My current dishwasher is working even less well than usual, and I want to get a new one. The very first dw I ever had was excellent about not redepositing food. I think it had some sort of mechanism that ground up and flushed out any bits of food that were washed off the dishes. The current one is not good at at that task at all. It has a filter that traps debris, but a lot of the stuff ends up back on the dishes.
I don’t want to spend a grand on one. I couldn’t care less about attractiveness. I just don’t want to have to thoroughly rinse every dish before putting it in the machine, and I certainly don’t want to have to hand-wash items afterwards.
What’s your experience on brands (and models)? I’ve checked a couple of web sites but am never sure how unbiased they are. I’m planning to go to the library and see if I can find a Consumer Reports issue that rates them, but am very interested in any opinions.
Not to totally avoid your question, but have you tried cleaning out that filter you mention? It can usually be done without tools or with just a basic screwdriver in about 10-15 minutes. Won’t cost you anything. And can often totally solve the problem you’re describing. Just a suggestion.
I haven’t bought a new dishwasher in at least 10 years and don’t have any recommendations.
Oh, yes, I frequently clean the filter. I take the most accessible part out and dump any residue. I also often take the several parts completely out of the dishwasher and scrub them thoroughly in the sink. This makes little or no difference.
Clean the filter. Run a light, clean load with the filter out to wash out the system. Clean out the spray ports on the spray arms - ours tend to slowly clog up with mineralization. Use a rinse agent (Jet-Dry/Finish).
Or buy a Bosch and then do all of those. We’re at about 15 years with two of the same model (in two houses) and most of the time I think the DW is screwing up, it’s something else.
Had a Bosch gas cooktop in the last house, too, and replaced a horrid electric range here with a dual-fuel range - electric oven, gas cooktop.
Bosch is perceived as being expensive, but if you compare features and ratings like water use and quietness, they’re comparable to other makers whose products have nowhere near the lifespan and minimal maintenance and repair issues of Bosch. A cheaper appliance is a cheaper appliance, no matter who makes it.
I like going ten years with no problems, and only marginal increases in noise and such. Not worth saving a couple of hundred on a purchase to live with years of declining performance. YMMV.
Because I would recommend either of them to anyone but the OP.
Cheap, no pre-washing, and no hand-drying were all mentioned, and my LG fails on all three of these.
But it excels in washing, being quiet, and not melting anything. Every other dishwasher I have used had the problem that anything plastic placed in the bottom rack was melted–not the LG, and probably not the Bosch.
The only pre-wash needed is to remove big chunks of food to avoid clogging the drain line–my dishwasher has what appears to be a skinny 3/8" line going to the drain, so it isn’t surprising that sometimes stuff clogs, even with the filters in place.
By the way, if you have a fancy LG dishwasher that has an internal clog, you can use an air hose to blow compressed air backwards through the drain line and then use a wet/dry vac to clean out the dishwasher.
ETA: The LG is working great for a family of six. We use it daily, sometimes twice a day.
I would not buy any dishwasher that still has a heating element in the bottom for the drying cycle. 1950s tech that better models have left behind with circulated-air drying.
That eliminates the whole “top rack/bottom rack safe” argument. No part of the racks gets any hotter than any other.
I’m on my second GE (not by choice exactly) and both of them do/did a fine job of cleaning and not clogging and so forth. Both had only one drawback: very noisy. The first one (in our old house) we increased its insulation when we remodeled the kitchen and it helped a bit but it was still noisy. The one we have now, builder’s choice in our new house, is loud. My SIL’s GE unit is very quiet but does a lousy job of cleaning; I guess I prefer mine. Sort of.
TL/DR: if you don’t care about noise, GE washes good.
I prefer to wash by hand (it’s just the two of us), but when we use the dishwasher, the dishes are rinsed to the point they area pretty clean. Do some people just toss dirty dishes right in?
The less bells-and-whistles, the better. I say that for all appliances.
