Life with the GE Profile DW, 2016

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I was wondering that as well, about the baffle. It seems it would generate a bit of a "whirlpool" (pun most CERTAINLY intended) that would keep soils loosely held, and I think the pulsing of the drain pump when draining while the wash pump still runs helps too. I've yet to pull that filter out to find any more than a speck or two, which will be gone by the next load. I could probably never take that thing out the entire time I own it, and it still wouldn't need manual cleaning.

I still have concerns about those bottle jets running with the upper arm on the GEs. If there is an upper constant rinse arm, the four bottle jets which seem to have decent sized holes, AND the upper rack wash arm that is X shaped with all four blades spraying, and water having to fill ALL of that tubing and the arms and have enough volume to generate pressure from the holes...it just seems like a lot going on all at once. I guess I'm surprised that they didn't do what WP did with the silverware spray or KitchenAid with their bottle jets, and just dedicate a diverter valve port just to that zone.

I wonder, if water powered only that upper rack arm alone, would the end jet have enough power to get the peanut butter glasses clean?
 
This might help the mental anguish:

Those blue nozzles are actually part of a 2nd plastic insert that takes up space in the wash arm channels.
The arm channels are actually quite narrow already, and those inserts take up even more space.

The holes in the bottle jets seem to not be that large. By eye, they look hardly larger than 1/16" dia. with distribution heads (blue tips).

There's really no way to know till I put a camera inside, but on sound alone, it sounds like there's good water action up there.
Now, if I were to find a way to block the bottle jets in a way that is not permanent, logically there would be more pressure. But I'm not sure how much more to be helpful.
The top rinse arm already spins with reckless abandon. And the middle arm sounds like it rotates at a good clip (even after my jet mods 🤓)

It just seems like the middle arm is too short for the rack and I'm not sure if more pressure and more holes would really help because the angle of entry is still really awkward for the water.
 
Sounds like I should go check one out in the flesh haha. I'm sure the good engineers at GE would have addressed any issues with pressure long before launch.

It's funny that you took the drill to it, because it reminds me that when me and my now husband lived in our apartment a few years ago, it just had a builder grade GE dishwasher. BOTTOM of the line, the racks didn't have tines at all, just humps, so loading the top rack was awful. Anyway, it wouldn't clean very well despite having plenty of water and good detergent, and what bugged me was how fast that arm rotated. I decided to try and slow it down by drilling two small holes near the tower, opposite the side with the actual hole designed near that tower, and angled them the opposite direction to "pump some brakes", and it also added spray holes for when a cup was placed near the center by the guard. It worked beautifully. The rotation slowed down to the same speed as the GE Nautilus my parents had, and I'm guessing the slower passes of water helped knock soils off better.

So now we know of at least two GE dishwashers in existence with "gently modified" wash arms, lol. Maybe we should take a crack at applying as their engineers.
 
Also, this might be a bit of a stretch, so take it for what you will...but I wonder, if you happened to have extra money laying around sometime, if you ordered the upper wash arm that isn't X-shaped, and swapped them out...

That's just a thought. I did the same for my PowerClean. The upper arm was sticking for some reason, I think from molding issues or something, but I also didn't like how gaping large the holes were, so, I took the one from my Voyager, which is exactly the same as far as how it fits and its length, just "updated" with smaller diameter jets and dedicated jets for the silverware basket, as well as an extra jet at the end. After that I never had a single yibble. It rotated at the same speed as the lower, and would flip over light cups if not secured. I went ahead and ordered the identical one so that my Voyager can be sold by the PC can still keep its modernized upgrade.

I had the same thought for if I didn't like the lower arm on the new Whirlpool with the moving valves, I would just order the standard lower arm. So far I love it though, and don't see having any issues with it.

Okay sorry for such long posts I'll leave you alone now!!!! *runs back to my assigned seat*
 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

ANDREW!
That's freakin' hilarious. I thought I was the only mad scientist taking power tools to my dishwashers.
In the past, I've always had those GE BOL apartment machines.
Other than lack of filtration, they usually washed ok.
I used to tap a little hole in the spray tower to blast the silverware, which helped.
And sometime in the early 2000s, GE went to a new upper rinse arm design where they just had 1 little end nozzle. It worked ok, but the ceiling of the machines used to always be left with kibble.
So I'd tap a little hole in the rinse arm aiming at the tub ceiling, and that always did well getting the grit off of there.

