Consumer Reports: Dishwasher Brand Reliability

[frigilux]

The June issue arrived today and in it is a chart for reliability of dishwashers, by brand. I've noticed that nearly everyone at AW with an LG dishwasher (or who knows someone with one) has had trouble with it. My LG is two years old and so far (knock on wood) it has worked flawlessly, despite very heavy usage.

While the reliability of LG washing machines has improved greatly, not so with their dishwashers. They're at the bottom of the chart, with an astounding 23% of them needing repairs. Not encouraging news for an LG owner, especially given the complaints about their service. My local mom 'n' pop LG dealer does their own repair work, but I've read that getting parts, etc., is often a frustrating experience for dealers.

While Kenmore dishwashers are made by various manufacturers, the "mother brands" scored within a point or two of each other, so I suppose the Kenmore ranking is pretty accurate.

Information comes from "more than 113,000 subscribers who bought a dishwasher between 2005 and 2009."

Hotpoint and Whirlpool: only 8% needed a repair
Kenmore and Miele: 9%
Bosch: 10%
GE and Amana: 11%
JennAir and KitchenAid: 12%
Frigidaire and Maytag: 13%
Asko: 14%
Fisher & Paykel: 18%
LG: 23% (!!!)

[this post was last edited: 5/4/2010-22:26]

 

[cfz2882]

my 2000 vintage KM dishwasher has not needed a single repair
-runs about twice a week

 

[favorit]

meaning of "vintage"

So you mean that a 10 y.o. dishwasher is a vintage one ??
That is the minimum expected lifespan here, less than ten years is assumed as a disposable appliance .....

 

[passatdoc]

No, because "vintage" was used after the date, not as an adjective before the date. In this context, "vintage" means "approximate year of manufacture" and serves as a modifier of "2000".

"my vintage 2000 KM dishwasher" = the dishwasher is a vintage machine.

"my 2000 vintage KM dishwasher" = 2000 is the year of manufacture or purchase.

Often in this context, when "vintage" applies to the year (as a modifier), it is written with a hyphen, i.e. "my 2000-vintage dishwasher" to avoid confusion and to show that vintage is a modifier of 2000 and not an adjective to describe the dishwasher.

English is a complex language....

I agree with you, a DW should last a minimum of ten years. So should a clothes washer! My 2001-vintage Bosch DW works perfectly after 8 1/2 years of use, two loads a week.

 

[frigilux]

How do you guys get by running the dw only twice a week?! Mine runs at least once a day, and on big cooking days (weekends, generally) I'll do up to seven loads.

I made pasta with Alfredo sauce, chicken and vegetables for six (plus a green salad, homemade French bread, and a lemon layer cake) for dinner last night and ran three cycles---two of pots/pans, etc., and one of dishes/serving items.

This is typical a couple of times during the week. Other days, I'll run at least one load; occasionally only a half-load if I've not done any cooking.

BTW, I'm loving the edit-your-post feature, Robert!

[this post was last edited: 5/5/2010-02:56]

 

[favorit]

@ Jim : thank you so much, was not aware of that !

@ Eugene : you wrote you usually cook for SIX person, it makes a lot of sense to run the DW after each meal. In my household we're in 2 and we run the DW every 3rd meal. I guess you have very big pots (two loads of pots...) otherwise you don't load properly/underload the DW. In my experience when we are in 10-12 around the table one load is for tableware and a couple of small pots, then there is almost another load of pots left.

 

[logixx]

Thanks for the ratings! I really have to wonder about ASKO. Their dishwashers look so sturdy and have so many interesting (and useful) features. Yet, they don't seem to score very well.

English is a complex language....

*lol* No, it ain't. It's wonderfully easy to learn. I can't imagine how hard it would be for someone to learn German - it's so complex. Oh wait, I can! I study French! C'est vraiment difficile...

 

[countryguy]

Frigilux,

How many people in your household? You sometimes run the dishwasher up to 7 times a day? Incredible. Now that I am single again, mine is usually run 2-3 times a week. Mind you the only meal I am cooking is supper as I'm not home at lunch and only have a cup of coffee at breakfast. When there were 2 of us in the house then it was run about every 2nd day.

