Every Taiwanese house I’ve ever seen has a fancy dish drying rack. But they all look as if they haven’t been used in a very long time.
So, why have these things if they’re never used? Why not just buy a regular (cheap) rack that will just hold the dishes?
My apartment has one of those fancy things (that doesn’t work, by the way). And it’s a pain to clean… it’s worse than a cheap plastic rack.
Is there something I’m misunderstanding?
They put them there to irritate you.
The design ethos here is ‘elaborate’.
Practicality is of the least concern.
So…like you here. At least the OP provided content. 
That and useless show pieces are a signal of disposable income.
Quite likely, and signalling appears very important here.
I wonder though if this has inadvertently spilled into other aspects of life, like cognition and speech?
I see it in cars. Never seen people buy so much car to get to the mall.
Photographers all dressed and equipped to the hilt. If you go to see any fireworks, there will be a lot of photographers with massive tripods, zooms,… all taking the shots. The birding photographers are the same but dressed like commandoes, for taking the pix in the park, not on safari!
Saturday and Sunday you often get the cyclists who look like that they are doing the Giro. Never seen so many “pro” cyclists who smoke!!!
All about how you look! Appearance is 99% of the game here.
I use them to dry the dishes. Isn’t that what they’re there for?
To keep them clean, spray and wipe with white vinegar a few times a week. If you get build up near the intake, they’re are usually only two screws to remove, but it does take something small like a cotton swab to really clean those seals and crevices. That’s a couple times a year job though, so it’s not a big deal. The more you use it, the easier it is to maintain
People put them in but do not use them since they require power to work and that means money. Hence no use, just show.
I do prefer the ones that have UV to disinfect.
Sounds like most of the apartment pools.
Yep. Get them for show so people will buy the place, then decide it is too expensive to use.
The people who buy the apartments chose how the pool is maintained, so it has nothing to do with the building company, at least after the first year or so. I have two apartments with pools in Taipei. One is covered but outdoors, and it’s only maintained May-October. The other is indoor and is maintained year round. I don’t use them much because they aren’t Olympic sized.
I understand the reason for dish dyers as it’s so humid in Taiwan, drying with tea towel takes age to get fully dry.
However they are a pain to clean and never get used.
And really, it’s fine. I don’t mind it at all. Good for them. I appreciate the effort.
Or just not worth the bother. I had one in a previous apartment; tried using it a few times, and found I still needed to either towel off the last bit of moisture, or let the dish sit in the rack for a couple more hours to properly dry off. The dishes are usually going to be there for a few hours or overnight anyway, so why bother turning the device on?
I will say the proper fancy drying rack, as part of the installed shelving above the sink, looked significantly better than a plastic drying rack placed on the counter would have.
The light underneath it that helps illuminate the sink serves a better function than the machine’s dish-drying function.
If you could pop a bag of microwave popcorn in there, while simultaneously drying dishes, that would be a big selling point for me.
I liked mine (over the sink) when I had one cuz I could hide all the dishes when people came over. I might have turned it on three times in two years, but the light over the sink was great. I could see what I was doing in the kitchen, which was otherwise impossible with the stupid single ceiling light. I think a well-thought out cabinet door covering a simple rack that drips into the sink would have done fine, but I’ve yet to see a kitchen that was thought-out in this country.
Those drip racks get dirty faster and are harder to clean than the dish dryers IMO. The problem you guys seem to have is not using them enough.
I’d think if you had a cabinet over those drip racks, it would hold humidity and they would get nasty even faster.
The solution to the Taiwan kitchen is to buy or build an island and put the oven and microwave into some cabinetry in the refrigerator spot. Then move the fridge to the edge of the adjacent room.
lol
I haven’t seen that. Ha!