Customer Reviews

Haier HDC1804TW 4-Place-Setting Tabletop Dishwasher

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I ordered this from Amazon and it arrived today. I decided on this model specifically because I could get a great deal on shipping via Amazon prime. But I wanted to answer a couple of questions that I had before buying the item that I didn't really see answered anywhere else. Hopefully this helps some people.

-This unit is great for singles or possibly even couples. I am single but love to cook, I also work a full time job and am going to school full time, so spending 20-30 minutes (Because I let them overflow) a few times per week doing dishes by hand is just impracticable. I was a little worried about what you can actually fit in it, and I don't know what the heck a place setting is, so here is what I could fit in it in one load: One large Frying pan, One Medium Sauce Pan, A couple large drinking glasses, a "standard" dinner plate (I am guessing 10.5"?), a couple of small plastic containers, and a few cooking utensils. I was able to make these all fit by removing the cutlery basket - I figure that I have enough forks/spoons to save them for the next time. So there is a practical expectation of what you can fit. It seemed to clean all of that stuff very good on the normal setting. If I was having company over I may have to run two separate loads, one for pots & pans and one for plates, bowls, glasses, etc.

- I am fairly impressed with the quality of this unit. I was a little worried that this would be more of a toy or a novelty item, but it really does work great. It works exactly the same way as a full sized dish washer does, just on a smaller scale. The faucet hookup makes it flexible and easy to install. It was very easy, it took me about 5-10 minutes until everything was up and running.

-The size is bigger than I was expecting, I will admit I had assumed that I had plenty of space and didn't measure - Luckily I have about a 1/2 Inch of clearance from under my cabinets and about an inch on every other side - It was a really tight fit, you should not be stupid like me and measure before purchasing.

-The unit is pretty loud, pretty comparable with a standard dish washer, I would guess that they have less room for sound dampening with the smaller size. It doesn't bother me but it is something to keep in mind for small apartments if you have sensitive neighbors.

Just some other tid-bits:
-Unlike some models I looked at, this unit has a drain pump instead of draining via gravity, so in theory you might be able to put this at a lower level than your sink, like under your cabinets. I haven't tried that, but the drain water does come out with substantial pressure.

-It comes with the quick connect faucet connector for hooking your drain/input hoses all together. It also has a separate drain hose for permanent installation, the manual says that you will have to supply your own input hose though for permanent installation.

-This unit uses a "dumping" method for the detergent. You put the detergent in an indent on the door and it dumps it when you close it. So there is no sort of "Pre Rinse" or anything.

-It seems to handle pausing the cycle pretty good. Even pausing the unit in the middle of draining doesn't phase it at all. Nice for me because I frequently forget to put things in until the wash cycle is halfway done.

-It does have a spot on the door for putting Rinse Agents in (Like Jet Dry, etc), which should help with drying. A nice addition!

-Speaking of drying, the unit doesn't seem to have any sort of air or steam drying or anything. It just sits for 15-20 minutes after the rinse cycle and waits for the water to evaporate to dry the dishes. Works great for glasses, plates, pans, etc. Not so great for plastic, which doesn't retain heat as good, but this seems like the case with a lot of dish washers, I can deal with it.

-The unit claims to use a max of 1280 watts (1200 for the heating element), and 2.5 Gallons of water per cycle. The Normal Cycle lasts 90 minutes, and the Heavy cycle lasts about 120 Minutes, Light is around 40 minutes.

All in all, I am very satisfied with the unit, and the awesome deal on Amazon prime shipping. I also purchased the 3 Year Squaretrade warranty just in case. I have no worries that I will need it, but I have heard that these portable units in general are prone to leaking. Again, I am not concerned about THIS particular model, but the additional warranty was just about $20 or so and I have heard great things about Squaretrade. I would definitely recommend this to any singles/couples stuck in an apartment without a dishwasher, and sick of tired of doing them by hand.

I will update this review if anything changes.

***3 Week Update***
I am STILL very pleased with the unit, it has saved me so much time. It is definitely holding up fine, and once you learn how to pack things in there you can easily fit MORE than I had posted in the original review. I am also impressed as you are able to fit full sized cookie sheets and pizza pans in it (Just put them on the very top).