Gary

 

[combo52]

CONSUMER REPORTS APPLIANCE RELIABILITY RATINGS

While thier ratings can be helpful in letting you know the chance of repair in the first five years of life they don't help you much when it comes to selecting the appliance that will last the longest or be cheap & easy to repair. The first thing they need to do is throw Kenmore out of the ratings. In all major appliance categories the KM brand is made by more than Co. In DWs alone in the time period in the report DWs were made by WP GE frigidare & Bosch. They also need to go back at least 20 years as many machines do last that long. Even the wonderful older KAs most of us love never were more than average in CRs ratings. THE GEs were usually topping the list in the 1960s & 1970s because they didn't break much in the early years but the tanks rusted out in less than 10 years and were dropped from the ratings charts while the KAs were going strong @ 20 years of age. They do the same thing with cars and its always nice to get off to a good start with an expensive product but if you keep things for the long haul as I do I try to a look a lot farther than CRs ratings.

 

[passatdoc]

@logixx

Keine Schwierigkeiten, Deutsch zu lernen. Aber man muss fleißig studieren und ARBEITEN!!!

Bitte, wiederholen: aus, ausser, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu (brauchen immer Dativ). Nächste, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um (brauchen immer Akusativ). Wenn man auswendig lernen kann, so kann man Deutsch lernen.

Na, ich habe Deutsch vor 30 Jahren an der Uni gelernt. Heute schreibe ich "auf Deutsch", und nicht mehr "auf deutsch", und "man muss" und nicht mehr "man muß". Langsam lerne ich die neue Rechtschreibung, aber was war los mit dem ALTEN Rechtschreibung??? Mindestens ist fleißig noch fleißig und nicht fleissig.

Und für die, die weitere Arbeit brauchen, kann ich herzlich "German in Review" von Sparks und Vail empfehlen. Ich habe die erste Ausgabe an der Uni gelesen. Jetzt habe ich auch die vierte Ausgabe gekauft. Arbeit, Arbeit, Arbeit. [this post was last edited: 5/5/2010-12:03]

Amazon.com

 

[passatdoc]

ps @logixx

English as you know is a Germanic language, but it has the most Latin influence of any language in the Germanic family, due to the Norman/French invasion of Great Britain. The result is a huge vocabulary, something like 500,000-800,000 words, though well educated persons use perhaps 10,000-50,000 at most. No one ever knows all the vocabulary, so learning words is a lifelong process, even for native speakers of English. Most of the time in English, one can use a word of German origin or of Latin origin to express the same meaning....which doubles the vocabulary.

Even something like "vintage 2000" versus "2000 vintage" having different meanings, it can be quite complex with all of the exceptions. I always found German to be more regular and not filled with so many exceptions....as long as you could memorize all of the rules!!

I know that the world predominance of English as the current "lingua franca" has further diminished the foreign language skills of Americans and Anglophone Canadians, not that those skills were great before the rise of English (Anglophone Canadians usually have at least basic French proficiency, which is far more than one can say for average Americans). However, learning French, Spanish, or German for North Americans should be made easier by the fact that some of the vocabulary words are cognates. Now for a German to learn French or vice versa, THAT would be tough because of the lack of cognates. It's as if every word to be learned is foreign or unrecognizable.

 

[frigilux]

Gary-- It's just me in the household, but I have people in for dinner (or supper as we call it in rural MN) a couple times a week. Having people over is pretty much the extent of my social life these days, LOL.

I bring food to the lounge every Monday morning, so on Sunday I'll bake 2 or 3 coffeecakes, some muffins, cinnamon rolls, or cookies and occasionally a huge chafer pan of egg bake.

I've also been taking food to a friend of mine who is on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. She and her husband are trying to keep things going (with a 4-year old, no less) during this difficult time. So I bring them a roast, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and dessert for Sunday dinner (noon meal). Then I'll make a couple of casseroles or something and divide them into GladWare containers so they can microwave them for suppers during the week.

I cook for myself and make all my own breads and rolls. At any rate, the kitchen at my house is always rockin', so the dishwasher gets continual usage.

One of the reasons I chose an LG dishwasher (besides it being available locally), is that it's very, very quiet. It's nice not to hear the dishwasher when you're in the kitchen for hours at a time.

