The linked article says nothing but good things about dishwashers with built-in grinders. So I’m skeptical… it doesn’t give a balanced view.
Isn’t there a risk that small non-food objects end up getting smashed up? What happens when a small cocktail fork ends up in the drain? Wouldn’t that cause a disaster for the grinder?
Traditional dishwashers have the periodic user maintenance task of cleaning out the filter. I just wonder if the cure is worse than the disease by bringing in a grinder. It’s another thing to break.
I didn’t read the article so act accordingly, but here’s my personal experience.
If I remember correctly, fine filters are a relatively new feature in dishwashers. In the 1970s a standard dishwasher (at least in the US) had a “macerator,” which was a water pump with a grinding function that tore food into tiny particles that could be flushed down the drain. This probably required a much more powerful pump motor than you get in a modern machine and a specially designed, heavier impeller than you’ll find in most consumer dishwashers today. Large items were blocked from entering the impeller by a coarse screen that was large enough to admit softer food bits but small enough to block things like flatware. As I recall, there was rarely a need to clean anything. The macerator cleaned itself.
The new designs are probably cheaper to manufacture (better for the manufacturer’s bottom line) and use less energy (better for you), but do add the requirement to clean the fine filter. I don’t recall ever having an old dishwasher break, but it was the 70s and a lot of that stuff was much more solidly built than today’s plastic planned-obsolescence appliances.
Hopefully this helps.