Help me find a new Dishwasher!

[kacyc1]

Hello, I've been weighing my options in replacing my Jenn-Air JDB11AWS.

Here's what I want:
Super Quiet
3 Racks
Blast the crap out of those dishes power
Love the angled top rack on my Jenn Air as my tall and long cookie sheets fit in.

Here's what I'm looking at:

I have a local dealer I have been shopping with for years that has a Miele G2830 Dishwasher for a steal (it's a really old display), but it's for a custom panel. I have Ikea cabinetry in my kitchen and thus this is not an option. Does anyone know if panels are still available for these? Also, it's white and would like both control panel and lower panel in stainless steel? Anyone know?

Also anyone have any experience with the Asko D5654XXLHS line? Rack setup is unique, plus love all of the 'wash zones'.

Also, the KitchenAid KUDE60SXSS. Matches all the rest of the appliances in my kitchen. Like the 'pro scrub' jets at the back. I have convection micro/hood, convection oven, and refrigerator. Very happy with all of the KA appliances, thus far.

Also, like the LG LDF9932ST. Its seems its been discontinued and I'm having a hard time trying to find on either online or via retail (but really would like to see what the quality is like).

Lastly, the Kenmore Elite 665.1397. I like the cleaning technology (dual bottom arms) and the turbo zone. Just wish it had a 3rd rack!

Let me know your thoughts! Also if you have any pics of your dishwashers, etc... just for fun! Thanks, KC

 

[lebron]

3 racks

One of our members has a LG machine with 3 racks that he has always spoken very highly of. IMO it would be worth the effort to track down a LG machine. Although Eugene I don't know if the LG LDF9932ST is even similar to your model?

 

[qualin]

Miele Miele Miele!!!

I'm very happy with my Miele Optima dishwasher. I got it at a discount because they've discontinued that model line, it's a Middle of the Line machine, but it does more than we need it to. We have very hard water here, so having a built in water softener really helps. It does a great job. I also love the third cutlery rack, the knives, forks and spoons come out absolutely clean.

Another thing I like is how it reminds us to add salt or rinse aid as needed. The rinse aid hole in the door doesn't leak like the one in my parents Inglis and my Roper did.

I paid an arm and a leg for my dishwasher ($2100), but I believe it's going to give me very many many years of excellent service. It was the quietest dishwasher on the market at the time I bought it 2 years ago and we don't even notice it running until it drains. (Most of that is just water gurgling.)

European Dishwashers take a different approach to cleaning dishes. My Miele on a normal cycle takes slightly over 2 hours to clean dishes, doing it quietly. North American dishwashers tend to have about a 40 minute cycle, but use much more aggressive (And noisier) washing action.

You can't have a dishwasher with aggressive washing action while being quiet. (At least, not to my knowledge anyway. Someone correct me here?)

There was a Asko recall in the US because every model of Asko dishwasher came with a complimentary "Burn your house down" cycle. :-( In Canada, we were screwed. http://www.maurer.ca/warnings.html .. Not right to charge twice as much as Whirlpool, but get Whirlpool quality.

With Kenmore, it's really hard to say who makes them as they may be made by anyone, including Samsung, LG, Whirlpool, you name it.

Miele dishwashers IMHO are worth the high price you pay for them.. but if you want something a bit cheaper, LG makes fairly decent dishwashers.

 

[toploader55]

Miele with out a doubt

For a Brand New Machine.
My House Mates/Landlords have a Miele that is going on 13 years old. Last year was the first repair. Pricy ??? Yes. Load Flexibility ??? You Betcha. Quiet ??? You can barely hear it running. If you have it connected to the Waste T on your sink, the only time you'll know the machine is on is when it drains.
I don't mind noise so I have a few KitchenAid KDS 18s and a KDS 20 for Built ins, and 5 Portables to break up the mundane task of loading the same machine everyday. LOL But I tell you it is sooo handy to have a protable close by when you either cook alot or entertain. It's great to have the "Extra Pair of Hands".

 

[combo52]

New DWs

Unfortunately you can't have supper silent with top cleaning performance. The best cleaning performance and capacity are the lower priced WP built machines with the disposer, WP some KMs and MT brands. The Mieles are supper silent but have Much smaller capacity messy filters and you face the possibility of one or more $500.00 repairs on the machine before it hits the scrap pile in 5-20 years.

 

[mtn1584]

I would recommend...........................................

from my own expereience, the KitchenAid (built by WP) bottom of the line stainless interior with three simple cycles Heavy, Reg, Rinse, & Wash Boost. I never had a dish come out of this machine dirty. I overload my machines, and NEVER pre-wash. I just use two Finish Power-Ball Tabs, and the Heavy Cycle with Wahs Boost. The machine cost me about $511, but it was well worth it.
Mike

 

[qualin]

Disposers do have the advantage of grinding up any food matter you up in there, but they also make the machine noisier too. Just something to think about.