The standard 500 series middle wash arm IS available. And I was thinking about that last week!
However, butt heads at GE combined it with the lower wash arm as a kit now. Which I don't need.
But it's only $30, so maybe I'll get it anyway :)
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ge-kit-spray-arm-wd35x10393-ap5665848.html

The 2-way and 4-way wash arms have the same amount of holes.
The 2-way arm actually has a larger volume to fill, so it might be moot.
BUT, the end jets are slightly different.
Maybe it'll throw more water into the corners?
I think I'll get it anyway.
And if anything, it'll be another arm to play with and drill up.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

If I ever start a dishwasher mad scientist lab, you've got the 1st open spot.

johnb300m++1-25-2016-10-23-17.jpg.gif
 
YOU'RE KIDDING ME!!! The Nautilus we had was the same!!! Spray arm on the ceiling, but the three holes on each side were fake, just drain holes for the troughs on both sides, but there was that one slit at the end, so I got my dad's Makita and put a hole right near the center to spray up because it ALWAYS had grit and yibbles there!!! Are we sure we're not brothers separated at birth??

You could be right about that other upper arm. I'm sure it's like the HydroSweep on KitchenAids; fewer holes on each arm but if you got a piece of paper and rotated while drawing where holes are, you'd have a straight line with a pretty even array of jets. If anything, just keep an eye on eBay or Amazon. Ever since looking up a couple of parts in the past, they always "suggest" parts that I'd have never thought to be in their inventory, much less at the price they sometimes display.
 
Yup, Logixx, those are the "standard 500 series" spray arms.
I already ordered them :)

I'm going to try modifying them to see if I can get more water thrown in the corners.
 
Guess what I'm doing tonight?!!!

Alternative wash arms arrived!
I'll install the alternate middle arm and run a heavy load tonight. See how it does.
I also want to note that the 500 series standard wash arm cannot fit on the bottom of the profile machines because of the different manifold for reversing action.

MUAHAHAHA!

johnb300m-2016012618273102164_1.jpg
 
Alternate Wash Arm load

Ok. Here's what I got set up.
A very grimy Heavy load. I've put a tall and short glass in each upper left corner with the standard wash arm for the top rack.

Here's what I found, and you can see this in pictures. The standard wash arm looks to be about a half-inch longer on both ends then the X-shaped arm.
I'm not exactly sure why they did it that way, but the standard arm looks like it gets more Jets directly under glasses placed in the corners.
Visually, anyway.
We'll see how the load comes out.

I've been listening to the modes in the prewash and I don't hear any cavitation when the top runs. So the alternate arm seems to be accepted so far by the system!
There is a slightly different rotational sound since the Jets aren't distributed across four ways up top. But it sounds very similar.

johnb300m-2016012621074400604_1.jpg

johnb300m-2016012621074400604_2.jpg

johnb300m-2016012621074400604_3.jpg

johnb300m-2016012621074400604_4.jpg
 
Honestly the S-shaped arm looks to have more even coverage. I wonder why they made the X-shaped arm so short and stubby.

I'm glad Whirlpool hasn't changed the upper arm in any of their WP or KitchenAid machines. Don't fix what isn't broken, haha. I've never known of a Whirlpool designed machine to have trouble in corners at all. I was sure this one would break the record but I was delightfully surprised with the pb test and the camera.

What does the manifold look like on the lower arm assembly with the arm removed? I've been curious as to how they change water passages with the same port and arm.
 
Morning results were pretty damm good I must say!
That DISGUSTING stainless pan came out 90% clean. Which still impressed me.
There were just a few small pieces of chicken still stuck on, which I can now scrape off pretty quickly by hand.
The bottom rack cleaning of this machine has really left me impressed.

The top rack with the 500 series S-arm, was also pretty darn clean! Maybe a hair cleaner than with the x-arm!
Though that's not empirical data.
The tall glass I had in the corner was completely clean, with no grit blown into it. Three cheers for that!
The short, smaller glass in the other corner had some very fine crud stuck to one side of the inside still. But it's mouth was still narrow to barely catch 1 of the jets of the longer S-arm.
Otherwise, everything else on the top was perfectly clean!

The coverage between the jet layouts on the S and X arms seems very similar, just spread out over 4 arms. However, I did notice that the X arm has 2 additional angled jets on the ends, probably to help drive it due to the larger size. It's possible these angled jets don't get as far up directly into cups and glasses as such. Especially in the corners. And it's shorter length certainly doesn't help it.

I'm inclined to just keep the S-arm installed up there and see how it does on more loads. And if anything, now I got 2 style arms to swap out on certain whims.
HA!
The X-arm certainly looks cooler. But the S-arm is neat looking too. And so far it's done a tad better.

