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Comment by hguant | Hacker News Reader

1. Handwashing is water inefficient compared to a lot of dishwashers; if this is something that's important to you, a device like this makes ecologic, if not necessarily economic sense

2. Dishwashers are expensive to people not on tech salaries. All upfront costs are difficult; a smaller upfront payment with a recurring monthly/quarterly subscription payment is much more manageable for many people.

3. There are many homes in America that aren't configured for a dishwasher and it would be expensive/difficult to remodel to get one to fit. Anecdotally, my cousin out in <small town outside a college> has this problem - he and his wife would greatly appreciate a dishwasher in their lives, but their home was built in the 1940s and renovating isn't happening on a post-doc + special ed teacher's combined salary

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> Handwashing is water inefficient compared to a lot of dishwashers

My grandmother insisted the right way to hand-wash dishes was to plug the sink and fill it up, scrub with your hands in the water, then drain and rinse everything all at once.

That should be similar efficiency (or greater?) vs a modern dishwasher, but I'm not sure anyone does that anymore. Everyone else I've seen leaves the water running the whole time.

It looks like this dishwasher uses only 3 litres of water for a full cycle. That's probably significantly less than you're filling your sink up.

But it takes more than one cycle for a full load of dishes.

That's the standard UK way of washing dishes, but usually with a soak in the hot soapy water first to reduce the scrubbing effort.

> water inefficient

Only if you don't know how to wash dishes by hand. Hand washing can be more efficient.

If you live in one of those unsustainable cities built in a desert, this probably matters, but as someone who doesn't, I'm sick of subsidizing that lifestyle by having to deal with cleaning devices designed for those conditions that don't work well.

> renovating isn't happening on a post-doc + special ed teacher's combined salary

It just makes me sad that we so deeply undervalue skilled, highly educated people who choose to dedicate their lives to helping raise up and advance the next generation, and help empower and enable those with disabilities and other disadvantages. The fact that it just seems obvious that these people based on their professions won't be able to afford a remodel goes to show just how deeply ingrained this undervaluing is in our collective psyches. :(

How much would this have to be used to offset the (materials/energy/water) cost of manufacturing it though?

Yeah, I don’t think this would really have a market in much of the US or Canada where even older apartments typically have dishwashers, maybe in cities like NYC there are folks that would find it useful?

But lots of U.K. homes don’t have a dishwasher and the kitchen without probably a full renovation wouldn’t accommodate one. In that context - I think this is a pretty great product. I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation is similar elsewhere in Europe, where the buildings predate dishwashers being a common appliance.

4. Dishwashers catch on fire fairly easily and commonly. Perhaps that one is a safer design.

>2. Dishwashers are expensive to people not on tech salaries. All upfront costs are difficult; a smaller upfront payment with a recurring monthly/quarterly subscription payment is much more manageable for many people.

I really think this line of thinking needs to die. Micro financing isn't helping the poor, it's exploiting the poor. It doesn't help to make the total cost of everything much more expensive.

What's the difference between the Bob dishwasher and buying this[1] and financing with a a payday loan center?

[1](https://www.amazon.ca/Portable-Countertop-Dishwasher-Vegetab...)

As far as I can tell, the Bob dishwasher still costs this much anyway.

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