 

[andrewinorlando]

Eugene,

One thing I do find about the LG9810 DW is that it is a remarkably easy machine to work on. And the parts are not expensive, and not hard to get at all. You can find most of them on RepairClinic.com ready for immediate shipment if you ever need. The whole inner workings of the 9810 - pump, motor, drain motor, heater, sensor and sump - the whole works, costs only $147. By contrast, a KA pump costs $185, and that's just for the pump. It literally snaps out of the bottom of the machine and is replaced in whole by the replacement module - a single piece encompassing all of the working parts of the machine. No fuss, no muss!! Very easy machine to fix. The door comes apart very easily for access to the controllers. And it's got about the best racking configuration and quality racks anywhere...far superior to Whirlpool's.

THey are, however, very delicate machines, and care must be exercised when working on them. I broke mine trying to fish a screw out of the pump that accidentally fell in (bull in a china shop syndrome), so it is currently sitting in the garage awaiting repair. I'm currently using a new Superba series KA dishwasher in it's place, and I can honestly say, the LG is a far superior cleaning dw than the KA, especially on the top rack.

 

[frigilux]

Andrew, I don't know if I ever thanked you for sending me the repair manual for the LG. I have it ready to go if it's ever needed.

I love the 9810; It's easily the best-cleaning dishwasher I've ever owned, and I love the silverware/cutlery rack. It leaves the bottom rack completely open for pots/pans.

Maybe I'm lucky and I have one of the few LG's that won't need repairs for awhile!

 

[laundromat]

MOP---

---is that because most owners of dishwashers that use them do the bad thing.They rinse everything off before loading then they use way too much dishwasher detergent.Because the chemicals need to break down,the food particles and sauces left on the dishes help to do that but will eat away at the different plastic,rubber and metal parts because the food they need to have which helps to break them down has been rinsed off before loading.I NEVER PRE RINSE ANYTHING OFF. I just scrape and load.I never had any issues of repairs that stemmed from not pre rinsing.

 

[1972lkdishwash]

new dishwasher purchase for MOM

Please advise as to what is the best purchase for a portable going to be built in PLACE for her USE and convenience...due to portable cabinet and place machine sits, next to Stove...our plumber can do this....it is the best situation, when a prtable works in the kitchen space but she cannot move it around, she is 93 and is weak with her legs....Have big account and open at SEARS, how about this new kenmore 1774, or should I purchase another brand portable, she wants a new one, for the warranties and my many 8 collectables, are very vintage and she wants the ease of a new one for loading, big tub....etc. Please advise...Harold. doing this tomorrow afternoon for Mother's Day present.

http://1972lkdishwash

 

[countryguy]

With all that cooking how do you find time to do anything else?

Gary

 

[frigilux]

Gary---What? You mean there's life outside my kitchen?! I seem to find time to work a lot...and that's about it. OK, I'm going to stop before this gets any more pathetic, LOL!

Harold---Your link didn't work for me, but I have a photo of the interior of the portable Kenmore model 1774. It looks like a Whirlpool-made machine, so my inclination is to say it's a worthy dishwasher. You want to stay away from the Frigidaire-made Kenmores, but this does not look like one of them.

They're rated high for cleaning and reliability at Consumer Reports, but that shouldn't necessarily be your only input. I use CR as a guide and have had good luck with their recommendations, but others at this site have had quite the opposite experience.

Any owners of new Whirlpool dishwashers care to chime in?

 

[andrewinorlando]

Our own Appnut (Bob) has the Kenmore Elite model, similar to the above, which he stuffs regularly with good results. I have a 8 month old KitchenAid Superba, which is basically the same model, and I really don't care for it. Fortunately it was deeply discounted, but it will be relegated to the garage once I get the LG fixed and running again...cause I love that damned dishwasher. Easily the best cleaning machine along with the old GE tall tub I used to have. Funny thing is the LG doesn't take any longer to wash the dishes then does the KA, washing one rack at a time, but it does a whole lot better of a job.

Eugene, I have two friends who have LG dishwashers with no problems. I had no problems with mine until I took it apart to remove that nasty screw that dropped in there, and it was never the same again after I broke the diverter valve control.