New Maytags Tall tubs advice

[volsboy1]

I was looking at the Maytag tall tubs and they have change the motor and wash system in it.These new ones have a twice the life sidewinder motor in it.Has anybody used one these new ones do the Wash Ok? Maytag had a 1/3 Hp motor in it and was a simple wash system but this new one I am nervous about buying it.

 

[stevet]

Big Deal..Longer Life motor???

BIG DEAL!!! It is still nothing more than a rebadged Whirlpool unit. A few extra do dads and different racks. Gee a double the life motor?
Does that mean the owner might get more than 3 or 4 years of life out of it?

These machines will all wash great if you make sure you don't throw enough crap in it to block the pump intakes. The average consumer, I think is being hoodwinked into thinking that any of these Whirlaidtags can ingest anything and everything and still clean well and last a long time. From what I have seen of the machines that people have tossed out and me finding them and rehabbing them, they either plug them up or the pumps leak and quit way too early.
Anyone agree?

 

[andrewinorlando]

It's the same damned motor they use in the KitchenAids, Kenmore TTs, Whirlpool TTs. It's a 1/4 HP, 3330 RPM side mount motor, 2.7 amp unit, max wattage is 350 watts, nominal wattage is 300 watts, according to their specs.

It's got a pretty big pump attached to it, but I don't find the water pressure on the upper rack to be anything to write home about. It leaves the insides of large bowls or the food processor bowl still with food soil in the far corners (stuff that it never removed, not redistributed stuff) and some glasses still have a very fine grit inside, even though they look perfectly clean and clear from the outside. It's really hit or miss, I guess depending on what kind of mood the machine is in that day. It cleans on the lower rack very, very well, however, but the upper rack is hit or miss. Others have had good experiences with these machines, but the Maytag is basically the same machine with a different shape lower wash arm. Buyer beware! I'm sending mine back to Lowes and re-installing the LG, which did an almost perfect job every time.

 

[surgilator_68]

It is NOT the same as it was. I believe Wes is talking about the new HE dishwasher. It uses far less water, runs a lot longer and has a manual clean filter. It is also the quietest dishwasher in the industry at it's price level, at least that is what they say. IT was brought out to compete with the Euro brands.

I have not used one personally as the way I use a dishwasher is not what this one was designed for. But my customers who have them have given me mixed reviews. All of the people who pre-rinse love the machine, all of the ones who just load the dishwasher with food on the plates or just scrape hate the machine. They also complain of having to clean the filter and if you don't clean the filter you get the rotting food smell.

I think you should be able to put dirty items in the dishwasher with a reasonable amount of food and have them come clean. When I say clean I mean spotless, without any bits of food being redeposited. And your rinse water should not be strained and filtered through the food that is sitting in the filter basket. That is just nasty. I don't pre-rinse, pre-scrub, soak or scrape. I hold the dishes, pots, pans, etc over the sink and what falls off, falls off. After that it goes in the dishwasher, and it comes out clean!

 

[andrewinorlando]

The funny thing about those new "HE" dishwashers is, if you look at the energy guide labels, they don't use any less energy than the non-HE machines....they're all about 305 KWH per year. Some of the non-HE models are slightly lower, some higher, depending on the model and manufacturer. My KitchenAid does one wash, a purge and one rinse in most normal cycles. That's a whopping 4 gallons of water for the cycle. The Heavy cycle adds a wash for 5.7 total gallons. Some heavily soiled normal loads will also add that extra pre-wash.

So my question is - how the hell much less water can the HE machine possibly use???? They certainly don't use less energy, but they do cost more.

 

[appnut]

Andrew I pretty much use Smart Wash 98% of the time. I can count on one hand the number of times my dishwasher has skipped the drain between the pre-wash and main wash, going right into the main wash and adding the detergent. At my house, that's a really light soiled load that involves no purge/cleaning of the pump if food soil is sensed.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I have a Maytag 300 Series TT. It still has the disposer and I scrape and into the washer and rarely is anything left behind. I use the smart wash almost exclusively and only know of about three times that it has skipped the drain and fill after the pre-wash.

If this HE machine is like the Frigidaire that was in my house when I bought it. Then YUCK!!!! That machine washed the bottom rack, then the top rack then it rinsed, then you took the dishes out of the dishwasher, washed them put them back tried again, they then came out dirtier than you put them in so you rewashed them again. Also it used so little water that it didn't even get hot. I didn't see the savings with that machine and threw it out after only a month.
[this post was last edited: 6/10/2010-14:51]

 

[logixx]

how the hell much less water can the HE machine possibly use

How does EnergyStar measure water and energy consumption? They say that the Bosch 800 Plus Series dishwasher (those with true European design) use only 1.56 gal per cycle. That sounds very low.

From a European point of view...

Currently, Bosch/Siemens offers the lowest water consumption on their ecoStar models. 1.9 gallons for a pre-wash, 122° main wash, rinse and 149° final rinse. The clean final rinse water is re-used to pre-wash the load on the next cycle. Power consumption is 0.94 kWh.

