Thermador THD 3600, Anyone?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

rp2813

rp2813

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Messages
18,054
Location
Sannazay
Might this machine be on anyone's wish or must-have list?

I'm offering it here first, since it affords the highest probability of this dishwasher finding a good, safe home.  Ideally one with the kitchen far removed from any living or sleeping areas, save for those that contain vintage Norge clothes washers where excessive noise is actually considered an attribute and tenuous reliability is an integral element of ownership.  Lucky you, Nate.  This means you no longer qualify.   That was brief, wasn't it?  I knew it would be. :-D

For those familiar with the saga, Nate and I gave the Thundering Thermador a complete going over, replaced the rinse aid dispenser, fill inlet cover and lower rack, as well as gave it a face-lift, outfitting it with contemporary stainless-look front panels.  It has been in regular service for the past year with only the occasional hiccup, all of which were rooted in user error/ignorance/overly guarded apprehension, or phosphate-free detergent.

As with any labor of love, there's been considerably more invested in this machine than what it's actually worth.  I don't expect to recover our costs but also don't intend to add to them any further, so shipping arrangements would be entirely up to the new owner.

Comes with original owner's manual too!

Caution:  The practice of opening the door simply to hear it snap shut can become addictive.

Pitch-ers:

[this post was last edited: 1/5/2011-17:54]

rp2813++1-5-2011-12-04-57.jpg
 
Proof that even with  accomodation for the vertical tube for the upper wash arm, this machine is certified as BobLoadable.

rp2813++1-5-2011-12-10-28.jpg
 
I dated a girl in high school...

Pause to let those who know me pick themselves up off the floor........................................ OK that should be long enough.

They had one of these and I remember when her Mom replaced it with what I thought was a 17 or 18 series Kitchen Aid Superba. Can't remember exactly as the thought of a girl now destroys any hope I have of remembering those details.

I do remember her Mom saying "that damn thing is just too noisey!!. I love this new dishwasher"
 
"that damn thing is just too noisey!!. I love this new d

My sentiments exactly with regard to the TT vs. the ISE Classic Supreme!
 
I miss Norris Industries products!

I have a similar, but older, Waste King dishwasher and it's not that noisy. Were the Thermy's noisier than their progenitors?

Boy do I miss those old Thermador ovens, stoves and cooktops. And that wonderful Norris Indoor Gas grill that Darren and Samantha had.
 
I think WK-U or Thermador dishwashers of similar vintage and/or design are all going to sound the same. 

There were times when I thought the TT was quieter than usual and I'm sure it was due to the type of load it was washing.  The motors on these machines tend to make a loud resonating hum.  Your Waste King may seem not to be obnoxiously loud if it's the only machine you're used to hearing. 

Consider that one day recently I was visiting a friend who happened to be running his cheap BOL GE, which has to be at least 15 years old.  It was silent compared to the TT.  It made me realize just how loud my machine was.

It was then that I decided I wanted a machine that was at least as quiet as a cheap GE in a rental's tiny galley kitchen, and not long after that, the ISE Classic Supreme came along.

With reasonably soft water, good detergent and proper loading, the TT will perform well, and it will dry more thoroughly than most any dishwasher out there.  The WK-U/Thermadors are fun to experience, and in them anyone who likes to hear their appliances as they perform will most assuredly find love at first sound. 
 
TD DW NOISE

Ralph congratulations on your new ISE DW it is diffidently  a move in the right direction. I was always puzzled at your complaints about the TD being so noisy, if anyone would ask me what was good about a TD DW I think the first thing that would come to mind would be that I always thought they were fairly quiet. Your machine truly has a bad motor or a misaligned diffuser over the wash impeller, the TD DW that I was trying to fix for Mark [ Lighted Controls ] around the time you were fixing your machine was downright silent, but I finely gave up on it over timer problems and it was recycled. I am sure you will enjoy your new KA style machine they differently had the best overall build quality. But having both a 1980s KA and WP Power Clean machines in my kitchen the WP diffidently wins in overall cleaning, drying and loading capacity. I just opened the door of my WP this morning after being closed all night after a BOB LOAD and it is always a pleasure to see all the clean dry dishes and have no musty smell that I get with the KA from the food thats left in the sump and the filter and the lack of a vent in the top of the door to allow the dishes to keep drying all night in a closed machine , on the KA I try to remember to open the door slightly when the cycle is complete. [ Note I do not ever use heated dry or Rinse Aid in either machine as I feel that the heat shortens the life of the lower racks and other plastic parts of the machine and is a waste of electricity ]
 
