Modern Energy Star Dishwashers and Pump Horsepower

[gansky1]

Much is to be attributed to the quality of the incoming water. When it's sand and pebbles coming from the tap in homes without softeners, the dishwasher is hobbled from the beginning. Add detergent that does nothing to break the water and a slow-moving disaster is all but guaranteed. Our water is about 12-17 grains depending on where you live in the metro area and the source from which the water is drawn. I have a softener and it's still stunning to go into homes without one. Sand and pebbles slowly gnawing away at every surface it touches.

 

[dj-gabriele]

@foraloysius

Always remember that water in a European dishwasher is always good for the wash as it is automatically softened, while in an American machines all is left to the local supplier as they don't have softeners.
So I trust them that they can get very poor results and need all those "tricks" to make the machine work correctly.

 

[jerrod6]

My Dw can use high termperatures for washing and rinsing but I still like the idea of putting a little bit of detergent in the prewash cup when using powders or tabs especially since the first fill on my machine is mostly cool water. My prewash cup only holds 1/2 tsp or 1 tsp or some small amount like that.  The prewash for most cycles last about 13 minutes, but some of the stronger cycles have the prewash lasting for 25 minutes and during these the water will be heated to steaming so I always use detergent in the prewash for these cycles.  There are also the cycles that don't have a prewash at all and just a wash....two rinses and dry ....these work very good too but after using them repeatedly for a week I will follow up with a cycle with a prewash using a small amount of detergent in it.

 

Like Joes DW, mine will skip the water change between prewash and wash for lightly soiled dishes or small loads but most of my loads are heavy so this rarely happens and it is more likely to insert an additional after rinse than skip the prewash water change.

 

 

 

[logixx]

Ditto on what Jerrod said.

I also put some detergent in the prewash as it heats to around 90F on the auto cycles and clears most of the soiling. Water is usually changed when the Bosch advances to the main wash because of the usually heavy soil level.

The Bosch also has a 100 watts pump but it's powerful enough to forcefully throw water way up to the tub's ceiling. PLUS: I can run a autoRegular cycle with the speed option and have clean, sanitized and dried dishes in an hour. Unlike Whirlpool's One Hour Wash cycle that does not dry dishes (adds 30 min. to the cycle), does not sanitize but needs twice the amount of water compared to the Bosch.

Alex

 

[jerrod6]

Just fininshed going to 3 stores today and was unable to find Finish DW powder.  This is the brand I use in the prewash cup and I also use it in the main cup when I want to use a powder.  It works much better than the current version of non phosphate Cascade.  The shelves were loaded with Finish tabs and cascade tabs and there were a few boxes of Cascade powder.  Now it looks like I will only be able to buy tabs and not powder.  I guess I will need to get the meat clever and hammer out and start hacking and banging the tabs to turn them into powder.  Disgusting actually.  

 

Has anyone else seen a decrease in the availability of Finish powder or  DW powders in general?

 

[combo52]

Pre Wash Detergent

I have found it makes very little difference which detergent you use in the pre-wash area, in fact this is an ideal place to use the cheap non phosphate store brands, liquid or powder.

 

[roto204]

Gak

I get white, powdery deposits in the 2800 if I use the nonphosphated powder in the prewash, even with good stuff in the main wash cup.  A kiss of STPP makes it all better, though!

 

[petek]

I have no idea what the hp is on the new KA I just bought. Doesn't seem to mention it on their website. Apparently it does have a 1 hour wash cycle option. I'm not that fond of leaving the house or going to bed with either the dishwasher or washer running unattended.

 

[jerrod6]

I don't know the HP of my machines motor either, but I have seen it and it is a major large part.   This happened when the repair person replaced the water path part in my DW which was under warranty.  The water path is on the left side of the machine but he had to take the bottom off to completely remove it.  I would say that the motor/pump runs from the back wall of the machine to the middle of the sump.  The motor part  looks like a  big MOTOR, but then my machine designed in 2004 so no way to know what the motors look like now.