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Our kenmore dishwasher is now 2 months old and i got plenty of time to experiment with it. It does really well but...You really can't give it anything too challenging like stuck on food even though it was put in wet. It really dissapointed me one time because I though it could get off some stuck on food on a fork that had been pre rinsed so it would be easier to get off but it was still stuck on. Unlike normal this load was a little more challenging, so i picked the normal wash cycle. I immediately noticed that it skipped the drain for the pre wash stage and went right into the main wash and it paused alot throughout the cycle. At the end of the cycle. Everything was clean, exept the fork which is what i was testing, it still had a few spots of kibble/food left on it. Now it makes me wonder, if the last genaration of dishwashers could not handle something like this which my old maytag jetclean could have done with no issues, how well would these even handle a normal load. When is whirlpool going to finally put back atleast SOME of the quality back and power in them?
 
Earlier this year I purchased a new TOL Kitchen Aid dishwasher to replace an older KA that I really liked. I HATE this new dishwasher, no actually dispise would be a better word. Easily the worst applicance I have EVER purchased. That salesman at Lowes talked it up so good when I bought it, as he said, "Kitchen Aid is the best American made dishwasher made. Their motto in the company is to "build a dishwasher that will out Bosh Bosh." That was his words. So I bought it.
Oh where do I begin.....lets see.
1. Cycle times are 210 minutes long for "tough" and nearly as long for "normal" and "pro wash" has left food particles still on the dishes.
2. Must use a dishwasher cleaner / freshener at least once a month or more, if I run several loads, or the result will be stinky smell. After running the cleaner through with no dishes it smells like underarm deodorant, thus the next load of dishes smell that way too.
3. The pines are located weird on the upper rack. Its hard to fit some plastic wear in without it sticking way up. It seems to waste space.
4. And lastly, and most important, I have to keep those filters clean and clean out the bottom of any food particles that didn't go through. There is also cleaning underneath the floater water thing, black and grayish slime will build up.
The top of the filter is usually caked in grease, no lie, which I have had to boil and use bleach to clean it.
5. One day I was in a hurry and loaded it fast without rinsing out the glass wear and when I came back to unload it the first glass I picked up was sticky.

This was a $750.00 dishwasher I bought on sale. I got so fed up with having to wash the dishes before loading that I cleaned it out, ran a "cleaner" through it, and soaked up any standing water underneath the filters, let it dry out and found the paperwork that came with it and put it in the dishwasher. I will sell the damn thing with the house when I sell the house.

I bought a bottle of Ivory and spray bleach. I can wash the dishes by hand and put them up long before that thing even gets started.

So, yeah, I understand the frustration that I read concerning filters. I'm angry.
 
Question:

Exactly how come does it take these American machines over 3 stinking hours to wash the dishes, when their European counterparts are managing similar loads in a maximum of 2 hours generally (and with good results)?

New Miele machine I used recently: Auto-Wash cycle takes 1hr 10mins to complete, depending on soil. Normal is tipping 2 hrs. Not sure on water usage.
Miele I used in Norway, about 10 years old: Normal 50º - 60 minutes, Regular-Plus is about 90 minutes. Pots had a heated pre-wash, 70º wash and 70º rinse - about 2.5hrs (I can see why, with COLD water incoming!)

DishDrawer: 3 years old, longest cycle is 2hrs - but usually "shaves" about 20 minutes because of the hot incoming water temperature savings about 5-10 minutes of heating in each heating phase. Daily used cycle is 60 minutes in length. Uses about 2.4 Gallons total (8.93L), 4 water changes

Dishlex (Electrolux): We used to own, typically 90 minutes for a Regular cycle, with 4 water changes, I believe. About 5 gallons or 20L. 114 minutes for the 70º Pots cycle. 60 minutes for the 45º "Delicates/Economy" cycle - which used about 14L of water, IIRC.

All of the above machines scores reasonably well in Australian tests, and will work great provided they are used with proper detergent and with/without a hot connection. So tell me why it takes American machines so much longer to do the same job?
 
The 3-Hour Normal Cycle: On my (and probably Ben's) GE dishwashers, 65 minutes of that is the drying portion of the cycle. The wash/rinse portion of the cycle (with wash temp boost selected) is 1 hour + 51 minutes.

GE uses sleight-of-hand when it comes to drying: If you don't select the Power Dry option, the timer registers 1:51. When the final rinse water has drained, the CLEAN light comes on and the tiny 2-watt fan continues to operate for 65 minutes (or until you open the door). If you select Power Dry, the timer simply adds 65 minutes to the total cycle time with no difference in drying protocol.

