Best Countertop Dishwashers: Save Time And Water
Last updated:
If you don’t have space in your apartment for a built-in dishwasher, a countertop one is the next best thing. Especially if you hate washing dishes as much as I do.
These appliances are perfect for small kitchens, but also for places like a boat or an RV. They work just as well as built-in dishwashers, but take up a lot less space.
So, if you’re looking to save some time and water by not having to hand wash dishes every day, you are in the right place! Check out the top ten countertop dishwashers we found that will make your life much easier.
About Countertop Dishwashers
If you’re new to mini dishwashers, there’s some things you should know before you actually get one. So, here are some reasons why they are so popular right now, and how to pick the right one for you.
They Save Water And Time
A countertop dishwasher uses less water than a normal dishwasher – obvious, right. But, it also uses less water than hand washing, which was actually a surprise for me.
So, if you want to save some money on the water bill, a countertop dishwasher is a good place to start. And these are also a great option for places where you have access to a limited amount of water, like an RV.
Saving water is also environmentally conscious, and that’s always a bonus in my book.
And of course, dishwashers save a lot of time, compared to hand washing everything. If you have a busy schedule, this might just be the best thing you can buy to free up some time.
Perfect For Small Spaces
Maybe you live in a really small apartment, or even in college dorm. And you don’t have space for a full-size dishwasher – a countertop dishwasher is the perfect replacement. They don’t take up much space, they are pretty lightweight and they can fit pretty much everywhere. Or you want one for your office or a boat – the point is, if you a limited amount of space, a countertop dishwasher is just the right choice for you.
You do need to attach this to a water source in order to get it to work. But that can be a faucet – the dishwashers come with adapters that you attach to the faucet, so that the dishwasher can work.
Now, one thing to keep in mind is that these dishwashers come in different sizes. I will make sure to list the dimensions of each one, and weight if possible, so that you can see whether or not it will actually fit in your space.
Portability
A portable dishwasher is not exactly synonymous with a countertop dishwasher. Some of the dishwashers I’ll show you in this review are portable, and some aren’t. You can look for that info in the pros/cons section.
The main thing that makes them portable is a built-in water heater. Dishwashers that have one can work pretty much anywhere, even if you don’t have access to hot water. The ones that lack this feature need to be attached to a hot water source, and they are not as portable.
Having a portable dishwasher means that you can just throw it in the trunk of your car and have it handy wherever you go. Maybe you’re going to visit a friend or a sister who doesn’t have a dishwasher and you don’t want to be stuck doing the dishes. Or you’re going on vacation and you’re booking an apartment that doesn’t have any kind of dishwasher – in my experience, hand washing a sink full of dishes is not the ideal way to spend an evening when you’re on holiday.
Limited Capacity
This is a pretty important thing to keep in mind. Countertop dishwashers can fit a lot less dishes than regular dishwashers. And they are not as strong, so most of them can’t really clean the super greasy dishes.
Because of the limited capacity, these only work for 1-2 people. Great if you live alone or with a roommate, or if you’re going on a vacation with your partner. And obviously, the capacity depends on the size – the larger the countertop dishwasher, the more it can fit. You should be able to find info about this in the mini reviews – countertop dishwashers can usually fit about 6 place settings, which comes down to three meals for two people.
But, if you were thinking of bringing this on a vacation with a group of friends, I don’t think you’ll have much use for it. You would need to turn it on after every meal, to ensure that the dishes don’t stack up, and that’s almost as bad as having to hand wash everything at once. Mostly because it takes them a pretty long time to complete a cycle. The length of time will of course vary, depending on the particular dishwasher, but usually it’s about an hour to ninety minutes.
The Best Countertop Dishwashers In 2019
By now, you should have a pretty good idea whether or not a countertop dishwasher is the right choice for you. If you think it is, then check out the best countertop dishwashers in 2019!
!Note: All of the countertop dishwashers featured in the rest of this review have a cup shelf, a cutlery basket and an automatic detergent dispenser. Therefore, I will not be mentioning those features in the mini reviews.
