F&P Dishdrawer Tall

[jkbff]

... I've been sick the past few days and have been snooping through the forum. I was, in my mind, thinking it would be cool to have a goal of finding a top-loading dishwasher like the KitchenAids or the Maytags...

I got to thinking why no one makes a machine like that now considering little bending is involved.... Then either the pain pills kicked in or I had a true flash back and I saw the 'dish, drawer, dish, drawer' commercial pop in my head...



At this point either the cats knocked something over or the lightbulb exploded in my mind...

... Anywho, not that I am going to obsess over getting a pair of dishdrawers (I actually acquired a set and they are in my storage unit, someone was supposed to buy them from me but never showed). I remember seeing someone post that the dishdrawer seemed to be going away...

I thought I would check on F&P's website and saw the new Tall tub drawer... How awesome is that? I'd imagine they'd be better for pots and pans, but who knows...

Anyways I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with the talls, or actually if anyone had any experience with the DCS Double DishDrawer Tall which claims "7 Place settings per drawer; Top drawer accommodates 13” plates, Bottom drawer accommodates 11 1/2” plates".

If only these units had a food grinder...

You can thank this post for the epiphany! ( http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?44243 ).

 

[washer111]

DD Tall

These should be equally capable when compared to their regular sized brethren. Reaching tall, thin items at the corners of the rack *might* be an issue (as it sometimes is).

 

Cleaning performance is great. The machine can deal with lots of soil, and ours has been known to gobble up plenty of rice - as the drain filter separated, only the filter, not the cover remains. So lots of trash does go through it somewhat regularly. 

Provided you use hotter cycles, which may or may not use a prewash regularly, the machines filter is self-cleaning. I believe one member has never really bothered, since the filter doesn't accumulate crap (U.S. machines run hotter with more water changes, explaining why this is possible). Otherwise - you do have to clean filters sometimes, depending how dirty your plates are. 

 

Whilst our one is just a regular, its seen three years of near-daily service without a hitch - bar those drain filters, which are a crap design, IMO. 

I wouldn't expect the tall models to be any different, except for size. 

 

[DADoES]

 
The Tall version isn't quite exactly new, it has been available for a few years.  A service document I have that references them is dated April 2009.

There's also a 36" Wide version which followed the Tall.

 

[mattl]

My cousin has the double dish drawer and likes it. No issues so far and they are a family of 6 to 30 during the holidays. They seem to get everything in and clean...

 

[jkbff]

Ok, but how does that smartdrive wash/drain pump perform compared to say the pump thats in my Maytag MDB8959SBS (I believe its point voyager)?

I mean can these machines with their smaller components really perform as well or outperform bigger units?

Is there water circulation on the top?

I know KitchenAid used to use F&P for their drawers, then they switched to Fulgor and the Fulgor design had an assembly on the one side that had a few jets and what seemed like an augor on it that rotated and shot water in every which direction. How does F&P compensate for that?

I've experienced what its like having a single arm unit with no water spray or trickle on top. My edgestar countertop unit doesn't have an arm on the top, it just has the one arm on the bottom. Sometimes I had problems with larger objects getting cleaned on both sides.

 

[washer111]

The F&P pump design is very robust, and very simple. It actually moves a TON of water, considering it only uses about 0.59 Gallons every fill. Machines using double this should easily accomplish such spray - but due to the amount of pipework and size of it, they often don't. The DishDrawer's pump uses the Spray-Arm as the pump-head to generate pressure. 

 

There is no spray from the top or sides - instead, one's loading should account for this to allow a "Constant Rinse" action. Otherwise, you might have towel off the tops of glasses afterwards in return. 

 

I found the cleaning to be very comprehensive, when loaded correctly. The only issue was tall/thin items in the corners of the rack. Load up with wider items, and there is no issue (I always let the tall glasses sit on the edges, since our mugs inhibit the loading of other stuff in the racks. Its never a chore to remove crap from one glass, anyway). 

 

The video was produced by member "Dadoes" and effectively displays the spraying power. Since there aren't any dishes, the soap gets a bit frothy at the end, inhibiting the wash. But you get the idea. 

 

[easyspindry]

I've go the F&P . . .

. . . double dish drawers and love 'em. I've had them now about five years with no problems whatsoever. They clean beautifully and I enjoy doing small loads instead of waiting for a large dishwasher to get full before I run it. Now whenever I need something to cook or eat with, it's clean and ready to go.

They've given great service and I'd so it again without question.

Jerry Gay

 

[DADoES]

 
There is no detergent in the video clip.  Any foaming is from aeration of the water.

My DD603 (series 3.5, current models are series 7) takes ~0.8 gals per fill.  It'll be 11 years on 8/21.

The spray is strong enough to flip plastic items.  I've had a couple incidents of a small glass custard cup overturning, depending how/where it was loaded.  I bought a few KitchenAid rack clips to anchor lightweight items -- the old-style KA clips work nicely, the new style doesn't.

Latest design has the four side shelves height-adjustable and fold-down tines in the rack.  There are no such provisions on DD603.