We got this Haier countertop dishwasher a couple weeks ago for less than $200, and so far, it's working pretty good for us.  Some of you know that we live in a house that is nearly 100 years old.  While it is cute and character-rific, apparently kitchens haven't always been as popular as they are today.  There isn't enough room under the counters for a dishwasher, and even if there were, we're renting for now, so installing one wasn't an option.  With all the cooking we do (from scratch) and all the mouths we're feeding, we needed a solution. 

If you haven't seen one of these yet, it has an in-out hose that hooks up to faucets via a spring-loaded quick release mechanism similar to air hoses, and it has all the parts a regular dishwasher has, just a smaller cabinet.  You can see from the picture, though, that it still manages to hold plenty of plateware, and it consumes just under 2.5 gallons of water per wash (on the short cycle), which is less than I use to fill up the sink when handwashing them, never mind the pre wash and the rinse. 

Since we put it where we air-dried dishes before, we aren't really sacrificing any counterspace-it always had dishes drying on it anyway.  We put wet dishes on top of the machine to dry when we have to wash consecutive loads, and we stop up the sink to let the dishwasher overrun soak the next load of dishes, which makes rinsing them faster and more efficient.

So far, we haven't had to use more than the gentle cycle, even on the pots that we have washed, although it is programmed with two more extensive cycles.  They both take over an hour and slightly more water, and the gentle cycle just 40 minutes or so.  LOVE IT!!!