Dishwasher Brand/Model Recommendations?

[panthera]

John,

We have nine dishwashers we rotate through regularly - beginning with a KA15, lower rack cleaning is out of this world, top half rack is, well - I can load the lower rack such that the top rack comes clean but nobody else has ever figured out how to do it.

Going on to several variations on the Potscrubber I and III (no use here for the Potscrubber II trash), ending with a Triton XL (the one which gummed up when the phosphates came out of the detergents and cleaned great, if you had four hours time).

A sprinkling of countertop commercial (washes at 75ºC) and two Maytag RR, one the portable without the rinse-aid.

 

One GSD 1200 or Twenty-Eight Hundred works just fine for such a large party when I'm in charge of the clean-up and none, absolutely <span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 24pt; color: #cc99ff;">NONE</span><span style="font-size: 24pt; color: #cc99ff;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> of the guests are permitted to 'help' out in the kitchen, especially with clean-up. I don't pre-rinse ever, if it's smaller than a VW Van, it goes into the dishwasher. First two or three loads are from the prep - pots and pans and bowls and beaters and food processor parts, cutting boards (yes, gasp wood, too) and everything but high-carbon steel cutlery.</span></span>

<span style="font-size: 24pt; color: #cc99ff;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then come the quick rinses for the special serving plates or lead-crystal or whatever we (usually me) have forgotten to get out the day before. This could easily mean just a top rack (gasp! The horrors of it all - I'm destroying the environment single-handedly!!!)</span></span>

While my far more social mate entertains (and the late guests arrive), I've got the first round of appetizer/snacks/ Amuse Bouche running. I should add that, were I entertaining, it would all be Correlle and stainless-steel with Libby glass. Not the case - we'll be using 1920's china, silver, lead-crystal, cheap but cheerful 1950's Mexican pottery, etc. - in short, nothing which can be thrown in to be washed with other stuff together, some of which only getting hot rinses without detergent, etc.

Finally the main course table service, the coffee/desert/snackes, etc. and then, at the end, the pots and pans and serving bowls/platters which held the left-overs which went into ziplock bags (I put my foot down on my Pyrex when I realized it never came back). 

 

So, yeah - often two dishwashers running at the same time, one a commercial. But - I refuse to wake up to a dirty kitchen, I can't stand it when other people put things away and I can't find them and, worst of all, it drives me crazy when some helpful queen scrubs a vintage 1940's cast aluminium pressure cooker with a GREEN Scotch-Brite pad or puts the silver cutlery in with the stainless steel and pours chlorine-bleach over them.

 

We all have different ways of doing things, I find it challenging enough to cook around the genuine soy/gluten/'real' vegetarian/real diabetes problems, much less the 'food allergy of the week' hysteria of the fading, jaded queens. I refuse to be up until three in the morning cleaning and scrubbing when there's machines which can do it better than I.

 

Seriously, how do you ladies entertain twice or more a month, 12 people at a time or so? Serious question. And no, if you're not the one cleaning the dining room/kitchen, your opinion doesn't count.

[this post was last edited: 9/22/2017-08:56]

 

[iheartmaytag]

Worried about slow cycles?

Then just press the one hour wash button--Problems solved.

Though I rarely entertain, there are a few times a year that I have multiple loads to do such as holidays, birthdays, etc.

Though my Kitchenaid isn't as slow as all that. A normal load with High temp modifiers, and sani rinse is about 90 minutes. If you add the Pro-scrub, it adds about 20 minutes. I rarely use the heated dry. When baking, or doing prep, you can choose the 1 hr option. With the one hour wash the cycle is quicker because the machine just automatically fills to the max and starts spraying. It doesn't pause and sense, like it does on the sensor cycles.

One thing with the longer cycle times. With the new phosphate free detergents that are enzyme based, they do a better job with a longer wash time and lower temps. I have tried using my Cascade commercial (fryer boil) detergent in the 1 hr wash and I don't get great results because the temperatures don't reach a high enough range for the Chlorine based detergent to really kick in.

