2800/1250
No bitten children or untoward pools of pea soup here. But owning a digital 2600/2800 or electromechanical 1200/1250 is like the argument between an Oldsmobile and a Cadillac. Both are good conveyances built on almost the same platform, but it comes down to the bells and whistles--and what havoc may be wreaked by them.
We have a 1250 (later iteration of the 1200 rapid-advance) in our kitchen right now, and love it.
I always adored the 2800, but for two things:
- The Teflon bearing under the wash arm would wear with time, and slow the arm. Any reduction in RPMs of the wash arm below a certain threshold would cause a "Blocked Wash Arm" message on the Systems Center. This would, in turn, cause the machine to sit there beeping, until the water went cold and the operator reset the machine. This was funny the first couple of times, and in fact may have made the dishwasher an Energy Star candidate, since it could ostensibly complete any phase of the cycle with 72-degree water.
- This machine uses magnetic sensors to note the position of things. If the sensors fail or get weak, or the electronics get addled, you start getting some incredibly annoying behaviors. On ours, everything mostly worked (Blocked Wash Arm issue notwithstanding), but the computer never knew where the detergent cup was at. The actuator still operated, but the computer was never sure if the cup was closed at the outset of the cycle, so it threw a non-critical "Cup Open" error that could be bypassed by pressing Start twice.
After a while, you started feeling nannied by the thing, and just wanted a machine that would shut the hell up and wash the dishes.
A couple of other items:
- This is still a GE dishwasher, and the microfiltration system, although a must-have addition to the suite of features (and yes, you will notice a difference), is passive. This means that whatever garbage falls down along the back wall of the tank is held in a separate area, while clean(er) water, free of small vehicles and boulders, flows through a microscreen back into the tub, to be sucked into the (otherwise normal) GE pump intake and blown back onto the dishes at low PSI and high volume. Keep in mind that Volkswagens, tree branches, and chicken bones can easily make it through that pump, and wind up in the wash arms, potentially blocking a hole. If it blocks the hole pointed underneath the lower wash arm at the microscreen to back-wash it, you'll notice crud buildup in the filter and reduced performance. It's not a deal-breaker if you scrape the dishes, but I did enjoy the fact that our 1250 picked up an apple stem at some point. (And yes, it ended up in the filter-cleaning nozzle, of course.)
- The Multi-Orbit wash arm and articulated telescoping tower on these are amazing, and I have to say the top-rack cleaning is about as good as it can possibly get without a wash arm. Things get surprisingly clean up there, and the top rack holds a ton. Deeper pots and even dinner plates can perch in ours. Cutting boards and cookie sheets, alas, cannot sneak in the bottom rack, as the rails are too low along the sides.
That said (and noting the shortcomings of the bottom rack John pointed out above), it was a great machine. I kvetched and kvelled at length here:
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?38522
