Questions about an 18 inch wide dishwasher.

[rpms]

First, I have always wanted one. I first saw an 18 inch wide dishwasher about 20 years ago and thought it was so cute.
I just bought a 5th wheel trailer and have washed the dishes in the sink twice.
I hate washing dishes by hand and it is pretty hard in a sink the size of a thimble.
I noticed there was room at the end of the counter that would accommodate an 18 inch wide dishwasher.
How hard is it to put a cord on a built in dishwasher? The hydro is being provided by a gas generator for the trailer.
I found this dishwasher on the side of the road this morning. The dishwasher gods must be smiling down on me. It was free and the sign on it says it works.
How good are these dishwashers at cleaning? I have never been impressed with the pop up towers. I was suprised to see a filter thing in the bottom.
Does the water heating happen only when the button is pushed or does it do it automatically in the final rinse? Can a generator handle a dishwasher that heats water?
I am not expecting fantastic results, just want to get away from the mess.
Any suggestions on removing the rust?
I am impressed with the size of the cutlery basket.
Any tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[launderess]

Welcome to my world

As that was our previous dishwasher.

Though badged Kenmore the dw in question was built by Frigidaire. They were the only ones at that time making 18" wide portable and built in dishwashers besides Miele and a few other Europeans IIRC.

Purchased the unit around early 1990's and it ran until about a year or more ago until it finally died. You can search the archives for my posts on that sorry subject.

Oddly at that time when shopping for an 18" dishwasher CR rated the Kenmore higher than the Frigidaire which was odd since they both were made by the latter.

Like you needed something that fit into a small space and unit fit the bill.

Cleaning wise, again you can read various posts in the archives regarding these units. Long story short better than washing by hand but only just for certain things.

Forget pots and pans regardless of that cycle. Unless you are doing very small ones and or are prepared to run a cycle for just one or two such things it won't be worth the bother. Because of the narrow with and the configuration of lower rack to accommodate that tower you'll be limited as to what goes in the lower rack, more so if you also use load the top one as well.

Weakness of these units is that the tower spray design often left much to be desired cleaning wise, especially on the upper rack. Glassware, cups and so forth especially those placed in corners often emerged with yibbles both inside and out. This comes from the force of lower spray arm and tower not being powerful enough with the design to reach deep into corners up high.

Water heating is only in the main wash cycle and yes, the unit will hold the cycle until proper temperature is reached. Sometimes during the warmer months of the year when the boilers aren't making heat the hot water was weak. That or someone was having a spa day in showers and hogging up all the hot water. Thus incoming tap water was <120F. Machine would run for a "LONG" time for the main wash under such circumstances until the thermostat was satisfied. You'd hear a click and then the timer would release and move onto the next part of wash.

All in all not a bad dishwasher. Again ours lasted for > ten years but when you consider it was only used once or twice a week on average is that really saying something?

The tub is plastic so after checking if the thing has any leaks you can do one or more washes with any good dishwasher cleaner. That should remove some or all of the discoloration along with clearing out any hard water mineral buildup. If the staining was caused by water with a high iron content you may never get it back to pristine white. Failing this you can always go in there with some sort of scrubbing agent and "gently" see if things can be improved. However you'll have to run enough cycles afterwards to clean things out.

 

[henene4]

That plastic is discolored, I guess you'll have a hard time getting that off if ever. My first guess would be a good bleach scrub. And of corse a good look under the hood.

With the few once I used (and now having the 4th over my lifetime installed in our kitchen), they perform verry verry simmilar to a fullsize DW with the same wash system, as most of the time, the actual pump system hasn't been altered much. Only light concern sometimes are the rack corners due to the verry rectangular nature of the baskets.

They pull as much power as any usual DW, so an absolute upper max of 1,5kW, more like something in the 1kW range. That then again depends on the generator.

 

[whatsername]

I had a GE-badged version of this machine and never had any problems with it. Yes, you can buy a cord for it at any hardware store (I got mine at home depot). Just make sure it's a decently high gauge--it doesn't need to be a "dishwasher-specific" cord.

 

[chachp]

I had one in a rental about 20 years ago..

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I don't recall issues with how it cleaned.  The real issue is what it held and that tower in the middle.  It was already difficult to put large items in because the racks are smaller but then once they threw the tower in the middle that pretty much synchs the deal.  Is it better than nothing?  Absolutely!!  Especially if this trailer is a summer home or something you use occasionally.  I wouldn't want one again as a daily driver though.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I think the one I had was a Westinghouse branded machine.</span>

 

[launderess]

Being an older unit it uses more water

Pots and Pans - Wash, Rinse, Rinse, Wash, Rinse, Dry

Normal - Wash, Rinse, Wash, Rinse, Dry

Water Miser - Wash, Rinse, Dry

Rarely used the heated dry since left things until next morning and most all were dry. Only if pushed busy wise and needed dishes.

As pointed out in threads about my Frigidaire 18" DW many parts of these units came from their larger sibling, including the detergent cup. Do not use high foaming dishwasher detergent like some tabs. Could only use one-half of an Electrasol (later Finish) tab without causing so much foam you could hear the motor and pump straining.

