Niall’s virtual diary archives – Friday 7th February 2014

Friday 7th February 2014: 8.30pm.

So, here is our new dishwasher! It's rather small, or big, depending on how you look at it, but it certainly solves the problem of doing the washing up which neither myself nor Megan particularly care for. We picked it up from Currys on sale for a very low price, about half what a normal dishwasher would cost and you can see its Currys page at http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/laundry-dishwashers/dishwashers/essentials-cdwtt13-compact-dishwasher-white-20227306-pdt.html. As you'll see, it's Currys own brand Essentials model CDWTT13.

Now you might wonder to yourself, isn't it some cheap and nasty thing, especially as Essentials own brand Currys is well known to be especially cheap and nasty with lots of rebranded Midea and Haier from China and (slightly better) rebranded Vestel from Turkey? Well I tracked down its actual manufacturer: it's made by a Chinese company called Sunpentown, and you can see the US edition of the same model on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/SPT-SD-2201W-Countertop-Dishwasher-White/dp/B004MX8XO6/ref=pd_rhf_pe_s_cp_1_C4YD?ie=UTF8&refRID=02BKDWWENV5S3BR10MKN where it's called a SPT model SD-2201W (ours is actually a slightly newer revision, the Currys equivalent of the SD-2201W is the CDWTT11, the main difference in ours is the addition of a salt fill warning light as the UK has particularly hard water). And, as you'll see, on US Amazon it is the number 1 best selling dishwasher with a 4.5 out of 5 star rating with 239 reviews (and another 113 reviews for a different colour model), with many reports of the product's longevity and excellent cleaning (it is also the highest customer rated dishwasher on US Amazon). The only real criticism is one struggles to fit full sized dinner plates easily, which is the price you pay for the compact size.

For us, of course, the huge win is not having to modify this rented accommodation which we would have to do if we picked up an end-of-life second hand model from the buy and sell. As you'll see, the water inlet was simply Y-branched from the washing machine and fed up through the blanking plate for a tap, using a J-cloth and friction to hold the pipe in place. My thanks to my brother-in-law Donie for helping me get the machine in last night!

Here's looking forward to no more washing up! Wahey!