3D Dishwashing?! | Hotpoint Dishwasher Review

Whilst we’re on a kick-start to Grants parents kitchen renovation, we were offered an opportunity to upgrade their dishwasher and review a nice new one. This monstrosity has been living in this kitchen far beyond they moved in 15+ years ago. It’s not only old and ugly, but it doesn’t wash that well either. And by that what I really mean is, it stinks to hell and barely washes at all.

So as a little surprise whilst they were out and about exploring the sights of Bristol on a mid-week trip, we pulled it out and replaced it. With this super sleek modern dishwasher with 3D Dishwashing features. Say what?!

3D dishwashing. Sounds kinda gimick-y, but it’s all kinds of practical and a pretty genius feature in my opinion. I’ll get onto all that in a sec – but this post is basically going to be an in depth review to this particular dishwasher, showing it’s many features and how I’m comparing it to our own (very low-end!) dishwasher back at home.

So this is what it looks like in place. Obviously this is an integrated dishwasher – but with the kitchen undergoing renovation, we don’t have a door for it yet. But you can see, even without one – it looks about a bazillion times better than the old one that used to be here.

The first thing to mention about this dishwasher is that’s it’s definitely a mid-higher end range of dishwasher. Not the cheap of the cheap, but not insanely overpriced either. For the extra you pay – you get heaps of extra features (including that 3D washing!) and the build quality of this machine is really decent. There is literally nothing flimsy about it. And in comparison to our dishwasher at home, this was the first thing that we noticed about it. And it really was noticeable!

So taking a quick look at it – this is the control panel, which is stainless steel finished and looks a whole lot more high-end than plastic ones. The programmes are numbered and shown on the right of the control panel as a reminder. You then use the digital display to select which wash you’d like and there’s additional buttons for extra features which you can combine with the pre-set programmes, such as the 3D washing and extra drying etc. The control panel also shows red symbols next to the number on the digital display, which tells you when you need to re-fill with salt or rinse aid. It’s pretty simple in its layout and how it operates – and I like simple!

As I mentioned already, one of the things I love about this dishwasher is how sturdy it all feels. The drawers in particular have a really solid pull on them and even when full, there’s no flimsy-ness about it. Even the door feels sturdy, even though it’s not weighed with a door attached to the front – it doesn’t snap back closed, which is something we had to battle with daily with our own dishwasher at home before fitting the door. The top basket section in here can actually be altered in height to accommodate different sized items too, which I think is brillliiiant!

There’s also four clever fold-down flaps along the sides of the top drawer. These allow you to put smaller items onto them, or you can use their ridges on the side to slot the stems of wine glasses into to hold secure.

There’s also another fold-out zig zagged wire section along the bottom drawer which also works for wine glasses too – but we’ve used it more for saucepans. Lifting these up at an angle allows you to get more stuff into the dishwasher – which is pretty important if you have a big family!

So, this dishwasher holds 14 place settings and on the bottom drawer, these can be folded down to accommodate larger dishes or pots instead. The cutlery basket can also be separated into two parts, so if you’re putting less cutlery in – this can therefore take up less room. It’s all very simple, but super effective.

Main Features

There’s 10 different programmes to this machine, which is pretty insane in my opinion. I mean, you could almost use a different wash every day for two weeks straight! Personally (and in the case of Grants parents too!) we’re the kind of people who stick to just one or two (maybe three occasionally!) different washes, but if you like to host parties or have specific needs for dishwashing, it’s definitely useful to have the rest.

So other than a ‘Normal’ wash, it can also do an ‘Intensive’ wash, an ‘Eco’ Wash (this one uses less water and energy – personally our go-to setting!), a ‘Delicate’ wash specific for glassware, a ‘Rapid’ wash, a ‘Night’ wash and then also a ‘Sanitising’ wash, which presumably would be good for baby bottles etc. I haven’t finished yet though – there’s then a ‘Soaking’ wash, if you have anything crazy dried on to remove and also a ‘Self-Cleaning’ wash, which is really to clean out the machine. So basically, it has you covered for pretty much every kind of wash you could ever need to do!

As I said, we’re an ‘Eco’ wash kinda couple, not sure I’d bother with the night mode or sanitising mode personally. But maybe from time to time, intensive, delicates and a rapid wash would be pretty useful.

Other Features

So those above are just the pre-set washes – but you can also add extra features to each wash, such as a Time-Delay so you can pre-set when you would like the wash to begin/end. There’s also a turbo-drying feature, which we definitely looove. I kinda think having a dishwasher wash it all, but not dry it, is kinda pointless in my book. I like the idea of not having to check each item before putting it away – just knowing it’s dry every time. The turbo drying is really great at that – I would say 95% came out bone dry, with just a bit of water in anything that has ridges. Like, lids.

There’s also a tablet-mode, which claims to be able to alter the wash to maximise the use of a tablet.  Not toooo sure how I feel about this one (kinda pointless maybe?), but it’s there anyway. And then of course, there’s the 3D washing….

3D Washing

This was the thing I was most intrigued about with this machine! I mean, what the hell is a 3D wash?! So basically, instead of the two standard spray arms you find inside of a dishwasher, it has additional arms for targeted washing of extra dirty dishes. Amazeballs! A whole section in the dishwasher for actual pots where you want to ask “please give this pot an extra scrub”. It’s actually kind of genius and it means you don’t have to use the intensive wash, if the entire wash doesn’t require an ‘intensive’ setting. You can combine both lightly soiled and heavily soiled stuff – and it will separate the way it washes both baskets. So essentially should help to save energy and water too, compared to an intensive wash. There’s a 3D setting on both the top and bottom basket, but as I said – you don’t have to use them both together. These extra arms are orange to distinguish them.

General Thoughts

I think this dishwasher is pretty awesome. I don’t really know what more you could ask from a dishwasher – because in my opinion, this one seems to have everything covered. As I said before, we probably wouldn’t use alllll the features – but much like a washing machine, it’s handy to have those extras from time to time. Especially the delicate glassware wash, if you like to party! (Can you tell I just want to have a party?! 😉)

I love the idea behind the 3D washing and it does seem to actually work as well. I’ve had to put a few things back through the wash with our own dishwasher back home – we trialled this with some super dirty dried-on dishes and absolutely nothing needed re-washing, even when we didn’t use it on ‘intensive’! So that definitely gets the thumbs from me. The only negative to a 3D wash, is presumably it does use more water and more energy. But probably still a lot less than a whole Intensive wash.

I’m also loooooving how quiet this dishwasher is. It has a really gentle hum whilst it’s running, which is a world away from ours at home, which literally sounds like a helicopter. If you have open plan living, noisy appliances are literally the worst things ever. I’d would love to see a rival dishwasher be quieter than this one, because it literally is so quiet.

After having used this for the better part of a week, I can honestly say going home to our flimsy cheap-o dishwasher was a little underwhelming. They’re definitely not comparable in any way and when we purchased our own I was very much of the mindset “meh – what can a more expensive dishwasher REALLY do?” – Well, I finally found out!

So it’s definitely a thumbs up from me! And an even bigger thumbs up from Grants parents too. And if a mid-range dishwasher with a good amount of different options is what you’re after, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this one. You can see more of its specs and info right here.

What are your thoughts on mid-high end dishwashers? Do you make the most of all options available or are you a one-setting-wash kinda person?

*I received this hotpoint dishwasher in return for an honest review on the blog. All words, thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands who support this blog! 🙂