What is the worst dishwasher you've ever owned?

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>We replaced it with a MOL Maytag in 1994. I am sure that machine is still in operation in that house. It was built like a tank. It felt so sturdy and strong I felt like I could probably stand on the door while opened and not damage it. Not that I would ever consider doing that. It was much quieter than that Kenmore was and cost about the same $499.

How the mighty have fallen...

I once lived in a place that had Maytag. Not sure how high in the line it was--I am guessing at lowest low-MOL. And the door felt downright flimsy. The door latch broke, and the machine probably had maybe a total use of what a normal family do in a year at that point. Not sure when that Maytag was made, but probably not too many years after that MOL 1994 mentioned above.
 
I don't know what year Maytag cheaped out on their dishwashers, maybe someone else here knows.

The 2008 Maytag that we have now is really a Whirlpool in disguise. It's no where near the quality of the 1994 Maytag we had. It's one of the Quiet 300 series. It cleans well, and we have already replaced the door latch once already. But at 7 years old we are happy it lasted this long. We have no idea what we'll end up with next.
 
I am thinking for some reason that I saw the paperwork for the Maytag I used, and it had a date of ca. 2000. But don't quote me. It almost certainly predated Whirlpool--I moved into that place about a year after the WP takeover, and I'm pretty sure it was NOT new then.
 
I had a 2008 Amana dishwasher when I moved into my condo. I'm pretty sure it was still a Maytag design though. It was different from the WP's.
 
This B!tch

A Bomann (or as I called it Boo-man) buy-a-kitchen-get-the-dishwasher-free model that our landlord put in the kitchen. It wasn't a bad dishwasher as such, okay it was a noisy water guzzler, but it did wash alright and, since there was basically zero insulation around the tub, its condensation drying worked very well.

 

However, some idiot must have programmed the dishwasher and decided to exclude the interim rinse from every cycle. Result? Dirty water in the final rinse and me having custom-make cycles to get clean dishes. Oh, and it also leaked steam like crazy and the door seal came off all the time. If you look at the tub, you will see that GE and Whirlpool also sell this Chinese machine in the US.

 

Pic 1 - start of final rinse, if cycle wasn't manually rerun

Pic 2 - the "clear" result

Pic 3 - the door seal from hell

Pic 4 - more seal trouble

 

 

 

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FRIGISCARE FROM 2009
Quiet but with its tiny 1/8 HP motor, it was like putting a dirty load of dishes in the snk to soak before washing them in a dishwasher. It was fucked up the day I installed it. During shipping,one of its build in screws fell into the pump and Frigidaire sent a guy to fix it. He blamed me before seeing on the report his guys built it in for me. He replaced both motors. Easy to load,easy to operate but really,really poor results. This motor is so weak that it can't run both spray arms at the same time. :-(
 
@logixx

And people think one-rinse dishwashers are alright?

Your image clearly demonstrates otherwise.

I can't imagine the chemical cocktail you'd get eating off plates rinsed in that, with rinse-aid, no less (Face of horror here)
 
I just went through all EU machines in my head and all I know for sure about do at least rinse and then final rinse on their label cycles.

Most standard 24" DW here in Germany do a 4 fill wash on their label programm (prewash, wash, rinse, final rinse) and use 2-3l per fill. Some of the TOL once can reuse the final rinse water for the next pre-wash. So, average is 9-11l of usage, but can go down to 6l for a full 4 fill wash.
I know Miele can remove the interim rinse on their Auto programm, going down to 6l of usage (basicly, a 2 fill cycle). However, their Eco-cycle does 3 fills. (Wash, rinse, rinse.)
The "old" generation BSH always do an interim rinse AFAIK. Not sure about the new once though.
 
AEG used to have a fast cycle that would only do a wash and one rinse but they changed that. I went to Bomann's homepage and downloaded a typical manual. It's prewash, main wash, rinse, dry in every cycle. Our machine used to do flushes (static fill and then drain) but it was worthless with the detergent/soil still sitting on the dishes.

