Life with the GE Profile DW, 2016

[appnut]

I've split my flatware baskets for the last 9 years.  Use the middle section mostly, but use the smaller sections for small amounts of flatware and can put those in the top rack to make space in the bottom for bulky items.  Also with the smaller sections out, have more space for bulky pots & pans in bottom too.  Waste of space if they're all together as far as I'm concerned.

 

[johnb300m]

Baskets and pacs

The split baskets are very handy, for the same reasons stated. I usually leave them together 80% of the time. But with the top or bottom wash zones, they become even more handy!

Thanks for the comment on the soap pacs and soft water. I was wondering the same thing!
It washes fantastically now, but I was wondering if the solution is too caustic now. I have the Cascade Platinum pacs and would hope they'd have anti etch additives. These one dose pacs are supposed to be universal for loads and water conditions.
Which seems dubious to me, but maybe they did it?
So will they etch dishware over time for real?
Would the smaller Finish Poweball tabs be better?

I do like the versatility of powder! But the companies have all but abandoned development on powder detergent. Cascade powder kinda sucks now. But may sits ok with my soft water now.
And Finish seems to have abandoned powder completely....
AND, with more machines doing half loads, the pacs seem real wasteful.

Perhaps I can keep loads full, very dirty, and see how this batch of pacs goes.

 

[appnut]

I like my Cascade Complete powder for daily use--allowing for both prewash & main wash dosages.  With really tough loads requiring the Platinum pacs, then I put a dose of powder in the prewash and the pack in the main wash dispenser. 

 

[murando531]

As long as your dishes are adequately dirty, there should never be a problem. Etching and damage only occurs with VERY hard water, or by using detergent and having no soil for it to "eat".

 

[logixx]

Etching occurs with too soft water.

 

[askolover]

We have a couple of glass cereal bowls that get used frequently and they are beginning to show etching. We've used Finish and Cascade over the years, have settled on Finish now though if using a tab 'cause Cascade foams more. I still keep powder and gel in house and only use half of what's called for. At least the cycle times in the KDI23 are short so there's minimal contact time...and I've yet to have a dirty dish come out of it!

 

[askolover]

soft water detergents

Any of y'all ever heard of or used this? Supposed to be formulated for soft water to reduce etching. I've been wanting to try their products for a while but just haven't done it.

http://www.proproducts.com/ourbrands/LanoSoft/DishProducts.aspx

 

[johnb300m]

soaps/water

Thanks for all the tips.
Yeah I've read more that it's the soft water in combination with too little dish soil that will eventually eat glassware and glazes on dishes.
Those soft water detergents look interesting!
Maybe I'll have to check that out when I run out of the Cascade Platinum.

 

[johnb300m]

Performance in the corners of the PDT720

I've been pretty frustrated with the performance in the corners of the upper rack with the PDT720. It's only got 1 jet to handle those areas, and the lacking power shows load after load. Even in the better, soft water atmosphere.

So my engineering side hijacked the situation and I did something rash
I took out my drill and added a 2nd little hole angled out from the upper wash arm, as well as slightly elongated the jet on the end of the arm.
MUAHAHAHAHA!
I don't hear any detrimental pressure losses in the top rack from the added flow. But I'd hesitate to do any more than that.

To test it out, in conjunction with my wonderful soft water, and the Platinum pacs, I peanut buttered up another glass. I included it in another filthy, Heavy wash, with Temp Boost and Steam prewash.
There's a glass baking pan in there too, with egg bake on it.

Results pending, in 165 minutes!

 

[johnb300m]

Results!

Results are in....and .....things are looking acceptable!
The peanut butter glass is still not nearly clean....BUT, it's better than before!
The water, soap, and I'm thinking the extra water flow up there had a helping impact.
I'm content I think! Not sure how much better it'll get from here.

And that bake pan came pretty damn near clean.
Just a few pieces of egg still stuck on there, that I can at least pick off, rinse and put away

The filter is coated with peanut butter, but not looking too bad either. The suction side is grimey, but what I've been doing every load is turning the filter cylinder 180 degrees. Seems to help.

Andrew's WP filter stays cleaner I think, because PW put a baffle on the intake to not suck debris directly against the screen.
See in the 4th pic.
And it's a good solution.

 

[murando531]

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?

 

[johnb300m]

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.

 

[murando531]

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.

 

[murando531]

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*

 

[johnb300m]

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.

 

[murando531]

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.

 

[logixx]

Are these the spray arms you're considering? If so, they also seem to have the issue of uncleaned corners:

http://dishwashers.reviewed.com/content/ge-gdt580smfes-review

 

[johnb300m]

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.

 

[johnb300m]

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!

 

[frigilux]

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing the modified machine. I've been putting all sorts of things in the corners of the upper rack lately and everything comes clean. Did I get the one GE with the X arms that actually works, LOL?