Kitchenaid Dishwasher

[pulltostart]

Model KUDA230Y

 

Appears to be a very late model still based on the Hobart products. 

 

Question - is this worth going after?  How old is it and would be suitable as a daily driver?

 

lawrence

 

[nmassman44]

I had this same exact model dishwasher and its no Hobart machine. The has the Whirlpool PowwrClean module for the wash pump. The rest of the machine looks like a Hobart built and this was the next to last generation before Whirlpool pulled the plug on this design. It does clean well but lower rack height is kinda limited with the ChinaGuard for the middle arm and top rack height is limited as well.

 

[qsd-dan]

These are still one final rinse machines, right?

 

[awooff]

Final rinse

Although these models are a bit short on rack height, they are certainly easy to load as you like. Op, the racks here show no rust so appears to be very low mileage - id jump fast and grab this.

These do a half fill purge before the final rinse which flushes the filter well and even sprays the bottom rack a bit as well, therby flushing the tub before final rinse.

The powerclean module on these is highly desired as they handle debris on full non scraped/rinsed loads great.

 

[tomturbomatic]

When I had one of the single rinse machines, I used to dump three quarts of hot water in after that purge fill was complete to get enough head pressure to rinse both racks. The stupid thing about the cycle design of all of these after the 18 series was that they filled without the motor running then sat and heated the water. The heated water was then sprayed against the room temperature dishware, dropping the water temperature precipitously for the pre-wash. Even if they had just run the pump during the fill, they could have pulled the heat out of the incoming water before heating it. Doing it the way they did probably made the timer cheaper to build and probably kept the energy use down.

 

[jil1000]

After the 18 series

Tom,

So the what I’m hearing you say is that the 18 is the better performer? I actually have an 18 coming to me, new never used. It came out of a plumbers kitchen sample showroom. I am hoping she works!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I hope that your 18 will bring you joy

The 18 series represented the pinnacle of KitchenAid dishwasher design. The only thing you might want to change on the 18 is to put in a top rack from a 19 or later series to take advantage of the wider upper wash arm. It does seem like KA went insane trying to meet energy standards after the 18 series. If you want a great dishwasher other than an 18, go with a Whirlpool with the Power Clean module. They have been great performers for a long time. The WP DWs before the power clean module models were great cleaners, too, but they used more water. The other great thing about Whirlpools that KitchenAid did not offer back then was a way to increase the temperature of the wash water.

 

[qsd-dan]

The 18 works very well if water temps are 150F at the kitchen faucet. The 19 and 20 work better if one keeps their water heater at lower temps and the water heater it's quite a far distance away since they preheat the water to 150F before washing and rinsing.

 

Be mindful of the constant rinse on the roof while positioning items in the top rack and pushing the rack into the cavity. The original style constant rinse arm is pretty delicate.