Dishwashers. Consumer Reports. May 1974

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

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whitetub

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I got a Consumer Reports magazine from 1974. I would like to share it with you guys. My old Maytag came out on top. I miss that dishwasher. Hope you enjoy. Some interesting facts, like the Westinghouse that uses 18 gallons of water on the double-wash cycle, and still does a poor cleaning job.

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Some years ago I used a Maytag DW of that vintage as a daily driver for a while. It was a good performer, however, I found the main rack somewhat unable to handle tall/bulky pots. Also, as mentioned by the folks at CU, the dishes did not always get dry as it is not fan-forced. I still have that dishwasher.
The KAid of that era would accommodate my largest pots with ease and thoroughly dried everything with forced air drying.
During this era I used a Whirlpool Imperial DW for a while and thought it did a great job. I do recall that if the flatware baskets were stuffed full the stuff along the wall of the door did not always come clean. Unlike CU, I thought the filtration was great especially when compared to most other machines of that era, many of which, had no filtration at all!
 
Thanks for the CR scans, Steve! Love to read back issues of CR. We had a 1974 Lady Kenmore. I had to chuckle when they mentioned the Sears dishwasher developed rust spots quickly. Ours rusted out very quickly. Had fun with the Roto-Rack, though.

Also of its time: "...used only 11 gallons of water." The average back then was 14 gallons. Most use 4-5 these days, although that comes with the downside of much longer cycle times.[this post was last edited: 9/9/2016-21:16]
 
Thanks for the scans! 

 

Wonder why they did not test the KDS-17 with internal heater instead of the KDI-17?

 

Isn't the Whirlpool mentioned in the test the model that Robert just found?

 

 
 
In the early 70's I talked my parents into getting a new Maytag dishwasher BOL because they would not get anything more expensive. It replaced a builder model GE. It did a better job than the GE, but not a perfect job. When they sold the house in the mid 80's it went with the house and still worked well. I had one in the house I had too. Mine was TOL and I liked it very much. Much later, in the 90's I bought a Maytag made Jennaire TOL that was the best dishwasher I ever had. This was surprising since it still had the shower tower and the racks were no longer reversed. But that dishwasher held more dishes and pots and pans of odd shapes than any other dishwasher I have ever owned! I could pack it so completely full that you could not even fit another spoon into it and everything always came out clean! I replaced it with a Bosch that I could not fit anything into and sold the house with that dishwasher. In between my builder model GE that came with the house and my Maytag TOL I bought in the early 80's I bought a new TOL Kitchenaide in about 1980. I HATED that dishwasher and only kept it for about a year! It had no spray at the very top of the machine and the glasses would always have food particles on them and the heat boost would shut the machine down until the water reheated and started only to shut it down again over and over. It took about 3 or 4 hours to complete a cycle. Funny, since most take at least two hours now to complete that kind of cycle. I think that Kitchenaide did start putting the top spray again after that model, but it soured me on Kitchenaide dishwashers from then on. Funny thing is, that now I have a Whirlpool built one that is virtually the same thing as a Kitchenaide and like it quite well. So you can never tell! I lived in that house from 1979 till 2009 and had a total of 5 dishwashers in 30 years. Probably excessive, but I changed around a lot. Had a whole lot more washers and dryers in that house, I was always changing them out. As I have stated many times before, my favorite was my Kelvinator washer and a Hamilton dryer that both had the big glass window for viewing. Second favorite was my Frigidiare WCIL and DCIL set. That was a beautiful set and the dryer kept up with the washer load for load because of the rapidry 1000.
 
Well, you have to remember that the ones made back in the day, were much noisier, used more water, had a much shorter cycle time and did not clean nearly as well as the ones of today do. I seldom EVER have a dirty dish, pot or pan come out of the dishwasher I have today. The longer run times usually soak off the food and then spray it off with very little noise at all. Even the best of the one's in the 70's didn't do that. I should know, I had several of them myself. Dishwashers, like washers and dryers, have evolved a great deal in the last 40 years.
 
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