, works OK (don't know the brand, sorry). The connection is a little finicky. That is, hose doesn't always get seated correctly, and leaks, but that is easily fixed by throwing a dish towel on top of it. Getting your connection right is trivial. Worst case, you might have to buy a 25¢ adapter.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 9:49 AM on June 11

hjo3 did a good job describing the connection and drainage for the GE we've had for years. It's excellent. (And the connector has a button you press to get tap water while it's running)
posted by raider at 10:28 AM on June 14