Michael Recently our old washing machine gave up the ghost. In America, the landlord is responsible for providing replacement kitchen appliances if they break down, but since ours would have undoubtedly been replaced with another noisy, low quality appliance that makes you think the door's open and it's impossible to entertain guests or even watch TV while it's running, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a quiet Bosch dishwasher. Its customer reviews on Amazon weren't exactly mind-blowing, but German products have gone downhill in quality and nowadays have pretty bad reputation in America (just like German cars that often sit in repair shops), so what can you do? We were just hoping for the best.

The new dishwasher was delivered by two strong men who hardly spoke English, and upon my request, it was not installed by professional personnel because I wanted to do it myself to save the $150 which it would have cost extra otherwise. Who would have thought I'd learn some things for life in the process! Fortunately, there are plenty of hobby craftsmen on YouTube who show how to connect the power cable and the water supply pipes, so that part was pretty straightforward.

In America, dishwashers are usually only connected to the power grid using screw clamps like in Figure 3. In many residences, there is only a cable coming out of the wall under the sink, and after the plumber has pushed the dishwasher into its niche, he unscrews the metal cover at the bottom of the machine, frees up the electrical connector that is marked with numerous warnings, insulates the ends of the cable from the wall, twists the wires with those of the machine, and screws on caps. Those who forget to disconnect the power source may experience an unpleasant surprise when someone later removes the dishwasher from its niche and forgets to unclamp the cable beforehand. The Bosch dishwasher, however, had a very elegant outlet cover that is screwed under the kitchen sink, which requires a separate power cord and plug that you have to buy yourself, and can then be plugged into any nearby socket. Fortunately, I learned electrical engineering back in the day!

It suddenly occurred to me that the new Bosch vacuum cleaner was about 3 centimeters smaller than the previous American model, so I fitted a wooden strip which I had bought for a dollar at a hardware store and then blackened with paint into the gap. Later on, I learned that every dishwasher model can indeed be raised using locking wheels to such an extent that it can also cope with high kitchen cabinets. Next time, I'll know!

And the drain hose must first be led up from the machine, above the height of the siphon, according to the strict "Code" of the American Plumbing Association, and then, like in a fountain, tumble down through an air gap. This prevents backflow into the dishwasher's fresh water supply in case of blockages in the sink or siphon clogs. Whether it's actually that important to install an air gap, where the water from the drain hose first sprays upwards and then falls into a catch area that leads it further into the siphon or the garbage disposer, I don't know. It's probably one of those old regulations that Joe Schmoe follows blindly and religiously, as is often the case in American bureaucracy.

If the dishwasher does not shred the coarse food residues but simply sprays them off the plate and pumps them away, these air gaps often get clogged, and the hooby plumber scratches their head wondering why the dishwasher is not pumping the water out. The fact that you can simply pull off the chrome cover of the air gap and expose the drain hose by unscrewing the plastic cap hidden beneath it, to then easily remove any trapped food particles, is something that took me years to find out.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Inside San Francisco's Sewage System
  	My New York Times Subscription
  	Smoke over the City
  	Top Produkt: Febreze Air Freshener
  	Yearly Healthcare Open Enrollment