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The only successful one-rinse dishwasher I've ever witnessed is the PowerClean. I'm still amazed at how squeaky clean and sparkling everything is on a Normal cycle with its purge and the one thermal hold rinse. I pop the door open every now and again right before the final drain, and the water is always sparkling clear, no matter how filthy the dishes were when they went in.

Speaking of, since this was a subject of a previous post, I've gone back to solely using Cascade Complete pacs, and have gotten perfect results every time even with the 14 minute main wash. I love Finish, but the tablets are just too dense and compacted for me to feel comfortable using in the PC. And plus, we weren't sure where to lay the blame when it came to an odd wet-dog smell on glassware every few loads, but found out that it was egg!! Since then I scrub any egg remains from everything, and have yet to have a speck of problems.

So, though I know this is probably common knowledge to some, don't ever wash anything with raw egg on it, or you'll quickly notice the smell of soggy dog farts when you go to take a drink of water from that glass you just pulled out!
 
Strange smell

I remember when I once worked for somebody (all I did was checking bills), the glasses I'd bedn using had a soup kind of smell. Don't know what it was until today, but she had a close TOL Miele (the model with the rotary knob to select programms) and ran it on Auto and Eco most of the times.
 
When I bought my house there were 2 Maytag dishwashers in the kitchen (Kosher) installed new in 1999/2000. I loved them. They were easy to load, had a variety of cycles and made a quiet "swoosh" sound when running. When my ritzy friends purchased a home in Rancho Mirage the first thing they did was replace all of the built-in appliances with stainless steel. Heaven forbid someone would see their kitchen with dead-common white stuff. The seller had replaced the dishwasher with a new Bosch unit with hidden controls which had never been used. Before the dealer offered to do them a favor and haul it away I asked if I could have it. I installed it next to the main kitchen sink and replaced the still-new Maytag in the island with a small cabinet and a Monogram ice machine. I gave both of the Maytags to mobile home friends that needed them. I also gave the Profile side by side and the Profile gas cooktop to friends too and helped them install all of them. I couldn't stand to see perfectly nice appliances scraped. 

 

The Bosch dishwasher is very quiet. It's difficult to tell if it's running, however I liked the gentle "swoosh" of the Maytag. The Bosch has a clumsy lower rack that's difficult to load. I don't think very much thought was given to designing it, but it was free. As I have mentioned here before, I use the dishwasher once every 2 or 3 months. My daily "load" would consist of a plate, maybe a small bowl, a glass and coffee cup and a fork and spoon. If I waited until I accumulated a full load the inside of the dishwasher would look and smell like a penicillin factory. There's the 2 dog dishes but I wouldn't put those in the dishwasher anyway...poison dog germs.

 

"My lips touched dog lips!  Poison dog lips!"

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Hands down the worst

Was GE made Dishwashers. Everyone I used was horrible at cleaning, and food particles would always redeposit on everything in the top rack. Rinsing wasn't good either especially when the mechanism was deliberately designed to retain a half gallon of water. Only thing I liked about them was the Potscrubber Cycle (from a long hot wash feature standpoint other machines tend to lack) and excellent drying, but in everything else they were awful. Noisy too especially for something as simple as a water fill you would think would be quiet.
 
Samsung Stormwash?

I have a Samsung Stormwash (DW800) that I have had to repair two times already, the first only 4 months into use!! The pump keeps dying.
When it works (if ever) cleans badly, smells and takes forever.
It at least used to be quiet, but the pump now makes a horrible noise and yes... just broke.
I think I'll stick to Samsung for phones
 
Magic Chef

I don't know who made it. It wasn't a horrible dishwasher, but it was the worst out of all the ones I've lived with. Thinking back, the dishwashers I've lived with were a GE potscrubber growing up - A 1984 Whirlpool my grandma had. In 1995 I moved to Knoxville TN to an apartment which had a magic chef dishwasher. I think it must have been at least ten years old or more in 1995. Then for a short time I lived in a duplex which had a Kenmore branded OLD dishwasher which reminded me so much of the magic chef. Everything else I've had has been more modernish Kenmore/Whirlpool.

