Why Some RVers Always Avoid RV Dishwashers
RV dishwashers have been available in some Class A RVs and fifth wheels for years. Not only does having a dishwasher add a familiar home-like touch to an RV, but it saves you from having to hand wash all the dishes.
The convenience of having a place to hide your dirty dishes in the limited kitchen space of the RV makes it tempting to include a dishwasher in your list of must-haves for your next RV. But you need to know that there are some drawbacks to having an RV dishwasher too.
1. RV dishwashers are expensive
RV dishwashers are specialized in both size and function for use in RVs. This makes them an expensive upgrade in an RV kitchen.
This is reflected in the price of the Class A or fifth wheel in which they are installed. If you choose to do an aftermarket installation of a built-in dishwasher, you may want to consider getting it professionally installed to make sure electrical and plumbing hookups are correct for your RV.
If you do decide to install it yourself, you can find several Youtube videos that show every step of the process, like this one from Firefly Builders:
2. Washing dishes requires more water
Using a dishwasher can fill up your gray tank much faster than handwashing dishes. Typically, RV dishwashers use between 4 and 6 gallons of water, not including the water that is used for rinsing dishes before the dishwasher can clean them.
Another water-related issue is that overuse and time, many dishwashers leak. A leaking dishwasher could spell disaster in an RV.
3. RV dishwashers take up valuable space
Whether or not you choose a built-in dishwasher or a countertop model, RV dishwashers take up valuable space that could otherwise be used for storage or kitchen counter space. This can quickly lead to clutter in your RV kitchen.
4. Your RV park electric bill rises
Most RV dishwashers require 120-volt power. This means you either need to be fully plugged in to use them, or, if you are boondocking, you will need to use your generator, and they will eat up a lot of your off-grid power supply fast.
5. RV dishwashers must be winterized
If you store your RV over the winter, you will need to winterize the dishwasher so that it doesn’t freeze over the winter. When you are ready to use your RV again, you have to de-winterize the dishwasher. Who needs the hassle?
Do You Love or Hate Your RV Dishwasher?
Share your thoughts on RV dishwashers with us in the comments below and on iRV2 Forums. Also, check out these 8 Tips For Washing The Dishes In Your RV.
Lynne lives, travels, and works full-time in a Forest-River R-Pod 180 with her 2-pointers, Jolene and Annabelle. Lynne has been an enthusiastic RVer for over 35 years. And then one day in 2019, she began full-time RVing as a lifestyle experiment. She quickly fell in love with the convenience, freedom and minimalist lifestyle offered by full-time RV living. Lynne is a professional writer and has been a professional dog trainer since 1995. You can read about her travel adventures on her R-Pod Adventure blog, R-podyssey at: http://www.rpodaventure.com
We have a dishwasher in our 2014 Tiffin Phaeton and, when staying at campgrounds with full hookups, normally use it 2-3 times per week. We have never had an issue with it and find it to be a very useful appliance. We normally run it in the evening while watching TV so if there was an issue, we would be right there with it.
Horse cookies. We used ours all the time for the last 5 years. We love it.
Hey my wife has a dishwasher. She married me 30 years ago and still doing a good job on the road.
Paper plates, bowls, cups, and plastic dinnerware. Leaves very few things to wash.
Never used it .have q5th wheel was in it when we bought the rv.
We say PIFFLE!!!! Our dishwasher is convenient, saves time and, if you care to really investigate, saves water over hand washing if you are truly hygenic about hand washing dishes.
On most units that have dishwashers, power is not an issue, even when boondocking. Why do we even have a generator if we are reluctant to use it? Dishwashers hog valuable space? Hogwash!! If you don’t have enough storage room in your unit with a dishwasher, you are carrying a bunch of stuff you don’t need.
Winterize? Well maybe you have something there. But, a heck of a lot of units with dishwashers spend all their time in warm climes…south in the winter, north in the summer.
Give up my dishwasher? Never!!!