After using it for about a month, I would recommend as a tip that you use the Gel detergents over the powdered detergents, as I have noticed that sometimes the powdered detergent can leave residue on the dried dishes. It just seems like the gel detergent mixes better.

Other than that, I still recommend this. Of course I will update it if anything else happens.

I got this overnight for $3.99 with Amazon Prime. Amazon must have spent a small fortune just on shipping this thing to me!

Anyway, I'll be brief: It does the job. The instructions were a little simple but it was easy enough to figure out how to hook up. I have it seated on top of a counter and it takes up a good amount of room. It can be a little tricky figuring out how to load the dishwasher to capacity since there isn't a lot of room to play around with. It has three settings, the lowest of which doesn't wash very well at all; the middle and "pots and pans" settings work just fine. I'd recommend this for anyone who doesn't like to spend a lot of time doing dishes, especially those living by themselves in an apartment.

My apartment did not come with a dishwasher, so after failing to keep up with dish washing by hand I purchased this counter-top model. Overall, I am glad to have it and it works well enough. But it is not perfect by any means.

Size. There is only 16" clearance between my counters and the upper cabinets, so this did not fit. I had to place it right beside my sink, partially obscuring the window. I knew this before ordering, so it wasn't a surprise. But make sure you look at the dimensions and measure you space carefully to make sure you have room before ordering. That said, even with it's awkwardly large size for counter-top placement, it is quite tight inside. The upper rack is tall enough only for small teacups and 4 ounce juice glasses. Since I rarely use either of these things, it is not all that helpful to me. The spot behind the plates is also weird: too narrow for most glasses or mugs, too wide for more plates, and when I have tried putting things like mixing bowls there they do not clean properly.

Cleaning: I have found that this only cleans properly on the highest "pots and pans" setting. The other two options do not remove all food particles. Some food (like eggs) will not come off on any setting. Even when the food does all come off, it is often redeposited. Little flakes of dried food are often found on items after "cleaning" and need to be rewashed. This is a particular problem for items placed in corners. Using a rinse aid (like Jet-dry) does not help.

Even with these issues, I'm glad I bought it. It does save effort and by running it once a day, my 2 person family can easily keep up with the dishes (pots and pans still need to be done by hand, they don't fit). I have been using it for 2 months now and have not have any problems with leaks. The cycle takes about 3 hours and is not all that loud to me (although I am used to older '70s and '80s era built-ins, not the modern quieter ones). One cycle only uses about 3 gallons of water - less than I would use if washing by hand.

Here's a list of why you should buy this product. I've had it almost a month now. I'm going to try and hit all the big points other people mentioned as well as some of my own...

1) It is absolutely the least expensive compact dishwasher you will find. I looked for HOURS and nothing compared. PLUS it ships free in 2 days with Amazon prime. If you don't have an account, now is the perfect time to go for that free trail membership. I can only imagine the shipping cost because the box was nearly 60 lbs.

2) It is large. People compare these things to microwaves... WAY BIGGER! I personally have ZERO counter space so I bought a rolling shelf in order to use it. Whitmor 6056-344-N Supreme Cart, Chrome This works great for those that are in my situation. I keep it next to my fridge and I like the way it looks. I am lucky enough that I only have to move it about 8 inches to use it.

3) It comes with a faucet attachment. You may have to switch out the tip of the faucet in order for the dishwasher to work. If you have one of those faucet Brita filters or something, I don't know that affects things... Also, keep the original faucet tip in a safe place. I'm sure the landlord won't be happy if that gets lost because you will need to take the new tip with you when you move (assuming you're keeping the dishwasher).

4) This holds A LOT of dishes. It takes a couple tries to figure out the best way to load the dishes. Now it's really second nature. It does hold the standard 10.5 inch plates. You can also stack you smaller pots and pans on top of your other dishes. I fill this baby to the max!!

