Today I offer my full review of this strange, abstract, and unique automatic hand-held dish washing gadget that is often showcased online as a kitchen gadget oddity.
Where to Purchase & About
It took me a while to finally find this gadget, but I did manage to secure a unit from Alibaba. You can find it on Amazon, although the price fluctuates greatly. The unit includes cleaning brushes and an adjustable claw for “grabbing” plates and bowls via the press of a trigger. When engaged, it spins the dish, which is cleaned by the attached brushes. Spinning is powered by an internal battery, which is charged via an included adapter.
Claims & Features
- Environmentally friendly and healthy
- No cleaning residue
- Simple
- Convenient
- Non-slip
- Durable
- Competitor for automatic dishwashing
Robot Dish Washer Review
As I’ve stated before, just because a gadget is ridiculous doesn’t mean it won’t work! I paid about $60 for this product, although I’ve seen the price range anywhere from $30-$120. It came with instructions, but they were in Chinese. Fortunately, I have a friend from China who helped me read them over, although he stated that they were not well-written even in Chinese!
Upon first sight, the dishwasher reminded me more of a “face hugger” from the movie Alien than a useful kitchen gadget! The unit was already charged when I unboxed it.
The dishwasher works via two spinning rollers that rotate a plate or bowl and creates scrubbing action against the included brushes. The brushes aren’t really adjustable, however. It seems to only have two settings: completely loose or completely tight, with no in between tension setting. There is a button on the handle that starts the action and is defaults to a ten second timer. Another button adds one second per press, and yet another button subtracts one second per press (you have to do this before you engage the dishwasher). There is one button that looked like it was meant for cutlery, but did not appear to have any function.
To operate the unit, you slide a dish in between the round brushes, all the way to the bottom, then squeeze the handle so that the arms grab onto the dish. I only used a nine-inch plate for my tests, and it was apparent that this device is clearly designed for smaller dishes. The “arms” would be unable to grab onto large dinner plates. Once the dish is in place, you simply press the button to engage the unit.
For my first test, I coated two sets of plates and bowls with jelly, ketchup, and mustard. One set I sat aside for an hour and the other set I immediately tried in order to see how this device would handle fresh versus old stains. First I tried a small plate with a fresh stain. As soon as I had the plate inserted into the dishwasher, I could tell that the mess from the jelly, ketchup, and mustard would collect on the brushes and rollers of the automatic dishwasher as it spun. Despite that, I found that the first test went surprisingly well, and the plate was thoroughly cleaned in 10 seconds. There was no residue left behind at all.
I then tried a larger plate for my second test. Although it did work to some extent, the plate was not 100% clean after one cycle. A bit of condiment residue still remained on the edge of the plate. I was glad to see that the dishwasher was able to clean the center of the plate because I had assumed it wouldn’t be able to reach. The small amount of reside left behind was easily washed away with water.
For the third test, I tried a bowl that was also covered in various condiments. Once again, my expectations were exceeded, as the bowl was cleaned pretty handily after only one cycle. What I was not thrilled about was the buildup of condiments in the brushes and rollers of the dishwasher itself. There was little to be found in the Chinese instructions about how to actually clean this device.
Test four involved cutlery. I placed a knife with fresh condiment residue inside of the automatic dishwasher, and the device really grabbed onto the knife, cleaning it quite proficiently. I then placed a spoon with fresh condiment residue inside the automatic dishwasher. Although it became stuck in the rollers, I was able to pull it out fairly easily and try again. After trying from a few different angles, I figured out just the right placement to get cutlery clean without risk of it getting stuck, as you can see in the video below. Although this is mainly advertised for plates, I found that it was quite effective at cleaning cutlery.
Finally, I wanted to try the tough stain tests, using the same condiments I had tried before, but after letting the dishes sit for over an hour. First I tried a plate, and despite having caked on food, the dishwasher did a pretty good job. It took two 10-second cycles, but all of the stains did come off. I had similar results with the other plate, bowl, and cutlery. Although most of them required two cycles, they all turned out quite well in the end.
Overall, the biggest pro is that the dishwasher actually works – far better than I anticipated. The engineering is interesting, with lots of small parts that indicates a lot of thought was put into making the gadget actually work. The dishwasher was also surprisingly good for cutlery. As far as the cons go, I would say that the dishwasher is probably unnecessary to most consumers. Those with arthritis and limited hand mobility in may benefit from such a device, but it still won’t work with non-round plates, nor will it work with large plates or glassware. It seems like the dishwasher is really best for just small plates, bowls and regular-sized cutlery. The only other cons would be that the dishwasher is expensive, hard to find, and it can be difficult to clean. I doubt any of the parts are easy to replace, so that could be another caveat to consider.
A bonus “pro” is that it is a great conversation piece for your gadget-loving friends!
Be sure to watch my full review below.