1. Expensive? I guess that’s relative. Our Vesta was $474.12, including tax.
2. A lot of water? 4-6 gallons isn’t bad (ours uses a little over 4), but hand washing takes twice as much as that. I don’t think people are aware of just how much water they actually use by hand-washing dishes, but research shows that dishwashers actually save water.
3. Space – We had a small beer fridge in a cabinet under the counter that we never used. So I removed that. There was still room behind it, accessible from outside, so we still have that space. Also, I repurposed the doors that were previously on the cabinet. I turned one into a 4″ x 22″ drop-down door to make use of the space above the dishwasher for cutting boards and such. I used the other one to cover a new opening behind the sink cabinet. My wife LOVES the dishwasher. It gets the dishes out of the sink so she doesn’t have to deal with them after every meal. And it is whisper quiet. We highly recommend it.
My Fisher Paykel Dd24 uses 1.8 gallons of water.
https://www.fisherpaykel.com/us/dishwashing/contemporary-dishwashers/single-dishdrawer-dishwasher-tall-sanitize-dd24sctx9-n-81606.html
You are wrong, they do not use that much water. Where did you get those facts?
Sorry, i couldn’t disagree more. I use my dishwasher frequently, it’s the perfect size for 3 days of dirty dishes. It is quieter than any residential I’ve owned and outperforms all of the household brands. Mine uses very little water and doesn’t tax the 50 amp service even while running 3 roof air units and other assorted amenities.
I think you need to check your facts. The Fisher-Pakel using less than from 1.98 to 2.5 gallons depending on the cycle chosen. Other brands might use the figures you stated.
My 45OP Tiffin consumes more gas than a Tear Drop trailer pull; requires more power than a 2-person tent; the full bath feels more like a residence bath than a Port-A-Potty. My Jeep Rubicon toad consumes more gas than a Prius. We let the dishwasher do the work rather than washing them in the creek or eating on paper plates. Life is a picnic, but one doesn’t have to live like they are on a perpetual picnic. Sooooo???????
Worked long, hard, and smart for 50+ years.
We don’;t camp.
We LUXURIATE!!!
If you can’t run with the Big Dogs,
stay on the porch out of the way.
NICE TO BE RICH EH?
Gosh, you sure are cool
We loved our dishwasher. Only needed to run it every 2 days AND it used less water than my wife using the sink. I could actually use my gray tank with no problems – when boondocking.
We have a 45’ class A DP. We live in it full time. We love our dishwasher. It depends on the type of RV and usage. For us it does not take up valuable space. Our 62 gallon grey tank does not fill up when we use it. Choose what works for the user and the RV.
I agree, my Fisher Paykel uses less water than washing in my sink in my Travel Trailer. You read that correctly sir, I put one in my travel trailer, haha.
Not sure about the water use estimate. A Fischer Paykel double drawer dishwasher (2X size of the unit in RVs), used 14.5 litre. I had a dishwasher in my 1996 Safari and we loved it. Although we were often the hosts for dinner parties, as we had the dishwasher.
I’m not trying to be argumentative but how ist that in a stick n Brick house dishwashers that use 4 to 6 gallons of water is less than handwashing, but in an RV the same 4 to 6 gallons is more than handwashing? Just a bit confused…
I have a dishwasher and another one that I married!
My 5 Reasons Why I LOVE my RV Dishwasher:
1). Cost: the new 40 ft motorhome we bought two years ago had an optional FisherPaykel DW; it cost us $871. That was 1/8 the cost of adding a tow bar and air brake system—-when buying a motorhome to spend months at a time in, why would you want to do dishes every night?
2. Convenience: we spend 3-5 mo in the south in winter (thus we don’t worry about winterizing). I don’t like to wash dishes every night. Since there are only two of us, we only need to use the dishwasher every 3 days, so I’m saving my time to enjoy retirement.
2). Water usage: I’m SAVING water because if I wash a pan of dishes every night, I still have to rinse them each night before washing them, which adds up to a lot of water used.
3). Space usage: If I need a place to store bags of potato chips, they can go in the double second sink and be covered while I can use the other when I need water and for rinsing.
