Is the "18" R-E-A-L-L-Y all that?

[mrcleanjeans]

Is the KitchenAid KD-18 series truly the best ever? I think they look great, but someone once said on here about 7 years ago- I think it was Tom Turbomatic-that the way they drained was, in essence-a step backwards. Plus, that "upper level power wash" middle wash arm didn't even get NEAR the corners. What are all of your thoughts on this? The KD-16s seem, to me, to be the MOST reliable ever.

 

[firedome]

As were the KD-15 and KD-17s. Don't believe the 16 bested them in any way. Just load any of them properly and all is well.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

John mentioned some probs with the bi-metal detergent dispensers on the 17s,and he does know his stuff. I think the 16s were better than the 15s in the sense that they had the overhead "constant rinse" helping to flush giblets from atop of upper rack items,but come to think of it, you are right I believe, the 15s were also VERY reliable as far as i I have heard!

 

[mrcleanjeans]

But WHY is the 18 the most revered, despite these flaws?

 

[tomturbomatic]

The 18 series was the apotheosis of KitchenAids. It introduced the wash arm under the top rack while retaining the constant rinse. Modified with the 19's wider upper arm, there is virtually no dead space in one, no matter how it is loaded. The idiots at CU never caught on to the importance of a wash arm under the upper rack or the dishwasher would have been heralded as a real "GOT TO HAVE" machine. Unfortunately the energy crisis was making such an impact that Hobart had to go and stupidly discontinue the series for the disastrous 19s which sold only slightly better than umbrellas in the Antarctic and proved only slightly more satisfactory. Hobart reached its zenith with the 18s. The 18 series was as significant an advance over its predecessor as the 15 was over the 14, not in that it washed better and held more like the 15, but the loading flexibility was phenominal and it did have a real Soak & Scrub cycle that did some water heating, not just a Soak cycle.

Super heavily soiled things still go in my Ultra Wash, because the KA does not have WP's Pot Smasher cycle, but really big loads of everything else that don't need the hell beat out of them are very well cleaned by the 18s after 34 years of use.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

Tom, your posts are SO interesting, I just love them. What was so bad about the 19s if they were slightly better than the 18s? And didn't you say 7 years ago that the way the 18s drained was not the most satisfactory?

 

[mixfinder]

In Depth

I couldn't agree more about Tom. I admire not only the knowledge he imparts but the sheer work and time of sharing in detail. I don't know the model, but the handle was in the console, not below and it had a constant rinse. I never in my life had a dishwasher clean like it did. If I find another Kitchenaid like the one I had or a flip/flop Maytag I'd buy it in a second. The only caveat is wondering why the dishes aren't getting clean and finding the mesh strainer completely blocked.

 

[gansky1]

I've had about nine different dishwashers in my kitchen since we bought this house in 1998 and I always go back to the KDS-18.  It's by far the most versatile and best cleaning machine.  The 14 series, I've had the Superba and the Custom at different times are awesome performers but a bit limiting in capacity.  I have a KDS-14 in the garage next to the TOL Maytag and almost never let it sit more than a week without using it.  A great second machine.  I've had a KDS-17 in the kitchen as well but while being a stellar performer, is still not as versatile as the 18.  I had a Whirlpool Power-something from around '88 that was an outstanding cleaning machine but the racks were crumbling and the build quality wasn't as heavy as the KA.  Nothing else feels like a KitchenAid, remember the advertisement of people slamming the door of their dishwashers?  You really can't do that with any other machine. 

Here is a KA shell holding up an Amana convection Radarange that seems like it weighs about 8000 lbs. 

 

The 19 series was largely regarded, even by Hobart-KitchenAid as their least successful model because of the water heating cycle profile and the lack of any heated drying.  The drastic temp changes of the heated water on cooled glassware also left a lot of etching.

<!--?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?-->
<span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; color: midnightblue;"> </span>

 

[gansky1]

This is the 14 Superba in the garage last week washing up a load of license plates from my son's collection. 

 

[gansky1]

A Hipstamatic 70's style pic of my dishwasher sportin' beautiful Stainless Steel panels that Ben brought for me.  These are heavy SS panels, nothing like what you see on the new stuff today.   They were pretty dirty and had paint on them, a little scrubbing with BonAmi (remains of the process on the counter) and they were shining like new again.

