Midea Mini Dishwasher Review: Tiny Kitchen, Surprisingly Big Ambitions

Dishwashers are brilliant right up until you live somewhere that apparently wasn’t designed with dishwashers, storage, bench space or basic human happiness in mind.

Small apartments, studio kitchens, rental properties and caravans present an obvious problem. A full-sized dishwasher can be complete overkill, assuming there is somewhere to install one in the first place. The alternative is standing at the sink every night washing two plates, three glasses and the frying pan you promised yourself you would rinse immediately but absolutely did not.

That is where the Midea Mini Dishwasher starts making quite a lot of sense.

Rather than trying to squeeze a conventional dishwasher into a smaller box, Midea has built something specifically around limited spaces. The Mini sits on a benchtop, can operate from its own water tank without requiring a permanent tap connection, and still offers proper wash programs, drying and dedicated cutlery storage.

There is obviously a catch. It is tiny.

You’re not going to finish a Sunday roast for six people and casually throw everything inside. Its limited capacity fundamentally determines whether this dishwasher is clever or completely pointless for you.

For the right household, though, the Midea Mini could solve a surprisingly annoying problem without requiring a plumber, kitchen renovation or nightly argument over whose turn it is to wash the dishes.

Design / First Impressions

The Midea Mini looks slightly like someone put a normal dishwasher through the wash on the wrong setting.

It is properly compact.

The current Australian Midea MDWMINIW measures 438mm high, 420mm wide and 435mm deep, so while it still occupies a reasonable amount of countertop real estate, it is considerably easier to accommodate than even a slimline freestanding dishwasher.

That size is really the entire point.

Put it in a reasonably sized kitchen and it might look slightly strange sitting on the bench. Put it inside a studio apartment, granny flat, caravan or small rental kitchen and suddenly it starts looking considerably more sensible.

The white exterior is fairly straightforward rather than aggressively stylish, although I actually think that works in its favour. This is an appliance that may end up sitting permanently next to your coffee machine and microwave. Making it look like a glowing RGB gaming dishwasher probably wouldn’t have helped.

Up front, the controls and display keep things reasonably modern. The LED interface lets you see settings and remaining time rather than relying on a cryptic collection of blinking lights that require opening the manual every time something happens.

There is also something inherently entertaining about being able to see into some versions of these compact countertop dishwashers while they are running. Nobody needs to watch dishes being cleaned, obviously, but humanity has also spent millions of hours watching washing machines spin, so I’m not going to judge.

Inside, the restricted dimensions become much more obvious.

There is enough room for everyday plates, cups, glasses and smaller cookware, along with dedicated cutlery storage, but large serving bowls and oversized cookware can quickly become problematic. A 30cm frying pan doesn’t suddenly become 20cm wide because you bought a smaller dishwasher.

That compromise is unavoidable.

Key Features / Specs

The Midea Mini manages to squeeze considerably more functionality into its little body than its dimensions suggest.

The exact specification varies by market and model. The research material supplied for this review describes a model using roughly 4.9 litres of water per wash, up to 860 watts of power and multiple wash modes. The currently listed Australian MDWMINIW is rated at 5 litres per cycle, 58dB and offers seven programs with a three-place-setting capacity.

Some of the important features include:

• Built-in water tank
• Optional direct water connection
• Multiple wash programs
• Quick-wash options
• Glass/delicate washing
• High-temperature cleaning
• Delay-start functionality
• Dedicated cutlery storage
• Drying functionality
• LED controls and remaining-time display
• Compact benchtop design

The feature that matters most isn’t actually one of the wash programs. It is the water tank.

A dishwasher that needs permanent plumbing isn’t particularly useful if the entire reason you’re buying a countertop dishwasher is because you cannot install a normal one. The Midea can instead be filled manually, meaning you can essentially place it near a suitable drainage point, add water and start washing.

The Australian MDWMINIW uses an internal 5-litre tank and specifically does not require a tap connection to operate.

That dramatically expands where something like this can be used.

Renting and aren’t allowed to modify the kitchen? Fine.

