Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

dishwasher

Sadly, the Shabosh Countertop Hybrid Dishwasher May Be The Closest We Get to The Tetra

A countertop dishwasher called Shabosh is attracting lots of backers on Kickstarter, having raised over $55 thousand from 535 backers.

At first glance, the dishwasher looks a lot like an awful lot like another small countertop dishwasher that garnered a whole lot of buzz five years ago at CES. But while the Shabosh is visually reminiscent of the Tetra, which promised to run a cycle in ten minutes with just a half gallon of water, it’s a far cry functionally from the little wonder that had many of us lusting for something as pedestrian as a dishwasher.

Before we get to the differences, we must look at what happened to Tetra. Unfortunately, for those of us who have been patiently waiting for the little guy, we may never get to put it through its paces since Heatworks, the company behind the Tetra, shut its doors and put its assets up for auction last fall.

The news that the company had put its assets up for auction surfaced last fall when an IP acquisition firm named Hilco Streambank announced it would bid on Heatworks assets. The company was ultimately successful, stating on its website that it had “contacted more than 300 potential targets and brought 16 of those parties to the table through advanced discussions and negotiations. The process culminated in a public auction, and a sale closed in December, 2022.”

The first signs of trouble for the Tetra were the seemingly endless delays and on-again, off-again promises of a ship date. Along the way, Heatworks struck up deals with companies like BASF to create the detergent modules, but it looks like they may have run out of capital before it could build the machine and ship it.

So while there may be an outside chance that we see something resembling a Tetra, it won’t be from Heatworks.

Which brings us back to Shabosh. While the tiny dishwasher looks a lot like the Tetra, the way it works is very different. Unlike the Tetra, which was designed to run a fully automatic washing cycle within its closed glass enclosure, the Shabosh has an open top that allows the machine’s user to spray dishes with its water spout. That’s right, washing dishes with the Shabosh is not that different than hand-washing dishes in a sink, only you get to do it in a cool-looking glass enclosure.

But hey, that’s probably why the Shabosh’s full retail price is targeted to be $200, which is about 40% of what the Tetra was targeted to sell for. And who knows, unlike the Tetra, we may actually see the Kabosh make it to consumer homes sometime soon.

The Golden Age of Tiny Dishwashers? Bob and Tetra Begin Making Their Way to a Countertop Near You

Ever since we first stumbled upon the diminutive dishwasher named Bob in the basement of the Sands convention center at CES 2019, we’ve been wondering when the little guy would arrive stateside.

The answer is this year. Daan Technology, the French startup behind the Bob, started shipping the small footprint dishwasher in Europe in 2020 and had originally slated the Bob to arrive in the US the same year. While that model Bob stayed in Europe, an updated global version is finally set to start shipping this year.

The company started a Kickstarter campaign this month and has bundles featuring Bob starting at $379 with an expected ship date of September 2022. For those who don’t want to buy through Kickstarter, my guess is the company will begin up selling Bob on its own website later this year.

Order options include a hose to connect the dishwasher to a faucet (Bob also has a one-gallon water reservoir that can be filled manually) and a range of colorful faceplates. The Bob Premium also includes an interesting UV-C ultraviolet option that allows the user to disinfect items (like phones) that can’t get wet.

While Bob’s Kickstarter backers get a starter pack of the company’s proprietary detergent cartridges (called cassettes), they’ll also want to order extras. Like the Tetra dishwasher, Bob’s small size necessitates special detergent cartridges to get the dosing right.

Speaking of Tetra, when we caught up with the dishwasher’s manufacturer Heatworks late last summer, they had just opened up preorder with a target ship date of May 22nd of this year. The company made the rounds at CES in January (see my interview with Heatworks founder Jerry Callahan here) and is still on track to ship this year.

While countertop dishwashers have been around for years, this new generation that includes the Bob and Tetra features smaller footprint sizes (both in terms of countertop size and resources) and puts a greater emphasis on aesthetics, with design touches like Bob’s colored faceplates or Tetra’s Frog studio driven design.

