O.K So my kitchen is all of 9 ft x 9 ft. I always wanted a dishwasher, but I absolutely have NO room.I found this counter top model on Amazon, and mounted it under my farmhouse sink.I LOVE it!
The Haier is a miniature automatic dishwasher that's small enough to stand on a counter or fit within a large cabinet -- it measures 22.6-by-18.9-by-17.2 inches. It can fit roughly four place settings, along with silverware, and while it's not Energy Star compliant, it uses a fraction of the amount of water you would use if you hand washed. A recent study found that to hand wash 12 place settings it takes 27 gallons of water. The Haier uses about 8.25 gallons for the same amount of dishes -- 2.75 gallons per cycle.
Like most countertop washers, the Haier connects to your kitchen sink water line. The instructions suggest that you connect the water intake hose straight to your kitchen faucet, but this means that you have to uninstall the line every time you want to use your sink. We decided to create a more permanent solution, by connecting the intake hose straight to the hot water supply under the sink.
In order to do this, first we checked if our water pipes were copper or iron (what you have determines what type of hardware to get). Once we knew they were iron, we headed to the hardware store to buy a dual-supply/dual shut-off stop valve and a 48-inch dishwasher supply line. We then shut off our main water feed to our sink, put a small bucket under our hot water valve, turned on the faucet to relieve pressure, and then removed the faucet hookup and the existing valve. Next, we applied teflon tape to the exposed pipe threads after removing the old tape and attached the dual shut-off valve. Then we attached our dishwasher line to one end of the dual valve and our sink line to the other, again applying teflon tape to any visible threads (male side only). Finally, we turned on our house water and checked for leaks.
Grey water needs to go somewhere as well, so we decided to collect it in a bucket in order to water plants outside (we use a mild Trader Joe's detergent that doesn't harm plants). We simply placed the drain hose into a five gallon bucket, and now make sure to empty it after each use.
A wash cycle takes about 2 hours and is a bit loud. If you live in a studio apartment, I recommend turning it on when you're heading out for a few. I've had to take phone conversations to another room and raise the volume on the TV a few bars to hear over the whirl of the machine. The Haier can handle three types of washes, but I'll be honest, I've only used the normal wash cycle and it did well on both fragile items and heavily soiled items.
I LOVE MY NEW TOY!!!