To Combo52:

I'll let you know when I need my first $500 repair. The food waste collector in my machine is fairly big (IMHO) and easy to clean out.

The quietness of this machine makes it worth the price IMHO. Maybe I did overpay somewhat, but we'll see how it fares against some friends of mine who have a Samsung dishwasher.

 

[frigilux]

Hi Lebron!

Yes, I like my TOL LG dishwasher a lot. It has a third rack at the top for cutlery/silverware. The machine comes with regular silverware baskets for the bottom rack, but I've never used them. In fact, I don't even know where I put them, LOL.

LG's 9932 has the cutlery rack, and is quite similar to mine, although the selection of cycles is a bit different. It's still listed at their website, so I'm surprised it isn't readily available. Maybe LG is about to unveil a new TOL machine.

Other features I like: Single rack wash option (use it all the time); Steam (you get a dedicated steam generator with an LG); Dual-intensity washing: You can choose either gentle, normal, or powerful spray for either rack. This is nice when the bottom rack is full of pots/pans and the upper rack is full of lightweight plastics or glassware. You can wash the bottom rack with powerful spray and choose gentle spray for the upper rack.

One big caveat: Consumer Reports lists LG dishwashers as the least reliable brand. Mine gets very hard use, is about three years old, and has never given me a bit of trouble. CR rates it very high (2nd only to a Bosch model), but they won't recommend it due to the reliability issues.

 

[mieleforever]

Re - LG

Hi, we have had a LG dw, and it lasted about 6 years , and within that 6 years had to repair it - for 1, the door catch locked and you could not open the door, 2, the screen, or led's failed so you could not see what program was selected, and know it just would not want to even start up.

After the first problems we gave it to my mother in law (repaired the machine) and bought a Siemens, have not had a single problem, been having it for about 5 years now.

Oh and I bought my own mother a brand new LG dw, after about one month use the top rack's rolers / coaster, on to which the rack fits just perrished and crumbled, and it was quite the problem getting LG to replace the rack.

So all in all I would not go for LG, when we had the machine it really cleaned good but was not very reliable, when taken the above into account, oh yeah one of its spray arms just came loose, so no dont go for the LG.

Being from South Africa, we follow the European ways in most of our appliances, I dont even think you get a d/w with a food disposal, but that is hardly a work, the European machine are IMHO far more superior, in energy usage, noise levels and cleaning ability, our Siemens heats up to 70 degrees celcius, and works with about 12 liters of water per cycle, so if you have the money, you should definately go for a Miele, they are the best of the best, snd Second in line go for Siemens / Bosch.

Well that my few cents worth.

Hope that the right machine finds you.

Cheers

 

[logixx]

"You can't have a dishwasher with aggressive washing action while being quiet. (At least, not to my knowledge anyway. Someone correct me here?)"

Depends on what is aggressive means for you. Our Siemens (Bosch) dishwasher is pretty quiet at 46dB but still has a powerful wash action. The bottom spray arm easily throws the water all the way up to the tub's ceiling where it bounces off in all directions. Yes, it doesn't circulate ten gallons per second or whatever like a Hobart but it does a very good job on 99% of whatever I put in there. Small items like cookie cutters that I try to secure in the cutlery basket by putting cutlery items on top of it usually end up in the bottom of the tub because the water pressure just washes them out of the basket.

And the dishwasher economical, too. I read the manual of the TOL Kenmore dishwasher with that touch screen and most cycle are around 120 minutes - even up to 3:25 hrs. in some cases. The One Hour wash is faster but does not dry the dishes and *only* consumes eight gallons. Well, the Quick Wash on our Siemens is 45 minutes including drying and need only a third of the water. Yes, some newer models are even more frugal - Whirlpool just released a dishwasher with a 1.6 gal cycle - but I'm fine with the 3.8 gallons our Siemens uses.

As far as the "filter issue" is concerned - well, I'm not even gonna go there!

The control panel on Miele dishwashers is easily interchangable, by the way.

Alex

 

[qualin]

Bosch would have been my second choice over the Miele, but I really liked the top cutlery tray of the Miele, which the Bosch machines didn't have.

My choices in order of preference would be:

1. Miele
2. Bosch
3. LG or Samsung. (About the same IMHO for preference)
4. Inglis/Whirlpool

My parents Inglis machine probably broke down at least three times in the time they owned it, it saw heavy use for at least 14 years. The first problem was the pump, the second problem was the timer, then the pump went again.

If I were going to consider option #3 or #4, I'd get extended warranties out the wazoo. Especially if buying them from a big box electronics store.

