The previous owners of my new place were clearly old-school, because their kitchen re-fit included a single space for an appliance with water/waste and electrical connections. Naturally, this was occupied by the washing machine.

However, the good news is that my downstairs loo had this big space in the corner where a washing machine would fit. So once I’d had a plumber and an electrician sort out the necessary, the washing machine moved there and I had my dishwasher hole…

The selling estate agent left me a discount card for ao.com, and despite it being seven months later (“use within two months”), it still worked. I did have a look round John Lewis, but their online stock was pretty thin, and I’m not quite successful enough to be spending four figures on my white goods.

So I had a rummage around ao.com. Given the scary things happening to the price of electricity at the moment, my main criteria was buying something with a good energy rating. Plus, my house has one big socket circuit for the whole place, so it can’t hurt to minimise the draw of kitchen appliances.

The EU (which, for the moment, the UK still follows, but feels the need to print its own separate near-identical stickers) recently re-calibrated its letter grading system for appliances. So there’s no more A+/A++/A++, just A-G, and my understanding is that virtually nothing qualifies for an A on the new scale as things stand.

Hisense’s snappily named HS661C60WUK_WH is a normal sized white dishwasher which gets a C. That’s pretty good for around the £400 mark and it had lots of good reviews.

The delivery was straightforward. Dishwashers weigh nothing compared to washing machines, and ao.com’s man hefted it in as though it were made of cardboard.

Naturally, my ego dictated that paying £25 extra for installation was out of the question. Hooking it up myself involved a bit of awkward fishing of pipes behind kitchen units with clothes line, and a trip to B&Q for a plumbing part.

The main reason I kinda wish I’d coughed up was that if they’d installed it, they would have had to unpack it. The sheer quantity of polystyrene, wood and plastic I had to slice off it rather wrong-footed me.

However, it’s now been in for a solid fortnight, and I’m very happy with it. The way it pops the door open at the end of a cycle to let the steam out is a nice touch, and the horizontal cutlery tray is clever.

Meanwhile, I’m back to doing a decent amount of cooking now I don’t have to wash up afterwards.