Danby DDW1805W Designer Series Portable Dishwasher

I've said it before and I know that I'll say it again – the man who designed our Loft is an idiot. An absolute idiot. Masses of space was wasted and none more than in the kitchen – where we have an over-abundance of cabinets, lots of free space hanging around unused and no dishwasher.

What to do?

Well as there are only two of us in the house the idea of a full-sized dishwasher seemed a little redundant. We'd been there before and always seemed to run out of crockery before we filled the ting. A countertop though seemed too much of a compromise – plus it took up space that could be used for other things – like a great toaster or a cappuccino maker. So we ended up looking for a portable three quarter. Something that we could wheel to and from the sink, use as additional counter space when needed but generally not have to worry too much about. And there the choice started to get quite limited.

Being the appliance snob that I am I reached immediately for the Miele catalogue and found, to my dismay, nothing that fit the bill. Sure they had an 18" washer but it worked best when plumbed in – and they wanted $1500. Too much hassle, too much money– so the search began in earnest… we were looking for a mini-Miele.

What this meant was the following. We wanted two spray arms, not one. We wanted a stainless steel interior – and accessories where possible. Water usage needed to be low, the thing needed to be quiet and we wanted very solid construction. Clean dishes and enough faith in the machine's quality to leave the thing running whilst we were out – that was the brief.

And it was a brief that narrowed us down quite quickly. You want a decent 18" dishwasher on wheels – you're going to have to take what's available. We looked at Fridgedair but with a polymer tub, a distinct lack of settings and had castors that creaked even as new it seemed very much a budget option.

We looked at the Kenmore – Ultra Silver – and that seemed a little more impressive but again the tub itself was plastic and there were pretty limited settings available

Which led us to the Danby. Now I'll admit that the price was off-putting at first. The Danby was $100 cheaper than anything else we'd seen; but it matched all of our criteria. Lots of stainless steel. Some clever racks, sturdy construction, a decent and easily installed faucet adaptor and best of all stainless steel interior with dual spray arms. Sold.

So we get home – we fill with rinse aid, detergent, a little dishwasher salt and we turn it on. It leaks. A call to Danby and they give us a local repair company, a call, a five minute visit and a reconnected drain pipe later the machine is up and running. And it does everything we ask of it beautifully.

Having decided on a washer with seven settings (plus two variations on those settings) we find ourselves using either 'Economic' for plates and the like or 'Glass' for lightly soiled loads.

It's not a quick machine – the 'Economic' setting runs for about 90 mins – but it is thorough and dishes come out both sparkling and bone dry. Noise isn't bad at all, not quite a Miele whisper but certainly well contained and there's no problem with vibration or the machine 'wandering' around the kitchen.

Castors are sturdy, the machine moves well and we've had no 'toppling' problems (something to watch out for with top-heavy portable machines)

Controls are simple. Five settings on the dial, two as buttons ('Rapid' and 'Plus' for quicker washes and dirtier dishes).

There are lights to demand more rinse aid and more salt (we ignore the latter) and a simple 'On' button when you want to get it started.

The faucet adaptor is well constructed and very easy to use, no leaks yet and the machine itself is very easy to clean – with all of the filters just a twist and rinse from pristine.

Yes the leak was a shaky start, but since then the Danby has proved that it's the little machine that could – our one remaining question is 'how do they do it for the price?'