Living in a caravan? Much more interesting.

Kitchen plumbing positioned by someone who apparently hated future generations? Also potentially fine.

The alternative option is connecting the machine directly to a suitable water supply, which makes more sense if it is going to live permanently in one location.

Then there are the washing programs.

Having multiple programs on something this small might initially seem excessive, but the flexibility is useful because its owners are probably going to use it differently from a conventional dishwasher. A small load of breakfast dishes doesn’t necessarily need the same treatment as heavily soiled dinner plates.

High-temperature washing is another useful addition, particularly for items where hygiene matters more. Glass-specific or delicate settings also make sense when you don’t want your favourite wine glasses experiencing the dishwasher equivalent of a cage fight.

There’s even delay-start functionality, allowing a cycle to be scheduled rather than run immediately. It’s not exactly life-changing technology, but it is something I would absolutely use rather than having the dishwasher humming away beside me while I’m trying to watch television.

Performance

There is an important distinction to make here: compact does not mean magical.

The Midea Mini is designed to clean a relatively small number of appropriately sized items, and that limitation becomes obvious pretty quickly once you start loading it. Four large cups, for example, had it looking surprisingly full already. It is usable, but you definitely need to be realistic about how much this thing can swallow in one cycle.

The current Australian model is rated at around 5 litres of water per cycle, which is impressively low for an automated wash. For a one or two-person household, that makes a lot of sense, especially if you are running smaller loads rather than waiting for a mountain of dishes to form beside the sink.

To see how well it actually cleaned, I gave it a deliberately nasty coffee cup. After finishing the coffee, I left the cup sitting out for two days so the residue had plenty of time to dry onto the inside. This was not a lightly stained mug that had been rinsed five minutes earlier. I wanted something that would give the dishwasher a proper challenge.

I loaded it into the Midea Mini and used the included dishwasher tablet for the test.

The result was better than I expected.

The cup came out completely clean, with the dried coffee residue removed and no visible water marks left behind. It looked spotless. For such a small machine, that was a convincing demonstration that it can do more than just rinse lightly used plates and glasses.

Capacity remains the obvious limitation. With only a few place settings available, this is not something I would recommend to a family producing an endless supply of breakfast bowls, lunch plates and dinner cookware. You would spend half the day loading and unloading it.

For one or two people, though, the equation looks much better. You could run a smaller load after breakfast and lunch, then another after dinner if needed. The limited capacity almost encourages you to stay on top of the dishes rather than allowing three days of increasingly questionable crockery to accumulate beside the sink.

Noise output is rated at 58dB on the current Australian version. That’s noticeable, particularly because the dishwasher will probably be sitting on the benchtop rather than hidden underneath cabinetry, but it isn’t obnoxiously loud either. You know it is running, but it isn’t going to drown out everything else in the room.

Drying performance was another area I was interested in because compact dishwashers can easily leave everything wet and make you wonder why you bothered.

The Midea’s drying system did a good job in my coffee cup test. The cup came out clean and free from obvious water marks, which is exactly what I wanted to see. On versions with the automatic door-opening feature, letting hot moisture escape at the end of the cycle should also help prevent dishes from sitting inside a humid little box after the wash finishes.

The biggest takeaway from my testing is that the Midea Mini’s small size doesn’t mean weak cleaning performance. The real compromise is how much you can fit inside it, not whether it can deal with properly dirty dishes. My two-day-old coffee cup went in looking fairly grim and came back spotless, which is about as straightforward a result as I could have asked for.

What It’s Like to Use

The best thing about the Midea Mini is probably what you don’t need to do before using it.

There is no requirement to redesign the kitchen around it.

With the internal tank, you fill the dishwasher with water, load your dishes, select a program and let it get on with things. That’s much more renter-friendly than making modifications beneath the sink and then discovering six months later that your landlord has decided to sell the property.

The trade-off is that manually filling a dishwasher isn’t quite the totally hands-off experience people associate with dishwashers.

You still need to add water.

