We spent two weeks testing the Farberware countertop dishwasher to determine if it was helpful enough to take up valued countertop real estate.

The Venn diagram that captures the target audience of a countertop dishwasher is narrow and specific: apartment dwellers unable (for space, plumbing, or landlord reasons) to put in a under-counter dishwasher or those who are committed to the #vanlife. That’s...pretty much it.

When the opportunity to test Farberware's countertop dishwasher came up, I tried to approach it with an open mind, but to be honest, I was already a skeptic. A dishwasher? On my Brooklyn apartment’s barely-there countertop? I generate a lot of dirty dishes in my job as a recipe tester and in general, as an (overly) ambitious home cook. This thing was going to have to really pull its weight—all 44.9 pounds of it—to win me over.

The Farberware countertop dishwasher has glowing reviews from The Cut and more than 1,600 elated folks on Amazon, who claim it’s “worth the cost,” “pretty damn quiet,” “perfect for an apartment” (or, writes another, an RV), “a powerhouse,” “sleek, sexy,” and even “a depression-fighting minion.” It’s middle-of-the-road in terms of pricing; portable dishwashers can range from about $200 to nearly $800, with this one coming in around $350. It does have one feature that makes it more valuable than many: a convenient built-in water tank that lets the washer run without being hooked up to the faucet (or permanently plumbed in).

The Venn diagram that captures the target audience of a countertop dishwasher is narrow and specific: apartment dwellers unable (for space, plumbing, or landlord reasons) to put in a under-counter dishwasher or those who are committed to the #vanlife. That’s...pretty much it.

When the opportunity to test Farberware's countertop dishwasher came up, I tried to approach it with an open mind, but to be honest, I was already a skeptic. A dishwasher? On my Brooklyn apartment’s barely-there countertop? I generate a lot of dirty dishes in my job as a recipe tester and in general, as an (overly) ambitious home cook. This thing was going to have to really pull its weight—all 44.9 pounds of it—to win me over.

The Farberware countertop dishwasher has glowing reviews from The Cut and more than 1,600 elated folks on Amazon, who claim it’s “worth the cost,” “pretty damn quiet,” “perfect for an apartment” (or, writes another, an RV), “a powerhouse,” “sleek, sexy,” and even “a depression-fighting minion.” It’s middle-of-the-road in terms of pricing; portable dishwashers can range from about $200 to nearly $800, with this one coming in around $350. It does have one feature that makes it more valuable than many: a convenient built-in water tank that lets the washer run without being hooked up to the faucet (or permanently plumbed in).

And yet, we did use the countertop dishwasher at least once a day for two weeks. It was truly effective at washing plastic containers, and we appreciated being able to load in an emptied jar of long-forgotten salsa verde without having to get too close. It felt genuinely luxurious to wedge in dirty dishes, close the door, and climb into bed, enjoying some evening reading time as the machine made its soothing, sloshy aquarium sounds down the hall. And when, cannily, a plumbing emergency in our building left us with unpredictably available running water, I was incredibly grateful to know we’d have clean dishes to eat dinner on. There’s also a special setting for sterilizing baby items, which alone could make the machine a good buy.

So is the Farberware countertop dishwasher worth it? The answer seems deeply personal, hinging on how much you really hate washing dishes by hand. When we reached the last pod of dishwashing soap in the little sack of 20 I’d bought for this test, my partner (who even likes doing the dishes) admitted that she was going to be a little sad to see the dishwasher go. I, on the other hand, am eager to get my countertop back.