Most RVs don't come with a dishwasher. Ours didn't either. So we decided to do an RV
dishwasher install. In this video, I'm going to show you how I got it to physically fit in
our kitchen island as well as the electrical and plumbing hookups required to make it work.
When we started full time RVing three years ago, we knew we didn't want to be hand washing all of
our dishes for a family of four. Not that there aren't efficient ways to do that, because there
certainly are, and we do continue to hand wash some things. But especially with two young kids,
we were looking for a little bit more convenience. We went without a dishwasher for a while,
but since we've installed it we've reclaimed a lot of time in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
Thus choosing and installing an RV dishwasher was kind of a high priority for us. We basically had
three options to work with, the first one being a countertop model that's really easy to hook up
but takes up precious counter space. The second one, was a wider drawer type model that usually
goes in place of your oven. Or, the third option was this taller 18 inch wide version
that usually ends up replacing a set of drawers. The countertop style model was out of the question
for us because we basically have too many kitchen gadgets to begin with. The wider, shorter,
drawer type one that replaces your oven was out of the question for us because well, we like our
oven. It would have fit right here which would have made it really easy, but we also don't have
a drain pipe here. On top of that, if I put it in over here, it would have ended up needing more
physical adjustment to the kitchen island than I was comfortable doing. For us, this taller model
made the most sense because our kitchen island was sized the best for it in the first place.
Our dishwasher is the Furrion 18 inch built-in. It can be run on speed, light, normal, or heavy
settings. We can fit quite a lot of dishes in it, and it does a great job of cleaning.
Officially, the manufacturer says it can fit eight place settings.
We find it to be fairly quiet as well. Now, I can't speak for the other models, but we've been
really happy with this one. I would even go as far as to say that this particular dishwasher
cleans better than any dishwasher we've ever had in a regular house. The regular setting uses only
three and a half gallons of water, and we've even been known to use it while boondocking because
the speed setting uses two and a half gallons of water. As far as power consumption goes,
when it's running it usually only uses about 50 to 100 watts and then right in the middle of the wash
cycle when the heating element kicks on, it'll pull 700 watts for a little while. Thankfully,
that isn't a problem for us when we're off grid because of our solar and inverter setup.
When we bought our fifth wheel there was a set of three drawers right here exactly like these
ones right across from it. That meant giving up three drawers, but we felt the trade-off was
worth it and we just found other locations to put the things that we had previously stored there.
The drawers all slid out, and then these cross beams came out with two pocket screws on the
back of them on each side. And then, this bottom piece down here actually had to be cut
out. After the drawers and the cross beams were out, it was so close. I still needed another
quarter of an inch or so. So I ended up having to make another cut vertically, and I moved this
cabinet door over slightly. And, I'll admit it wasn't the greatest woodwork. Does everybody have
their eye protection on? Uh huh. Good. Let me show you what we're going to fix today. Watch this.
Now watch again. Are you ready?
Uh oh. What do we do? We have to fix it! It's all messed up. So now we're gonna go back and redo
what Papa didn't do right in the first place. Thankfully that is the only problem we've had
since installation. Now that the dishwasher finally physically fit in its new home, next
up were the electric and water connections. The electric part was pretty simple. Let me show you.
The dishwasher came with a standard three-prong electrical cord, and we already had a single
outlet wired in down here for the power post up above, which now just stays up all the
time now that the dishwasher is underneath it. But that hasn't been a big deal to us.
I had to unscrew this and move it over just a little bit to make room for the dishwasher.
Next, I plugged both the cord for the dishwasher and the power port up above into this splitter
so I could get them both plugged into the single outlet.
Next up are the water connections. For the hot water inlet, the dishwasher came with this braided
stainless steel half inch NPT hose. The hot water line for the sink was already a male half inch
NPT connection, so I went to the hardware store and bought this all female half inch NPT tee.
Then, with a couple of male to male connectors on either side, I was all set. Because the brass
was so heavy, I zip tied it up so it wasn't pulling on this plastic inlet pipe too much.
Lastly, for the drain line I needed a few extra parts beyond the standard dishwasher drain hose.
Of course, the original pipes didn't contain a dishwasher drain tee. The original pipes under
here were all black. So you can see I replaced this entire section. Amazon sells a one and a
half inch drain pipe plumbing pack that includes a waste tee for a dishwasher. This entire thing is
just one part for less than $15, and it's a super easy replacement. You just unscrew these collars,
pop out the old piece, and just slide the new one in.
Next up, was this black rubber dishwasher connector kit.
I just had to cut off the largest section on the end that was too big for the drain hose, slide
the drain hose in, and clamp everything down. All of the parts I mentioned here are included in our
related blog post linked in the description below. And that's it. We haven't had any problems with it
in the last three years, and it's easily been one of the best modifications we've done to our RV.
If you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and feel free to leave any questions in the
comments below. Thanks for watching. Thanks for joining us today for a more in-depth look at one
facet of our RV life. Next week we'll be back with another travel video. Make sure to subscribe and
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