I am a wash as I go cook, my pots and pans don't go in the dish machine. So I keep a sink of hot water as I am cooking, I wash the pans as they are used. This reduces the piles, and saves cleanup time later.

As for the model, I have a Kitchenaid that was bought in 2013, as a left over 2012 model. It is the point voyger platform with a food disposer. Been very happy with it and the results. I have a service contract, and had an annual check up done once, they found the rinse aid dispenser was dispensing too much and replaced the dispenser free of charge. No other problems to report.

 

[johnb300m]

So you have nine dishwashers, but use 2 at a time.
Well that's good at least. 1 would be a huge bottle neck as you described.

My parents do most of the holiday entertaining, and even though they have a new THREE HOUR WASH GE, it does hold almost 1.5x the dishware the old Triton XL held. So even though it runs longer, it's washing more dishes at a time. And with the dual silverware baskets now, everything makes it in the first load.
1 load for dishware. 1 load for cookware after, and maybe some straggling glassware. Voila! Done.

Of course that's just 2x a year, about.

 

[henene4]

May I introduce: Bosch Benchmark® SHX89PW55N

2 short screenshots from the manual show: No cycle uses more then 6.5gal, no cycle takes longer then 155min.

An average cycle used for entertaining could be the Speed60, takeing (you guessed it) 60min, washing at 120F, rinsing at 160F, using less then 4gal.
Heavy takes about 2h on default, maxing out at 6.4gal. With ExtraScrub, time an usage drop even further.
Auto cycle with SpeedPerfect option finishes in 90min or less, never using more then 5.3gal.
And a single rinse is done in under 10min with just 1gal.

Tall tub design with 3 racks offers huge capacity. Deep 3rd rack makes it perfect for lids, spatulas, beeters, you name it.
Middle rack is 3 way adjustable, even allows for a slanted positions to maximize posibilities.

Oh yeah, and it's barely audible. You know, when entertaining, the house is loud enough.
Don't see the problem, panthera.

 

[brucelucenta]

I like my Kenmore Elite 4 year old dishwasher. I know it has to be the same as a Kitchenaid because I bought a Kitchenaid 4 arm sprayer for a new model on eBay and it fits it. It does a good cleaning job, but not my favorite for loading odd shaped items. My absolute favorite machine of all time was my Maytag made Jennaire TOL model that had the tower shower under the top rack. I could load up a ton of dishes and odd shaped things like an oversize electric frying pan in one load and all would come sparkling clean. It was not as quiet as the one I have now and the cycle was not quite as long either.

 

[panthera]

Henrik,

Of course you don't see the problem. I wouldn't expect that you would. Then again, I'm hoping against hope for at least Bartsch if not Waggenknecht (he's too cautious) for the next Kanzler/-in and you are no doubt hopeful dear old Angie will continue on with the same old, same old. This is the last election I'll be able to participate in and I would so like to have seen the last of that conservative, staid group.

And, actually, it isn't a problem - I enjoy entertaining, I hate dirty dishes, I use the appropriate technology to solve it.

Of course, all these 'One Hour' programs won't work without pre-scrubbing, but, it's a sweet thought. 

Show me the modern dishwasher (non-commercial) which can take the loads I dump in the Twenty-Eight Hundred during a major 12 person dinner and I'll think about it. Not seen anything anywhere near that, so far.

 

[henene4]

Not quite sure if we're on the same wavelength.

Most entertaining dishes are freshly soiled, not more then an hour old soil. A 1h-wash can deal with that.
Our Bosch can clean a 2 day old Lasagna dish.
And all the stuff you say needs prescrubbing just goes into the pot&#92pans load.

I verry much do suppose that your o-so-horrible loads of o-so-dirty o-so-many loads could be handled just as well, if not better, by 2 of these Bosches.

 

[imperial70]

My heart is with whirlpool

because of my whirlpool made kenmore lasting 22 years and going strong, but I am really partial to the features and options with the GE dishwashers in the past few years. It's pretty scary to have to make this decision. I wish you luck.

