Dish Washers (Non-human)

[PeteC]

Are dishwashers becoming a common appliance in new build estate and condo build? I ask as 10 years ago when I built off plan in a development the question was answered with a look like I was from Mars. To retrofit I would need to do some major tearing out. It's not that big of a deal with us as only 3 people and one is now 12 and she'll learn rapidly how to wash dishes. But, I see the post from huahin4ever with 5 people in the house and it dawns on me that in some households it's a necessity and not a luxury.

I would think the architects are now at least leaving space in any new build (condo also)? Pete

[RCer]

I've never seen a home use one that actually washes the dishes. They just sanitize after you wash by hand.

[Nereus]

Mine was built in when I bought the house about 10 years ago. It proved to be a major selling point went I leased the house to the current client. But it was a problem with short term rentals several times when they managed to block up the drain.

They are dishwashers, NOT garbage disposal units and any bulk material should first be flushed off in the sink. That is not to say you have to wash the dish first, just be aware of the limitations.

[Ralfredo]

I've never seen a home use one that actually washes the dishes. They just sanitize after you wash by hand.

Do you mean that dishwashers in Thailand in general have subpar quality? I have only used one in Thailand but I didn't notice any big difference to the machines we have here in Sweden. That is, you put in dirty dishes, run the machine and get in general perfectly clean dish.

[RCer]

I've never seen a home use one that actually washes the dishes. They just sanitize after you wash by hand.

Do you mean that dishwashers in Thailand in general have subpar quality? I have only used one in Thailand but I didn't notice any big difference to the machines we have here in Sweden. That is, you put dirty dishes, run the machine and get in general perfectly clean dish.

No. Any home use, at least in the US. Only ones I've ever seen actually clean were commercial. Put your hand in one of those and you'll be lucky if it comes back with skin. Very high pressure and very high temperatures.

[PeteC]

^ ^ ^ Yes, of course. People on holiday perhaps don't have one at home, or say "who cares"? Since a kid in the west there has been one in my house and a given you rinse the heavy crud off first.

Having said that, there well could be units now that have a grinding disposal built into the drain system. Progress. Pete

[Ralfredo]

I've never seen a home use one that actually washes the dishes. They just sanitize after you wash by hand.

Do you mean that dishwashers in Thailand in general have subpar quality? I have only used one in Thailand but I didn't notice any big difference to the machines we have here in Sweden. That is, you put dirty dishes, run the machine and get in general perfectly clean dish.

No. Any home use, at least in the US. Only ones I've ever seen actually clean were commercial. Put your hand in one of those and you'll be lucky if it comes back with skin. Very high pressure and very high temperatures.

OK, we have different experiences. I do have to admit that I don't have any knowledge about what kind of machines that are common in the US. Maybe they are different.

One thing I noticed in Hua Hin is that "dish washing powder" (guess there's a better name) is silly expensive. I only found it at Bluport and Home Pro and I guess it was at least twice the price that I pay in Sweden. Anyone know a place with more reasonable prices?

[Ralfredo]

rinse the heavy crud off first.

Yeap, chicken skeletons and fish heads are better removed before the plate enters the machine.

[MDMK]

prcscct, I have no idea about your question regards how common it is to fit dishwashers in new homes, but I thought I could share our retrofitting one, just incase you were thinking of doing it.

we retrofitted one in the home we're in now and it wasn't a lot of work or expensive to have done. Basically the cupboard right next to the under sink cupboard, well he took that cupboard door and the front of the drawer above it and joined them together to make one piece. Then he ripped out the white inside of the cupboard. Then he placed an "inbuilt" dishwasher in the space, then put my cupboard fronts back on, attached to the front of the dishwasher. The plumbing bit was just a case of putting a t-joint pipe thingy in under the sink (there had been a pipe just straight down originally). Power supply I already had under the sink (well kinda behind the cupboard). The inbuilt dishwasher came with little feet (legs) thingies which meant they could prop it up to the correct height.

the above is for an inbuilt dishwasher (i.e where it just looks like a cupboard door, and the buttons to work it are on the top inside of the door). They did say at the time it would have been cheaper and easier just to rip out the cupboard and put a normal dishwasher (with a front side) in. Guy had it done in about an hour or 90 minutes. No material costs that I remember apart from the t-split pipe under the sink, so just an hour to 90minutes labour (and the dishwasher of course)

Only downside is, our kitchen isn't massive at the best of times, and I now miss one cupboard. But hey ho

[brianks]

We had one built in to the cupboard below the counter when we built our house 4 years ago. Bought ours at Home Pro and the interesting part was the salesperson did not know how they worked. She kept saying that we would have to change the cycles manually on the cheaper models except on the most expensive one. I pulled out the operating manual of one and showed her where she was wrong pointing out the "Automatic" meant that would do it's job automatically without having to manually change cycles. Obviously she did not know how they worked and was probably told her misinformation by another employee who was equally ignorant of them. Purchased the Haffle model which works fine EXCEPT it is rarely used by wife. Only when we have lots of people over with lots of dishes is it ever used. Just too easy to wash the few dishes for the two of us by hand.

