KA vs. GE Tall Tub 9800
A friend of mine had asked me how I like the KA Superba as opposed to the GE tall tub that is currently sitting in my garage. (The GE was suffering from a sticky drain valve, which caused a build up of crap in the filter when the valve flapper wouldn't pop open all the way, and sometimes, the machine just wouldn't drain. Today, I took it all apart and fixed it with a $4 replacement valve flapper, so it's working fine again and ready to go back to work.
I was very surprised to find, after 2 months with the KA now, that overall, the GE is a better dishwasher. (I know - blasphemy!) But it does clean better and believe it or not (I had a hard time with this one), it does it in less time. It also dries far better than the KA...might be the stainless interior. I have never used the heated dry cycle on the GE, but do often on the KA. And I have never used JetDri in the GE. The KA doesn't dry plastics well at all, the GE has no problem with them. The GE will clean things like a pot and dishes with stuck on oatmeal on its Normal cycle. The KA needs Soak and Scrub to do it. The GE's Normal cycle is 45 minutes long (no drying phase) and will extend to 60 minutes for extreme soil, but it seens to take a lot for the sensor to trigger that extra time. The KA takes over 80 minutes, including the water heating phase and drying phase (you can cancel the drying phase once the wash cycle is finished, but you can't eliminate it). The GE doesn't need the drying phase to dry the dishes. Just open the door, and they're done. The KA lacks a top wash arm, so it sometimes leaves yibbles and such on the top of tall glasses and pots loaded in the upper rack, especially when washing really big loads. I never have that problem with the GE unless you block that upper wash arm.
The thing I think that hinders the KA is the fact that it's main wash cycle is a very short 7 minutes and it only rinses once. Both the 21 and 23 Superbas had much longer main washes (about 20 minutes). The 22, for some reason, was shortened. This may just not be sufficient time for enzymes to work properly. Today, I washed a load of dishes that contained 4 knives that were coated with peanut butter. Normal cycle. It did ok, it didn't remove all of it as completely as the GE does. It was necessary to clean a couple of the knives when they came out. I have no doubt that Soak and Scrub would have done the job though.
The main benefits of the GE over the KA is the fact that it's a tall tub. Things like cutting boards, sautee pans, platters, and my wine glasses just don't fit easily in the KA. My wine glasses don't fit at all, regardless of how you adjust the racks. They all fit together fine in the GE.
Now that's not to say that the KA doesn't have it's charms. It certainly does! It makes beautiful sounds and it does wash fairly well. But it can be heard in the living room with the TV on, while the GE is barely audible standing in the kitchen.
I was very surprised with the results. I expected when I got the KA that it would outperform the GE, but that just wasn't the case. The GE has really turned out to be a terrific dishwasher.
