In news that may shock Generation Smart Home, I have never, in my adult life, owned a dishwasher. Not even a basic one. And not out of any minimalist principle. I’m just the eldest daughter of an ethnic mother who raised us to do things the old-fashioned way (ie, soap, rinse and dry by hand). And so, my relationship with dirty dishes has always been the same: pile them by the sink, deal with it eventually, repeat. (Then begrudgingly admitting mum was right and they just take up way too much space).
But that was before I tried the Midea 3 Place Setting Mini Benchtop Dishwasher – a new appliance that talked me into believing a full-size dishwasher isn’t actually a prerequisite for having one. No plumber, no renovation, no landlord negotiation – just a benchtop, a power point, and either a tap connection or a fill-it-yourself water tank. I put it through a proper week of real, unglamorous dish duty. Here’s how it went. (And what I told my mum.)
The Sink Test
The first thing I did was put it where the drying rack used to live (RIP to the drying rack, and to my mother’s sense of victory). It’s genuinely compact – think “air fryer” dimensions – and it slots onto a benchtop the exact same way. No cabinetry surgery required. No plumbing means no tradesperson, no drilling into cupboards, no waiting three weeks for an install slot. You plug it in, connect it to a tap or fill the built-in tank manually, and you’re running a cycle within minutes. For anyone renting, sharing a house, or living somewhere the previous owner clearly didn’t believe in dishwashers (looking at you, Mum), this is the whole pitch, right there.
My Nightly Non-Negotiables
Benchtop dishwashing has a hierarchy of needs. This is what it looks like on a standard weeknight
The yoghurt-crusted breakfast bowls. There is something deeply satisfying about not hand-washing the bowl I had for breakfast. And then let it sit at my desk all day. Especially when it fits comfortably among the 3 place settings, alongside the usual dinner-plate-and-cutlery comb. This means plates up to 270mm get a proper wash, not a token rinse.
The Baby Bottles (Borrowed for research). I don’t have a baby, but my sister does, and she was very interested in whether the Hygiene 72° wash actually does what it says. It does. A wash at that temperature is designed to knock out bacteria properly — which is roughly the exact standard my mother has been silently holding me to my entire life. This machine surprisingly meets it. Beyond bottles, it’s just as relevant for chopping boards or anything that needs more than “looks clean” clean.
The Dinner Party Wine Glasses. Because nothing ends a benchtop dishwasher trial faster than a dishwasher that fogs up your good glassware. There’s a dedicated Glass program for exactly this, plus five others – Intensive, ECO, 58-minute Wash, Rapid, and a self-cleaning cycle for the machine itself — so it’s not a one-setting wonder pretending to be versatile.
A Numerical Breakdown, Translated From Appliance-Speak to Human
3 place settings, 270mm plate capacity: Translation: the Midea 3 Place Setting Mini Benchtop Dishwasher won’t do a family roast dinner, but it will absolutely handle a solo or couple’s daily load, or the overflow when your actual sink is being used for something else (marinating, soaking, avoiding).
7 wash programs including Hygiene72°, Intensive, ECO, Glass, 58 min Wash, Rapid and self-cleaning: Meaning it flexes between “properly sanitise this” and “I just need these three things clean before I leave the house,” rather than offering one setting and calling it a day.
Rapid 29-minute wash: Perfect for when you’ve got exactly one mug and zero patience. This is the setting you’ll use more than any other, and it’s the reason the machine earns its keep on a weeknight.
Auto-open door at cycle end: Releases steam and helps things air dry without you needing to hover over it with a tea towel, which is frankly the most underrated feature on the spec sheet.
Insulated water tank: For the no-plumbing setup, meaning you’re not losing all your hot water heat the second you fill it.
6L water consumption per cycle, power draw of 730–860W: Modest enough that running it nightly isn’t going to show up as a suspicious spike on the power bill, and considerably less water than a sink full of running-tap hand-washing ever was.
Not Just a Toy
The bit that elevated the Midea 3 Place Setting Mini Benchtop Dishwasher from “novelty appliance” to real deal is that it does the thing a full-size dishwasher does. Get properly hot, properly hygienic, hands-off – without asking anything of the space you don’t already have. Benchtop, power point, tap or tank. That’s it. It’s the difference between “I’ll get a dishwasher when I renovate” and “I have a dishwasher, as of this afternoon” (and yes, Mum, I did send her a photo of it running, unprompted).
For caravans, offices, granny flats, or any kitchen where a full-size unit was never going to happen, it removes the excuse entirely. In a life where finding an emotionally mature partner who doesn’t look like Shrek remains a fantasy well out of reach, at least the dishwasher situation is sorted.
Coming Clean
Would I recommend the Midea 3 Place Setting Mini Benchtop Dishwasher to a fellow dishwasher-less household? Completely. It’s compact enough to disappear onto a benchtop, hot enough to actually sanitise baby bottles and boards, and fast enough on Rapid that “I’ll just do it by hand” stops being the easier option. At $477, it’s a genuinely reasonable buy-in for something that saves you a hand-washing routine every single day.
Dishpan hands: 0. Coffee cups: always clean. Excuses for not having a dishwasher: officially none left. Mum’s reaction when I told her: a full 45-second pause, then “so now you’ll finally have space in the sink.”