[404cameljockey]

I've never seen a home use one that actually washes the dishes. They just sanitize after you wash by hand.

Do you mean that dishwashers in Thailand in general have subpar quality? I have only used one in Thailand but I didn't notice any big difference to the machines we have here in Sweden. That is, you put dirty dishes, run the machine and get in general perfectly clean dish.

No. Any home use, at least in the US. Only ones I've ever seen actually clean were commercial. Put your hand in one of those and you'll be lucky if it comes back with skin. Very high pressure and very high temperatures.

In the UK home dishwashers have a hot rinse cycle first before very hot cleaning. just put plates/bowls straight in after use. Pots and pans, etc. too. It's a full clean and they come out absolutely sparkling. They are the size of a standard under the counter clothes washing machine.

[404cameljockey]

Slightly off-topic, I had a new kitchen here and wanted an electric waste disposal (InSinkErator type) under the small sink in my 1.5 bowl sink/drainer, but my builder and also Hafele, etc. said you can't get them here. True?

I hate putting food scraps in the kitchen bin.

[J.J.B.]

Our developer isn't including them in new builds unless they are explicity requested. We took the keys to our new house five years ago this week and there was no dishwasher. During our first few visits we were accompanied by inlaws, oulaws and friends alike and used to do a fair bit of entertaining so not having one was a pain, especially since we've always had one in the UK.

Our agent and friend managed to source a nice looking second hand one so we arranged for a cupboard to be given-up to this undercounter model, i.e. not a built-in one. The water supply, drain and electrical install was pretty easy as this could be accessed from under the house - we have a rafted concrete structure - but the machine was a dud. We arranged for it to be repaired but it never worked properly and would leave crockery with a hard-baked white residue on and the cutlery with rust spots that all needed to be washed again, which was twice the work of the original dirty dish problem! Unable to easily put the cupboard back the dishwasher was neither use nor ornament.

Just over two years ago we bought a replacement dishwasher, a Siemens model from PowerBuy. To an earlier comment, I don't think they knew how it worked either but I was confident of the brand even though it was at least three times the price you would pay in Europe.

It also didn't work. The dishwashers of Thailand were becoming my arch enemy and clearly had it in for me. The unit had a two year warranty so we went to PowerBuy who said we would need to go to Siemens directly. That didn't seem right to me and for some time we were going back and forth with Siemens and PowerBuy but getting nowhere. This was compounded by not living in Thailand full time and not having an agent here who was able to see the problem through for us. The warranty period expired in February this year and still the machine was not working, each program attempt merely resulted in a different error being thrown-up on the display and the machine then emptied itself and shut down.

In May, with this as my sole mission of our holiday visit, I managed to get through to an excellent service centre for Siemens in Thailand. They spoke fluent English and a manager there heard my case and agreed to have the machine repaired under a limited, extended warranty through an agent in Hua Hin. They came, diagnosed a major fault with the main circuit board and Siemens agreed fo replace it. They did this through another engineer who came from Pranburi with the replacment part but he diagnosed a different problem. He spoke to Siemens and they agreed to replace the part he said was the root cause of all the other problems. Our holiday ended and we went home and I despaired that we would still not get this sorted. But Siemens kept in touch with me by email and worked with our property management company to see it all through to a satisfactory conclusion.

Now, finally, after five years we have a working dishwasher, which is amazing! But with only me here at the moment and opting to eat out most of the time, I don't have enough to put in it to run a cycle so am washing my few cups and plates by hand. Because it's just easier.

[Nereus]

Slightly off-topic, I had a new kitchen here and wanted an electric waste disposal (InSinkErator type) under the small sink in my 1.5 bowl sink/drainer, but my builder and also Hafele, etc. said you can't get them here. True?

I hate putting food scraps in the kitchen bin.

Well, I have one in my Condo in Bangkok. It is an Electrolux, but about 17 or 18 years old. The complete kitchen is Electrolux, right down to the cupboard hinges.

[404cameljockey]

Slightly off-topic, I had a new kitchen here and wanted an electric waste disposal (InSinkErator type) under the small sink in my 1.5 bowl sink/drainer, but my builder and also Hafele, etc. said you can't get them here. True?

I hate putting food scraps in the kitchen bin.

Well, I have one in my Condo in Bangkok. It is an Electrolux, but about 17 or 18 years old. The complete kitchen is Electrolux, right down to the cupboard hinges.

Thanks Nereus, if it's still working after all that timer that's a testament to Electrolux manufacturing standards circa year 2000.

Anyone have slightly more current info, or should I offer to buy Nereus' one?...