That sounds obvious, but it’s worth considering how you intend to use it. If the dishwasher is going to run several times every day, connecting it to a suitable water supply becomes more attractive. If you’re using it occasionally in a caravan, rental or temporary kitchen, manually filling the tank is a much smaller inconvenience.

Loading it also requires slightly more thought than throwing dishes randomly into a conventional dishwasher and hoping physics will sort things out.

Space is precious.

Smaller plates, cups, glasses and cutlery make sense. Large bowls and cookware can dominate the chamber very quickly. You may find yourself becoming strangely strategic about plate orientation, which is probably not the exciting future our ancestors imagined when developing electricity.

The dedicated cutlery area helps.

Forks, spoons and knives aren’t consuming valuable lower-rack space, and keeping them separated should allow water to reach other items more effectively.

I also like the idea of having genuinely different programs rather than just “wash” and “wash but longer”.

A quick cycle can deal with lightly used items, while high-temperature modes are more appropriate when sanitation matters. Glass settings make sense for delicate drinkware, and delay-start lets you postpone the cycle until a more convenient time.

Over time, though, I suspect owners would settle on two or three favourite programs and ignore the rest. That happens with almost every appliance containing a heroic number of modes. My washing machine has enough settings to prepare clothes for the International Space Station and I’m fairly sure I’ve used three of them.

The machine’s small size also means you need to be disciplined.

If you’re used to leaving everything until the end of the day, capacity may become annoying. If you run it regularly and treat it as a small-load appliance, the whole experience makes considerably more sense.

What I Liked

The internal water tank is easily my favourite part of the Midea Mini.

Without it, this would just be another small dishwasher looking for somewhere to connect. With it, the machine becomes legitimately portable and useful in places where installing a conventional dishwasher isn’t realistic.

That distinction matters.

I can see genuine appeal for renters who have spent years assuming a dishwasher simply isn’t possible. The same applies to caravans, holiday accommodation, granny flats and extremely compact kitchens.

I also like that Midea hasn’t stripped out all the normal dishwasher features simply because the machine is small.

There are multiple programs, delayed starting, drying, proper controls and dedicated cutlery storage. It feels like a miniature dishwasher rather than an elaborate plastic tub with a spray nozzle inside it.

Water consumption is another strong point. The Australian MDWMINIW uses 5 litres per cycle, which fits nicely with the entire small-household philosophy behind it.

And then there is the convenience.

Handwashing a couple of plates isn’t particularly difficult. Handwashing a couple of plates three times a day, every day, for years becomes one of those tiny chores that gradually starts irritating you far more than it reasonably should.

This removes that job.

I’m generally in favour of appliances that give me back time, even when the time saved is spent doing something profoundly unproductive.

What Could Be Better

Capacity.

There is no clever marketing terminology capable of getting around it.

This is a very small dishwasher.

The Australian model accommodates three place settings, and physically large dishes remain the biggest limitation. Deep bowls, large dinner plates, chopping boards, frying pans and bigger cookware may either fit awkwardly or not fit at all.

For some buyers, that instantly rules it out.

If you’re buying a dishwasher because you hate cleaning enormous pans after cooking elaborate dinners, the Midea Mini may simply relocate your problem. It deals far better with the everyday plates, cups and cutlery side of washing up.

Counter space is another consideration.

Calling something a “benchtop” appliance doesn’t magically generate additional benchtop.

At 420mm wide and 435mm deep, the MDWMINIW is compact compared with a traditional dishwasher but still substantial compared with a toaster or kettle. In an extremely small kitchen, you need to decide whether surrendering that much food-preparation space is actually worthwhile.

Then there’s the noise.

At a quoted 58dB, this isn’t a silent appliance. That’s more relevant than it would be with a conventional dishwasher because the Midea may be operating at almost chest height a metre or two away from you.

Manually adding water can also become repetitive if you’re running several cycles every day.

Again, the flexibility is excellent. I would rather have the tank than not have it. But anyone expecting completely effortless operation should probably investigate whether connecting the machine to a suitable water source is possible.

Finally, the price needs serious consideration because countertop dishwashers occupy a strange part of the appliance market.

