Loch’s Capsule dishwasher is small, fast, and efficient without plumbing

A dishwasher is a luxury item some people can’t live without. It’s one of the first major kitchen devices I bought just as soon as I could afford one. And now that the kids are grown, it’s the appliance I thought I’d miss most in my nomadic vanlife pursuits.

Loch sent me its $459.99 / €459.99 countertop Capsule dishwasher to review in a tiny home on a remote beach and inside a van on a two-month roadtrip. It’s an excellent product that washes and dries two place settings quickly at bacteria-killing temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius (167F) in as little as 20 minutes. It’ll even kill bacteria and neutralize viruses on your gadgets with a waterless blast of UV-C light. Hoozah!

What I learned during this review has less to do with the device’s limitations, and more my own. Turns out that I’m willing to do a lot of dishes by hand when faced with resource scarcity, be that space, energy, water, time, or money; and I’m unwilling to become a germaphobe despite claims that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat.

The Loch Capsule looks clean and minimalistic on a kitchen counter, in my opinion. And while the exterior is plastic, the tub is made of stainless steel, unlike most countertop dishwashers. This differentiator improves drying speed, durability, and hygiene, while helping to keep odors under control.

The unit is tall and deep enough to accommodate large dinner plates and pans that won’t typically fit inside a short and stout countertop machine. It measures 46.5 x 26.2 x 51.5cm (18.3 x 10.3 x 20.3 inches) giving it a narrow footprint and internal volume of about 30 liters. The integrated handle makes carrying the 12kg (26.4lb) dishwasher relatively easy.

If you’re making all your meals at home then you’ll probably only need to run it once per day for a single-person household, or twice for two persons based upon my experience. It comes with an external clean water tank so it can be used anywhere you have access to power and H₂O. No plumbing’s required, but a hook-up is available should you tire of refilling the tank.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward. In most scenarios, you’ll plug into the wall for power, attach and fill the fresh water tank, and run a second hose from the dishwasher to the sink to dispose of the wastewater. In my van, where I had limited space for the Capsule, I had to install it in my “garage” connected to the optional waste water tank since the 1.2m/3.94ft hose was too short to reach my sink.

The glowing white display is covered in capacitive buttons that still respond to touches when my fingers are wet. The look is warm and friendly, but operation is loud, like most countertop dishwashers, something you’ll have to consider for a device meant to be used in small spaces. I measured about 56dB max from one meter. That’s much louder than my own built-in dishwasher, which operates at 38dB. The sound intensity also varies as the water whooshes and the pump vibrates. In other words, it won’t double as a white noise machine while you sleep, if that’s what you’re hoping for.

The Capsule can also wash gadgets and fruit. The basket fits about seven apples, which take eight minutes to wash, or 12 in total if you add UV cleaning. A waterless UV mode can be used to kill surface bacteria on baby bottles and personal devices like phones and earbuds using medical-grade UV-C light.

Loading dishes into the Capsule can feel like playing expert-level Tetris. The first time I tried, it took me about five minutes to load 18 items into that small cavity. Now it takes about a minute or two, while filling and emptying the clean and dirty water containers takes another few minutes. An optional $19 “dual tray” shelf can be placed at the bottom to make space for a large pot, or at the top where it can fill any available free space to wash silverware or other small, flat items.

Several cleaning modes are available, from a 15-minute Meal Wash all the way up to a 152-minute Intensive Clean. I found the 15-minute mode to work so well that I didn’t need to resort to the longer cycles, so long as I didn’t burn anything or wait until the next day to start a wash.

To test, I loaded the Capsule with all the mess produced at breakfast and lunch by two people, including two 10.5-inch plates covered in bacon grease, silverware covered in peanut butter, a milky yogurt bowl, espresso cups, a juice glass, a chef’s knife, tongs, and a sport bottle. And while the diameter of my 12-inch pan does fit inside the Capsule, its handle does not, contrary to Loch’s claim, so I had to handwash it. (My 10-inch pan with 8-inch handle just fits, but the angle doesn’t leave room for much else.)

Everything came out clean, hot to the touch, and mostly dry in the 15-minute Meal Wash mode, on par with my much larger built-in machine. I was impressed. The cycle used 2.5 liters (0.66 gallons) of water and consumed between 220Wh and 300Wh in my repeated tests, with power usage peaking at around 900W. The 15 minute wash cycle actually takes between 20 and 25 minutes to complete. The most intensive wash mode ran for 2 hours and 28 minutes, and consumed 420Wh and almost 4 liters of water.

For comparison, when applying my hippie-approved vanlife dishwashing technique to the same dishes with the same mess, I was able to wash and dry everything – including the 12-inch pan – in just six minutes from one liter of water and zero power consumed. This approach involves wiping everything off with a used paper towel or discarded food packaging, filling a bowl with unheated tap water, dipping in a soapy sponge and getting to work. Mind you, vanlife is less clean than regular life, but we haven’t died yet.

If I installed the Loch Capsule in my van I’d have to run the 15-minute mode twice each day to clean all the dishes my wife and I typically use. That’s about 500Wh and 5 liters of water a day — a 33.3 percent increase on my average daily energy usage and 100 percent increase in water consumption. I can’t justify that. This dishwasher is for rigs carrying a lot more water and battery power than I do, or anyone willing to frequently dock at serviced campsites.

Importantly, vanlifers don’t usually travel with full-sized dishes and pans. So, a more compact countertop dishwasher from companies like Comfee or Farberware that costs around $300 or below might be a better option. Loch does sell a Capsule Solo for $399.99 without the UV stuff and plumbing hookup. It’s otherwise the same dishwasher and currently on sale for $339.99.

Even inside a tiny house I find it hard to justify the $459.99 price tag of the Capsule, even at its sale price of $390.99, despite the surf shack’s ample supply of hot water and electricity. For one or two people, it’s just faster to wash the dishes myself and I don’t lose any precious space on top of the counter, or below it. And my freshly washed hands leave me little use for a UV blaster that kills bacteria that doesn’t pose a real threat anyway.

To justify buying a Loch Capsule dishwasher you, and at most one other household member, must really hate washing dishes, have ready access to water and power, and have almost no space but still use large pans and dishes. That’s a niche, but one that the Loch Capsule dishwasher fills admirably.

The Loch Capsule is an excellent countertop dishwasher with minor flaws – it’s just not for me.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge