The Best Portable Dishwasher

If a traditional built-in dishwasher is out of the question—usually because your kitchen doesn’t have a cabinet cutout or the right utility hookups, and renovation is impossible—you could consider a portable dishwasher instead.

A portable dishwasher is just a regular dishwasher that you can move around. When you need it, you roll it over to a sink, plug it in, hook it up to a faucet, and start the cycle. It draws clean water as necessary and then pumps the dirty water into the sink. These dishwashers are self-contained in finished cabinets and can pull double duty as extra counter space, too. Some models are 18 inches wide; others are 24 inches wide, like a typical dishwasher.

The biggest caveat for portable dishwashers is that they can’t clamp onto all types of faucets. They come with a replacement, clamp-ready aerator that you can screw onto many faucets, but they don’t fit all thread sizes. You might need to use an additional adapter kit, rig up some kind of workaround (particularly for pull-out faucets), or replace the faucet altogether.

Some cheap models don’t offer a great way to store the hoses or power cord between uses, so you have to wrap them around pegs on the back of the cabinet, which can be annoying. Portable dishwashers are also kind of heavy (the two models we tested were 117 and 147 pounds when empty, respectively) and they don’t have any handles that make them easier to grip, but they’re all on swivel casters, and not many owner reviews cite the heft or any difficulty moving the machine as a problem. The hoses are only about 3 feet long, and the power cords are about 5 feet long; most people shouldn’t have trouble hooking them up, but it’s something to be aware of.

Otherwise, portables can clean and dry your dishes just like a built-in dishwasher can, and they have the same types of racks and cycle selections as low-end to midrange built-ins do. Again, these are real dishwashers, not just gimmicky knockoffs.

If you rent a dishwasher-less home and are thinking about buying a portable model, you should probably check with your landlord first. We’ve heard of some leases that forbid portable dishwashers, likely out of the concern that they can leak if they aren’t clamped to the faucet properly. (You could try swaying a skeptical landlord by pointing out that dishwashers almost always save tons of water and energy compared with hand washing—they might get to enjoy some savings.)

Note that we haven’t yet had the chance to review countertop dishwashers, which usually sit next to a sink and are so small that they hold only one or two place settings.

For a complete accounting of our sources, research efforts, and testing methodology, check out our guide to the best built-in dishwashers. You’ll also find context there on what makes a dishwasher great, including its racks, cleaning performance, drying technology, cycles, and efficiency measures.

For this guide in particular, we did the following:

• We tested the Danby DDW1805EWP. We also looked at but were unable to test the GE GPT225SSLSS (which we recommend)—we had trouble with the faucet clamp and couldn’t track down the right adapter before our office closed due to the pandemic.
• We spent a couple of hours researching the handful of other available portable models, including those from RCA, SPT, and Whirlpool.

Based on publicly available import records and our comparisons of the models’ features, we’re pretty confident that the models by Danby, RCA, and SPT are built by the same manufacturer, Midea. GE portable dishwashers might also be from Midea, though the racks and hose assembly in GE models are much different from those of the Danby machine and its clones. We expect the cleaning and drying performance to be nearly identical among all these models. Whirlpool seems to manufacture its own portable dishwashers.

We recommend the 18-inch GE GPT145SSLSS and 24-inch GE GPT225SSLSS portable dishwashers. Get the big one if you have the space for it, but the slimmer one is also great if that’s what fits. These are all-around decent dishwashers that feel sturdier and should prove to be more convenient than any of the other models available at this writing.

The main reason that GE portable dishwashers are worth it is the retractable hose: When you’re not using the dishwasher, you can rewind the hose and faucet-clamp assembly into the dishwasher cabinet, out of sight and out of the way. Setting up the dishwasher for use is also easy because the faucet clamp sits waist-high, so you can grab the assembly and pull it toward the sink rather than reaching down to unravel a coil of hose. Retractable hoses used to be a standard feature on portable dishwashers and are so much more convenient (and likely more durable) than the chintzy clip-to-store hoses that cheaper models use now.

Otherwise, GE portable dishwashers are similar to all the other portable dishwashers available now (and way better than hand washing). We weren’t able to test the cleaning performance of the GE machines because we shut down our office due to the pandemic. But we know from experience that most dishwashers clean well if you load them properly and use decent detergent. And complaints about poor cleaning are rare among owner reviews for portable dishwashers. The drying performance of the GE models should be okay; there’s no added-heat drying option, but each model does have a stainless steel tub, which helps dry dishes passively from the residual heat in the machine as long as you use a rinse aid. Their noise level is low enough, with decibel ratings in the mid-50s. The cycle selections (auto, heavy, light, sanitize) and run times (about two to two and a half hours) are similar to those of affordable built-in dishwashers. And they’re efficient enough to qualify for Energy Star.

