the tower of pitsville

[mrcleanjeans]

who else wants to scream at wash towers in dishwashers, especially pop-up ones , started by who else but GE,there's no way that the upper rack will all get washed when pots, bowls and other bulkies are loaded on the bottom rack.This , I believe , is the main reason many dont think DWs clean, because their top rack items, mainly glasses are not all clean unlike machines that have a FULL-SIZE revolving spray arm UNDERNEATH the upper rack to fully spray under it all.also, try to put , say a stock pot in one, or a roaster.one cannot,of course.and for further wasted space, the raised saucer shelf to make room for the tower.thoughts, anyone?

 

[appnut]

Dave, lemme irst welcome you to the group.

I have a 1987 GE GSD1200G PotScrubber, one of the last of the rapid advance timer dishwashers, aside form KA superba.

Anyway, I've been dealing with these dishwashers since 1963. I've simply learned to work around it. But then again, my dishes are from 1961 and they fit very well, I even bent the small saucer rack to fit my cereal bowls.

Yes there are some times the tower and silverware basket get in the way. I do creative loading and move the silverware basket around some whre it will fit with the tines. I have to admit, when GE came out with the super upper rack, that made loading bulky items easier--such as my 5 qt. crock pot, stock pots and similar things. It's also very rare when things in my top rack don't get clean. But 99% of the time, even when I have large cassaroles, skillets, and mixing bowls all stuffed in the bottom rack, as long as there's space for the tower to pop up, cleans like a champ.

I used to have a link to some photos of my dishwasher loads on the old site, but now gone and I can't find my photos under my yahoo id appnut. If you can find them, good luck.

In fact my load right now has a 10.5" skillet tilted over and resting on the saucer rack to provide an ange; a 5 qt. mixing bowl, 9 x 13 cake pan, a small roastin pan, 4 qt. sauce pan, skillet lid, rimmed soup bowl, salad plate, 10" round biscuit pan, and a saucer--that's just in the bottom rack. The top rack is equally full. The skillet had some burned on stuff on it; cake pan was baked mac & cheese and mixing bowl mixed that up. Ran it on PotScrubber with Cascade Complete powder, all is immaculate, including the 16 oz tall glass on the right back corner of the top rack.

Personally, I prefer the tower for dealing with tall cookie sheets and platters. I had a Kenmore made by D&N with an upper rack wash arm. Was very frustrated with it's height limits and it was a piece of junk, dind't clean worth spit.

I know someday I'll have to get a new dishwasher, but the tall tub design will help me with the upper wash arm.

Bob

 

[scott55405]

Mrcleanjeans, welcome to the club.

Bob, you must have taken the pictures and had me post them, since I had them on my hard drive. I put a new album out there, and here is the link.

Mrcleanjeans, I also dislike washtower dishwashers and am happy to be rid of mine. But, as you'll see in these pictures, Bob is a master at making the most use of space in a dishwasher, and I bet is very nice to have around on a holiday or big dinner party!

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=6577529&uid=814581&members=1

 

[kenmore1978]

Kenmore D & M

Bob, I gotta dispute you on that one, I used a D & M built KM DW with the full-sized upper rack wash arm from 1978 until a few months ago and it always cleaned excellently. I always made sure to fit the cycle to the load, though. Starting today, it's going down for parts, It needs so much to bring it back (racks, timer, motor relay board, and it leaks and I can't seem to find out where). I also have the portable version of it.

I replaced it with an '88 WP that a friend found "curbed", and it seems to do an exellent job. It has the same problem you complain about, in that it has a little tower in the middle of the lower rack that squirts water into the upper spray arm that is attached to the bottom of the upper rack, but I find that it doesn't really get in the way.

 

[retromom]

Tower torture

Welcome Dave

Saw your posts, but didn't realize you were new!! Great forum, isn't it?

