Quick Suggestions.., for a New Dishwasher...

[toploader55]

Friend of mine has a rental home and needs to replace a KDS 15.

What in the $300-$599 range would be good ? I have no idea anymore as I probably will have enough vintage babies to last my lifetime.

M'tag, Whirlp, Kenwhirl, ??? Something that will dry dishes too.

Thanks.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Eddie

I would say a WP/MT would be the lesser of the modern DW evils in this price range.

WK78

 

[william637]

Drying dishes seems to be harder than cleaning them

In the last two "modern" dishwashers I have bought, neither would dry worth a damn. The first was a Frigidaire Gallery Professional. It included a fan, but the placement of the fan and the very low power of the fan did not exhaust enough steam out of the unit to make a difference. I had to open the door to achieve results. My current kitchenaids do not have a fan. The vent is on the side of the door. It does not allow enough natural airflow for the dishes to dry. I have to open the door during the dry cycle twice to let the steam escape.

Without trying them to know for sure, I would probably go for a new Maytag with a front vent. My thinking is there is less airflow restriction in those.

 

[henene4]

Whispering voice says...

... This Bosch...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/bosch-e...hite/2638241.p?id=1218342191265&skuId=2638241

 

[foraloysius]

GE would be an option, still seem to have heated drying. See this thread:

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?49214_25~1

 

[mrb627]

Honestly

I don't think I could ever recommend installing a Bosch dishwasher in a rental unit. The requirement to keep refilling the jet dry container to achieve drying performance would NEVER be up kept.

I would anticipate nothing but complaints from your renters with a Bosch. I am not saying the Bosch is a bad machine. Far from it. But it does demand ownership of understanding that you won't find in the rental market.

Malcolm

 

[frontloaderfan]

"understanding you won't find in the rental market&#

That's a blanket statement if I ever heard one. Just because one does not own one's own home does not necessarily mean everyone who rents lacks the intelligence/initiative to refill the rinse aid compartment.

 

[william637]

I don't know of a bosch that dries

They do clean pretty well however. My friend put one in her kitchen and we actually did a "cake washing party" where we filled the dishwasher with a mixture of clean and dirty dishes, and about 3/4 of a sheet cake (because hey - that's what they advertised). Everything got clean and there was no cake re-deposited anywhere.

HOWEVER, if drying is important, I don't know of a Bosch that is up to the task (but someone can correct me if I am wrong). My friend has had several table knives rust because she didn't open the door before the next day.

 

[toploader55]

I looked at this on line

Looks like a Bosch.

My Dad's Bosch has the same or similar racks and spray arms.

http://www.sears.com/kenmore-elite-...nt=48792:0:0&executed=true&PDP_REDIRECT=false

 

[william637]

That is a WP/Kitchenaid Clone

It has the newer very low power motor (something like 1.3 amps if I remember correctly). But, it does have a front vent, so it may dry better than the side vent model Kitchenaid that I have.

 

[mich]

Bosch, and "Eco-Fied" Energy Star Rigged Machines..

Rely heavily on Thermal Heat, and Rinse Aid (Alcohol & Alkaline Surfactants) to cause what's called a "Sheeting Action" that literally makes all the water & droplets, sheet off, and flash dry. Not only does this save electricity, but, I've been told it's better for caring for fine glassware, and china. 

 

In our 2008ish, Kenmore Elite, one finds that the Heated Dry cycle is just about useless, when Rinse Aid is dosed (at 3ml). Everything is beyond dry and shiny. Plastics, will have small droplets of water, that can't sheet, but, heated dry really doesn't help those that much to begin with...

 

 

 

[mich]

And as for Rust...

Rusted Knives, can be saved, with a nice scrubbing of a SOS or Brillo Pad.  

 

[whirlcool]

That's a blanket statement if I ever heard one. Just because one does not own one's own home does not necessarily mean everyone who rents lacks the intelligence/initiative to refill the rinse aid compartment.

Have you ever had a rental property? Most tennants do not take the same amount of care with rental properties as they would if they had a financial interest in it.
Maintenance costs are always much higher for rental properties than they are for owner occupied properties.

Of course you do have your exceptions to this rule. But the kind of people who really care are in the minority.

 

[jeffg]

We never use rinse aid, and recently switched from an older Kenmore portable to a newer built-in Maytag. Dishes are completely dry almost immediately in the Kenmore (with no heat selected on the drying cycle) while the Maytag has zero drying ability even with heat. Not long ago we started a cycle in the Maytag before leaving on vacation for four days, when we got back the entire load was STILL wet. Ridiculous.

One obvious answer is that if current DWs don't dry properly, buy an older one that does. We were amazed at the specs on this Maytag, it uses just 1.1 gallons of water for its wash and rinse cycles. IMO that borders on disgusting, and it's no wonder they can't build up enough heat to dry anything.

 

[henene4]

First of all, Bosches dry as good as any other DW in Germany here. But as always use rinseaid (and salt in the softener) and have a slimeline DW and don't wash plastic, we do mainly not care about drying. But even without rinseaid, just open the door ones the cycles finishes and the dishes will be dry.

Knives should NEVER be washed in a DW. They don't cut good any longer and start to rust. And most times, things in a DW rust if something other that is already rusting is washed with the load.

Washing with 1.1 gallon of water is digusting??? Our DW just uses about 2.5 gallons on a full load with 3 or 4 fills. And normal sized dishwashers usually do either and have no problem with cleaning or drying and we fill with cold water (as 90% of all Germans do)...

 

[frontloaderfan]

@ whirlcool:

I don't want to hijack this thread as this deviates from the original topic. I have not owned my own home, much less rental properties. There are bad landlords just like there are bad tenants but to say ALL renters are irresponsible and lazy is simply unjust.

 

[jeffg]

"Washing with 1.1 gallon of water is digusting???"

I said it borders on it imo. And if the load is dirty enough, absolutely.

 

[logixx]

@ henene

Bosch dishwashers in the US dry at little different from European models as they don't actively cool the tub since there's no heat exchanger. Instead, most of them don't seem to have quite as much insulation as the Euro models.

I agree with what has been said about careless renters. When we moved into our apartment, the dishwasher was dirty and smelly. I ran bleach through it and eventually had to scrub the inside. A year later, I replaced it with a Bosch.