CU's Very First Dishwasher Issue - 1952

[Unimatic1140]

Here is the November 1952 issue of Consumer Reports, which was the first time they ever reported on dishwashers. Interesting who they rated number one, and as usual, I disagree with their top spot. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to see their findings when automatic dishwashers were brand new. In fact, I’ve owned 5 of the 8 dishwashers they rated installed and used my kitchen over the years (for at least one or more years per machine), and while I found most performed satisfactorily, some were better than others.

On another interesting note, they also rated coffee makers in this same issue!

Link:
CU November 1952

 

[combo52]

Consumer reports first dishwasher report

Based on my experiences and talking with many people who owned these early dishwasher models, I would say they were spot on in their ratings, even though the KitchenAid was a much better built machine. It’s lack of a water heater and the overhead filling and purging that the hot point did to rinse a little bits off the top of things you can see how the hot point was a slightly better performer than the KitchenAid.

As usual, of course they didn’t try to do mixed loads. They just did plates and glasses and silverware. If you’d started putting pans and things in the KitchenAid probably would’ve done a little better.

The dishwasher is in the fair group that James GE and Sears Kenmore were inferior machines for performance, and after seeing the Youngstown operate that John Charles had it was just miserable.

We used to see a lot of people with the James the early Kenmore and the Youngstown just give up using the machines as soon as they broke, whereas the hot points and KitchenAid people continue to try to repair Into the 70s. The GE is also lasted a little longer in this timeframe but again they were pretty miserable. I never saw people but dirty dishes in those brands, they mostly just used them to sanitize and dry things.

John L

 

[Unimatic1140]

Consumer reports first dishwasher report

Based on my experiences and talking with many people who owned these early dishwasher models, I would say they were spot on in their ratings, even though the KitchenAid was a much better built machine. It’s lack of a water heater and the overhead filling and purging that the hot point did to rinse a little bits off the top of things you can see how the hot point was a slightly better performer than the KitchenAid.

As usual, of course they didn’t try to do mixed loads. They just did plates and glasses and silverware. If you’d started putting pans and things in the KitchenAid probably would’ve done a little better.

The dishwasher is in the fair group that James GE and Sears Kenmore were inferior machines for performance, and after seeing the Youngstown operate that John Charles had it was just miserable.

We used to see a lot of people with the James the early Kenmore and the Youngstown just give up using the machines as soon as they broke, whereas the hot points and KitchenAid people continue to try to repair Into the 70s. The GE is also lasted a little longer in this timeframe but again they were pretty miserable. I never saw people but dirty dishes in those brands, they mostly just used them to sanitize and dry things.

John L

That’s the key, John real life uses mixed loads. I had both the KD-12 KitchenAid and the 1953 Hotpoint installed in the kitchen at the same time for over two years and found the KitchenAid had fewer rejects (where something didn’t come clean). The KA was better with pots and pans. The Hotpoint, however, did a very good job and I was overall very happy with it, but in my opinion, the KA was better for daily use.

 

[combo52]

Hi Robert, I would agree of the two dishwashers. I’d much rather have the KitchenAid loading was easier too because the two racks were independent.

The kitchenaid also proved to be far more durable than the Hotpoint because it was based on a commercial machine. Also, your KD 12 worked a little better than the KD 10 as it had a warm-up purge that the 10 lacked.

John L