I prefer to opt out of Power Dry and open the door when the CLEAN light comes on. The dishes flash dry in a minute and you're ready for the next load in under two hours.

In fact, I rarely use the Wash Temp Boost option, as my home water heater is set at 140 degrees. This shortens the wash cycle to 1:15.
 
To Barry in Post#31

Hi, You either have really bad water conditions or you need to use better detergents, there is no way that a newer KA DW will leave slime in the sump and food on dishes if it is loaded and used properly, If you feel that you these areas are OK then you need to call for warranty service.

KA DWs are among the Top Rated DWs by most testing organizations and we have very few cleaning complaints about them.
 
These are some of the things

I was afraid of when my dishwasher died. I was afraid that by the time it was time to get a new one, there would be nothing on the market that was worth anything. This past summer, my slightly over 9 year WP dishwasher died...I got a Maytag that has a chopper and no filter. I LOVE it....The built quality is nice and it washes dishes and doesn't take forever. It gets really hot......I haven't pulled anything dirty out of it yet. I don't rinse anything and do 3 to 4 loads per week, so the dishes sometimes sit in the dishwasher and dry with stuck on food until it gets ran. I'm so glad I didn't get an Eco Whirlpool. I gotta say, I *almost* did...

I wonder how LONG it will be before Whirlpool does to the Maytag's what they did with Whirlpool dishwashers?
 
Mark,

What model is your DW?  A friend of mine need a new DW and was asking me what I thought he should get.  His wife will not do vintage.  

Thanks!

Brent
 
POINT VOYAGER DISHWASHER

Thanks for the scan of the WP Point Voyager Dishwasher.  Very interesting read.

How long was this dishwasher (washing system) in production?

This sounds like most of the cycle behaviors of the WP / Kitchenaid line that do not have the filter.  

Sounds very effective.  And I love the fact that there is more than one rinse!  Those of you that have this type of sensor washing....do you usually get more than one rinse on a given cycle?

 
 
I've had the same fears about the new dishwashers. My 17 year-old Maytag makes noises from time to time so I've been researching. Emailed Maytag and Kitchenaid to ask about power ratings for their new motors to which they both replied, "We no longer give horsepower ratings for our dishwasher motors." Translated..."our new motors are so weak we are ashamed to give power ratings therefore we eliminated them from the labels"! I'm gonna find a porcelain tub KA that still works great and keep it for the day my Maytag dies and can't be resurrected. I have NEVER found any pieces of food in my MT. Took the filter apart one night just to see if it needed cleaning and to my surprise I only found some pieces of plastic wrap and a string...the sump and filter were completely clean. Hot enough water and enough detergent should be sufficient to keep them spotless inside!
 
Hey Brent!

The particular model I got is no longer available........But this link here is the closest thing.....It's pretty much the same as mine, minus a couple of cycles I believe. Mine is white.

I always use autoclean with high temp/tough scrub (no heated dry) because I open it as soon as it's done and the dishes flash dry pretty quickly.....and it runs usually about 100 minutes give or take.

It has the Jetclean with steam cycle but I've yet to use that. I'm sure that runs a LONG time..

http://www.maytag.com/kitchen-1/dis...shwashers-3/-[MDB6949SDM]-1111960/MDB6949SDM/
 
To John Post 35

I apologize for the delay in answering your post, working a lot. No, I'm not a fan of the new dishwashers for all the reasons stated above. When I cleaned out the blackish gray slim, that was about it for me. Game over. The water is very hard and I use a water softener powder and "Finish" tabs. I never had problems with the old dishwasher that quit, again it was a KA and was flawless in cleaning in a respectable period of time. I'm currently looking at other brands and leaning towards a Maytag with a built-in food disposal. It's not important to me if its "energy efficient," I just want clean dishes. I don't have a problem washing dishes by hand and then be done with it, so it's not urgent to run out and buy one. I don't seem to fit as many dishes in the newer one than my old one so I know I'm loading them correctly. Thank-you for then kind post and maybe I just got a lemon in the bunch. I'm disconnecting it this next Wednesday.
 
control settings

I prefer to see what cycle and option I am using. For example, I use normal and high temp wash 98 percent of the time. With the top controls, you cannot see it on normal/high temp wash. I agree with appnut. I need to see what my dishwasher is doing!
 
cycle program

When I use normal/high temp wash, It does a prewash, main wash, purge and final rinse. If I selected heated dry, which it does by default, it will dry the dishes with heat. If Whirlpool dishwashers continued making dishwashers with hard food disposers, we wouldn't have to worry about cleaning those stupid filters.
 

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