It is 60cm wide and built into the counter. It is so quiet that from a few meters away it can’t be heard over the sound of running air conditioners. We can run it at night and the people in the next room can’t hear it.
It gets the dishes super clean without pre-rinsing or pre-washing. You just scrape off any excess food and put the dishes straight in. When it’s done, it pops open and dries the dishes. I had no idea foreign dishwashers had become so good.
There are four in our family and we’re finding that even when the kids are at school, we need to run it twice a day to take care of all the dishes from cooking and eating. Since it’s big, we can just put all the cooking dishes in without issues. This has really changes our lives and freed up so much time.
Our old Japanese dishwashers were 45cm wide and were supposed to be for 4-5 people. Our new one says it’s for 13 people. I’m not sure how these calculations are done, but they are out of sync with reality. I worried that the new dishwasher would be overkill, but it is not at all.
The Japanese dishwashers we had needed pre-rinsing, often did a terrible job cleaning, did not dry off the dishes much at all, was far too noisy to run at night or if there was a movie in the next room. Absolutely no comparison.
The one we got is an Electrolux from Sweden. We got it through Ikea and had to have it installed by a separate company called Manix. All the other places we looked into would not install foreign dishwashers. I learned that there is an Electrolux dealer in Japan after I bought it from Ikea.
Top ranked dishwashers in Japan are crazy expensive, so for me, Meile and Bosch were not an option. Electrolux hovers just under the top ranked dishwashers but cost much less. I am thoroughly happy with what we ended up with and wish I had made the switch much sooner.
My wife, who withheld judgement until every possible reason to hate it was ruled out, has now decided she is happy with it too. That it actually saves water and energy compared to hand washing helped seal the deal. Interestingly, the cycles range from 1:30-4:00, with the 4 hour cycle being the most eco friendly. I thought that I would not use the 4 hour cycle, but since it’s quiet, that is the one I use most. Once after lunch and then once after night time dishes are all used.
We already had a 200V plug hidden behind the counter, which I hear is normal in modern homes.
I’d be happy to answer any questions.
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I think our built in is Panasonic. Does a great job. The only time I notice it is when it’s venting the steam after drying the dishes (so little steam plumes go into the kitchen).
It took a little getting used to (we’re used to a front opening one this is a pull out) but all in all we’re very happy with our dishwasher.
My apartment’s built in one is a Rinnai and it’s basically a waste of space. I don’t know how many people it’s rated for but in practice it’s maybe enough for two people for a single meal’s worth of dishes. All it does is wet and warm the plates, nothing ends up actually clean. If I owned my own place I’d definitely put in a large foreign one.
I’m happy with my built-in dishwasher (7 years old). I think it’s a Panasonic. If the dishes are really dirty I rinse them before I put them in, but I thought that was pretty standard for all dishwashers. It gets them clean fine, and the dry cycle is fine too. My only complaint really is that it’s so small. I would love to be able to put pans and stuff in my dishwasher.
Was your first dishwasher a built in? If your new dishwasher is bigger how did you accommodate it in your kitchen counter? I could see myself buying a larger foreign dishwasher when my dishwasher now eventually dies of old age, but I don’t see how I could get a larger dishwasher into that space.
Japan has dishwashers?
What is this “dishwasher” you speak of?
We opted for Miele when we got our kitchen redone. The only non-jp option from cleanup
My Panasonic is good except when I put dishes with too much grease. But my workaround was using a different type of detergent. I have 2 types of detergent now.
We got one with our house. We bought a used house and had a Panasonic installed. It has two racks and saves us probably 30 min to an hour a day. Plus how much water and energy does it save on top of that?
We have a Panasonic countertop dishwasher that does a good job, although I do pre-rinse the dishes before putting them in, and there are only two of us, so the small size isn’t an issue. The kitchen in our house doesn’t have a space for a large built-in, so we’d have to have some construction done to accommodate one.
I am a high quality foreign dishwasher
I have a dishwasher in my place, but I have no idea where to buy dishwasher detergent? To be honest, I haven’t looked because I wasn’t raised with a dishwasher and so it never really seemed necessary to use it, but do regular supermarkets have dishwasher detergent?
> the cycles range from 1:30-4:00, with the 4 hour cycle being the most eco friendly.
Four hours? We always run the speedy cycle, ~35minutes.
> We already had a 500V plug hidden behind the counter
Maybe some kind of typo there?
>Our old Japanese dishwashers were 45cm wide and were supposed to be for 4-5 people. Our new one says it’s for 13 people. I’m not sure how these calculations are done, but they are out of sync with reality. I worried that the new dishwasher would be overkill, but it is not at all.
>
>The Japanese dishwashers we had needed pre-rinsing, often did a terrible job cleaning, did not dry off the dishes much at all, was far too noisy to run at night or if there was a movie in the next room. **Absolutely no comparison.**
Slightly off-topic, but what are you rocking in terms of a laundry machine?
I may be wrong but I cannot help but think Japanese washing machines are absolute garbage for the price. If I could find a cheap way to do it (and for all the pumps to line up properly) I would buy a proper European washer/dryer combo over the Japanese garbage any day. I mean… 90,000 yen second hand for a 2019 Toshiba drum washing machine that does dry (very slowly) but doesn’t wash in hot water? What the f? In 2022?
Thanks for the tip, it’s great timing for us! I see Electrolux ESL7225RA which is ¥18900 on Ikea Japan. Is that the one you got?
Here are some during and after pictures of the work.
We [took the old one out and the drawers next to it on the oven side](https://i.imgur.com/91ZZ7tG.jpg). 60cm was not enough to fill the gap, so we put in 15cm slot on the right and put a pull-out drawer there.
[Mostly done](https://imgur.com/S7u1VU8) with the doors shut.
[Here it is](https://i.imgur.com/tg0vodk.jpg) all put back together.
My MIL has a Panasonic countertop dishwasher… but the dishes have to be so clean that it’s minimal effort to just do the rest… I don’t see the point. I know in the US the food goes to the disposal drain, but does that work in Japan? I don’t know anything about plumbing and I thought that was probably the difference.
Do people really put pots and pans in the dishwasher? Do you go through a lot of replacements?
The whole “you need to clean it before putting it in the dishwasher” really makes no sense. Glad you got a decent one now.
We moved from a range oven to a built-in Miele. What a life changer!
Sometimes, Japanese products indeed suck
I have a built-in one, don’t know the maker off the top of my head and I’m not home now to check, but after 7-8? years of having to hand wash every single dish and piece of cutlery… I’m more than happy to have my small Japanese one. 😂 I’ll take it over hand washing any day.
It still saves me a ton of time, I have more time to relax and I don’t find it to be that noisy. Everything comes out so much cleaner too with the dishwasher and I feel like nets/cutting boards etc are much more sanitary now.
The sound doesn’t bother me, but I can also sleep through most sounds though, so that might just be me.
Woah, moneybags here had a dishwasher! I forgot those existed!
My last japanese dishwasher didn’t want to help me fill my visa renewal form
Same story with washing machines. Japanese ones got poor performance and are crazy expensive. Japan is supposedly a high tech modern country, but for some reason their washing and dishwashing technology is 30 years behind the west.
How much?