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

[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.

 

[norgeway]

Ill tell you how they cleaned!

PURE UNADULTERATED POWER! I wouldnt trade a single wash arm Kitchen Aid for any other dishwasher ever made, they wash better than the two wash arm Kitchen Aids because the full force of the water is coming out of one wash arm, the pressure is tremendous, Dont believe me, open a portable single wash arm model while its running the water will go at least ten to fifteen feet in the air, unless you put 9 by 13 casseroles across the bottom and block the water compltely, it will clean.