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
| No products found. | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
| No products found. | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
| No products found. | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
 | SEE ON AMAZON → | |
| No products found. | SEE ON AMAZON → |
Top Products
Black + Decker Compact Dishwasher
The Black + Decker dishwasher is a good affordable option. With the discount, you can get it for under $300 (as opposed to the regular $350 price), which is a pretty good deal. Especially considering the brand this is, and how expensive most of their products usually are.
This countertop dishwasher looks pretty sleek, and it actually looks like a portable oven. But it’s not – it’s a small dishwasher that can fit up to 6 place settings. Which includes plates that are up to 10” tall. And because the front of this dishwasher is mostly black, any spots and dirt won’t be too visible. It’s pretty easy to load – the dish rack slides out, and the cutlery tray can be removed completely. Just like on any normal dishwasher.
What’s special about this countertop appliance is that it has electronic touch controls and an LED display. This allows for easy setup and adjustments, and it’s just a nice addition for people who like touch screens. The dishwasher has a delayed start option, which allows you to load it up when you can, and set it to turn on any time in the following 24 hours.
It features 7 wash cycles – normal, rapid, soak, 90 Minutes, Eco, glass, and intensive. And it has a built in hot water heater, so you can use this even in places where you only have access to cold water. What’s even better is that it features a child lock – pretty useful considering just how large that handle is.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 21.7” x 21.5” x 17.2”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 54.4 lbs (shipping weight)
DELLA Portable Compact Countertop Dishwasher
The Della countertop dishwasher is one of the mid-range options. And it is one of the better options – this is actually one of the few dishwashers that can fit full-size dinner plates (11”) without an issue. You can choose between two colors (white or black), so you can easily make this fit into the existing design of your kitchen. I would recommend black since it doesn’t get dirty as easily as the white one does.
And there is a delayed start option, but it’s not as useful as it is on some of the other dishwashers. There are only three settings – 2, 4, and 8 hours. But that’s still better than nothing. The dishwasher has 6 cycle options – heavy, normal, Eco, glass, speed, and rinse. It actually does a really good job at washing dishes, and you’ll be fine even with some super greasy plates.
That’s because the dishwasher can heat up water up to 148 degrees Fahrenheit, which is higher than most other countertop dishwashers. It has a built-in water heater, so it is definitely portable.
The dishwasher is really easy to install. It comes with a quick adapter kit that you attach to the faucet so that it can drain water. And that’s pretty much all the setup the dishwasher requires. It is also very easy to use – it has push buttons and a control panel that allows you to see which cycle you selected. In terms of performance and quality, it’s just as good as a regular dishwasher – just half its size.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 19″(L) x 21.5″(W) x 17″(H)
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 53 lbs (shipping weight)
Best Choice Products Countertop Dishwasher
This is a good affordable option. It is one of the cheaper countertop dishwashers you’ll find (less than $250), so consider it if you’re on a tight budget. You get a 47” long cord that has an adapter for a faucet with this dishwasher and it requires no other assembly. So, it should be pretty easy to set it up.
It is a portable dishwasher – you might struggle a bit getting this to your car, considering that it weighs 40 lbs, but so do almost all others. Plus, this is actually the lightest countertop dishwasher in this review, so it’s basically the most portable one. It is able to heat water on its own, which makes it great for spaces where you don’t have access to hot water.
A great feature of this dishwasher is that there’s a delayed start function. You can load it up and then set it to work when you’re not at home, which is very time-efficient. Plus, the dishwasher can fit 6 plate settings, which is pretty much three meals for two roommates. Pretty great, in terms of saving water, since you only need to turn it on once a day, instead of hand washing dishes after every meal.
There are six washing cycles on it – heavy, normal, Eco, speed, glass, and rinse. I don’t think that it would do a great job at washing really greasy dishes even on Heavy mode, so keep that in mind. And, I doubt you could even fit a pan in it since a 10.5” plate doesn’t fit in the tray.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 21.75″(L) x 19.5″(W) x 17″(H)
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 40.1 lbs
Ivation Countertop Dishwasher
The Ivation dishwasher is one of the affordable choices. It is very easy to use – the dish rack slides out for easy loading, just like you have on regular-sized dishwashers. It fits 6 place settings, which is pretty good. And it has 6 dishwashing cycles you can choose from, depending on the type of dirty dishes you’re dealing with – heavy, normal, glass, Eco, speed and rinse.
