Need New Dishwasher Info

[JD435Bill]

Our old Sears Kenmore Dishwasher finally quit. It lasted 23 years. Other than one warranteed small problem, it ran trouble free for 22 years.

I like Whirlpool products and am looking at a new Whirlpool at Lowes. It got good reviews, but one of the negatives is a Long Cycle time. It seems like it takes a little over 2 hours to cycle through.

My question is, what is the normal cycle times for Dishwahers these days. Is 2-plus hours a lot compared to others?

It has a 1-hour reduced cycle selection, but one of the reviews stated that it didn't clean good enough this way.

Any info would be appreciated.

Bill

 

[newbury]

Just one point in general -
If you are installing it yourself the "big basket" ones go REAL close to the floor. I had great difficulty getting mine wired and plumbed, compared to the standard size I'd taken out.

 

[Artisan]

DW's used to be nice machines. Now they are JUNK.
You really need to spend big money to get something worthwhile
nowadays but do NOT buy European!

Just last week I installed a very expensive BOSCH. OMG...
The tabs that you screw it to the countertop? JUNK! Maybe
as thick as 4 pieces of paper they were! The bottom is
PLASTIC so if you set it on tile or hardwood IT SLIPS AND
SLIDS AROUND, now couple that w/ the flimsy tie down tabs
and you have JUNK! You can spen a lot of time making it plumb
and square to the world and first time it gets closed hard
the unit MOVES...OH MAN...it is VERY sad.

BUY AMERICAN, spend as much money as you can if you want
a decent machine. Get a unit w/ a full SS TUB, NOT ALL PLASTIC!
Oh man...I so loathe new DW's! THEY even charge EXTRA nowadays
if you want all the parts necessary to do the install! Nowadays the
water connection is a Female HOSE CONNECTOR x 3/8" MIP Comp.
90* fitting! MAKE SURE YOU GET IT or you will be running to the
store again for parts! They charge extra for the "Install Kit" LAUGHABLE...

GOOD LUCK!

 

[crankshaft21]

Look at the GE brand. One with the pot scrubber cycle. You will be pleased with the results

 

[MikeInEburg]

We recently replaced our working dishwasher with a Samsung because it matched the fridge. I miss two things from the old one: water heat and delayed start.
I agree with earlier poster concerning how close they can be to the floor. Plays a role in both the installation and the loading/unloading.

 

[JD435Bill]

Appreciate the replies.

I'll check on the clearance issues as I will be installing it myself. I heard about that different connection too, I'll have to check on that. I'll check on the Full SS Tub as well.

The one I'm looking at has a Delayed Start, but I don't believe it has Water Heating. My old one had that too and we really liked that feature.

All good questions to ask when I go back to Lowes.

How about the Cycle times. Is 2-hours a lot?


Bill

 

[2LaneCruzer]

We have a new Maytag. We had it 2 weeks and there was a recall...the heating unit was subject to catching the house on fire. Otherwise, I hate the **** thing. It is quiet, but the digital crap is just that...crap.

 

[Bird]

We've had Gaffers & Sattler (2 of them; one 1972-77 and had to replace the motor and pump seals; the other 1977-89 with no repairs), Kenmore (1995-97 still OK when we sold the place), GE (1997-99 replaced when pump and motor would have cost almost as much as a new one), Maytag (1999-2002, still OK when we sold the place), and now have a KitchenAid. The KitchenAid was made in 1999, we bought this place with it already here in 2005. There's really just no comparison. The KitchenAid does a better job and is far, far quieter than any of the others. But would a new one be as good? I don't know.

Cycle times are 10-14 minutes for rinse only, which my wife never uses. 64-97 minute cycle times depending on how heavy, which setting you use, etc. So the simplified answer is an hour to an hour and a half, and my wife probably never uses a setting that runs much more than an hour. So 2 hours sounds like a lot, but maybe not unreasonable.

 

[MikeInEburg]

How about the Cycle times. Is 2-hours a lot?

Bill

We now use the "heavy" cycle regularly - which takes at least two hours. Although the thing is so quiet, we don't hear it at all, so it's not a bother.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Everyone has their preferences and I suspect most are based on prior experience. Before moving 2 yrs ago I had installed a Bosch washer. No problems with the install or its operation, this was in an older home. When the current DW goes, Bosch will get serious consideration again. Not the cheapest, our was a mid-line model and on sale cost us about $700. The Bosch's have a plastic tub under them. Any leak develops, the pan catches the water and with the water sensor, shuts the machine down until fixed. The Bosch's don't have a heated dry cycle the steam/moisture condenses on the SST tub. Energy savings. Oh, the machine was all but impossible to hear, very quiet.

Prior to the Bosch we had Whirlpool's. Last one rusted out the tub in 2 places, way up high and all but impossible to see. Before I figured out what was wrong, we lost a good sized section of the kitchen laminated floor. For us, no more porcelain steel tubs, SST or plastic and I'm not keen on the plastic.

 

[mjonesnh]

We have a Bosch bought in 2005, has been trouble free. We use the Auto Wash cycle which usually has a cycle time of around 90 minutes. I could see the pot scrubber cycle extending to 2 hours. Dishwasher has stainless steel tub that seems to dry the finished dishes quickly with steam.

 

[reb]

I installed a new ss Maytag a few months ago. As someone else said, it is close to the floor, but I didn't find that too bad. It has a couple of hours long cycle, but it is so quiet that no one notices it.

Don't know if it it a dishwasher, soap, or whatever problem, but sometimes some of the dishes come out with a film on them. That did not happen with our previous Maytag. SWMBO is still experimenting to find a cure.

