Sunpentown SD-2201W Countertop Dishwasher Review

Washing Speed

Cycles on this Sunpentown are pretty quick, ranging from an hour and 51 minutes for a heavy duty cycle to just 49 minutes for the "speed" cycle. The normal cycle takes an hour and 15 minutes.

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Washing Performance

Loaded correctly, the Sunpentown SD-2201W does a good job getting dishes clean. We found that the dirtiest dishes should be placed toward the center of the rack with their filth facing forward. On every cycle, a milk glass at the back corner of the rack remained just as gross as it was when we put it in, a sign that it didn't get washed.

Remember that for the purposes of our tests, we apply a standardized amount of filth to each dish that's greater than you'd ever put in a dishwasher. If you prewash or even just scrape your dishes, chances are yours will end up cleaner than any dish in our test loads.

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Quick Wash Cycle

The quick cycle -- labeled "Speed" on this unit -- did well enough for lightly soiled dishes. On our test load, it left behind more meat and oats than the other cycles, but it did pretty well on everything else.

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Normal Wash Cycle

After the normal cycle, dishes emerged relatively clean. The only noticeable problem the Sunpentown had was reaching stained dishes at the back corners of the rack. We'd advise against placing anything there, because it just won't get cleaned.

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Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle

Because we couldn't fit our burnt lasagna, baked on cheese and hardened dessert pans in with other dishes, we modified this test a little for a compact dishwasher and washed only pots, pans and serving dishes. The lasagna and dessert pans emerged entirely clean, though some cheese remained. That's nothing a little prewashing wouldn't cure, though.

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