Andrew, here's a link showing the main distribution manifold.
For the lower wash arm, there are two ports leading to two concentric ports that feed the reversing wash arm. These feed two chambers in the lower arm that go to separate jet sets for either direction.
The other two ports feed the conduit to the top rack, but it does NOT look divided.

https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/WD18X20202

https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/WD22X20181

https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/WD35X20598
 
WE GOT VIDEO FOLKS!

I finally did it, it's kinda crappy; low res, through a pyrex container and my iphone wrapped in a bag. But I finally, FINALLY got video of the inside of the PDT720.
The struggle was real.

But this will clear up a lot of questions we had, especially with the upper rack and the bottle jet.
They do indeed, run the whole time, as you'll see.
And they're very fine and small, so I doubt they cause much of a pressure loss at all. The pump is quite powerful in this thing.

Anyways, enjoy!



Andrew, I speak for myself, but 99% for Frigilux too; our machines do NOT have a dedicated silverware jets bar. It looks like that's something new for 2016. And that's super cool!
They're clearly following Whirlpool on this one. And they're putting up much higher in price point that Whirlpool does as well.
However....these current GE machines do have the drive jets for the upper wash arm decently aimed at most silverware locations.
Of all the early issues I had, silverware was almost never one of them. Except for user error, the silverware has been the cleanest items to come out of my machine thus far.
 
Ok....I broke down and got a GoPro 'style' waterproof cam. HAHA!
I couldn't resist.

So here's more footage.
I am frustrated though.....the lighting is still crap.
And Youtube will not, for the life of me, upload my videos in HD!!!
Very frustrating.
Does anyone have any tips?
I edit the movies in iMovie and try to export them in the highest HD quality, but when I put them on Youtube they look like shite.
Any ideas?

Enjoy.

http://https//youtu.be/oqst2I-MTpI
 
Thanks for the upload. So I knew I hadn't dreamt that I read in a service manual that the side jets were used to fill the dishwasher.

Is the finished file from iMovie in HD? Do you save the file and then upload it to YT or do you upload it through iMovie (if there is such a feature)?
 
Heated Dry works great on this machine.

Logixx, I'm pretty sure it's rendered in HD. The final video looked good on my machine. (Sans the native lighting issues).
 
iMovie can be finicky with exporting. There should be advanced settings when you go to export/share that have options for uploading in higher quality, but if I recall correctly, it's not worded in a way that really sticks out. Try reexporting it again and make sure everything is set to maximum quality and no compression. The first upload I did of my dishwasher video came out pixelated despite thinking I had it set for 1080p. When I backtracked, I had overlooked one little setting that "optimized" it for sharing across social media/email. Could be something like that that just needs a tweak. :)
 
I hate iMovie to be honest. I used to work fine but the last few videos I edited on there didn't upload to YouTube. It went through the process said it was done and the videos never showed up.
 
Reviews Of A New GE X Arm DW

I have had one of these in my kitchen for about 4 months now and I surly hope it is not in my kitchen another 4 months.

 

Major gripes, The racks are terribly designed, in the upper rack things slide around fall over, fall through etc and the rack has so many different levels it is a real challenge to load, after you get it more than 1/2 full the dishes can start to hold on to each other however, LOL.

 

The lower rack not any better, the spacing of the tines again are all over the place and the openings in the rear area of the lower rack are so large that small cutting boards 6"X 7" actually fall partly through and stop the lower wash arm from turning. To make matters worse the almost black color of both racks makes it very hard to see them for loading, this dark color is probably meant to hide the rust that I am sure will soon develop.

 

Cleaning ability is very spotty at best, I have some loads emerge where almost everything looks clean and others where only 1/4 of the items were clean enough to put away, but even when they look clean they really are not. If you have one of these DWs [ or another modern filter style DW ] take the filter out of the bottom after a cycle and take a small measuring cup etc and scoop enough water out to fill a drinking glass and look at the water and tell me if you would drink it.

 

Drying ability is fair if you use heated dry, absolutely none exsistant if no heat dry is used, my 1987 WP DW drys far better on no heat dry that this DW does on heated dry when both are left overnight with the doors closed.

 

Noise level is very low except the the annoying drain pump that cycles on and off over and over again, you can even hear it in my office in a completly different room and it is really annoying.

 

Overall this DW is fairly built like most upper line GE DWs have been over the last 10-15 years but it is not nearly as good overall in performance or repairablity as the DWs that WP is building. I have already done service calls on these new style GE DWs and they are not well designed for repair. One common problem that is emerging is a blockage in the sump area that completely blocks the water getting to the drain pump, but it makes for a good $100 service call.
 

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