5) It does clean your dishes well. When I stuff it with as many dishes I can possibly fit, I use the heavy cycle. When I fill it to where most reasonable people would consider full, I use normal. As with most dishwashers, it is a good idea to presoak or rinse off the item right after you use it. Anything like plastic spoons that has stuck on eggs will not get cleaned. I have not tried with plates. But again, this is true of any dish washer. I have seen detergents that claim to wash highly soiled dishes but it was very expensive so I went with the regular kind.

6) You'll still have to handwash large pots and pans. If you don't like it buy a larger dishwasher. If you don't have space or budget for a larger dishwasher, this is a non-issue because you don't have much choice. In the end, you're washing a few pots instead of ALL of your dishes.

7) I use Finish Gel and Finish Jet Dry. They work great together. The Jet Dry (which is a rinsing agent) DOES make a big difference. The first time I used the machine I did it without a rinse agent and I had stuck on particles to my dishes. This is no more. ALSO, there is a way to tell how much jet dry is left in the machine. You will pour quite a bit into the machine (the manual tells you when to stop). After using the dishwasher, you can see the rinse agent inside a little window next to where you poured it in. If you tilt the door up then down, you will see the liquid move. I've done dishes about three times since I added the agent and it's still there. I guess it releases a certain amount each wash. Just keep checking it until you figure out how many washes this lasts for.

8) This DOES NOT LEAK!!! For the people that claims it leak, I can guess one of two things...
a. When attaching the drain pump, the manual specifies using a wrench or something to tighten it after using your hand. I made it as tight as I could with my hand. When I got a wrench, it went on about 3 or 4 more turns without over tightening it!!! That is a big deal when dealing with pipes!
b. There is water left in the pipes after the cycle. I just take my old dishwashing pan, set it on the floor, and wiggle the pipes until the water drains. It's only about a cup or so of water. Then I keep the pipes inside of the dish pan when not in use, just in case. Not a big deal at all and takes less than a minute all together. (NOTE: I keep this on a moving self, not on a counter, so the dishpan idea may not work for storage. But you can still drain the water.)

9) It doesn't heat try your dishes so it's best to open the door after the cycle stops. This helps. It also doesn't heat the water so I run the water until it is hot before hooking it up to the faucet.

10) Be realistic about your purchase... Once again, this is the least expensive dishwasher on the market. So it won't cook your breakfast, iron your clothes, or anything else. It washes dishes. If you want all the extra features, be prepared to pay more. Simple as that. But from what I've seen, most of the compact ones don't have all the bells and whistles. Probably just not able to fit in such a small design.

11) People are complaining of problems after a couple years. So just to be on the safe side, I am going to get the square trade APPLIANCE (not electronics) warranty. Three years for about $30. 4 years for $40. I think it's worth the investment but you decide.

UPDATE on May 20th!

So, after owning this over 6 months, I must say I still love the product. I no longer presoak my dishes and they still get clean. BUT BUT BUT I will say this. I only put in my glass/ceramic items or metal such as silverwear. Plastic doesn't seem to get as clean if there is something stuck on (there are still many dishes I have to handwash so I don't care). Also, I made pulled pork once. The little prok stringy pieces did get caught up a little but that's the only thing I noticed caused a problem.

Also, I was getting a buildup problem on my dishes. THIS IS NOT THE DISHWASHER'S FAULT!!! It does need to be cleaned eventually. I just cleaned this last week for the first time. So what I did was run it on a normal cycle with detergent and bleach. Then I ran just the rinse cycle with white vinegar. Since this machine uses so little water, I didn't feel guilty about running it twice. After I did this, NO PROBLEMS!! Put in a load of sticky sticky dishes and they came clean.

Have had it about a month and it works great! Gets dishes nice and clean using store brand detergent. We will see how it holds up.

When I moved into my new apartment, I didn't think I would miss having a dishwasher that much. A couple of months and a giant pile of dirty dishes later, and I decided I was wrong. The dishwasher arrived yesterday, and the giant pile is gone!

PRO:
* It is a dishwasher.
* Holds enough that it can handle 3-4 place settings depending on the size of your dishes.
* Small enough that it fits on my counter top (though, you should check dimensions before buying).
* Convenient set up that hooks directly into your sink (see note below).
* It is a dishwasher.

