How did these KA dishwashers get water to the top rack?

[combo52]

Cheap GE pop-up tower dishwashers

Reply number 17, wow that’s worse than I even imagined it can’t even get water to the center of the upper rack let alone the corners that’s probably the worst pop-up tower design. I ever saw some of them at least get the whole center of the upper rack clean.

You should see a video of a one arm KitchenAid working it’s an amazing amount of water everywhere compared to that pathetic newer GE, you can see why they have to have 30 minute wash cycles.

John L

 

[Chetlaham]

The center might be lacking as does with any top spray arm dishwasher, however as much you don't want to recognize it other members and I have never had issues with cups and bowls in the corners coming out dirty even with the lower rack holds pots and pans. The spray does reach into the corners.

 

 

Keep calling me stupid for getting great results out of a great dishwasher.

 

[combo52]

Chet you made the mistake with picturing how you load a dishwasher you don’t even put 1/4 of the amount of stuff in it that could go in it so you probably do get decent results

You also don’t have a standard tub GE dishwasher with a pop-up tower in your kitchen.

John L

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>Chet you made the mistake with picturing how you load a dishwasher you don’t even put 1/4 of the amount of stuff in it that could go in it so you probably do get decent results</blockquote> John, if you're referring to the video linked in Reply #17, I don't believe it was produced by Chetlaham.  It's dated 11/6/2012, seems unlikely he'd have planned 12+ years ahead for referencing it now.

 

[michaelh]

Loading

As other have mentioned, and like any dishwasher, it's all about loading.

I have 2 KA dishwashers that only spray from the bottom. I just don't put too many things on the bottom rack that will hinder the wash from reaching the top. I very rarely have an item that didn't get fully clean. I can't say that about other, less powerful machines that only had one sprayer. It's all about the power with the Hobart KAs.

KA-18s and beyond, must be perfection.

 

[Chetlaham]

The video isn't mine, I only linked it as an example as it was the only video I could find on the internet of a GE pop up tower washing in action.

 

 

I've had several GE pop up tower dishwashers in my Kitchen. I know exactly what they are capable of. I regret not saving the fine filter models.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

to chetlaham

I had a Kenmore built GE tower dishwasher which got everything clean.

 

[maytaga806]

As I said many times on here we had a 80s hotpoint with the pop up tower and it cleaned the top rack flawlessly every single time. Which was very surprising. So that’s a load of BS.

 

[dermacie]

I will say I have had both one arm and multiple arm Kitchenaid dishwashers and they all cleaned well, we never washed pots in ours even to this day. I do have very fond memories 30 years ago of a builder model Hotpoint my brother had in his newly built home that cleaned everything. It’s plastic tub cheap racks spray tower and two cycles cleaned great. It was noisy and no Kitchenaid and if I recall he had to pay $200.00 extra to have it installed. And I was disappointed when I went there 10 years ago to find a fancy Frigidaire dishwasher in its place.

 

[agiflow]

I've only had three dishwashers so far and the last one I had was a mid level Frigidaire with blue thunderbolt type wash arm. Wasn't the greatest as far as loading goes and you needed to have good detergent for it to clean well. A little disappointing but it was better than having no dishwasher.Even the foreign made GE portable I have now is a better cleaner.

 

[johnb300m]

What’s missing here?

Oh yeah, nuance.
I’ve had various tower machines in apartments.
If they’re loaded carefully they do wash very well. Even in the upper corners.
But the second you put plates too close to the tower, or a loathe pot that is too tall and shadows the upper corner above it, they area will not wash. It’ll stream clean at best. And will usually be full of grit, especially on Durawashes, and no -filter GEs.

 

[egress]

I love non-filtered machines with a macerator. evenly disperses crud over every single thing in the top rack, especially corner glasses. gotta be extra asinine on scraping lest you miss some rice... that being said, the newer frigidaire does better than the GE/Hotpoint tower wash we had prior...

 

[michaelh]

They get the water up there.

 

[combo52]

Reply number 32

Great video Michael, back in the mid 70s my brother Jeff was working for a whirlpool KitchenAid Maytag dealer in Silver Spring Maryland and the Maytag rep came and installed one of those see-through plastic reverse rack, Maytag dishwasher demonstrators and after watching that for a few minutes, my brother Jeff asked his boss if he could get the plastic front kit for a 17 and set it up on the showroom Which is boss agreed to. Once the KitchenAid was set up and switched on, there was no comparison to the Maytag Jeff said he didn’t think they ever sold more than a half dozen Maytag DWs anyway, but they were a big KitchenAid dealer, but it was amazing the amount of water That the single arm KitchenAid’s and the single arm whirlpools for that matter moved it was very impressive.
John L

 

[DADoES]

 
The reference to vintage KA as a 'hurricane in a box' was prit'much spot-on.

This is a longer video from the channel linked above, with dishware.

 

[ozzie908]

No wonder they didn't use an upper wash arm ...

It would seem that machine doesn't need any help getting the top rack clean with only its lower arm, Those pumps were beasts.

 

[DADoES]

 
The evidence also explains why dishwashers nowadays are so much quieter ... smaller motors and pumps ... reduced water usage, spray volume, and force ... relying much more heavily on chemicals/enzymes to dissolve food soils with some spritzing to flush/rinse the dishware.  It works but requires much more time.  

 

[tomturbomatic]

When our 15 was new, I used to hold the door open, hold the door switch in and push the Full Cycle button. It was fun to watch the little jets of water start spurting out of the wash arm. If I let go of the door switch, all of the water would drain back into the sump and if I pressed the door switch again, there would be much taller jets of water. It was best to not release the door switch because it pretty much ended the water play.

 

[firedome]

KA one arm wonders...

work great with just the tiniest bit of intelligence when loading. We bought a KDC-17 new in 1974 and used it for 15 years with a family of 5 (after '77 and on) and it was a fabulous machine, fast, thorough, and dependable. We've had a KDI-18 as well. Remember the commercial Hobart undercounter machines of the time originally used the same washarm... early on it was the "cast-iron-wonder", and it had to do the job. Those who denigrate these marvels either never used on or have no common sense, no, you don't put a 12qt pot in the bottom rack ... D'oh!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Well, if you do put a 12 qt pot in the bottom rack, you don't put something above it. After holiday meals we used to put the 18 qt. insert pan out of the Westinghouse roaster oven in the lower rack of the 15 and scatter smaller items like bowls and plates around the perimeter of both racks and it all got clean.