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Are Dishwashers Worth It? What Do I Need to Install One?

Some appliances are indispensable in the kitchen, such as fridges and ranges. Dishwashers, on the other hand, are considered super important by some, and not missed at all by others.

What about you? Are you wondering if having a dishwasher will really make your life easier? Or how much work will be needed to install one?

Should you hand wash your dishes or use a dishwasher?

Pros of having a dishwasher

• Obviously, it saves you time. Specially with modern models, that don’t require a hand prewash anymore. You’re literally just putting all the dirt dishes in there and it will do the job.
• When used in its maximum capacity, it saves a lot of water. According to this site, hand washing uses 5 times as much water as an efficient dishwasher, and 3.5 times more water as an average dishwasher.
• It also saves soap. The specific soap for dishwashers is more expensive, but turns out to be more economic over time.
• They clean the dishes more deeply, killing the germs with water in a temperature that you couldn’t use while hand washing without getting burned.
• New models are super energy efficient, making a little impact in the electricity consumption. If you use an electric tap for hand washing with hot water instead, it uses more energy.

The water and energy efficiency is why I didn’t even consider the price as a fair reason not to have one. With the savings on the bills, you’ll get the invested money back eventually.

Cons of having a dishwasher

The only fair reason for you not to have a dishwasher is having a very small or underused kitchen.

If you cook a lot and your kitchen area is limited, it must be planned really carefully so you make the most of the available space.

In this case, whether it will be worth it having a dishwasher or not is a reasonable question. If you don’t mind washing dishes, you may not want to loose storage space to fit one between the cabinets.

And in really small kitchens, you probably won’t manage to accumulate too many dirty dishes, so hand washing it little by little shouldn’t be so bad.

How to install a dishwasher

Before the installation, it is necessary to provide for:

• a water drain point
• a water supply point
• an electrical point, with the voltage of the chosen model.

For the correct operation, it is important to place the water points at the heights indicated in the product manual.

Read the manual carefully to check the necessary offsets for ventilation and other details before you build the cabinets around it.

Then check it again before start using it, so you don’t put in there anything that you shouldn’t. The manual will guarantee you make good use of your appliance so it lasts for longer.

So, what do you think? Is a dishwasher worth it for your kitchen? Got everything you need to install one?

If so, see this other article to learn how to choose the perfect type for you.