I also dislike those wash towers. The bol Hotpoint had one. It would get stuck every once in a while, and the items on the upper rack would have food particles adhered to them. Pretty gross. I'm glad it's gone.

 

[gadgetgary]

GE Tower

In 1986, I bought the GE Potscrubber(Model#2800-I think) with the all digital display. It had the tower and everything that i put in that machine came out CLEAN, however, some things did not dry as well as in the KitchenAid that I replaced. The GE always heated the water, and back then, was one of the first to have a 'CLEAN' light(which I thought was KEWL). I replaced it in 1992 with a KitcheAid Superba. The KitchenAid is still running strong(upper racks are starting to rust along the rails) and the PreWash dispenser does not open due to a loss of spring action but no big deal). If I had it to do over again, I would have kept the GE since I loved the racking and Super upper rack, and never had a problem with the dish tower. I did have to replace the digital display, but, it was under warranty. If I had to replace today, don't know if I would get a KA, Maytag, or GE. I am scared about the imports since they seem to have smaller racks, and I hear it is hard to get someone to service these machines.
My brother still has the GE machine that I mentioned above and is still going strong.
GadgetGary

 

[agiflow]

My portable WP has the wash tower in it also.Not really a problem since the silverware basket is on the door,i guess it's a trade off.

It seems like a rather crude design to shoot water up through a stationary tower into the upper spray arm.Why didn't they just use direct feed spray arms?Anyway,it has always been an excellent cleaner.

It would be nice if the manufacturers would offer porcelain steel tubs again,but i can be happy with SS also.

 

[gansky1]

My sister has a wash-tower GE Profile potscrubber that I put in their house to replace an older GE model when they moved in, some of you might remember the pics and the Tappan Fabulous 400 range... They GE does a fine job on everything and I've heard no complaints from them so far, of course her husband is legally blind so he's more concerned with noise but the cleaning seems to be up to par as well. Over Thanksgiving last year, we had lots of family in town and we all centered around her house. Three loads a day and that GE never missed a dish.

 

[frigilux]

Add me to the list of people who shake their fist at the dreaded wash-tower----not because of how they affect cleaning, but for how much they limit what you can load into the rack. I use a lot of stockpots and other large, out-sized pans, so a wash-tower would drive me nuts.

I also hated the water funnel in the center of the upper rack of my 2002 Frigidaire for the same reason. My new Frigidaire has done away with the funnel, and now I can put oddly-sized items in the top rack, too.

Having said all that, if you wash large pots and pans by hand (some people prefer to), then the wash-tower probably isn't as much of an issue.

Welcome to the site, by the way!

 

[peterh770]

Welcome to the site! This is a great topic for the Deluxe forum!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Welcome Mr. Cleanjeans!

This thread really can go either way, its both vintage and modern (I guess that makes it a "bi"-forum thread).

So I moved it to the Modern Deluxe Fourm to keep everyone happy.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

tower tantrums

Thanks for the welcomes all.One thing about these tower tisks that needs to be mentioned is that I'm not referring to those DWs which have a fixed tower that leads to a middle full size,full width wash arm, since the undersides of the entire upper rack would get sprayed with that setup since machines of that sort are not trying to use the tower itself to supposedly spray the full upper rack radius from the center.Of course, the tower still gets in the way loading wise.Just a thought, or two, or three...

 

[jmirawm]

BOL Hotpoint

Hi Mr. Cleanjeans ! I have BOL Hotpoint with the tower you speak of, probably from around 1989 when my house was built. I have never had a problem with it getting the dishes clean. I have never even thought of replacing it. When my family eats here, my mom always complains to my dad that her Kitchen Aid dishwasher from the 70's with the four arm hydrosweep does not do as good of a job as mine. She always raves about how sparkling my glasses come out. I do think alot of it is that DAD will not turn up there hot water heater. My water is practically boiling when it comes out of the faucett. Not a problem since I live alone. I always have to warn my houseguests though: The WATER IS HOT !