So if you’re in a small apartment, RV, or a cabin in the woods and would like to ditch the sponge, you’re time has arrived as we seem to be entering a new golden age for tiny dishwashers.

You Can Now (Finally) Preorder The Tetra Countertop Dishwasher

Tetra, the small countertop dishwasher that made a big splash when it debuted almost four years ago at CES 2018, is finally ready to ship take preorders.

Heatworks, the maker of Tetra, said that dishwasher will be available for a pre-order price of $399 ($499 MSRP) and will ship the product on May 18th, 2022, which apparently is No Dirty Dishes Day.

So what took a dishwasher originally expected to ship in mid-2019 an extra three years to get to market?

According to CEO Jerry Callahan, it had to do with a couple things, both related to getting the detergent just right for the small dishwasher.

The first was dosing.

“What we find out early on was that the dosing of its detergent was really critical,” Callahan told me in a phone interview this week. “We use a little bit of water, so if you overdosed it, the cleaning process wasn’t as good. If you underdosed the cleaning process wasn’t as good.”

Add in that each type of detergent brand has its own potency and efficacy, Callahan soon realized things would get out of hand if they tried to tell the consumer how much of each soap to use when running a load.

“I woke up in the middle night thinking about this matrix that we’d have to give everybody so that they put the right amount of detergent in. I said ‘guys that we can’t do that to people.'”

Another reason the Tetra took a while was the company wanted to make sure the cleaning detergent chemistry was just right. Typical dishwashing detergents have a mix of building agents, enzymes and surfactants, and while the varying composition and age of these different components may be fine in traditional dishwashing detergent, the cleaning cocktail needed to be pretty precise for a small machine that makes economic use of water like the Tetra.

This effort to get the dosing and chemistry right led them to a partnership with BASF. In a partnership announcement made last year, the two companies announced they would work on developing a detergent cartridge system for the Tetra. According to the announcement, each cartridge will be good for about 20 washes. Callahan told me that each wash would be an equivalent cost to a good detergent at a grocery store, or “about 35 cents a wash.” That puts cartridge pricing at around $7 per unit (pricing for cartridges were not announced in the release), but Callahan said each Tetra comes with a cartridge and preorders get an extra one thrown in.

Looking at the Tetra, I couldn’t help but notice that while the close-to-final product looks pretty close to the original design, there were a few differences.

Tetra in 2018
Tetra in 2021

One is the Tetra just looks like it has a bigger footprint. This is not surprising since the while original’s tiny design looked cool, the super small prototype didn’t seem all that practical with room for only two place settings (that’s if you didn’t have a silverware basket). The bigger Tetra of 2021 changes that with room for up to three place settings.

The current Tetra also is taller, which makes sense since, at some point, the self-contained washing system needed to make room for the dishwashing machinery as well as have a clear water chamber, a grey water tank and the cartridge system.

While big brands like Midea have been building countertop dishwashers for years, the Tetra – and those that followed like the Bob and the Capsule – are more self-contained and put a greater emphasis on sexy design. The Tetra still stands out compared to both the Bob (which is currently shipping) and the Capsule (expected to ship next year), in large part due to the all-glass top.

And it’s because of this unique design I think there will be some pent up demand for the Tetra, even three years after its debut. Callahan thinks so too, in part because of the 25 thousand or so who have signed up to be notified when the product is ready to ship.

Hopefully we should know by next year. In the meantime, you can check out what the Tetra 2021 looks like in action below.

The Tetra Dishwasher 2021

Heatworks Partners With BASF to Bring the Tiny Tetra Dishwasher To Market in 2021

When Heatworks introduced the Tetra at CES 2018, I imagine they were just as surprised as anyone when it became one of the most buzzed about new products at the annual tech show.

The tiny countertop dishwasher, which promised to clean a few settings of dishes with just half a gallon of water in 10 minutes, appeared on dozens of top of CES lists and the product’s small form factor, sexy design and estimated price point ($299 at the time) had many of us signing up to be notified when it was available.