Other noteworthy features: The GE portables have “integrated” control panels—they’re hidden on the top of the door, rather than visible on the front. The style is considered an aesthetic upgrade, but not everybody is a fan since the hidden panel makes it hard to tell whether the dishwasher has finished running. GE also says that its portable dishwashers have a food grinder in addition to the regular filter. (Grinders are mostly a harmless gimmick.)

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The most common complaint about GE portable dishwashers is that the faucet clamp doesn’t work with a lot of faucets by default. We had this problem when we tried to test it. You might have to buy an adapter set to make it work with your existing faucet. (We don’t know enough about which types of faucets it can or can’t work with to offer good guidance here.)

Some owners have noted in reviews that the racks on the 18-inch models are laid out in such a way that they don’t hold many dishes, particularly big ones like pots. Many of these complaints seem to come from owners who are comparing the GE model’s racks with the racks on 18-inch dishwashers that they had previously owned. It could be true that the layout in the GE portable dishwasher is less conducive to holding certain types of dishes in that the dimensions are the same but the contours are different from those of other 18-inch models. Or it could be that the owners haven’t figured out how to adjust their dish-loading strategy to make the best use of the space.

For what it’s worth, reviews for Danby and SPT models do have fewer complaints about the rack capacity, so if the layout seems like a dealbreaker, you could opt for one of those models. Or, you could consider a full-width, 24-inch portable instead.

One other notable change from older portable dishwashers: The GE models don’t have a tray for water-softening salts; none of the current-generation models do, unfortunately. If you previously relied on salts for decent performance in hard water, you’ll need to explore alternatives.

If you’re shopping for a portable dishwasher for the first time in a while, you’re not just imagining it: These things got a lot more expensive. From 2014 through early 2019, we recommended Danby models that usually cost about $450 and had retractable hoses and cords. Built-in dishwashers with similar features could cost $600 or more. Portables were a steal.

Then portables nearly disappeared for a short stretch, and when they came back, they were much more expensive than they had been. These days they usually cost a little more than built-in models with similar features, which is disappointing but not surprising—the old prices were almost too good to be true. We don’t know exactly what caused this price correction.

We used to recommend Danby dishwashers in this guide, but the new 18-inch Danby DDW1805EWP takes a big step backward because it doesn’t have a retractable hose. Instead, you have to wrap the hose around plastic clips on the back of the machine. (The clips on the unit that we tested broke after two uses.) This design makes the dishwasher much more of a chore to use. Otherwise, the Danby is a decent dishwasher in the same way the GE models are. The rack layout is different from that of the 18-inch GE and as a result might fit pots and other large items more easily, but many people aren’t likely to notice a difference.

Another quirk: Most retailers seem to ship Danby dishwashers through regular shipping services rather than via freight services or appliance-delivery specialists. It’s probably not a coincidence that there seem to be more complaints in owner reviews about Danby models arriving damaged than GE models (which appliance-delivery specialists typically drop off). We had this problem, too: The first Danby we received for testing was badly damaged, and the replacement arrived with a dent. It’s something to be aware of.

The SPT SD-9263 is a carbon copy of the Danby 18-inch machine. SPT also makes a 24-inch model, the SD-6513, which has many features in common with the 24-inch GE model we recommend but a terrible customer rating on Home Depot’s website. However, neither SPT model has a retractable hose.

The RCA RDW1809 is another clone of the Danby 18-inch model.

The Whirlpool WDP370PAH, a 24-inch model, is the least like the other portables. It’s like a low-end built-in Whirlpool model on wheels. Some of the features are appealing: The top of the cabinet is made of wood, like a butcher block. The machine has a heated-dry cycle (though we’re not sure if it works better than the passive-drying systems on the GE models—Whirlpool’s cheap built-in dishwashers don’t dry so well). And it offers a one-hour wash cycle, so it can finish faster than other portables (though it doesn’t dry dishes in the process—that’s a different setting). It does have a retractable hose. We didn’t test it, but we expect it to be a decent dishwasher. The big downside is that it’s very noisy at 64 dBA, louder than some vacuum cleaners.