 

[mayken4now]

Iron water/hard water deposit

Go to Lowes and buy "Super Iron Out"  Follow directions.  You'll be amazed with little effort.

 

[launderess]

No, I wouldn't try "Iron Out"

Did that with my unit and the plastic filter grating became soft as if "melting", and also had a strange whiff.

Long story short wanted to run a cleaning/descaling cycle and since had a bottle of Iron Out" sitting under the sink......

Reset the machine for another series of cycles and the smell went away and while the grate seemed to firm up and otherwise was not harmed, didn't repeat that experiment again.

 

[lordkenmore]

It's been so long since I used a dishwasher [sound of sobbing in background]... But looking at Launderess's cycle info above, I'm sort of amazed that there was only one rinse after the wash... It seems like a DW I used years ago had at least a couple, and I'd think a couple would be a good idea to make sure all the detergent is gone bye-bye.

 

[launderess]

Would sometimes reset that DW for a second rinse

To cope with the yibble issue.....

Cannot be sure when it began but one rinse after main wash became pretty normal IIRC. Water (energy) savings I suppose.

My MM OTOH does two rinses after the wash but both are rather short. That DW truly would make a tree hugger sit down and weep for the amount of water it uses.

 

[lordkenmore]

Another thing I noted was the loss of a 2nd wash period on at least some newer dishwashers. (I'm guessing "some"is probably more likely "all" given today's realities...but I've not seen/used many new designs, so I can't say for sure.)

I'm sure the MM does use enough water to make a tree hugger want to go deep into the old growth forest, and hug a tree, while weeping gently... I'm also sure the MM does a better job of washing dishes than most modern "3 drops of water and call it good" designs.

But the really wasteful way of washing, to my mind, is washing dishes by hand. Running a full load of dishes in a vintage DW probably results in less water used per dish than in typical hand washing.

 

[launderess]

Haven't been near a modern DW so cannot say for sure, but IIRC those with sensors detect soil level of the first cycle, then adjust accordingly. That is if the machine does not think things warrant another wash, it won't happen.

Again this is all part of the "save energy" movement.

 

[combo52]

Removing Rust Stains From A DW

These are very easy to remove, Iron-Out and other chemical cleaners will have no ill effect on plastic if used within reason. The stains will also go away with proper continued use as long as the water supply you have is not loaded with iron.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Holy well water!

A proper water conditioning system and a good dose of commercial descaler will solve the yuck in this DW.

 

[ilovewindex]

I would hunt one of these down and retrofit it some how... The top rack might be dinky but hey, you have a full bottom rack...

I've also seen the ovens pulled out, a cooktop put in and either a dishdrawer or a countertop unit put in its place

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[daveamkrayoguy]

Friends of mine long ago, across the street, had a very narrow dishwasher, likely to be of this 18" dimensions we speak, and for all I know a Kenmore, since I can vividly remember the design of the knob being such, but then again, their double-oven hi-Lo gas range was a Roper, so given that it made D/W's for Sears, it may also likely be such...

It was a portable, but running from that corner next to the stove, and with the narrow pantry that would be ordinarily be running downward, only limited to a split-in-half top portion over it, was most-likely handily plumbed in--as was such just about every dishwasher was on that side of the street from what I've seen, and even a few on my side, who didn't have a true built in--except us: we had to move ours, hook it up and then disconnect afterwards rolling it back, and a standard 24", at that...

-- Dave

 

[vacerator]

I'm not sure

if DM ever made an 18 inch DW, but most that I have seen regardless of the brand were obviously White Consolidated Frigidaire with identical interiors.

 

[combo52]

D&M 18" DWs

D&M not only made 18" DWs but they invented 18" DWs in this country, starting around all 18" DWs sold here were D&M through and through one glance tells that, many parts were interchangeable with their 24" models.

 

The 18" DW at the start of this thread is the 2nd generation 18" D&M style DW, this DW was widely sold in this country under many different brand names, WCI had bought D&M by the time these came out.

 

None of these 18" DWs are great machines, but as Laundress mentioned it sure beats not having a DW at all, I would go for it.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

About a hundred years ago when I was still living at home, I talked my mom into buying a Kenmore 18" portable dishwasher, as we had none prior to this.   Of the two models available, we chose the "upper end" model which had 2 spray arms (instead of 1), 4 or 5(?) cycle options (instead of 1), a rinse agent dispenser, "plastic" chrome buttons & timer knob, plus a butcher block top.   Being a Kenmore, it was of course a D&M.  

 

As I remember, it cleaned well as long as it was loaded correctly.   The only real issue was, being just 18" wide, the spray arms had to be short enough to clear the width, but of course weren't long enough to fully reach the far front and far back of the racks.

 

It worked well for maybe 8 or 10(??) years until something went wrong, but I don't remember exactly what that was (a leak perhaps?).  It was replaced by a portable Maytag reverse rack which rarely get used any more.

 

Kevin 

[this post was last edited: 5/26/2016-17:24]