18"Danby DW

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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cfz2882

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Feb 9, 2010
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Belle Fourche,SD
got this yesterday-portable with sink hookup.Heavier than expected because there is a heavy counterweight for stability when racks are out.Took drip pan off and horizontal PSC wash motor with usual PM wet rotor drain pump.Made in china 6/2017,kind of european style with 2 spray arms and possibly a flinger above top rack.will give test run tonite.Anyone have experience with one of these little Danbys?
 
Depending on which model you have, you either have a Midea or a Vestel clone.

My mom had an 18" Midea made machine.
It was REALLY mid. Biggest culprit was a water softener that was faulty within the warranty period - a problem your machine certainly can't suffer from.
Upper racks are a bit odd to load. So capacity isn't great.

My ex partner had a BOL Vestel made 18" model - no alternating spray arms, single speed pump, no sensors, nothing.
Racking was a tad better.
But that machine cleaned like a champ as long as you didn't overload it.
Loud as heck, though.
 
a countertop Danby

I junked a countertop Danby-grabbed at the dump,smashed up, made about 2005-and though made in China,had some German parts in it:Timer,pressure switches and a couple other small parts.The fill valve on the 18"i just got is made by Inversys-did not see a national origin stated on the valve.
 
Invensys maybe?
They used to own RobertShaw and spun them off.
RS is now independent again, based in Itasca, IL.
They used to make all the water valves somewhere near Galena, IL till Invensys moved it all to Mexico. The valves are likely all made there now.
 
The bashed up one i junked had intake grate in well plugged with debris and bad(burnt)connection at heater calrod-just a couple problems that could occur.
 
I had a countertop Danby about 18 years ago when I was single. It worked great and I felt like I could get a fair amount of dishes in it because it was the size of a large microwave.

I recently had a 18" SPT portable for my rented house. It worked fine, it just took forever upwards of 3 hours, and now that I am married, I felt we were running it daily and, on occasion, twice daily, as we cook and bake a lot at home. We've "upgraded" to a '74 KDS-57A that works great and only need to use it once a week, roughly.
 
In 2002 I bought my sister and her husband a countertop Danby dishwasher. They had Corelle dishes and fit a ton in it. When it died it was replaced by an 18 inch Kenmore portable. I still feel the Danby washed better.
 
Cool!

I remember I went to my grandma's sisters house about 1/2 mile up the road one day (this was in the 80s and I was young... She had a nice house and in their kitchen that had a green GE 18 inch dishwasher and I remember thinking "What is this?" I knew it was a dishwasher but I was shocked...

I actually never even thought about it but there are two of us here and I run the dishwasher like every 3 to 4 days when it's packed full. I could totally get away with having one of these but would have to run it more often. Of course there's no where to put it... wouldn't work. But having a full size for me isn't an issue either...I'm saying that if I lived somewhere that has one of these I would totally be OK with it. Anything is better than NOT having a dishwasher!

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Wash pump strainer

found this has a fine screen strainer for the wash water-very similar to a Bosch.The wash pump runs quiet with no distinctive sound,the PM wet rotor drain pump is typically noisy.
 
PSC/centrifugal

A Wellington brand PSC motor with rotor fins for cooling-the pump is straight radial flow centrifugal.I will note the low water pump sound next time i run the machine.
 
Brand engineering

Years ago when I worked on these more, or maybe there were more of them out there, there was a lot of brand engineering going on between the 18" models. I mean, you could take a parts diagram from one branded as Frigidaire, and another from Brand X and another from Brand Y and line then up and it was obvious that there was just one manufacturer. I found them sorta hard to work on because of their control system and lack of documentation, but in my memory I did a few replacements or repairs of the pump motor and some other main components.
 
These 18" dishwashers like compact washing machines sold on this side of pond are more about making most of limited space than anything else.

Very popular with small apartment or perhaps galley kitchens where there just isn't room for a full sized dishwasher.

Other option of course is a portable full sized dw, but not everyone has space to store thing when not in use and or wants to be bothered shoving it to sink and back into storage spot.

Until Danby unit came along IIRC only 18" dishwashers in USA market were made by Frigidaire regardless what brand name sold under. Owned a Kenmore 18" portable dw and going by model code it was made by Frigidaire. IIRC as with portable dishwashers after a certain point market just wasn't large enough for multiple players so only a few or one company made the things and then sold them under various names. Only other option for 18" dishwashers in USA came from Miele and Bosch (?). None of the European models were offered as portable however. For a time IKEA had a kit one could use to build a portable cabinet making European 18" dishwashers portable, haven't seen that in ages.

Danby 18" dw both portable and built-in blew Frigidaire's (WCI) out of the water. Stainless steel interior and other bits made Danby seem like an upgrade somewhat near 18" offerings by Miele or other Euro appliance makers.
 
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