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housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Read this if you're thinking of getting a dishwasher!
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Greetings from our dishwasher - our favourite member of the family! A dishwasher was a MUST HAVE for us when we were planning our renovation. It's what happens when two people who hate washing dishes get married - you end up outsourcing the chore to technology. Unforunately, we didn't have much choice when it came to dishwasher models though as we had limited space in our kitchen layout that meant we were limited to slimline dishwashers (45cm in width, as compared to the usual 60cm ones). This actually made our decision make process a lot easier because there were only 2 brands in Singapore that carried the slimline version (we don't know why this is so unpopular when BTOs these days are so small). We went with our Bosch Slimline dishwasher (scored it for about $1,600 during a sale) and have been working it to the bone - i mean, using it productively ever since. So here's a little Q&A on all the commonly ask questions we get about our dishwasher! 
**Does a slimline dishwasher means less capacity? Yes - for sure. But our dishwasher fits most of the items we use for cooking simple meals for 2 pax so the capacity is more than enough for us. It even fits our chopping boards, oven trays, and all three pans in our Modori cookware set. On the (very rare) event that we have more dishes than we can fit, we prioritise putting all our heavier cookware (pots, pans, etc) into the dishwasher and handwashing some of our smaller bowls and cutlery. So if you're a larger family of 4, or if you cook very elaborate meals (e.g. with separate soups and desserts, etc) then we could recommend getting a larger dishwasher just to fit in all the extra bowls and plates. (Or if you tend to use very large pots and pans - like the tze char style big woks) 
** Can you only wash specific cutlery and bowls/plates in the dishwasher? We generally try to get dishwasher safe crockery and utensils whenever we're shopping for new ones. That doesn't mean our choices are limited though! With more and more people getting dishwashers, there's a huge variety of dishwasher safe items available now - we're particularly fond of this series from Nitori! The colours are very pretty, they're dishwasher safe and everything is quite affordable as well (think $10-$15 for a big plate). Quality is excellent too. You can also get dishwasher safe items from places like IKEA and the department store kitchen sections (sounds expensive but just keep a lookout for sales!) For safety reasons though, we still hand wash our knives and other sharp objects in the kitchen sink to protect the blades and also avoid having a knife suddenly fall on our hands when we take things out of the dishwaher. 
** How long does it take for the dishes to dry? Life hack - the full dishwasher cycle usually takes about 3 hours but we always just use the short 1 hour cycle! It's a preset option that doesn't include the drying cycle but instead, we just open the dishwasher, pull out the trays and leave the dishes there to air dry overnight. This works pretty well because it saves electricity and we want to turn off the dishwasher before we go to bed, so it's hard to wait 3 hours sometimes LOL), plus our kitchen is pretty breezy so most of the stuff is dry by the next morning in time for us to put away the dishes before work. The ONLY THING though, is that for these bowls with these grooves(?) on the bottom, water tends to accumulate in them if we don't place them sideways (sometimes due to the lack of 'sideways' slots) and those will have to be manually dried by hand the next morning. 
** Is it expensive to maintain the dishwasher? NOT AT ALL! We don't see a significant increase in our water or electricity bills (as compared to the weeks where we don't use our dishwashers). Our dishwashing tablets cost about $30 (could be cheaper if you can get a good deal on shopee, or even buy them in Malaysia!) for 100 tablets - about 30+ cents per wash! There's also an added cost of $7 per quarter for dishwasher cleaner (we buy 3-4 at once and run the cleaning cycle once every quarter), but it's not something so significant that it would bother us. Duck would also argue that the cost of all the tablets for the dishwasher would probably be the same amount she would have invested in some quality dishwashing liquid (please use those that are gentle on your skin if you're washing dishes regularly!) if she had to wash the dishes by hand so we're not really paying much more. 
All in all, we would argue that our dishwasher has been immensely helpful in keeping our marriage together and getting the dishes done :) We often say that it washes better than us because of the hot water and the pressure - oily dishes come out piping hot AND sparkly clean after just an hour. It might take some additional effort during reno to include the dishwasher into your kitchen set up, and you'll be 'condemned' to buying dishwasher safe crockery for the rest of your life, but IT IS WORTH IT. We're 100% on team dishwasher - hope you join us soon! :)
7 September 2025