CON:
* A bit on the noisy side. My last apartment had a behemoth dishwasher from the 70s that was a LOT louder than this one, so this doesn't bother me.
* No drying cycle, but in my experience just opening the unit and letting the dishes air dry works fine.
* Not really big enough to do pots and pans.

Installation Note:
I did have one minor snag during set up. The dishwasher comes with a special aerator that screws into your faucet. The aerator they provide connects to both standard male and standard female aerators, so as long as your faucet is a conventional size, you should be fine. Phrased another way, their aerator has both internal AND external threads. My sink required using the internal threads, but to see that the internal threads are present, you have to first pull out a rubber washer.

Don't do what I did and rush out and immediately assume you need some sort of adapter to make it work, and then rush out and try to find a part you don't actually need.

I bought a Haier dishwasher, a year and a month later the control panel stopped working. The appliance repair man said that happens to almost all Haier dishwashers and that I might as well through it away. I have since tried dealing with Haier customer service. This has been going on for 3 months now. I don't recieve calls back when they promise that they would, everybody I talk to tells me something different, it has been an absolute joke. I will never buy a product from this company again.

First off: it seems like it doesn't drain fully, but it turns out that it goes through a drying cycle for about 10-15 minutes, THEN drains the excess water (wait for the beeps). This is different than older versions from Haier or Danby.
This is our 3rd countertop dishwasher in 6 years, the first 2 being Danbys. All have been pretty much the same, as there seems to be only 1 manufacturer who produces them for a couple of brands (Danby, Haier). The issues have previously been leaks, always starting with the front window, then ending up in an unknown place. I have higher hopes for this version, as it lacks a front window.
It does take longer than the older versions (119 min vs 45), and the push-button only display means you can't track how much longer it will take (the older dial was nice). However, it cleans equally as well, with just as little detergent as the Danbys.
Pros of these dishwashers:
-clean as well as a regular dishwasher
-use VERY little water, far less than if I were to do dishes by hand.
-minimal detergent use
-easy to clean the inside: metal interior prevents staining, shows mineral deposits quickly so you know when to use a vinegar rinse, and you can easily reach into the drain area to clean out debris if it works its way down
-can use water while it runs

Cons:
-takes a while
-dishes in corners and on the upper shelf usually do not get clean; they collect debris
-can't fit most pots and pans in there; nor very large serving dishes
-dishes frequently dip below the tray, blocking the spray arm. Hard to tell, without a window, whether it's running properly.

If you are sick of washing dishes by hand & don't have the space for a full-size dishwasher, this is definitely worth it! Leaks are common along the hose, so mess around with plumbing tape if necessary.

I love this dishwasher. I permenantly installed it under the sink. It gets the dishes squeaky clean. The ONLY downside is that if you have extra big dinner places, they don't fit in the dishwasher easily. Otherwise, I am able to wash everything. I use the fastest cycle and have never had anything come out dirty. It is fast, quiet and very efficient.

This is amazing! It fits perfectly on my counter under my cabinets. The door folds down for very easy access to the tray. The only difficulty comes from my own placement of the dishwasher. I have mine sitting sideways on the counter so it get's a little difficult loading the back 3-4 large plates because my cabinets are in the way. This will not be a problem if you have the dishwasher's front facing out. Also, the "rinse agent" method is a little questionable. The manual says to add it until it hits a certain point but does not mention how many cycles it lasts. Most full dishwashers I have used in the past hold an entire bottle for many uses, this holds maybe an ounce or less. Because of this I assume this is for one wash only. Again this is a very minor problem I just don't know for certain that it's one wash only. I simply fill this every wash with the detergent, the price is negligible.

Overall I am very happy with this dishwasher. I was a little apprehensive buying this because it did not have as much information available as other companies' models. This has "3" cycles: Heavy, regular, and what I have gathered is simply for rinsing. Heavy is 2 hours, regular is 1:30, the rinsing I don't recall but I only use this for washing brand new items before first use or if I leave things sitting after cleaning for more than a day.

I would highly recomment anyone buying this. It is very nice not having to wash my own dishes.