Description
The Farberware FDW05WHA is a countertop dishwasher built around a single idea: no plumbing. It carries a 5 liter water tank inside the cabinet, so the machine is filled by hand, plugged into a normal outlet and run. That removes the faucet adapter, the inlet hose and the sink occupancy that make most portable dishwashers awkward, and it is what makes this model usable in an RV, a boat, a dorm room or a rented kitchen where nothing can be altered.
Farberware lists five programs, an LED display with touch controls, and a footprint of 16.5 inches wide, 17.3 inches deep and 17.3 inches high, weighing 43 pounds. The machine draws 750 watts and the listing specifies 120 volts with a 10 amp socket.
The Water Tank and What It Constrains
A 5 liter tank is the defining specification and the defining limit. It is roughly a gallon and a third, which is the full water allowance for one wash cycle. That is genuinely frugal compared with washing the same load by hand, and it also means the machine cannot run a long, water heavy cycle the way a plumbed dishwasher can. The tank has to be refilled before every wash, and the used water has to go somewhere, so a sink or a drain point still has to be within reach even though no permanent connection is needed.
Farberware also states a water pressure range of 20 to 120 PSI, which applies if the machine is connected to a supply rather than filled by hand. The listing does not make clear which connection accessories are included for that mode, so anyone planning to plumb it rather than fill it should verify what is in the box.
The Five Programs
The cycle list is Baby Care, Glass, Fruit Wash, Normal and Economy. Baby Care is the high temperature cycle, aimed at bottles and feeding equipment. Farberware describes it as steam cleaning and sanitizing, and the listing does not publish the temperature it reaches, which is the figure that would let a parent judge it against a dedicated sterilizer. Glass is the gentle cycle for stemware. Fruit Wash is for produce, which is an unusual inclusion and one of the more genuinely useful ones on a machine this size.
Normal and Economy are the everyday cycles. Farberware states that a wash takes 40 minutes, which is fast for a dishwasher and consistent with a small tub and a small water volume. Compared with the seven cycle Farberware compact six place setting model, this machine trades cycle count and capacity for the tank based independence.
Installation, Power and Placement
There is no installation in the plumbing sense, which is the point. What there is instead is a set of practical constraints worth naming.
The machine is 17.3 inches high, which will not fit under a standard wall cabinet on a counter with the usual 18 inch gap once the door and lid clearance are allowed for. Measure the vertical space, not just the counter width. At 43 pounds it is heavy for something described as portable: liftable by one person but not something to move between rooms casually.
Electrically, the listing is unusually clear. It specifies 120 volts and a 10 amp socket, with a rated power of 750 watts. That is a standard household outlet and no dedicated circuit is implied, though the listing does not state one way or the other. Because the machine heats its own water, it should not share an outlet or an extension lead with another heating appliance. Annual energy consumption is given as 130 kilowatt hours.
Highlights
- Built-in 5 liter water tank, no plumbing connection required.
- Optional connection to a water supply, with a stated pressure range of 20 to 120 PSI.
- Five programs: Baby Care, Glass, Fruit Wash, Normal and Economy.
- Fits dishes up to 12 inches in diameter, per Farberware.
- 40 minute wash cycle stated by the manufacturer.
- LED display with touch controls.
- 750 watts on a 120 volt supply, 10 amp socket.
- 16.5 by 17.3 by 17.3 inches, 43 pounds, annual energy consumption of 130 kilowatt hours.
Things To Consider
The listing does not state a place setting capacity, which is the standard way dishwasher capacity is expressed. It states only that dishes up to 12 inches in diameter will fit. That makes it hard to compare against machines that publish a place setting figure, such as the HAVA countertop dishwasher at four place settings.
Nor does it publish a noise level. A countertop dishwasher sits in the room rather than behind a cabinet door, so noise matters more here than on a built-in unit, and its absence is a real gap.
The Baby Care cycle temperature is not published. Anyone relying on it for infant feeding equipment should treat that as an unverified claim and read the manual before depending on it. High temperature washing is not the same as sterilization, and the listing does not distinguish between the two.
The listing also gives the brand name field as “FDW05WHA”, which is the model number rather than a brand, and the model name field as “Farberware”, which is the brand rather than a model. Those two fields have been swapped. It is a data quality issue rather than a product one, but it makes parts ordering harder.
Filling by hand every cycle is a genuine daily chore. Households with a usable faucet may prefer a plumbed connection model, and households with space should consider a proper built-in dishwasher instead.
Who It Suits and Who Should Look Elsewhere
This is the right machine where plumbing is genuinely unavailable: an RV, a boat, a converted van, a dorm room, a rented flat where the landlord will not permit an alteration, or a garden office. The tank makes it work in places no other dishwasher will, the Fruit Wash and Baby Care cycles broaden what it is useful for, and the 40 minute wash is quick enough to run more than once in an evening.
It is the wrong machine for a household with a normal kitchen and normal plumbing, where the hand filling becomes a daily irritation and the capacity is too small. Those buyers should look at the larger countertop dishwasher options or at a full size built-in such as the Bosch SHEM63W55N. Households already fitting out a compact space may also want to look at the portable washer range, which solves the same problem for laundry.