BTW, I think the recall mentioned above was a couple of years ago. I could not find any later reference.

 

[CurlyDave]

...How about the Cycle times. Is 2-hours a lot? ...

Bill

I don't mind a long cycle time. The new ones are very quiet so the noise of the machine running is not obtrusive. In most practical situations running once per meal is the most often I can imagine, and in our house once per day is the norm.

Almost all my life, we turned it on after dinner and did not need anything out of it until the morning.

If you have 73 relatives over for Thanksgiving, you are going to have to hand wash the dishes, but you should have lots of hands to do it...

 

[MossRoad]

With the new energy efficeincy rules, I've yet to see a newer dishwasher do as good a job on pots and pans as the old dishwashwers. The new ones require soft water, too. Higher effieincy electrical usage only means it uses less electricity, not uses the electricity more efficiently. That means less powerful pumps, motors, etc... I was very disappoiinted when our old diswhasher bit the big one. It worked so well compared to our new one.

I will say, though, that our new one has a sanitize cycle that the old one did not. So, our stuck on gunk is safe to eat after the cycle! :laughing:

 

[Alan L.]

Look at the GE brand. One with the pot scrubber cycle. You will be pleased with the results

Five years ago we put in all GE Profile appliances in our new house. Pleased overall but the dishwasher was a little pricey - about $900 for white with stainless interior. It always did a very good job cleaning the dishes and was very quiet. I say was, because the door spring came off and GE sent a service man here about 2 years ago and he found that the dishwasher had been leaking quite a long time, explaining the buckled hardwood floor in front of the dishwasher. GE not only replaced the dishwasher but they gave me a check to fix the floor. The replacement dishwasher works great too. Only problem is sometimes you pull out the top rack and it hangs on the door gasket and pulls it loose and you have to put it back on.

Not sure how long the cycle is because we start it when we go to bed every night.

 

[Alan L.]

We've had Gaffers & Sattler (2 of them; one 1972-77 and had to replace the motor and pump seals; the other 1977-89 with no repairs), Kenmore (1995-97 still OK when we sold the place), GE (1997-99 replaced when pump and motor would have cost almost as much as a new one), Maytag (1999-2002, still OK when we sold the place), and now have a KitchenAid. The KitchenAid was made in 1999, we bought this place with it already here in 2005. There's really just no comparison. The KitchenAid does a better job and is far, far quieter than any of the others. But would a new one be as good? I don't know.

Cycle times are 10-14 minutes for rinse only, which my wife never uses. 64-97 minute cycle times depending on how heavy, which setting you use, etc. So the simplified answer is an hour to an hour and a half, and my wife probably never uses a setting that runs much more than an hour. So 2 hours sounds like a lot, but maybe not unreasonable.

Bird you continue to amaze me with your recollection. I can't tell you the brand of the dishwasher in our previous house....

 

[Scooby074]

My advice is avoid samsung.

I have a whole samsung set in the kitchen and there are issues with the Microwave and Dish washer.

Samsung service is amongst the absolute worst Ive ever seen. Several months to get parts.

What would I buy if doing it again? Miele. Very expensive.. but Dad's had no issues with his. I really wish I had spent the money now.

 

[dmccarty]

I will be danged if I know which appliance brand to buy since it seems like all of them have problems.

When I bought the city house it had the original DW which I replaced after a few years with a Maytag. The Maytag ran once or twice and died. The store fixed it under warranty and it was fine there after.

We then built the country house and installed Maytag appliances in the kitchen. At the time Maytag had features in the fridge, DW, and range that nobody else had so we went with the brand. The DW lasted a few washes, less than a week, before it too broke. Like the one in the city, the DW was fixed under warranty and has run fine ever since..... Sorta.....

Maytag used cheap a....sed plastic wheels on the baskets. The plastic would weaken and break over time. The local Mom and Pop store tried to get us replacement wheels but they could not so I found a way to fix the wheels with parts from Lowes. Unfortunately, my fix would also weaken and break. EVENTUALLY I found a set of brass wheels and parts that I was able to use that did fix the problem though it required some drilling on my part. We really want a quiet DW and both of them were quiet. Except as they got older they were no longer quiet. The DW we now have is only seven years old and when it runs it sounds like a jet flying over the house. The Fridge's compressor went out as well but that too was fixed under warranty but just barely.

The Whirlpool front loader has so many things wrong with it that if we fixed all of the problems it would be far cheaper to buy a new unit. We decided to run the clothes washer to complete failure. I think we are on our second year after the repair man said the unit would not last much longer. I am surprised it has lasted this long.

I have heard of problems with all of the brands. When we buy a new DW we are going to look at Ikea to compare prices and features. Maybe their quality is better than every one else. :confused3:

I think most of the DW cycles we use are about 1.5-2 hours but we generally do the dishes at night so it does not really matter.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

My advice is avoid samsung....

I was looking at fridges a year or so back at Lowes. The GE/Whirlpool? and Samsung models look identical in the fridges with double fridge doors and a bottom freezer. The only difference was a few trim pieces. I have no idea about the compressor but the rest of the fridges were the same. I noticed the last time I was in there they had moved the models apart. For the exact same fridge, Samsung was $200-300 more then the GE or Whirlpool. I think it was a GE fridge but I can remember for sure.

Later,
Dan

 

[k0ua]

I don't know about the cycle times.. but I can vouch for the Bosch being hard to install, I cussed it quite a bit before I got it successfully installed. It is quiet and seems to work well, One other minor annoyance is when it is finished the display stays on and show's "0" on the timer until you go by and press the On/Off button.. I don't know why the stupid display could not just go dark. All in All it works well, but I did not enjoy the install..

James K0UA