All of that buzz was probably new for a company that had focused on making tankless water heaters to that point, which probably added a bit of pressure when the original ship date of end of 2018 slipped by.

When I asked them about it last year, Heatworks said the reason for the delay was they were primarily focused on bringing their latest generation water heater, the Model 3, to market. It turns out they also had another reason, which is they would ultimately need a partner to build the sophisticated detergent dispensing system required for such a small form factor device.

That partnership, announced today, is with German conglomerate BASF.

According to the release, the Tetra cartridge system “will be designed to deliver custom solutions and dosing, dependent on the selected wash cycle, ensuring each cleaning cycle is optimized. Tetra’s cartridges will last for multiple loads and consumers will be able to sign up for a subscription, so that cartridges are shipped to them automatically.”

Obviously a subscription based detergent system is a new wrinkle for the Tetra, one that might be a cause for reconsideration for those still waiting for a Tetra. Another potential concern might be the slightly higher price tag ($399) for the new device.

Still, unlike many of the other countertop dishwashers on the market, the Tetra doesn’t require plumbing or hoses and uses less than half of the water. Because of this self-sufficiency and the product’s attractive design, I imagine the 25,000 or so customers the company says have signed up expressing interest in the Tetra might still pull the trigger.

Hopefully soon they’ll have a chance: According to Heatworks and BASF, the Tetra will be available in the second half of 2021.

Tetra, the Tiny Countertop Dishwasher Everyone Fell in Love with, Now Won’t Ship Until 2020

Exactly no one predicted that a dishwasher would steal the show at CES, but that’s what happened in Vegas in January of 2018.

Originally expected to be available for purchase at the end of 2018, the Tetra dishwasher from Heatworks had attendees saying “take our money” with its promise of a ten minute wash cycle, miserly water usage and a futuristic design that made many of us (including me) weirdly ok with the idea of putting a dishwasher on our already crowded countertops.

Now, however, those of us ready to plop down $299 for the Tetra can hold onto our money for another year: the countertop dishwasher now isn’t expected to ship until some time in 2020.

Why the slipping ship dates? According to company spokesperson Melissa Verzwyvelt, the issue had to do more with straightening out contract manufacturing issues with the company’s latest generation water heater, the Model 3, which took focus and resources away from the company’s newest product line.

“With Tetra, we have had to push our dates back twice now because we have had a few production issues with our MODEL 3 Water Heater that have been out of our control,” Verzwyvelt told me via email. “So instead of finalizing Tetra’s specifications and distribution channels as we had anticipated, our team’s focus and resources have gone to resolving MODEL 3 contract manufacturer problems.”

That’s a bummer for those of us eager to buy the Tetra, but an even bigger one for Heatworks. After all, the company had lots of buzz coming out of CES two years in a row for its new product line. You have to think some folks will possibly move on by the time it finally ships, or even consider another entrant (say hi, Bob).

On the other hand, the company’s core business has been water heaters (it’s where the patented water heating technology in the Tetra comes from), so it makes sense to get that ironed out first.

Some of you may be wondering about the status of the DUO, the new portable water heating carafe the company debuted at CES this year. According to Verzwyvelt, with the Model 3 manufacturing issues behind them, the company is also busy working on getting the DUO to market as well, which means hopefully they’ll meet the 2020 ship date I predicted in January of this year.

You can get a look at the Tetra in the video below.

CES 2019: Bob is a Petite Countertop Dishwasher

One of the big hits of CES 2018 was the Tetra countertop dishwasher. Meant for small living spaces, the countertop dishwasher cleans dishes using less water than a conventional dishwasher, and doesn’t take up much space in the process. At this year’s show, a French company called Daan showed off a European cousin to the Tetra dubbed Bob.

Bob is a squat, retro-looking connected countertop dishwasher designed to clean the dishes of one to two people. It’s 33 x 47 x 47 cm, has a color display, and holds a three-liter water tank. Bob uses .35kWh per cycle and will clean dishes in 20 minutes.