The less bell-and-whistles, the less likely the appliance will break down. Appliances with computer components are notorious for breaking down.
That said, we got our basic Frigidaire dishwasher off the dented rack at our local Lowe’s. Because there was an ever-so-slight dent on the lower panel, they took $50 off the price, I think? It was otherwise pristine. I think we paid, in total, somewhere i the $300 range. We had a handyman friend install it
It does its job and does it well. We haven’t had any issues with it.
I’ll second pulling the spray arms out and cleaning them. I often find stuff stuck in there, and it always looks like meat. They usually pop right off so you can take them over to the sink at work at them with running water and whatever pokey tools you want to use to get in there with.
I looked at Bosches when I got a new dishwasher recently and there seemed to be a lot of negative reviews, especially for paying a few hundred dollars up and over the premium you’re already paying to get out of the cheap models. I ended up with a Whirlpool. I’m not at home, but I believe it’s this model. I’m thrilled with it, it does a great job. I knew my old dishwasher was getting ready to die and a new motor was too expensive to be worth replacing it, but I was amazed at how much cleaner everything comes out with this dishwasher.
Regarding heated dry, I use it, I like it. I ran a few loads without it, but things still come out wet. I also read a lot of reviews from machines that don’t have heated dry that they end up with a lot of mildew problems.
@Kayaker, yes, people do toss dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I mean, most people get the big stuff off the dishes, and the stuff that’ll dry and get stuck to the plates if you leave them for a day or two, even then though the dishwasher should be able to deal with all that. However, if the detergent doesn’t have food to clean, it can etch your glass.
There is a difference between drying cycles. The old system is to use a “calrod” heating element in the bottom of the washer, which produces that top rack/bottom rack issue and ruins anything that falls on it during the wash cycles. The newer system is to use heated, circulated air, which also uses less power and is usually quicker to finish. The “unheated dry” thing is a half-assed compromise trying to appeal to buyers who want/think they’re getting the more modern system, and greenies trying to save energy costs. You’re right, it doesn’t work unless you live in the Southwest and open your WD to let the dishes dry. (Which, when I lived in a warm, low-humidity environment, I often did.) But the air-dry is a great feature.
Consumer Reports tests dishwashers by loading them straight from the oven, stove and table, no washing, only minimal dumping/scraping. The idea that dishes have to be pre-washed before washing in modern, decent quality DWs is false. But you have to maintain the machine (keep filters, arms etc., clear), use good detergent and learn how to stack the dishes so the machine can work right.
Cite on that? Leave streaks, maybe. Etch? Don’t think so…
There’s tons more on the web about it and it’s been discussed here (and at other reputable forums like gardenweb) plenty of times. But if you have a beef beyond that cite, take it up with the University of Nebraska, not me.
It’s a thing, if you want to refute it, bring science.
This. I bought a Bosch for my husband a couple Xmas’ ago and we love it to pieces. Super-quiet, does a great job, uses less water. I can be standing right next to it and not hear it running. But they are pretty pricey.
Ok, so prewash so the dishes come out clean, and throw some crap you would have sent down the disposal into the dishwasher to neutralize the detergent.
Yes, for the most part. I scrape off any food bits into the trash can. If a dish has something dried and stuck on pretty good, I might give it a pre-scrub, but otherwise my dishwasher handles normal dirty dishes just fine–no pre-rinsing needed.
Kind of an in-betweener, there; a “Hints from Heloise” article on a university web site.
I’m not disputing the claim, but I find it hard to believe that the chemical balance in a dishwasher load is such that a half-pound of food makes a significant difference that can damage dishes and glassware. ETA: So if you just don’t get your dishes very dirty, you’re screwed?
I have no doubt that someone’s carefully measured the pH of the system, but like so many arguments recently about acidity etc., they ignore molarity.
If someone has a more science-based cite - not a university extension article by someone with no stated credentials, research, or cites themselves - I would like to see it.