I can't remember exactly what it looked like, but looking around on the net, they looked A LOT like this picture if I remember correctly. Perhaps it's just that they were so freaking old at the time I used them....I remember examining them looking like they had endured years of use..

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Looks like

an 18 inch made by DM Mark.
I've not really had a bad machine either. I've had less than desirable results when I used an inexpensive detergent in lower end dishwashers.
My 1984 Whirlpool Powerclean energy save performed flawlessly until 1999 when it began leaking water from the door bottom.
I guessed it was the door seal, and replaced it. Nope, then I learned a spray arm which may have had a fork or knife protrude into one of the holes can get bent enough to spray water into the lower door vent. Only too late, after I bought a '99 Whirlpool Gold model 940, which worked until 2011, and was till working when I removed it to remodel. It only worked on Normal cycle, because the board was bad. It ran that way for two years though.
So far so good with the GE Profile we have now.
 
they were full

sized dishwashers, but that was the look they had. What is DM? I forgot about that but I think I remember seeing that past company mentioned here before. I forgot all about them. I honestly can't think of a horrible awful dishwasher that I've ever had....Even these were OK to me, just not as good as the later model kenmore/whirlpools/Ge's I had been used to using.
 
I have to say that I have been lucky with dishwashers. I currently have a midrange hidden-control Whirlpool dishwasher. I love it. I especially love the silverware caddy in the drawer, it frees up space in the rack and stuff still gets clean.

Back in college, my apartment came with a Roper (cheap Whirlpool) dishwasher. I thought that it would require a second cycle to get things clean as it lacked an upper spray arm. It just had a spray tower. This was probably the cheapest thing Lowes/Home Depot/etc. had in stock, the infamous $199 special. Nevertheless, this was the little dishwasher that could. I was beyond impressed. Dishes came out squeaky clean (literally) each and every time. Granted, it was brand new when I moved in so there was no chance that a previous tenant could have abused the machine (not scraping dishes, not cleaning the pump filter, etc.). This dishwasher was also built on the same platform that other Whirlpool dishwashers have used over the years (probably since the mid-80s)--Whirlpool knows how to build a good dishwasher.

The el-cheapo GE/Hotpoints (again, no upper wash arm) wash pretty well. I have one in my breakroom at work. It's probably about 10 years old or so.

It will be interesting to see what will come of the new crop of dishwashers if and when the government lowers the water usage limits.
 
Gov't Restrictions/Water Limits on future D-W Models:

--...Probably will mean a drastic lotta steps backwards!

Pre-rinsing & Scraping...  A LOTTA Worst Dishwashers we'WILL own--not to mention relatively short life-spans...!

 

 

-- Dave
 
DM was

Design Manufacture inc. They made Caloric, Kenmore before Whirlpool or Frigidaire, some Modern maid, and a few other brands of dishwashers such as that Magic Chef.
 
The first dishwasher I remember us having was a "portable" that was just a normal late 70s whirlpool with wheels and a faucet adapter hose thing that clamped on. It was loud but always worked and most dishes were clean. It was basically the built in model adapted to roll.
My rental had a very similar model built in and same thing, loud but worked fine. We were given a Kenmore quiet pack washer that I THINK was a GE with the plastic tub. I took out the Whirlpool and shoved it in place. Every time I fired it up the door leaked, I leveled it as best I could it still leaked. I took the inner door panel off, cleaned out all the old soap slime and rinse aid, still leaked, replaced the door seal, still leaked, took it out enough to sit on the floor and it didn't leak.
I gave up and put the old one back in, no more leaks.
I think the floor under the ge was so uneven the crappy plastic tub and frame tweaked and door couldn't seal.
I kept using that Whirlpool till we finally moved many years later and besides some minor repairs it always worked and was built so much better then the at least 10 year newer one.
One we have now is a BOL Kenmore/Whirlpool SS and black version of about 2011 vintage.
Looks like a newer, slightly cheapened version of all the Whirlpools I remember, slightly quieter then the old ones and still cleans fine.
I gave away the free one with its new door seal as when I finally decided it wasn't going to work the pump started leaking too.
Don't know if that repair shop ever did anything with it or scrapped it, I just loaded it in my van and dropped it off to be rid of it.
 