 

[panthera]

Henrik,

I know for a fact that my 1979 Miele or my aunt's 2013 Miele could do it - but, I'm not in Germany, I'm in the US and something you keep forgetting is that the Americas are stuck in the 19th century when it comes to electrical power.

Except for the counter-top commercial which does draw 240V, 20A (but has a limited capacity), everything runs on 125V. The Twenty-Eight Hundred draws just at eight amps in full service. Eight amps. That's it. Now, the current Bosch range available in the Americas, with our ancient, limited, 19th century service have three drawbacks compared to what even the least expensive Bosch has on offer in Germany:

1) Minimum cycle time for heavy loads is a whopping 135 minutes. You can't run input water warmer than 49ºC and you have 1/4 to 1/3 the heating capacity. Sure, yes, the Bosch can clean very well - friends here have one because I recommended it (North America Miele has awful customer service). Your conclusions are based on inappropriate data.

2) I don't pre-rinse or scrub. Anything except bones and olive pits goes into the dishwasher. No problem for the soft-foods disposer and outstanding self-cleaning filtration of the 1200 or Twenty-Eight Hundred. My experience with German dishwashers ended with the 2013 model year...are the new ones no longer equipped with those fine mesh filters and filter baskets which must be cleaned when several hundred cc of food soil is put in? Really? That's wonderful! When did they make the change? Oh, right, they didn't and, again, you're comparing apples to oranges.

 

Do you prepare, cook and clean up regularly after 12 person formal dinners? I havefriends in Austria, Italy and Hamburg who do. They all have servants and 3φ power for the café Miele dishwashers in their sculleries. Us common folks have to make do with reality.

 

 

[lordkenmore]

A couple of thoughts about long cycle times...and why I don't like the idea for myself:

 

First, I find the entertaining argument very compelling. I haven't ever entertained on any sort of large scale during the periods I have been fortunate enough to live with a dishwasher. But from my memories of entertaining, period, and my memories of dishwashers, I conclude that it's not only the people trying to outdo Martha Stewart with a 14 course dinner for 20 people who might find a 3 hour cycle time a bit frustrating. indeed, I can remember being involved in large family dinners in the 1990s. There was no running dishwasher--although I wish there had been!--and even though those dinners were simple/casual, a long cycle would been beyond annoying, given that it would probably have been at least 3 loads to wash up all the cooking stuff used at the end of meal preparation (at least 1 load), and the dishes used on the table (at least 2 loads).

 

Then, on a day to day basis, I just don't like leaving appliances run totally unattended. I want to be around so in case something goes horribly wrong, I can address it. When I first had a dishwasher to use, I usually ran it late at night. Even on nights I was tired, I could stay up while it did its job--which took maybe 45 minutes (maybe less), not 3 hours.

[this post was last edited: 9/23/2017-17:17]

 

[jp10558]

I personally have really liked the Bosh 800 series dishwasher I got. The V shaped 3rd rack is a revelation and really helps in loading lots more stuff in. Which is important because of the 2hr 9 min cycle time.

Not just for entertaining, we also process lots of veggies we grow ourselves, and that time will also lead to lots of cycles. It's not uncommon to have 3 loads many days. With this cycle time, we are basically running the dishwasher flat out the entire time anyone is around to get it going. (start before work, reload when you get home and reload before bed). I mean, we're talking realistically 7 hours straight here.

It cleans amazingly, but takes forever to do it. Luckily it's close to silent so it doesn't overwhelm any discussion like our original GE would. Given our kitchen dining room and living room are open in a circle around a fireplace center post, that would leave going outside or into bedrooms if you wanted to talk over that old GE (1999 BOL). But the Bosh people forget it's running.

Luckily it seems to be standing up well to running 2+ times a day, and the only thing that would get me away from a Bosh going forward would probably be a full remodel / new house where I could put in one of the 2 minute commercial washers!