Modern dishwashers have all kinds of features today that allow you to customize your wash. Do you have bone china you want to machine wash? Put the machine on a gentle setting. Do you have a couple of huge pots caked with cooked-on food? Put it on a tougher setting.

And now, when you can have a solid dishwasher for anywhere from $200 to $1800, what reason do have for not buying a dishwasher? Some people say that space is at a premium. Well, with smaller units, and even portable units, your kitchen can afford to eek out some extra space.

Modern Dishwashers
You can buy dishwashers at Sears, Menards, Target, ABC Warehouse, or at any number of large appliance outlets. You can also buy online and have them delivered for a fee.

Most quality dishwashers come with a 3-year warranty for most key parts, and a 20-year warranty for the casing and tub. Often you can buy a 5-year warranty, which is highly recommended. You never know which machines will break down; reviews always vary. A Bosch or a KitchenAid can be a lemon to one person, but be a savior to another.

When shopping for a dishwasher, keep water efficiency in mind. Up to 80% of a dishwasher’s power goes to heating the water via the heating elements. Older models used to use 10 gallons of water per wash. Now the standard is about 8 gallons. Check the size of the holes on the spray arms: the smaller they are, the more powerfully they spray. This will save you money on your electricity bill. Also ask for the energy efficiency rating. It should appear on the label.

For me, half of the fun of running a restaurant is getting to work with commercial kitchen supplies. You see, I love commercial kitchens. This may sound silly if you have never worked in one, but if you have you will know exactly what I’m talking about. Everything is burnished steel, and glows brightly. The knives are sharp, the grills are hot, and there is plenty of room to prepare food.

Having the right commercial kitchen supply is not just a matter of efficiency, either. It is a matter of passion. When you run a restaurant, you want everything running smoothly. You want the kitchen not only to be clean, sanitary, and efficient, but to look clean, sanitary, and efficient. There is a certain modernist ethic that goes with all commercial kitchen supplies, and if you enter an industrial kitchen and it does not have this aesthetic, you had better watch out. The place is probably a hole in the wall!

Of course, commercial kitchen supply is about more than looks. There are lots of companies that sell imitation commercial kitchen supply, but you cannot be taken in by them. There are all kinds of gizmos and gadgets designed to imitate commercial restaurant supplies that are sold to yuppies at inflated prices. From so-called industrial juicers to fake commercial food processors, this kind of commercial kitchen supply even snares restaurant managers from time to time. It is hard to tell it from the real thing, you see, and many of the devices appear to be useful.