is a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for 20 years.
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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 H 2 O. No plumbing’s required, but a hook-up is available should you tire of refilling the tank.
All the dishes my wife and I used for breakfast and lunch came out spotless. All but the 12-inch pan was able to fit. The optional “Dual Tray” makes good use of the void created above the bowls. The fruit cleaning mode doesn’t dry. A look around back. The two black boxes are for clean water and (optional) waste water if the sink hose doesn’t reach.
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.
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