TD DW NOISE

Ralph congratulations on your new ISE DW it is diffidently  a move in the right direction. I was always puzzled at your complaints about the TD being so noisy, if anyone would ask me what was good about a TD DW I think the first thing that would come to mind would be that I always thought they were fairly quiet. Your machine truly has a bad motor or a misaligned diffuser over the wash impeller, the TD DW that I was trying to fix for Mark [ Lighted Controls ] around the time you were fixing your machine was downright silent, but I finely gave up on it over timer problems and it was recycled. I am sure you will enjoy your new KA style machine they differently had the best overall build quality. But having both a 1980s KA and WP Power Clean machines in my kitchen the WP diffidently wins in overall cleaning, drying and loading capacity. I just opened the door of my WP this morning after being closed all night after a BOB LOAD and it is always a pleasure to see all the clean dry dishes and have no musty smell that I get with the KA from the food thats left in the sump and the filter and the lack of a vent in the top of the door to allow the dishes to keep drying all night in a closed machine , on the KA I try to remember to open the door slightly when the cycle is complete. [ Note I do not ever use heated dry or Rinse Aid in either machine as I feel that the heat shortens the life of the lower racks and other plastic parts of the machine and is a waste of electricity ]
 
By far the 1970's GE potscrubbers with the Plastisol coated metal tubs were the loudest dishwashers I've ever heard. By far!

and John why don't you use Rinse Aid? No need or is it bad for some reason?
 
Water is so hard here that I'd have spots on everything if I didn't use rinse aid, or if I attempted to use the "flash dry" process.

I don't think the TT has a bad motor.  The 1990-or so Maytag JetClean it replaced had the identical motor and had an identically loud motor noise to it, from day one when my parents bought it.

Perhaps the TOL WK & Thermadors had some additional quieting properties.
 
I always use heated dry. I don't think it is going to break me financially for the few loads I do each week. The only smell I used to have occasionally in my KDS-18s was goo that accumulated on the front lip of the tank under the door. It was the soil line from the first two fills without detergent. It is gross. I cleaned it with a paper towel and Spray Nine, then rinsed it. Now, I put a little detergent in the uncovered part of the dispenser meant for the Soak 'n Scrub so there will be something to emulsify the grease in the first fill and I don't have the goo forming much at all any more.

Perhaps, John, you would not have the odors from the food in the filter if you used the heated dry to sort of dehydrate it and eliminate the moisture left behind which continues the decaying process. I will be the first to agree that the KA is not the performer that your WP is.
 
I'm going to have to find one of those Whirlpool dishwashers from the early sixties. After hearing and reading(Check-ratings in CR) raves about them, they must be extraordinary machines. Are they these?

bajaespuma++1-7-2011-08-28-11.jpg
 
Friends had the STU-70 in their Barrett-Lundy built town house on Capitol Hill in the late 70s. The upper wash arm was attached to a slightly conical-shaped protrusion in the center of the top rack. I believe I read an explanation that WP thought they needed this apparatus to make the water start a swirling motion that would feed down into the upper wash arm and make it turn. As later models prove, they found a way around it. The machines washed very well building on the washing excellence of the ca 1960 WP dishwashers with the Gorman-Rupp pump. This was one of the machines that CU stated washed about as well without detergent as some machines did with detergent. That generation of machines was not reliable, but by the time of the STU series, WP had powerful dishwashers with good reliability.
 
DISHWASHER DRYING

Tom you are correct that there is less stale smell when the DW is opened the next day if I use the heated dry option. But since the dishes don't seem to pick the smell it is not really a big problem, if anything the smell just reminds me to clean the filter. And the twenty dollars a year it would cost to run the heat cycle is not ever going the bankrupt me I think its more the thought that an extra 100 pounds or so of coal a year has to be mined and burned just so my dishes dry a little faster when in fact they are always dry by the time I get around to putting them away anyway that motivates me to conserve. The reason I don't use wetting agent is that it seems to make little difference in the end result [ my glasses are spot free and sparkle ] and I don't really like the idea of having something dried on my dishes that the bottle says Do Not Ingest. I find a lot of things in life really are not necessary for an excellent quality of living, I don't buy paper towels, trash bags paper napkins and I even put in a central vac system so I would never have to buy vacuum bags again and I haven't to in over 30 years. Don't worry I do buy toilet paper LOL.
 
"Don't worry I do buy toilet paper LOL." INDEED

I don't usually laugh this hard in the morning. Thank you, John
 
I think the direction in which this thread has degraded speaks volumes about the general consensus with regard to WK-U/Thermador dishwashers.

Next stop: Craig's List!!!
 
Oh Yes.

I sooooo agree with you about drying agent.

I've always felt in my gut that there has to be a residue on the Machines Contents from Drying Agent.

I personally don't mind a few spots here and there. I realize the amount of drying agent once diluted is not going to kill me , but if I can live without it I will.

It's the same way I feel about Fabric Softner. I just don't like any scent on my clothes other than the way they come out of the dryer. No Bounce or anything.

What really scares me as of lately is the Downy that lasts for a week. Ummmmm... sorry. I wouldn't want to smell that all week and besides, what kind of chemicals are next to your skin that lasts for the whole week ???

Yuck !!!
 

Similar threads

B
thermador / waste king / thd 3600
Replies
9
Views
29
volsboy1
volsboy1

Latest posts

Back
Top