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Comment by sirsinsalot | Hacker News Reader

Actual news about hacking! It is interesting that this is in the UK ... i'm fairly sure most rents come with a full-sized dishwaster when furnished and all properties have the plumbing for one. I'm not sure what the market is. Especially that one of the main value adds was "no mess" when our dishwashers all accept pre-form tablets for detergent.

Anyway, I adore these kinds of blog posts. Tinkering, naughtiness and a big dollop of technical knowhow.

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> It is interesting that this is in the UK

Not sure where you get that from, "Bob" is made/from Paris, France https://daan.tech/en/about-daan-tech/

In Western/South West Europe (Portugal, Spain, France), full-sized dishwashers are a bit more uncommon I think, especially in single/double room flats in bigger metropolitan areas where flat sizes tend to be in the smaller range. As an anecdote, I've lived in maybe ~20 places and only two of them had come with a dishwasher, only one of them was an apartment.

This is the first time I hear about "Bob" and my current place couldn't fit a full-size dishwater but in order to save time and water, I might actually get this. The price is a bit high for what it is though.

Presumably from £ being the primary currency in the readme. I think GP means the hacking is from UK, (and contributors) rather than the manufacturer of this mental device, which is surprising because who in the UK would have one of these when 'normal' dishwashers are basically ubiquitous.

Is this a London thing?

I've rented in the UK for decades and I've never had a dishwasher or space for one. Friends haven't bothered with dishwashers until they had kids, and then they needed to create a space and add some plumbing.

Dishwashers in the UK seem like the opposite of ubiquitous. Maybe I live in a strange bubble.

These counter-top ones? Not that I'm aware of. I have a normal (though half-width, but that just makes sense for a 1 bed place really) one in London.

Maybe older builds that haven't been updated wouldn't have any space for one as you say, without re-jigging cupboards, so maybe people do. But then you're losing work surface for it..

My view on the utility of those devices :

I lived in Paris for a while. Large appartement have dishwasher, but in single units, it’s uncommon.

I remember looking for solution like that for a renter in a small place without proper plumbing to accommodate a dishwasher.

I also see a market for the so called tiny house folks or full time RVer.

I don’t find that particular product appealing too much, but I would like to see more like that. And I know folks around me that would buy one if it’s was more open and fixable.

I've rented.....8 houses so far, all in North East(Newcastle) and every single one of them had a dishwasher. I suppose maybe part of it is that I simply wouldn't rent a place without a dishwasher ;-)

presumably "houses" is the key word here?

Fair, but in my experience with the UK something like a 2 bed house is really just an apartment cosplaying as a house.

Well in a lot of places, the fact it is a self standing property means the owner can do whatever they want with it without having to consult a "building committee".

Like rearranging plumbing/electrical however you want.

Whether landlords use this advantage for tenants quality of life is a whole other story.

I've rented flats outside london for years, always come with a dishwasher. I'm on a high salary though, so it may skew my world view of what is "standard"

Anecdata: I've rented 2 flats in London over the last 30 years (and been a frequent visitor to 4 more); none had a dishwasher. Rented one house in Newcastle; also no dishwasher.

Every place I've rented in London had a dishwasher, and we're talking 6 places over 15 years

Some UK flats are tiny and can't fit a full-size dishwasher.

And as a singleton, you don't often make enough dishes to justify a full load either. (although a twin drawer dishwasher would work a treat there)

If your flat is so small that you can't have a dishwasher, do you really want to occupy some (probably significant) fraction of your countertop with this thing? It looks like it could wash maybe a few plates and cups at a time. That would take maybe 2 min to wash by hand in the sink. The entire premise of this device seems ridiculous to me.

I have a disability and can't really wash dishes by hand. imagine all your plates and cups are made of thick lead.. that's what it feels like.

I'd gladly use a tabletop dishwasher if I didn't have one, otherwise I'd have to use paper plates and plastic cups.

I live in a UK flat without a 'full-size' dishwasher. Did you see OP though? This isn't about that, my half-width one still goes under the counter and takes normal tablets.

Yes, I found it strange that anyone in the UK would find value in this device enough to ship one... nevermind hack the cartridge.

Yes I agree. Never heard of these, seems totally bizarre, but I suppose I get the appeal (if you didn't know/think about the proprietary connection/protocol) if your kitchen/scullery wasn't designed with space for a dishwasher. But how many properties in the UK can be like that? Not very many, I'm sure an estate agent would tell you you'd have a hard time selling without 'updating'.

I don’t know about the UK, but Paris provide a large number of incredibly tiny apartment without dishwasher and the landlord is not open to make the plumbing accommodation to setup one. If even possible.

I had to pay it myself once in 2013. It was a sunken cost I was ok with given how cutthroat the real estate market is and how much I hate to do dishes.

"Bob" is not the only countertop dishwasher that exists; this is a solid market segment. It's also worth noting that the median price of these things is less than Bob, even before you add in the cost of buying a dishwasher with an extra corporate revenue stream embedded in it.

Do you have some suggestions for other brands? I have had my fingers on the order button for some weeks but and haven't found good reviews of other products yet.

Right now I just have a link to a review I ended up at off of the Wirecutter: https://www.reviewed.com/dishwashers/best-right-now/the-best...

(I've been meaning to get one since the beginning of this year but cashflow has been pretty tight, so it keeps slipping.)

Even in the United States where dishwashers are common, older buildings sometimes don't have them. I lived in a reasonably large apartment from the 1930s that was never upgraded to support a dishwasher. I would have loved a model like this.

Absolutely not made in Paris, but La Roche-sur-Yon in Vendée.

> I'm not sure what the market is.

Here's the 2019 data on dishwasher ownership in the UK [0]. More than 50% of two-adult households have them, rising to 64% for two-adult-two-children households. Retired single adult households have the lowest percentage (28%)

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/289337/distribution-of-d...

How strange. I've lived in a dozen or so rented properties in the UK and only had a dishwasher in one of them.

Really great post indeed ! As a small data point, I'm renting a 40-50 m² flat in the UK and only have a washer/dryer. No dishwasher and no additional plumbing for one.

There are tabletop models which need little extra plumbing.

I've rented many flats and not a single one has had a dishwasher. I wish my current flat had one, washing dishes is the chore I hate the most.

>I'm not sure what the market is.

I assume the target is the tiny home/mobile living market.

Probably the market is students.

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