4). Clean counters: My kitchen counter stays tidy because I’m not waiting for the hand-washed dishes to dry in the rack (my husband never offered to dry the dishes and he usually drives so he needs a rest as well).
5).Electricity: Given that the motorhome is 40 ft, we rarely go into the back country or stay anywhere that doesn’t have electricity. Only 30 amp is required for the DW. We also have optional solar built-in that can be activated.
Note: we bought this new mid-price (~$240,000) luxury diesel motorhome after spending 20 years in a top-of-the-line gas motorhome which didn’t have a DW—-which was fine since we were only spending at most 2 weeks in it; however, when we spent 3 months in it, we realized we needed to upgrade to a motorhome that provided some of the comforts of home—-and we’re so glad we did.
AlleyOop and Fesser
I love my dishwasher on wheels and hooks up to my sink. also, it gives me extra counter space. I use every day. We fulltime and I hate washing dishes.
Your points are all valid, except you don’t have to run your generator when Boondocking if you have an inverter and a decent battery bank which most all big RV’s have. Sure they use power but it’s not that big a deal. All that said it is one item we will always have in our RV. The convenience of not having to wash dishes 3 times a day and getting them out of the sink (imho) outweighs all your points, including the 15 mins it takes to winterize them. Nothing against minimalism, but we prefer the comforts of home when on the road. To each his own
I have one, and I removed a couple of racks and boxes that hold flatware, and I use it to store my dishes after I wash them by hand. I do NOT put them away wet, so no mold, etc. grows there. I’ve never turned it on for all the above reasons.
seeing that you travel and work full time in the R-Pod 180, a tiny bumper-pull trailer, it is no wonder that you would write a negative article about having a dishwasher in an RV. However, there are many of us who travel in a Class A where we have the space for a dishwasher AND a stacked washer/dryer. As long as I am traveling in my 45ft bus, I would not want to miss the conveniences of having both.
I totally disagree that dishwashers present more problems than they are worth. Although boondockers do not use them much because of the reasons sited in the article, many of us have full hookups at least every 2 or 3 days. At that time we can run the dishwasher, wash and dry our clothes and run errands to pick up fresh fruit and other needs while they are running. We have had 3 motorhomes in 11 years. The last two have had dishwashers and we consider them an absolute necessity.
The benefits far outweigh the issues.
Maybe that applies to weekenders. I live full time in my bus. I have a dishwasher. I despise hand washing dirty dishes. When the kids were young, we had a popup camper with no holding tanks. We used a 5 gallon bucket to catch the sink water. My kids and I would fill a 5 gallon bucket with waste water at least 1-1/2 times usually twice. I know my dishwasher uses less than 5 gallons. But I don’t use the dishwasher unless I’m on full hookups. Just like I don’t use my large capacity washing machine unless I’m on full hookups. As for those who get nasty with me because I have a dishwasher, I’ve noticed they don’t show up every day to wash my dirty dishes by hand. This is my “house” and I have a dishwasher, clothes washer, dryer, freezer and a full size range just like I did in all my non mobile houses. I’ve noticed that most of the folks who complain about people who have dishwashers and washing machines are (#1) men, (#2) weekenders and (#3) have these same appliances in their homes.
I never missed having a dishwasher in our campers—both Class C and fifth wheels—until I got one in our latest fifth wheel. I absolutely love it. I never want to be without. And, we aren’t full timers. Will also deny that they use a lot of water—-they use way less than hand washing. I say ENJOY, ENJOY not having dish racks etc.
Wow! You really don’t care for them, do you?
Check facts—most RV units use about 2 gal water per cycle. And pre-washing not needed. A lot of electricity? Quantify that statement,
please?
Our 2004 Itasca Horizon came with a dishwasher. I liked it, used it at first …then, we usually had so few dishes, I just did them up by hand & used the dishwasher sporadically. A few years ago, it quit working. When we took the coach in for annual oil change, etc., we discussed fixing the dishwasher. They said it would have to be replaced …I said nope. Since then it has been my snack storage … large bags of chips or big containers of pub mix or boxes of crackers, even large bottles fit great! Much better as storage than as a dishwasher!
