Ask any woman and she will say that doing the dishes after meals is the most unwilling job they have to do. Most Indian homes, to tackle this have got a maid who comes once a day to do the dishes. All this because manual labour is extremely cheap in India and no comprehensive dishwasher has been yet made to suite Indian kitchens and cooking habits.

In this age of modernization and liberation where a variety of gadgets and products have come in to the market to assist a woman's every need, right from microwaves, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators for cooking, cleaning the house, washing clothes, preserving food respectively; but nothing has been done about taking care of the soiled dishes.

Dishwasher:
A dishwasher combines water with detergent, heats the mixture and sprays it against the dishes. It pumps out the dirty water, rinses the dishes with clean water mixed with a rinse agent, and then dries them.

It was not until the 1950s, that dishwashers caught on with the general public as they became cheaper and a more usable size. The first dishwasher was invented as early as 1850, and it has come a long way since then to become commercial success in America and Europe. With the combination of mechanical and chemical (advanced detergents) wash they have today become highly efficient and the days of unsatisfactory cleaning are gone.

Josephine Cochrane - Invented the first practical dishwasher around 1983

But, as far as, India is concerned; they have failed to make an impact. A place where washing machines have become a house hold appliance and even the microwaves are these days being considered a necessity, the dishwasher is still considered as a risky investment, especially when there is cheap labour available. But there are fallouts with the maid system too in terms of hygiene and flexibility of time. 

The narrator took up this project 'Design of a Household Dishwasher' as a design challenge to overcome the drawbacks of the existing American dishwasher models, adapt them to fit Indian utensils and make them more efficient in terms of size and usability.

The main intention of the project was to analyze the failure of the dishwasher in the Indian market, ascertain its need and bring out a more efficient device in terms of operation and the space it occupies and which is both economical and easy to use. User survey was conducted in three parts - Product survey, Non dishwasher user‐survey and Dishwasher user‐survey.

Case Study Downloads:
• Design of a Household Dishwasher - Dishwasher Design for Indian Market - pdf