GE top button control circa 2011 or so

3rd dishwasher in the house since I bought it in 2009.

There was some BOTL Amana in it when I bought the house. Racks were rusting. Used it a month or two and tossed it.

I bought some BOTL Kenmore on clearance cost next to nothing think I spent $185 on clearance, started leaking after 2 years, was an easy fix but I stumbled across some higher end GE on clearance at Sears for $385 on clearance, so I sold the Kenmore on Craigslist told them what to repair and bought the GE.

The GE is garbage. It's noisy. It doesn't clean well. The Kenmore cleaned better but I'd have had to replace it anyway due to a kitchen remodel. Of course I had a GE washer from the same era, just went to the curb a few weeks ago.

Hopefully I can find another clearance cheaply to try and sell this one off.
 
My GE Profile

has SS and a black front console. It's a 4 cycle model with blue spray arms and a permatuff tub. It does a good job, I have no complaints. It is not loud. I can hear water spraying inside a little. Gee, maybe because it's washing? I use the anti-bacterial cycle plus added heat mostly. It takes 88 to 90 minutes according to the built in time display, which is no longer offered. I use Finish red ball tabs and liquid Cascade in the small dispenser cup. Short pre wash, then one long wash, two rinses, unless the turbidity sensor sees particles, in which it will purge off some water and refill, or totally empty and re rinse.
It is installed between thick solid wood cabinets, and under a Silestone quartz countertop.
I put some extra insulation up under the bottom of the door when I glued the wooden toe kick trim to the front and sides on the ugly black metal one.
It was not on clearance, or returned. I ordered it along with my profile SS dual fuel slide in stove, microvent, and 26 cu. ft. SxS in GE's non magnetic stainless steel. That means it has nickel in it as well as chromium to prevent corrosion.
I upgraded my "Masterbrand" cabinetry from Indiana to all plywood 1/4 inch sides and ends. Yes, it's Martha's Lily Pond. Good stuff. Leaded glass doors were no charge.
I did the installation, except the counter tops. Level, square, and tight. No shims were needed for the counters.
I added solid cherry russet triple beaded trim on the bottoms, and tops, then crown moldings. It all adds class, and hides the electrical outlets at the top for the L.E.D. task lighting. I ran the wiring between the cabinets. Travertine tile backsplash. We are gumba's.
 
If we could discuss the BEST dishwasher it would be my Maytag that I have now--there is not a thing that it DOESN'T clean! (I recently had a bowl of wild raspberries that grow in our back yard on some ice cream--the berries were heated in the microwave & I made a berry milkshake, too--in which the bowl, (well, maybe I should have had some cake to help me scrape the berry residue from that bowl my sundae was in) mug and blender glass all came out spotless & clean...

 

If we were to have kept that bottom-of-the-line Bradford portable any longer than we had, it would surely rank as the worst--I think that had a universal D&M design; a photo of the inside was very familiar looking in my HOW TO BUY MAJOR HOME APPLIANCES book that shows it compared to a Kitchen Aid dishwasher interior... (Photo of it was shown, too...) And a Kitchen Aid Superba control panel photo is also shown in the chapter on 'How To Buy Dishwashers'...

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 7/25/2016-13:06]
 

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