Miele's G5930SCi needs 2.6 gallons for a 113° wash, rinse and 112° final rinse (0.83 kWh).

This is on the energy saver cycle, which takes longer but cleans dried-on stuff very economically. Pot&Pans cycles use more, of course. Typically around 3.5 gal.

 

[volsboy1]

This dishwasher intake looks just like a whirlpool TT but looks smaller the intake where the water goes in in diameter.The strange thing is the top rack wash arm is the same as a Whirlpool powerclean. The water tube runs under the arm instead of the space saving Top Feed like the Old Maytags. The wash arm on the bottom looks the same as the old ones but on the Amana the dishwasher has a Whirlpool metal arm with smaller holes in it.The sales man was telling me that this is a more powerful wash system than the other and I asked him how is going from a really simple Wash Pump and 1/3 H.p. motor to a less powerful going to wash better.He didn't like that much then I really pissed him off when I told this couple that the Frigidaire D/W they were going to buy has a Pump from a Askoll or the same that goes for fish tank pumps.I guess I am getting a G.E. or the Samsung ...

 

[volsboy1]

I am guilty about not washing anything and throwing everything in there but our Kenmore power clean washer has no prob with it.I guess I will scape but I will not rinse a dish....

 

[whirlcool]

About 1 year and half ago we also bought a Maytag TT 300 series with the Armor(polymer/fiberglass) tub. It was the very last of the original Maytag designed DWs. And it wasn't included in the recall.

It cleans very well. We don't scrape anything. It all goes into the DW as is off the table (unless we have bones or something like that). It gets things perfectly clean each and every time.
Even egg yolk dried onto plastic spatulas. And it can fit a ton of stuff for cleaning, up to 14 place settings.

 

[surgilator_68]

Oh, ok. you are talking about the regular old re-badged Wpl tall tubs, not the HE machine. It is just a Wpl tall tub but has a redesigned wash arm and some other tweaks.

 

[mixfinder]

Stainless Tub

After the installation of tile and bull nose the GE dishwasher wouldn't fit into the space. At the last minute the dishwasher was exchanged for a Maytag, the only brand that was short enough to fit. In my opinion the bottom rack is oddly proportioned so capacity is a tad diminished. The dishwasher takes a long time for a cycle, the dishes are clean but the drying performance is sub standard. Its in a friend's kitchen that I consulted with and its her first dishwasher. Having little to compare it with she's quite pleased.

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Jason,

I dont see how the US machines seem to get it that wrong.

Our Miele and Bosch both have manual clean filters. I'm like you I shake what'll fall off into the garbage disposal and then everything else goes in, no rinsing or wiping, food, bits of carrot, lettuce, mashed potato, burnt on veg all go in. Everything always comes out clean.

I Check the filters once a month and rarely find anything in there to remove.

How can the US machines get it that wrong, or is it just perception?

 

[whirlcool]

The drying performance on Maytag machines is due to the HE rating. Instead of having the heating element on, it cycles on and off to reduce electrical use. This leaves plastic items with droplets on them.

You can use Jet Dry Turbo which helps the plastics dry faster, or just open the dishwasher slightly for 30 minutes after use and everything will be dry.

 

[retropia]

Our new standard-tub Whirl-more dries like you describe, the heater cycling on and off to save electricity. Plastics aren't dried very well.

Regarding the non-disposer, food-bits-in-a-cup dishwashers, here is how a Sears appliance salesman explained to me it is supposed to work.

The extra-heated water is supposed to disintegrate soft food bits, allowing them to pass through the filter cup with the drain water. Hard food bits that don't disintegrate, such as seeds, bones and gristle, get trapped in the cup but are "sanitized" by the high heat.

I don't have any personal experience to know how well that works, either on US-built or Euro models.

My preference is for food bits to get trapped by a filter, then back-flushed through a disposer and drained away, at the end of each cycle. The little extra noise and electricity use from the built-in disposer seem like a reasonable trade-off.

I'm not crazy about the concept of rinse water cycling through debris, sanitary or not.

 

[surgilator_68]

I know what they say. But in reality it does not work. I don't care how hot you get the water, that piece of chicken or whatever is still going to be there. Maybe a chunk of fish or mashed potato or some rice would dissolve but that is about it.

Anytime you get a chance to pull the filter on any of these machines, do it. If they pre-rinse you'll be able to tell right away. If they don't, the filter will be full of food and at the very least a slime that resembles a combination of chicken skin and chicken fat. But it's been sanitized.....uhha.

 

[frigilux]

One of the reasons I chose an LG 9810 dishwasher was to get a super-hushed 45-decibel sound rating plus a food disposer. As several others have mentioned, I don't want to deal with cleaning a filter, nor do I want the water for subsequent loads going through the muck trapped in the filter.

AndrewInOrlando has the same LG, and as he attested in his post on this thread, the machine is a cleaning champ!

Now, I just wish LG would improve the reliability of their dishwashers, as they have with their newer washing machines. LG dishwashers are the most repair prone brand according to Consumer Reports' subscribers. Mine's 2 years old and gets very, very heavy use. No problems, so far.