 

[volsboy1]

Try the new Samsung Storm-wash dishwasher that is out now..My Aunt bought my Dads side one and I used it for a month and that thing can clean like hell..It has two wash arms on the bottom well sorda it has a new type of main wash arm and then there is a small wash arm/wheel that is for heavy burnt food but I found that no matter what I put in that dishwasher in came clean.This dishwasher is rated number one it is made very well it is totally sealed and 48 D.B. in how loud it is..There is also a hard food disposer in it also and all for 800 bucks for the Stainless steel model.I am in the middle of getting my dream Kitchen and I am getting two of these now and save close to 3 thousand bucks cause I was going to get the Miele T.O.L. dishwashers.I love Miele dishwashers my Aunt has two of them in her house in Buck-head.I have two surrogate mothers my Dads Sister one and my Moms Sister is another my Moms Sister is well very well off to say the least but she loves me like her kid even though I am gay,sad thing to say she is more accepting than my Mom about the gay thing.Most my family is right wing nuts that hate me cause they think there they only ones going to heaven but they are so filled with hate.....

 

[bosch2460]

IMHO....

Forget the Samsungs...spring for the Miele's. Pay now, or pay later.... Just my 2 cents.

 

[combo52]

New Miele DWs

Yes get the Miele, you pay now and you keep paying till you get tired of paying and then you buy a reliable  [ full sized ] DW. I said that I have a three year old Miele DW on the trash pile that looks like new, we see these trashed all the time along with Askos and Bosch DWs. They are just too difficult and expensive to repair, usally after a few repairs they are trashed and I have never had a customer buy a 2nd one.

 

[bosch2460]

HAHA, I still say go with Miele. Just because you are "in the business" of repairs does not always make you right. You are a repair man, and you see only the negative side of it. You also only see a small percentage of European appliances, compared to domestic. What about all of the others who love them? I hardly think you get customers calling up telling how much they love their major appliances. While your opinion might be valued, that is all that it is. An opinion. And just like yours, I have the right to mine. I happen to be a die-hard Miele fan, for modern laundry and dishwashing purposes.

 

[qualin]

To Combo52

Whenever I consider buying an appliance, the feature set, the reliability and quality of the appliance come first. Price isn't even a factor unless it's something really unreasonable. (Americans always get the luxury of paying less, damnit.)

Everybody makes lemons.. But IMHO, I'd rather have to pay for someone to replace a faulty pump or a bad controller board than have the damn thing burn my house down because nobody who engineered it thought to seal off the electronics.

(See link below.)

That doesn't mean that I wouldn't ever consider Samsung, LG or GE. I think the saying is true that, "You get what you pay for."

 

[kacyc1]

Thanks so much for all of your responses! My Miele I wanted got sold, so now I'm back to the drawing board. I'm leaning towards a Kitchen Aid so all of my appliances match, but right now no one is having any great sales so I'm just waiting (did I mention I'm very frugal?). Thanks again for all your input!

 

[firedome]

Rant warning: I totally agree

with John. German products tend to have a very characteristic engineering philosophy. Every German car we've owned, for example (Benz & BMW - never had a VW/Audi but told they are the same or worse; my sister's had nothing but continuous intractable problems with her '08 A-6, and just went back to an Infinity M35) has, for example, been extremely trouble prone and expensive to own and repair due to the typical German tendency toward over-complicated engineering in a futile attempt at achieving some sort of technical nirvana. Ever use the i-Drive display on a 5 series? Overcomplicated troublesome PITA. Only Germans would come up with a 4 ball joint front-end costing $2K every 40k miles. V8 engines with bad crankshaft oiling, poor cooling passages in heads. Sketchy fuel injection software. Sure they drive just great.. when they work. We too went back to Japanese cars that are dependable.

Consumer Reports does not rate either Miehle or Bosch highly in the Repair category, and it's not at all surprising due to that proclivity to overcomplicate. In engineering simple is best. It's not opinion, it's supportable fact, direct from owners, the only source of this kind of repair data. For some people German products are about the features, for some, status, or maybe some bogus German "quality" legend overhang from the old air-cooled VW beetle days. When you can buy 3 good anything for one of the over-priced Teutonic primadonnas it's not exactly practicality that's at the forefront, if that's of any concern. Maybe it's not.

We totally bought into the legend, heck, my partner is German, family from Stuttgart and Dresden: Dietrichs and Wolfels, it doesn't get any more German than that. But in the real world, long term, the products, while occasionally technically brilliant, tend to be for those who don't particularly care about bang for the buck. Porsches & BMWs are fabulous to drive, but don't expect to do so on the cheap. For those that like them, fine, but show me those bills in 10 years. Too bad Lexus doesn't make washers. Now those I'd buy. Rant over & out.

 

[firedome]

ps

sorry about the rant...can you tell we felt burned after owning several German cars?

Good luck kacyc1 with whatever you get...be sure to lettuce know!