 

<!--?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?-->
<span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; color: midnightblue;"> </span>

 

[mrcleanjeans]

You "da man,Gan". Kewl pics and another tidbit that I didn't realize was the etching from drastic temp changes. KitchenAid should not have heated the prewash ,statically at that, to 150 degrees,rather should have heated the main wash,the way Kenmore UltraWash and Whirlpool PowerCleans have done for years, thermostatically delaying while recirculating. This,plus the always no heat fan dry, I think, were the 19s downfalls. Plus, the overhead contant wash/ rinse as they now called it was eliminated and replaced by a stationary slit at the top of the feed assembly in the back of the tub, another step back. Well, at least they got the middle wash arm corrected by extending it and increasing pressure to it , plus decreasing jet hole sizes for a 100 percent increase in wash action for the upper rack,they claimed, over the 18s.

 

[peteski50]

KDS19!

My family had the kds19 for 25 years. I agree the main wash should have had the delay and it should have had a heated dry, but it was a really good dishwasher. We never had a problem with glasses etching. The drying performance was still better than todays heated drying dishwashers. If you used the jetdry on the 19 series the drying improved to top notch. It probably would have went over better with a SS tub. It was a DW before its time. One of the complaints was the cycle time was to long. Compared to todays machines it by far was a time saver!
Peter

 

[mrcleanjeans]

I would rather have the 19 than any of today's machines

 

[tomturbomatic]

You have an excellent memory!

The drain valve in the 18 was smaller in diameter and thus slightly more prone to clogging or jamming on trapped small bits of hard material than the drain valves of previous models.

 

[bajaespuma]

Our KDP-18

This was probably the best dishwasher my family ever owned, but no one really cared. I remember it was the first time I'd seen the Patrician introduced into the KitchenAid line and it served them well for sixteen years. Here it is at the end of its tenure and it still looks brand new:

 

[bajaespuma]

Was never very excited by this wonderful machine for some re

Had all the cycles you would ever want, had a very effective rapid-advance timer and did a bang up job even in the rock-hard water that they had in that house. You could load anything anywhere, but because it was my Mother's machine, few pots, pans or anything else ever got loaded into it. I'm a hold out; I still prefer the elegant old-fashioned racking of the 17 and 16 series. When KA put in the upper wash arm and moved the large plate racks to the LH side, they should have totally redesigned the top rack. But, as usual, no one listens to me.

 

I should have taken this machine with me, but at the end of a long drawn out sale with very difficult buyers, I decided to save everybody, including myself, the grief of trying to remove a built-in dishwasher from a very tight hole with a dedicated drain for the previous gravity drain GE front loader.

 

[peteski50]

Patrician!

Ken this was a really nice model and I know this was the first of the Patrician models. It was almost the same as the suburba except it lacked the water heater and no sani cycle. I have to look for the brochure later. And I will post it.
Thanks,
Peter

 

[tomturbomatic]

Also, because it lacked the water heater, it did not have the Soak & Scrub cycle. I remember when I bought my KDS58 that the Imperial was $40 less than the cost of the Superba, but did NOT include the rinse agent dispenser which cost "ding ding ding" $40 which came standard on the Superba along with a host of other extras.

 

[appnut]

I remember just after I had graduated college and had begun working at my new job, there was a secretary who got a new dishwasher and it was a KA. She was rightfully excited to have the KA, I didn't blame her one bit. I'd not heard of the Patrician and when she was describing it to me, I kept saying, you mean Superba? She finally brought in the brochure. I was pretty surprised and also prettty much had a let-down feeling. I mean, the Superba wws THE model KitchenAid to have if you were going to buy a KA. Remember comparing the cycle sequence between the Patrician and the Superba. I kept thinking, why would anyone settle for the Patrician, it just dind't quite have all the pizzaz and unique features of the Superba. And I think the Patrician only existed from the 18 to the 20 series. What I find interesting is KA later came out with an Imperial model in the 21 series, I odn't think in the 20 series, which had the adjustable top rack, rapid advance timer, and the 3 cycles associated with the Imperial since the 17 series--Pots/Pans, Normal, and Rinse & Hold. Soem friends' parents had that model, didn't know it existed, and I immediately thought, hmm a Patrician in disguise lol.