The Bob is available for pre-order now for €299 Euros (~$344.23 USD), and will be shipping this summer to European customers. A Daan spokesperson said that they’ve already collected 6,000 pre-orders.

The Bob wasn’t plugged in at the Daan both at CES, so I wasn’t able to see it in action, but we at The Spoon love the idea of a compact dishwasher. Heck, I have a regular sized dishwasher in my home and would consider a countertop one for quick cleans in between full loads. But as we’ve noted, there are a ton of devices being built for kitchen countertops — so many that the typical small apartment won’t be able to fit them all.

Meet the DUO, The Portable Carafe With Precision Temperature Control

At last year’s CES, one of my favorite new products was the Tetra, a small countertop dishwasher that cleans the equivalent of two place settings of dishes in about 15 minutes with a single gallon of water.

The product was introduced by Heatworks, a company I had never heard of before, mostly because I was not in the business of writing about water heaters.

Maybe I should have been paying more attention because, as it turns out, the technology that powers their water heaters can be used in a variety of devices, including the company’s latest, a portable water carafe with precision temperature control called the DUO.

The DUO, which the company is introducing at CES 2019, is a battery powered portable carafe that holds up to a liter of water. The DUO can heat water to within 1° of a desired setpoint and also also includes a water filtration system.

I caught up with Heatworks CEO, Jerry Callahan, at CES Unveiled, who told me that they made the DUO because they realized how important precise water temperature was to making anything from a good cup of coffee to green tea to baby formula.

“We started with the premise that people really wanted to get the exact right temperature,” said Callahan.

I could see myself using a DUO when I’m in a hotel room (does anyone else get grossed out by hotel coffee machines? Thought so) or when I’m camping. I can also see using it for filtering drinking water on the road since I never know how good the drinking water is in any city I might be in.

When I asked Callahan when the DUO might ship, he said they were hoping that it would be available by end of the year. My assumption is that probably means first half 2020, in large part because the company missed its original promised ship date for the Tetra (which they are now promising out by Q1), and at this point the DUO is still largely in prototype stage.

You can hear my full conversation with Callahan from the show floor below.

Meet the Duo, a portable water carafe with precision temperature control

Meet Tetra, A $299 Countertop Dishwasher That Finishes A Wash Cycle In Ten Minutes

The reason why the dishwasher is one of those everyday conveniences most of us don’t think about is because we don’t have to; after all, today’s dishwashers pretty much all come in the same size, use roughly the same amount of water, and all take about an hour or more to run through a wash cycle.

But here’s the problem with one-sized fits all machines: not every task – or dish load – is the same size. So, when I ran across a demo of the Tetra countertop dishwasher at CES Unveiled, I was intrigued.

The Tetra is small as dishwashers go. The total counter space it takes up is roughly equivalent to that of a toaster oven. It’s also, if I might say, pretty cool looking for a dishwasher. You can see what it looks like in the video below:

Why would one want a small form factor dishwasher? For one, traditional dishwashers are pretty wasteful. With the Tetra, the user simply pours in half a gallon of water inside and that is all it needs for a full wash cycle.

It’s also quick. My old KitchenAid usually takes an hour or more to rumble through a cycle, but the Tetra finishes a cycle in 10 minutes.

And to top it all off, the device also will act as a sous vide appliance.

One reason I like the idea of the Tetra is I often find my usage of certain dishes is out of sync with how we use our dishwasher.  Because it often takes my family a day and half to dirty up enough dishes run a load, I often find myself handwashing my favorite mug or Nutribullet glass when it’s time to make a smoothie. The Tetra is perfect for these type of quick wash cycles for go-to dishes. And for someone like a parent with a newborn who is constantly washing baby bottles, it would make even more sense.

The Tetra is from a company called Heatworks, which you may have heard of for their tankless electric water heaters. The company is announcing its third generation water heater at CES (available in February), and the Tetra is the company’s first home appliance.

And in case you’re wondering – you don’t need a Heatworks water heater to heat your water for the Tetra – it has a mini one built inside.

The Tetra is expected to ship by the end of this year.