Sorry I disagree with everything in the article. I’m a boondocker and I wouldn’t be without my countertop dishwasher
Just a lot of BS. We wouldn’t be without the D/W. Uses less water than washing in the sink. Electricity is no problem, since we as full timers are always plugged in somewhere, or on our generator. Sounds like
the author has a bit of envy for those of us that have one. As to your statement about who needs the hassle, it’s just part of accepted things to maintain your/our life style.
In my opinion you failed to do any real research for this article. Our Fisher/Paykel is exactly the same as the models we had in our previous sticks and bricks. Uses about 2 gallons per cycle. Great to hold items while we drive as well. We don’t winterize, indoor storage.
Such a negative perspective and article! It depends on who you are and what type of RVing your doing! Can come up with a list benefits of having a dishwasher in an RV that exceeds the negatives you list!
good article!
unless you have a very big RV and can afford to pay for the extra costs of using such a huge vehicle (more fuel, more water, more maintenance headaches etc) best practice for someone spending a lot of time on the roads (full time RV-ing namely) is to avoid hassles of all kinds … for example, try using cheap single-use and discardable dishes and plates and cutlery instead of fancy home-style ones! remember: the more weight you carry in an RV the more fuel you have to pay for! and the more time you have to waste washing and cleaning and maintaining such stuff, which are a hassle at home too!
Dishwashers also take up valuable real estate too. Washing dishes by hand isn’t that difficult and there’s usually not that many anyway.
Disposable flatware and plates take up more room than the equivalent stainless and Corelle and probably weight as much. Also they fill the landfill and do decompose readily. We only use them when on a tight water budget for extended boondocking. We don’t have dishwasher, but would not turn down a new coach that had one.
Love your news letter,
The author of the article is clueless and didn’t do his homework. They use less water than hand washing, are more sanitary and most are just drawer style dishwashers that you can buy anywhere. t sounds like it was written by a whiner who couldn’t afford a coach with a dishwasher.
We had one in the 2007 Itasca Horizon and while it worked “OK” it’s small and does require pre-washing of dishes. One complaint I have is the draining is incomplete and it keeps water inside the bottom and will stink quickly. The prince and drain feature doesn’t use enough water to do a good job draining and it’s quite a rise for the water to get up to the sink drain. I suppose if someone were full-timing and using daily that wouldn’t be an issue but I found we had to run cycles to clean the dishwasher. It did make a nice storage for coffee pots while traveling. With the dishwasher we lost the propane oven something we used in previous RVs and use in current ones. Easier to wash dishes by hand but I HATE the latest rage of farmers sinks, one big one. Farmer’s are not that stupid to have them in their house.
wah wah, we can save room inside and wash clothing by wearing it into the shower or beating it against a rock in a stream…. But then we don’t live in the 1840s anymore now, do we?
The convenience of a dishwasher FAR outweighs any of these other “negatives” that this article states as reasons to avoid. Don’t want to use a lot of power? Turn off the high temperature and heated dry option. The heating coil is only used for drying or heating the water – so give it hot water to use.
Dishwashers also recycle their own water, changing it only during the rinse cycle, so the total used is a LOT less than you’d think, around 3-4 gallons is typical. VERY efficient for the amount of things that you can get clean.
Lastly… Any product that is termed “RV” is instantly more expensive. Don’t fall into that trap! There are “apartment” dishwashers that are 18″ wide and standard counter height which can be installed into an RV with a little bit of creativity, instead of the comically-small “countertop” washers, or the full size home units at 24″ wide.
1. The price will depend on how much you want one
2. Most single drawer dishwashers, great for RV use, use under 1.5-2 gallons.
3. If you don’t have enough space you wouldn’t buy one
4. You didn’t go into detail on how much power they use, a lot of Vans these days have inverters, solar an lithium to overcome this.