A downside to this dishwasher is that it is not really portable. It doesn’t have a built-in water heater, so you will need to connect the dishwasher to hot water in order to get it working. This is fine in most scenarios, but not for a place where you don’t really have access to hot water.
The dishwasher is safe to use with water temperature up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, which is pretty good. That means you can expect full-size dishwasher performance in a much smaller package. And that it can handle some seriously greasy dishes.
The controls are user-friendly, and there’s an LED panel that shows you the cycle you selected and its duration. It is also really easy to set up – the adapter that connects to the sink faucet comes with the dishwasher, and it takes just a couple of minutes to set up. Overall, this is really a great dishwasher for the money – it is under $300, and it performs incredibly well for such an attractive price tag.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 17” x 21.5” x 20”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 49.5 lbs
HomeLabs Countertop Dishwasher
This is one of the smaller dishwashers that are available, so it’s perfect if you don’t have a lot of space to work with. It does have a water heater, so it is pretty portable since you can use it even in places where you don’t have access to hot water. Plus, that relieves the strain on your water heater a little bit, which is pretty convenient.
However, it only heats water up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. That might not work with some really greasy dishes, so you will probably want to soak those first before you wash them. The controls include pushbuttons, as well as an LED panel that indicates which cycle you’ve selected, but doesn’t count downtime remaining in a cycle.
It’s fairly easy to use, but the LED panel does take some getting used to. There are 6 wash cycles to choose from – Eco, heavy, normal, glass, speed, and rinse. Each one is best for a different type of dirty dish. Depending on the cycle you choose, the dishwasher will utilize a maximum of 3 gallons of water, which is very efficient.
The dishwasher requires absolutely no tools to set up. You just need to connect the adapter to the faucet, and that’s pretty much it. The interior is stainless steel, and it can fit up to 6 plate settings.
One other thing to note is that this dishwasher does have a delayed start option, but it is fairly limited. You can choose between just three settings – 2, 4, and 8 hours. It’s not really ideal, but it is certainly better than not having a delayed start option at all.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 17.2” x 19.6” x 21.6”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 44.1 lbs
SPT Countertop Dishwasher
The SPT dishwasher is one of the cheaper options. It does not have a built-in water heater, and you need to turn on the hot water to get this working. That makes it less portable than some other options, so keep that in mind.
This dishwasher can fit 6 standard place settings. You can fit in full-size plates inside it if you angle them a little bit. They can’t always fit when they are fully straight, but some maneuvering will get the job one.
It does not have a delayed start option, and it lacks a digital panel. It is an old-school dishwasher with three buttons (power, program, and start/reset), and with LED indicators that show which program you chose. The downside to this design is that there is no indicator that tells you how long a cycle is going to last. The times are listed in the instructions manual – they range from 10 minutes for a quick soak to 100 minutes for a full heavy cycle.
There are 6 washing cycles you can choose from – heavy, normal, light, glass, speed and soak. On the heavy setting, the dishwasher uses about 3.8 gallons. It’s more efficient than hand washing for sure, but not as efficient as some of the other countertop dishwashers you can buy. All in all, spending less money on an appliance means you will eventually make up for the difference by paying higher water and electricity bills.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 21.65” x 19.69” x 17.24”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 48.5 lbs
EdgeStar Portable Countertop Dishwasher
The EdgeStar dishwasher is one of my top choices. It’s not too expensive (under $300), and it has lots of features that make it stand out from all the others. For one thing, it is really quiet – 52.3 dB, which is less than most other dishwashers we saw. It is extremely easy to set up – you just need to connect the adapter to the faucet and that’s it.
The dishwasher is very water efficient. On the normal cycle, it uses 2.85 gallons of water, which is really good. In total, there are 7 washing cycles to choose from, which actually makes this particular countertop dishwasher stand out – most others have 6. It has a digital display that allows you to easily see the time remaining for each washing cycle.
