Dishwashers. Consumer Reports. May 1974

[whitetub]

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.

 

[gyrafoam]

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!

 

[frigilux]

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]

 

[whitetub]

They look a little blurry. I 'll try see if I can reload them but clearer.

 

[cuffs054]

Is there a way to enlarge the text? I would love to re-read this. I clearly remember the cover.

 

[whitetub]

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[whitetub]

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[whitetub]

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[whitetub]

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[whitetub]

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[whitetub]

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[frigilux]

Much clearer. Thanks!

 

[whitetub]

You're welcome. Enjoy.

 

[ilovewindex]

I want one of those frigidaires.. Only the asko's i've played with can you defeat the latches

 

[a440]

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?

 

 

 

[brucelucenta]

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.

 

[peteski50]

Consumer Reports!!

Thank you so much for posting this real great information, I only wish the dishwashers made today were made like these great old ones!

 

[brucelucenta]

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.

 

[vacerator]

I had a

GM Frigidaire dishwasher in an apartment I lived in in 1980, and it was an older gold color model, from the 70's. It washed well.

 

[whitetub]

But they were ruled "not acceptable" !!!! Lol !!

Did it ever run with the door open?

 

[maytagbear]

Ohhhhhhhh!

THIS is the Consumer Reports I loved and deeply, deeply miss nowadays!!!

We had the portable/convertible WC 400, and it was exactly as described. It ran well for nearly 20 years. It came with the rinse aid dispenser, which we always used. Only two moderately minor repairs.

Thank you for posting this, Whitetub!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[gyrafoam]

That Maytag-------

had an unusual quirk. The lower spray-arm ALWAYS stopped in a position exactly parallel to the oblong SS filtration panel just below it!

Brucelucenta mentioned the Builders-Grade GE BOL DW. During the apartment building boom of the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies there were a gazillion of them installed including their companion machines badged Hotpoint. Either one sounded like a circular-saw when in operation (the Hotpoints claimed "Quiet-Wash") complete with snapping solenoids. You could hear them outside the building. Neither brand had any kind of filtration system. They were awful. There must have been a few million of them just in central Florida alone. In Tampa, the only dishwasher detergent that worked in one of them was Dishwasher All for some reason. Go 'figya.

The up-side was that usually one of those little GE Disposalls was also installed. Loud as hell, but VERY effective. I NEVER had one jam on me.

 

[cuffs054]

Whitetub, thank you very much. CR was much better then.

 

[cuffs054]

Guys a brilliant idea! What if we did a survey showing the percentage of members who read/re-read the article. We could then send it to CU and say "see we told you, the old style was way better""

 

[askolover]

My mother had a Superba of this year!  It lasted until 1987 and was used every single day.

 

[vacerator]

No,

that Frigidaire never ran with the door open.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The important thing that CU did not rate was the advantage of a machine with a wash arm under the top rack. If you used a dishwasher for pots and pans or mixing bowls, having a water source under the top rack could greatly increase the capacity of the machine, but CU did not test the machines with water blocking items in the lower rack which would have proved the advantages of that feature. 

 

[DADoES]

 
I recall a report from either CR or Consumer's Research that advised one spray arm under the lower rack is sufficient considering the small space of a dishwasher tank.

 

[frigilux]

Although I understand why CR said, "No, no, no" to the Frigidaires that could spray 150 degree water and Cascade in the face of a child who opened the door (not that any of us would have done that when we were kids, right?)....but it sure would have been nice to read their take on those machines. Frigidaires were all over the town I grew up in. Most were very rusted and I heard a number of complaints about cleaning ability.[this post was last edited: 9/11/2016-14:46]

 

[combo52]

CRs 1974 Report On Built-In DWs

While I enjoy reading these older CRs I feel that this particular report was far from giving great advice to the average DW buyer.

 

The main reason that the MT WU400 was top rated was low energy usage, it was poor at washing flat ware, so-so at drying and CRs own tests showed the WP and KA DW were better at both these important tasks.

 

One of my other big grips with the report was it was ridiculous to put a lasagne casserole in the WP DW and show the noodles all over the filter afterwards and down rate the DW as a result. The large flat filter in the WP DW was self-cleaning, of all the hundreds of WP DWs like this that I serviced over the years I never saw a dirty filter in one. All the user had to do was empty the removable trap and dump it in the trash.

Had they done the same test with the MT or KA there would have also been a big mess to clean up. Probably the only DW in this test that would have gotten rid of all the noodles would have been the D&M built KM DW.

 

I have also always had a beef with CRs saying the ratings order are in order of [ estimated overall quality ] To put a cheap builder quality GE plastol tub DW in the same class as a KA was ridiculous. Anyone with a little knowledge of DWs and history of appliance longevity could tell that a KA DW would have approximately twice the life expectancy of GE DW [ and several other DWs in this test ].

 

Also as Tom mentioned the other big fault in CRs DW tests was that they only tested them with dishes which is an acceptable test for users that only wash dishes [ no big bowls, pots and pans, roasting pans etc ] but without a full wash-arm under each rack a DW will always have serious limitations in its ability to wash all kinds of kitchen items.

 

This is why there is no serious DW built today that does not have dual wash arms under each rack, CRs should have been able to realize this in 1974 and before.

 

John L.