5. Not everywhere is sub zero in winter.
It’s funny how people have things they seem irrationally opposed to. Long before my parents could afford a house in a good neighborhood, they had a dishwasher so I learned to appreciate this wonderful appliance at an early age. We gladly sacrificed some cabinet space for a dishwasher and my wife loves it. It takes pressure off her, because once the dishes are washed, we don’t have to immediately put them away. When she’s ready, she simply unloads the dishes and we do it then. Meanwhile, they are out of sight and out of the way.
We have a dishwasher in our 2011 Tiffin Allegro Bus. It came in this unit. We have very few dishes with just the two of us, therefore I use to store all of my pots and pans in. Handy to get too and works for us. Even when we are gone for several months at a time, I have never used the dishwasher. That is our preference….
I just read this article and hope that my ‘late’ arrival will not deter from my important input. I think most if not all of the criticisms are invalid.
Most dishwashers will use less water than hand washing. A dishwasher is much easier on my wife’s hands and she appreciates that. My wife is very happy to do the dishes and I am helpful in my role as supervisor while having a beer or other adult beverage from a short distance away. I am usually on the couch giving much needed advice and coaching and I know she appreciates that too. I maintain a reasonable distance from the operation so as to not get in the way. I like the fact that when I am finished using a cup or plate I can just stick it in the DW and I know it will be cleaned in a day or so without any problem for me. I have noticed also that if I wait long enough all the clean dishes will be put away neatly in their assigned places.
We have not had to have any service of the DW and while we usually are at RV parks water and electricity are not a problem. So as you can tell I am a real fan of having a DW in our RV.
We have a Vesta in our fifth wheel for over two years and I must say they are just as good, if not better, and more quiet then a Bosch. We use it every night. Uses 3-4 gallons of water. We are full timers and we didn’t hand wash dishes before we retired and had no intensions of doing so after retiring!!!!!!!
I live in a 5th wheel RV and the Farberware dishwasher is perfect for one person. Very compact, efficient and extraordinarily quiet, it sits on my kitchen counter directly behind the sink. This dishwasher has exceeded my expectations.
I love my RV dishwasher, when the dishes do not require a lot of water, this dishwasher can save a lot of it. In addition, if you have a lot of dirty dishes, using the severe cleaning option ensures that all of the residual food particles are removed.
I’m an engineer and I installed a Fisher Paykel dishwasher in a travel trailer in a kitchen slide room, YES!, you read that correctly, it took me many months to figure out and do. I don’t go camping to wash dishes, I hate washing dishes and it takes away from your vacations too. I completely remodeled my travel trailer’s kitchen to get it, I lost the gas oven, gained a convection microwave, new gas cooktop and dishwasher…it all works great and I’m glad I did it. If you want to see what I did, not for the faint of heart watch it on RocketCityRVer on my YouTube Channel. I love my dishwasher and I think it uses less than washing by hand, looking at the numbers and doing the math seems to prove that.
Sure, a dishwasher that I think you really need in a motorhome. Equip RV kitchen small but efficient enough to wash and dry cutlery and pots. Help us save a lot of water and free time. What I’ve always wanted is a compact but efficient dishwasher, I’m thinking of the Farberware FDW05ASBWHA dishwasher. This Farberware camper dishwasher features a compact design that can hold various types of dishes up to 12 inches in size. You can use the hob while the appliance is running. With the included faucet, your
can draw water directly from your kitchen faucet.
When my wife said that that washing the dishes was going to be my new job, I checked to see where I could install one. Guess what, there was no place that could be modified for one. We live full time in our GD 5th wheel. We had a role around wire rack that was 18” wide, so I replaced it with a GE 18” portable dw. It moves to the front of the sink and I replaced a soap dispenser and mounted toilet dispenser a single bath lavatory faucet that the quick connect adapter would screw onto. Low water use, very quiet, and provides some additional counter space. Would not be without one.
Well I have 30′ on my 5th wheel and I do see some under the counter space I can use for a small one. I am really going to look into this.
I think it is a great idea and I like clean dishes, as well as the water savings that they provide. Water leakage. I did have a home appliance leak ones. I am thinking some kind of water proofing under it. I am sure if I think it through I will come up with something. Excited to give this a try.