It does have a built-in water heater that can boost the temperature of the water inside to up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit (on heavy). That’s pretty good, since water that hot can easily wash off even the greasiest plates. However, the heater only works if the dishwasher is being fed hot water. If you feed it cold water, it cannot heat up water to a temperature that’s so high.
It fits 6 place settings, which is no surprise. The delayed start function is also a very nice inclusion since it allows you to let the appliance work while you’re not at home. But the best thing about this dishwasher is how well it actually cleans the dishes. You can put greasy pots and pans inside it, and they will come out spotless! And since that’s the main point of a countertop dishwasher, I highly recommend this one!
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 19.7” x 21.7” x 17.2”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 44 lbs
Danby DDW621WDB Countertop Dishwasher
The Danby dishwasher is a quiet appliance that does its job pretty well. It fits 6 place setting, but sadly it can’t fit plates that are taller than 10.5”. Maybe you can squeeze them in if you slant them a little bit. It is a pretty standard size for a countertop dishwasher – actually, all of the ones featured in this review are really similar in size, so there are not too many differences there.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a proper digital display. There are LED indicators that tell you which cycle you’ve selected, but nothing to inform you how much time is left in a particular wash cycle. In addition to that, there are only three delayed start options – 2, 4, and 8 hours.
There are 6 washing cycles to choose from – soak, glass, rapid, economy, normal, and intensive. On the normal cycle, the dishwasher will use about 3.1 gallons of water, which is decent efficiency. But the number goes up on the heavy cycle, which you have to use every time you put something really greasy inside it.
The downside to this countertop dishwasher is that it is not a portable option. It doesn’t have a built-in water heater, so you need to feed it hot water. But if you don’t mind that, then it’s a really good option for the price – I actually think that this is the cheapest countertop dishwasher you can find, with a good rating.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 19.7” x 21.6” x 17.2”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 46.3 lbs
Sunbeam DWSB3607BB Portable Countertop Dishwasher
The Sunbeam dishwasher is very simple to set up and use. It has 6 washing cycles – normal, glass, Eco, heavy, speed and rinse. The run times range from 24 minutes for a quick rinse to 110 minutes for a normal wash. A buzzer sounds when the cycle is done, but unfortunately, there’s no digital display that lets you know exactly how much time is left in a cycle.
You have to feed it hot water – the dishwasher doesn’t have a built-in heater, which doesn’t really make it a good portable option. But it can dry all the dishes inside, so you don’t need to worry about spots on glasses.
It does a really good job at actually washing the dishes, especially since you only need one tablespoon of detergent. It might be a bit slower than some other dishwashers, but it’s only a 10-20-minute difference. There is a delayed start option, but with only three settings – 2, 4, and 8 hours.
You can fit 6 place settings in this dishwasher – nothing new there. The maximum diameter of plates that can fit is 10.75”, as opposed to the usual 10.5” that we see in most other appliances. If you want to keep the dishwasher smelling fresh for a long time, it’s recommended that you let it air dry after every use.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 21.7” x 17.2” x 19.7”
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 44.1 lbs
Westland Sales Countertop Dishwasher Vesta
The Westland Sales countertop dishwasher is a good midrange option. For one thing, it has a digital display that lets you know exactly when it will finish a cycle, which is a feature I really like having. But it does take some getting used to since it has both buttons and a knob for selecting cycles.
There are 6 wash cycles to select from, which is pretty standard. The dishwasher uses 4.2 gallons on the heavy setting, so it is not the most water-efficient option. But it is one of the appliances that can make a plate caked with greasy food look as good as new.
It has a delayed start option, and you can set it up to wash a load of dishes 24 hours in advance. In addition to that, this has a built-in water heater, so it is pretty portable as well. You can install this in just a couple of minutes – all you need to do is connect it to your sink and you’re done.
6 place settings can fit inside the dishwasher, but you won’t be able to fit really big pots and pans. One thing to keep in mind is that this dishwasher doesn’t have a drying element – you will need to let your dishes air-dry before you put them away. But overall, I think that this is still one of the best options, considering the quality of performance and general convenience of use.
Product Specifications
- Dimensions: 21.7″ x 19.7″ x 17.2″
- Capacity: 6 place settings
- Weight: 61 lbs (shipping weight)