This Countertop Dishwasher Is as Clever and Eco-Friendly as It Is Beautiful

There’s a market for that. In partnership with Frog, Heatworks has launched the Tetra, a delightfully diminutive countertop dishwasher that actually lets you watch goods get clean. Think of it as the perfect accompaniment to a Sub Zero refrigerator.

Bearing in mind that the average American household is only about 2.5 people, the Tetra is designed to wash two complete place settings in 10 minutes with just a half-gallon of water. So it’s checking off a lot of critical boxes: It’s pretty, satisfies a weird curiosity itch, is eco-friendly and space-saving, and will be done in the time it takes to have a shower or finish steeping a French press.

Curiously, and perhaps most attractively, it requires no installation beyond a plug-in. That’s right: You don’t even have to hook it up to water!

According to FastCoDesign, the Tetra cleans through a unique heating element. Like a coffee maker, you pour water in ahead of time—making users more mindful about how much they’re using. And instead of using a large, hot electronic coil like most dishwashers, it’s outfitted with graphite electrodes that selectively heat the minerals that exist in water.

There are many practical applications for this method—washing plastic without melting it, not to mention clothes and baby bottles. It can even clean fruit and cook seafood.

The Tetra was revealed at CES and will appear on the market later this year for around $300. Over time, that may well be worth the price tag.

“Our research indicates that although the average household is comprised of 2.58 people, the modern dishwasher holds place settings for 13 or more,” says CEO/founder Jerry Callahan of Heatworks. “This makes people believe they either need to handwash their few dirty dishes, which wastes 10 times more water than using a dishwasher, or wait for a fill load to run a cycle. With Tetra, we hope to change people’s mind-set.”