 

[david]

oh mr. cleanjeans...

Welcome, Dave. I had a 90 model WP with a squirt tower in the center of the bottom rack. The machine washed well and never broke down in 14 years, but when I moved out of that house I had to replace it (tub was stained beyond belief). I chose a Kenmore mol or better. Whirlpools have exceptional reliability and cleaning, but flexible loading has never been a strong attribute of thiers. Presently I use a GE with no tower, but a small impeller size spray arm which sprays from the top of the machine downward. I think GE intends for the owner to put cereal bowls and saucers in the tines arranged for them in the top rack. Anything upside down such as glassware or big bowls won't get any benefit from such spray action.

 

[appnut]

David, I beg to differ about your comment about the power shower not being worth any good for large bowls or cups/glassses in the top rack. That is what helps keep food bits from accumulating in those concave areas. And helps make sure the outside of large bowls or stopots get said food bits removed too.

 

[kenmore1978]

upper wash arms

"It seems like a rather crude design to shoot water up through a stationary tower into the upper spray arm.Why didn't they just use direct feed spray arms?Anyway,it has always been an excellent cleaner."

There's always a disadvantage one way or another in gettin water to an upper spray arm. In this regard, the later KA machines that shoot the water into a conduit leading to the upper spray arm from a hole in the back wall of the machine. This eliminates the interior plumbing and back wall mounted support arm for the upper wash arm that D & M used, and that would interfere with lower rack loading, as well as the telescoping tower or stationary tower other makers used to get water to upper spray arm or water to upper rack. In the case of D & M and KA, their methods are a little more costly in that both call for extra plumbing and in the case of D & M, that rather substanial support arm for the upper spray arm. Then there's the one piece upper and lower spray arms Waste King/Thermador used, but we won't go there...

 

[deeptub]

I try to keep an open mind about wash towers. I tell myself that there must be some good reason for it to be designed that way. I don't mind the fixed towers as much as the telescoping ones. At least the fixed ones remind you that they're there. Having grown up with single hydrosweep KitchenAids, I can be pretty crafty about loading. But even a single hydrosweep KA can hold a half-sheet baking pan on each side of the lower rack. My present everyday machine is a KA with upper and lower washarms. I'm so used to putting 12" skillets and 16 qt stockpots and all sorts of big items in the bottom rack, that when I go to a friend's who has a recent Maytag Jetclean, I start to fuss at all the loading constraints. And this Thermador that I've found recently is tricky...it won't hold half sheet pans, which it COULD if they hadn't put the upper rack tracks right at the very bottom of the rack. If they were closer to the top, the pans could slide right into the gap between the tub wall and the upper rack. That is, if you also moved the side mounted silverware baskets inboard. They could theoretically be placed anywhere in the lower rack, but the tine spacing is such that they only fit in their designated places in the front corners.

In my experience, GE dishwashers always have done an amazing job IF they have the self-cleaning micro filter in the back of the tub. AND, that new QuietMotor really is quiet--and can be retrofitted to all GE DWs back to 1970.

T.

 

[david]

power shower

Well Bob, it might be good for cleaning the concave bottoms of glasses, but it does a good job on any cereal bowls and saucers I place in the top. I'm trying to get away from these concave shaped bottom glasses, anything that holds water in the machine just won't dry. I have the button set to heat, but the heat doesn't do much for these or those plastic go-cups. I think a major part of automatic dishwashing for me is the hot dry cycle-if I have to rack them after taking them out or dry with a towel, I may as well hand -wash dishes.

 

[kenmore1978]

concave bottoms

ARE a pain, I try to avoid them like the plague when I buy glasses and cups. Whenit DOES happen, I just empty the bottom rack first, then the stuff in the upper rack that has flat bottoms, then empty the water out of the concave bottm things and just leave them in the dw to dry. Alternatively, I re-run the Dry cycle if I'm in a hurry.