Opinions on a new dishwasher. Anyone have one they Love ?

[atc007]

Ours is 14 yo. I am assuming there has been some magical breakthroughs lol ! I'm hoping for great efficiency,throwing dirty dishes in without rinsing them etc.. What I would really love is to hear from a repairman. I do not want bells and whistles. Just a real good cleaner. Thanx !

[kb0nly]

There hasnt been any magical improvements in my opinion. I still call them dish rinsers or dish sanitizers, they are hardly dish "washers" in my opinion. They have made some improvements, better and more jets, built in disposal to grind up any food left, etc. But i still havent seen any that impress me.

[atc007]

I;m with you KB. We hand wash all of ours, Wifie thinks it's time for a new one. I'm gonna have a looksie at what's out there.

[MRSOUND]

We just had to replace ours this spring after 11 yrs. With 5 in the family through 90% of that time (2 are in college now) it got used just about every other day. Felt we got our money out of it so we went with same brand...Whirlpool. Wife only had 2 requirements when we went shopping. 1) Must have dual sprayer arms, the one they all have on the bottom and one under the top rack. 2) she wanted the silverware rack to be on the door instead of in or hanging off the lower basket. She also likes having the reservoir for the rinse agent which helps keeping the dishes from being spotty when done. All in all we were pleased with how long the first one lasted considering we have well water that has heavy iron content. I'm in no way an expert but my 2 cents anyway.:)

[atc007]

Thanx . Do you rinse before putting them in?

[kb0nly]

I have a Whirlpool, while i can't complain about it, i don't tout its abilities either. It does a pretty good job. Like most it can't get anything hard off, say dried ketchup is still one of the biggest challenges. I do find that if i interrupt it by popping the door in the middle of the first cycle after its sprayed everything for a couple minutes i can let everything soak for a good ten minutes and that greatly improves the rest of the wash cycles ability to remove stuck on stuff. Mine has a food grinder as the manual calls it, just a basic built in disposal. There is a screen that stops really big stuff, the grinder only handles small things. One of the kids put in a bowl with some hard cereal in it once, man was that noisy as heck!! But it did manage to chew through it.

I think the biggest factor with them is the soap.. If you have good detergent and a poor machine its better than cheap detergent and a high end model. The detergents have gotten a lot better with age. I also run dishwasher cleaner through mine every other month, really helps clean it up. We have hard water here too, so every few months i will run it empty and when it gets to the wash cycle i will dump in a couple cups of CLR and then let it spray around for a minute or two then pop the door, let it soak for ten or fifteen minutes and then shut the door and let it finish the cycle. That will usually eat most of the hard water buildup out, if its worst i will just repeat the CLR cycle.

The ones with the grinder in them tend to build up a lot of crap and need some attention, the lower wash arm pulls off and then you pull up the screens and clean, i take a cup of bleach and a gallon of hot water and pour it in and let it soak. Most of the dish detergents and dishwasher cleansers have bleach in them but be careful, if your manual says NO bleach then dont use it. Some of them have bleach sensitive materials in their pump, the pump vanes or seals can be a problem. If you can use bleach it definitely helps to degunk everything and prevent odor issues!

I am not a certified or professional machine repair man, but i have repaired and replaced many of them. I manage some rental houses as well as run a handyman service in my spare time. Dishwashers are a pretty frequent repair item for me.

I will say this... My Whirlpool generally runs twice a day to keep up with my family, generally after breakfast and after dinner, but now with school starting back up and only two meals a day for the whole family i can probably get by running it once after supper. Regardless, its run thousands of loads in its lifetime, and it still works! Even though i have to keep hounding the kids to rinse their plates off when they have ketchup or egg yoke on them!

[bkm]

I'd love one for the garage.lol

I agree with KB. I call it my dish dryer. I tend to clean my dishes thoroughly before they go in the washer. Sometimes I wonder what the hell the point is in having a dish washer. Mine is a nothing special Kennmore and don't try and hold a conversation or watch a movie within the same zip-code though, because it sounds like a Huey Helicopter is landing somewhere in the kitchen while its running.

[MRSOUND]

We do rinse ours but mostly just to get solids off. Wife does spend a little more on the detergent (amway's brand) but seems to a great job. Only things that don't seem to come completely clean sometimes are some of the casserole dishes when things get browned (ok burnt:rolleyes:) around the edges.

[kb0nly]

Lol... that's funny to me because I just fixed a Kenmore with a failed pump a week ago. Man they are for sure loud. They also don't have much of any sound deadening around the motor or bottom so that accounts for a lot.

Regarding the garage washer... I think if my whirlpool ever gets retired I am going to turn it into a parts washer. I have read articles showing how to add an injector for sucking in degreasers. I also contempleted the recycling system that uses a non flammable cleaning fluid and a barrel to recirculate it to wash parts. Some say it doesn't work as good as the regular parts washer fluid though.

Anyway sorry for the hijack... but had to comment as I have always wanted a parts washer!!

[Maico]

Bought the wife a new GE Adora series unit 2 years ago. Tall tub,SS inside. Very quiet..lots of settings too. Have noticed that the cheaper Dollar General and such brand soaps/cleaners don't work nearly as well as the Cascade brand.

We always rinse off the heavy stuff too before tossing them in.

No complaints here yet.

[atc007]

Thanx guys ! As I thought,,I'm not alone ! I literally WASH my dishes before putting them in. And stand their thinking,what a waste. Just like you Brian ! KB,no such thing as a hijack in my thread. This is a public forum right?lol.. Sounds like I'll be narrowing down to a cpl brands from this and other reports. I def do not want a disposal. There is no way i could bring myself to putting that kind of solids into a dish WASHER lol?? Ours is a Frigidaire, middle of the road for 1999,it is quiet and has worked well. And now it will be for sale,or go to my cousins second hand shop like most of my other stuff I don't feel like selling !

[hublake]

We recently purchase a Bosch. Wife is very satisfied. We also rinse before. When I was alone I had very few dishes so I did them by hand. With the wife came a dishwasher. lol

[kb0nly]

You should take that old dishwasher and put it out in the shop for parts washing!! LOL

[200x350xtriz250]

I love mine! Her name is Chrystal! Not for sale though. :D

[El Camexican]

I too have an older dish washing unit. She’s almost 50 and although she’s got some pretty loose parts and makes a lot of noise at times I would never trade her in on a newer model!

[roostin atc]

One thing about dishwashers is the noise factor. I can't relax around mine its very loud. If was gonna buy another I would look into the Db level. But what do I know. I run it then go to bed.

[Scootertrash]

We have a Sears Kenmore Ultra Wash from 1997 that washes the dishes just fine. We have an occasional stubborn food remnant, but whatever. Martha Stewart doesn't live here so who gives a rodents derierre? We typically don't rinse or pre-wash our dishes either. If there are too many dishes to fit in the dishwasher like at holidays and such, the wife will do the extras in the sink. If it was me and I was a bachelor, I'd do a second batch in the DW.

As far as the noise, we run ours overnight while we sleep. ;)