The Unique '50s Dishwasher That You'll Rarely Find Today

None of us like doing chores, but it would do us some good to remember that it used to be so much worse. Take doing the dishes, for instance. Hundreds of years ago, working as a scullery maid in a great house was one of the most arduous, menial jobs a young woman could get, requiring her to scour countless dishes in a day. These days, cleaning dishes is as simple as loading them in a dishwasher, adding detergent, and pressing a button. What a relief it was when that miraculous modern appliance proliferated in the mid-century — although the design was a bit different at first, because it had to be loaded from the top.

Most modern dishwashers are front-loaded, meaning you open the door the same way you would an oven and pull the racks out to load. But in the early days of the appliance's history, the most common model was a top-loaded dishwasher. You had to lift up the lid, not unlike a top-load clothes washing machine or dryer, and set plates and utensils in the special racks. Some detergent, and you were free to let it run before it was time to unload. Ahh, the wonders of American postwar prosperity!

So why don't you see too many top-load dishwashers these days? How come they went the way of the tiny old-school kitchen milk door that kids won't recognize today? Well, mostly, it was a matter of space. Top-load dishwashers just didn't hold very many dishes, with space for only one layer, which was a problem for a decently-sized family. Sure, it's possible you could do half the dishes in the dishwasher while doing the rest by hand, but what if — hear us out — you didn't have to scrub any dishes at all?

That's where the front-load dishwasher came in. It offered more space, and therefore, more efficiency: Instead of running two or three dishwasher loads, you only had to run one. Eventually, the more convenient option won, and you will pretty much never see a top-load dishwasher outside of a very old-fashioned home (or specialized use cases, such as inside an RV). Whatever kind of model you have, though, it's important to load the dishwasher correctly, as well as to avoid mistakes while cleaning it.