Heatworks constructed a no-plumbing-needed countertop dishwasher
When a tiny new dishwasher was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2018, I immediately wanted one for my equally tiny house. The device called Tetra could only clean a few place settings at a time, but took up little space on a worktop, washed the dishes quickly and did not have to be connected to a water pipe. It also used very little water – far less than what I used to hand wash dishes in drought-stricken California.
Heatworks, the South Carolina-based company that developed the dishwasher (with design work by Frog), initially planned to bring it to market by the end of 2018. Four years later, the company was taking pre-orders. This is mainly due to the fact that when the standard dishwasher was redesigned, it was realized that the detergent also needed a redesign.
[Image: courtesy Heatworks]The company first started working on dishwashers because the devices could leverage its core technology, which heats water without the need for electrical heating elements. CEO Jerry Callahan also reflected on dishwashers in his personal life. “My wife and I became empty nests, and we have this large, full-size Bosch dishwasher that runs every five days,” he says. “Leaving dishes in makes it harder to get clean. I started thinking about how dishwashers waste energy and water. I think there has to be a better way to do this. “
A simple dishwasher hasn’t evolved as much since the 20th century, apart from stainless steel fronts, a few extra buttons, and efficiency gains. Callahan wanted to rethink the size, both for use in small apartments and for households with only a few people who do not need the enormous capacity of an ordinary dishwasher.
[Image: courtesy Heatworks]The team hacked together an early prototype from larger devices. They quickly realized that the design wasn’t going to be all shrinking components. “We had to think of it as a whole new device,” says Callahan. For example, the water flowed differently than in a normal-sized device. They worked with Frog on a version of the prototype that was shown at CES, where it won an innovation award (and won another award the following year). People wanted to buy it – the first CES show generated a list of around 25,000 interested customers. However, Callahan felt that the company had to change fundamentally before it could actually hit the market.
The problem: It wouldn’t be easy to use detergent for larger machines. “We can’t get this thing on the market and we have to give the customer a matrix that says, ‘If you use a capsule, you have to cut it in half; or if you use a tablet you have to cut it down by two thirds. ‘ “For example, if a customer put too much detergent in because the machine was using so little water, it would not rinse well.
[Image: courtesy Heatworks]As we learned more about laundry detergents, it found that laundry detergents didn’t work perfectly: different ingredients perform different functions, from prewashing to cleaning to shining plates, but when mixed in a gel or capsule, the chemicals become interact to degrade one another. (“The trick is, when you buy dish detergent, use it ASAP because it degrades pretty quickly.. Relatively new,” says Callahan.)
Heatworks has teamed up with chemical company BASF to develop another system that injects ingredients separately into the machine at the right time in the cycle. When testing detergent labs for detergent, they found the tiny machine to clean dishes 35% better than the best standard dishwashers and detergents. A bonus for the company, of course, is that you now have to purchase your laundry detergent direct from them.
[Image: courtesy Heatworks]The design now also offers room for more dishes – and slightly larger items like mixing bowls – according to feedback from early tests. (It can hold a total of three dinner plates, three bread plates, three glasses and three cutlery sets, or a combination of other items like baby bottles. The fastest cycle takes less than 30 minutes.) The change in size meant more mechanical and hydraulic tweaks. The filtration system has also been improved so that the swirling water is always clean when you watch it through the clear window. “It’s pretty fascinating,” says Callahan. “Everyone who owns a cat should buy one, because cats sit there all day and watch it.”
He does not regret the delay in the market launch because it is fundamentally better than it would have been. And it still uses very little water – before using it, pour 3 liters into a small tank. If someone uses it once a day instead of hand washing it, the company estimates the device will save nearly 4,000 gallons of water in a year.