You’re buying considerably less physical dishwasher, but the engineering required to package everything into a portable self-contained unit isn’t necessarily cheap.

Price and Competition

This is where the Midea Mini becomes slightly harder to judge.

At the time of checking in August 2026, Appliances Online lists the Midea MDWMINIW at $711 in Australia, against a listed RRP of $799.

That’s a decent amount of money for something capable of washing only three place settings.

More awkwardly, conventional full-sized Midea dishwashers can sometimes be advertised for substantially less depending on promotions. One Australian retailer currently lists several 60cm Midea freestanding models at around $411 to $445.

At first glance, that makes the Mini look absurd.

Why pay more money for less dishwasher?

Because they’re solving completely different problems.

If you own your home, have a standard 60cm dishwasher cavity and suitable plumbing, I wouldn’t choose the Mini purely to save space. A conventional dishwasher gives you enormously greater capacity and makes more financial sense.

But that’s not the customer Midea should be chasing.

The Mini becomes valuable when installing a normal dishwasher isn’t possible.

For a renter who isn’t allowed to modify cabinetry, someone living in a caravan, or somebody with a kitchen where there simply isn’t a dishwasher cavity, comparing the Midea Mini with a normal freestanding dishwasher is almost irrelevant. You might as well point out that a bus carries more people than a hatchback.

There are other portable countertop dishwashers available, including cheaper models from lesser-known brands, and this is where I’d recommend shopping around carefully. Midea’s advantage is being an established appliance manufacturer with a local Australian presence, rather than an anonymous marketplace brand whose customer-support department may consist of an email address and optimism. Midea officially operates in the Australian market and provides local customer support.

The Australian MDWMINIW listing also currently specifies a three-year manufacturer warranty.

That gives the higher asking price at least some justification, although I’d still be much happier seeing it comfortably below the $700 mark.

Who Is It For?

The Midea Mini Dishwasher is designed for a fairly specific buyer, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.

I would look seriously at it if I were:

• Living alone or with one other person
• Renting a property without a dishwasher
• Living in a studio or small apartment
• Setting up a granny flat
• Travelling or living in a caravan or RV
• Unable to make permanent plumbing modifications
• Regularly washing small amounts of dishes
• Looking to reduce handwashing rather than replace a large family dishwasher

For those buyers, the ability to run from an internal water tank is genuinely useful.

I wouldn’t recommend it to a large family unless it was being purchased as a secondary dishwasher for some very specific reason. You would spend half your life rearranging plates and starting new cycles.

Keen home cooks should also think carefully.

If your nightly dinner generates two plates, two glasses, some cutlery and a couple of smaller items, brilliant.

If preparing dinner looks like the aftermath of a cooking competition, complete with giant saucepans, mixing bowls, baking trays and every utensil you own, the Midea Mini is going to stare at the pile with roughly the same enthusiasm you do.

Verdict

The Midea Mini Dishwasher makes far more sense when you stop judging it as a smaller version of a conventional dishwasher.

Its real selling point is access.

It brings automated dishwashing into kitchens and living spaces where installing a normal machine may simply not be practical. The internal water tank is the star here, removing the need for a permanent tap connection and making the Mini particularly interesting for renters, apartments, caravans and other compact spaces.

I also like that Midea hasn’t treated “mini” as an excuse to make it primitive. You still get multiple wash programs, drying functions, delayed starting, dedicated cutlery storage and proper electronic controls.

But physics remains undefeated.

Capacity is limited, larger cookware can be awkward or impossible to accommodate, and the machine still occupies a noticeable chunk of valuable bench space. At more than $700 from a major Australian retailer at the time of writing, it’s also difficult to call cheap.

That means I wouldn’t buy one simply because it looks cute and I dislike washing dishes.

I’d buy it because I wanted a dishwasher and couldn’t realistically install a normal one.

That’s where the Midea Mini stops looking like an expensive tiny appliance and starts looking genuinely clever.

It won’t clean everything in your kitchen. But if your alternative is cleaning everything yourself, suddenly five litres of water and a small white box on the bench don’t seem like such a bad deal.