Dishmaid
It certainly does look similar to the Bauknecht, although it certainly did not last that long in the UK as far as I can recall.
What must be remembered is that this machine (at £50) was considerably cheaper than anything else on the market at the time, the only thing that comes close was the Colston - somewhat larger, with heater and fully automatic which, from memory was something like £84 which other dishwashers at considerably more than £100. This does not seem that much of a differential in these days but back then it was a lot of money, you could have had one of these AND a good twin tub for the cost a larger dishwasher. And many of the other dishwashers were large for the average British kitchen (the Swanmaid which I think was about £120 was the only one to more or less fit in a 60cm foot print) and they all required plumbing in which, at the time, was a big deal and would add even more cost for a plumber whereas today plumbing in a washing machine or dishwasher is considered a simple DIY job. This one was, if you will, plug and play.
It did not use that much water at all really and certainly no more than a dishwasher of the time. It did need a certain amount of attention but actually not a great deal and of course it would be possible to do other jobs in the kitchen while it was in use. I will say that I think it is more of a dish washer than a pan washer as I honestly could not see how it could deal with a burnt on casserole dish or something like that. Although some of the dishes were clean (and we do say in the video that some are) not all were and everything was cleaned well - we had no means of testing if it would take of lipstick marks as none of us actually used it LOL Also I would say, given the size of the machine, its unlikely that the dishes would sit that long (to get food and such really dried on) before they would go through a cycle.
I hope Richard will bring it back another time and perhaps then we can give it a more extensive test.
I will be absolutely honest and say that I remember these machines from my childhood (seeing them in magazines and such) and never thought them to be much of a buy but seeing it in action it was such a charming machine I was completely won over by it, although perhaps the lit up rotating rack had something to do with it. And maybe with these old machines sometimes we are not quite so rational about them as with a modern machine, but I F**king loved it
Al
Necessity is the mother of invention
