Do you like the KitchenAid Superba KDS-17A (Hobart KA harvest gold)

[sarah]

Hi All,

Our house came with a loathesome GE 500 dishwasher which appears to be bottom of the line. Last Saturday it's solenoid, pump assembly died. My husband fixed it but suggested we start looking for another.

Today I saw a pristine looking harvest gold KA Superba KDS-17A with some faux woodgrain on the console, push buttons, a plate dry cycle and what looks like a jet dry reservior. The interior is aqua or turquoise and the water mechanism is a stainless cross on the bottom that rotates with holes on the arms. There's not a chip on the rack coatings, and the machine appears to be in mint condition. It also appears to have been the top of the line.

I like that it has no electronics. I think the rack design looks good, and the plate warming feature as well as the whole front design is pretty cool. It will look great with the 1966 P-7 wall ovens I'm searching for when I finally find them!

So is it a good model? Does it do the dishes well? And does it dry them? What about parts? Can I find them? I figure since it was made when Hobart still owned KA it's probably well made, but I know appliances vary from model to model. I can go back for a picture if I need to...

Thanks,
Sarah

 

[DADoES]

The only drawback to this dishwasher, IMO, is that it has just the single wash arm under the lower rack. In practice it's not too difficult to work around that, but it does restrict loading large bowls, pots, etc. in the lower rack so spray to the upper rack isn't blocked.

KDS (Superba) is the top-of-the-line model. My family had a KDI-17A (Imperial middle-of-the-line model), and *rarely* did it fail at cleaning anything when loaded properly. And I used to *stuff* it! Drying is via heated air circulated by a blower. The 17-A series were the first KA models to include a non-heated "energy saver" dry button.

Being that it's more than 30 years old, some parts may be available, but many probably are not.

 

[andrewinorlando]

Glenn is absolutely correct about the loading issue....it's a pretty powerful dishwasher, so washing the top rack from the bottom arm isn't a problem, as long as you load it correctly. The 17 also has a small upper spray that showers down from the top of the machine, but you have to be careful about how you load the lower rack so that water can reach the upper rack. It certainly is a workhorse of a dishwasher.

 

[stevet]

Look at the other post on this unit

I saw the other posting on this unit before I saw this one. Looks like great minds think alike! Check there too, Sarah!