You might find the energy to rustle up some dinner for the family after a long day's work, but scrubbing those dishes can really be a pain. This is where the dishwasher steps in. It really simplifies your life. Even for those with maids, a dishwasher delicately washes off all the grub from your delicate crockery as well, something you wouldn't trust your maid with. However, before you invest on this wonder machine, there are few things to be considered.

CAPACITY
Firstly depending on the number of people in the household, you can pick the capacity you want, ie capacity in terms of the number of utensils. This also depends on your food habits. Those from the old school still eat in big thaalis and drink from the big lassi glasses, in which case, you will automatically require more space than the standard dinner plate size. Higher capacity machines are able to accommodate more utensils in one wash load. Dishwashers currently can wash a maximum of 95 utensils.

BUDGET
The price of a dishwasher is largely dependent on its capacity. In all probability, will have a rough budget in your head reserved for a dishwasher. Just in case you don't, a dishwasher can cost you anywhere between Rs 13,000 to Rs 45,000. The other determinant for price is the number of features included in the dishwasher.

KEY FEATURES
Cycle time
This refers to the total time of any selected wash cycle, just as in washing machines. Naturally, this will differ depending on how greasy your utensils are, as also on the type of vessels in the dishwasher. For instance, if you've put heavily greased pans, then you will need a bigger cycle time. One advantage is that even in a wider or longer cycle, you can manually adjust the timing based on the wash load, thus saving electricity consumption.

Number of wash programmes
This is the number of preset programmes available in a dishwasher. More options are always good as it will facilitate easy and fast washing of utensils. However, more the number of programmes, more the cost, so in case you're pinching pennies, you can take a call on the programmes you need the most, and go for a dishwasher that offers those limited wash programmes. Usually, most entry-level dishwashers offer at least 3 preset wash programmes whereas high-end ones offer a maximum of seven.

Temperature range
This refers to the range of temperature of water that is available with the dishwasher. Since dishwashers have in-built heaters to heat the water, it is useful to have a wider temperature range. If you have a load of lightly soiled dishes, you can conserve electricity by setting a lower temperature.