What is the worst dishwasher you've ever owned?

[mark_wpduet]

One Knob Wonder

I always was so disappointed in the past when looking for a place to rent, and seeing a dishwasher that only had ONE KNOB. LOL - I knew whoever put it in put in the most BOL dishwasher - but after using them, I really could NOT complain..It was MILES better than being without a dishwasher. I would NOT live anywhere that did not have one. It could be the most beautiful place ever, but if it didn't have one, I would pass. In other words, give me the worst dishwasher I've ever had ANY DAY over not have a dishwasher at all.

As for best dishwasher - it would be my current Maytag from 2014. LOVE IT. However, the only thing that makes it better than the WP/Kenmores I've used from the past is the fact that it's all stainless and holds more dishes, and I doubt it will last 30 years like my grandmas 1984 WP dishwasher. Seriously, I cleaned it with citric acid like I do every six months or so, and you could hear water sloshing around like a hurricane inside because it was empty.

 

[vacerator]

Rental property

usually has b.o.l. appliances. It makes no sense to spend big money on them when some tenants abuse them.
My friend owns a rental duplex, and one tennant's child set the clean cycle so many times on the oven, the board fried. He found melted plastic on the oven bottom. The same tenant left the dishwasher broken and crooked in the cabinet, like it was kicked.
He added a washer and drier, and one tenant managed to tear the cabinet away from the Whirlpool uplevel direct drive washer. She left the dryer door opened, so the light was burned out, and several of her undergarments inside of it.

 

[mark_wpduet]

the last place I lived

Chinoe Creek Apartments in Lexington. I was on the bottom floor, with a floor above me and a floor above that one. They had Hotpoint dishwashers from the 80s (from what I could tell) they had to be at least from the early to mid 80s, but they were pretty good.

Off topic story. The lady above me had a child who threw toilet paper off their balcony and it landed in front of mine, making it looks as if I was doing it. It was a toddler I'm pretty sure. Anyway, it was a 2 bathroom apt, and one day, I heard water dripping fast and I ran into the spare bathroom and water started POURING from the bathroom vent fan. I ran upstairs and BEAT on their door and NO ONE answered! I knew they were there though. The water had a bleach smell to it, but the kid had thrown toilet paper in the toilet and stopped it up. Me being a neat/clean freak, that was the maddest I EVER remember being in my life. The apt maintenance said that this was their 3rd and final warning, so apparently they had been warned before we moved in there.

After that, a college kid moved in up there (this was 2002) he smoked, threw butts off his balcony that landed in front of mine. One night, there was a party up there and it was so loud. There had to be 20 people there, a fight broke out - it sounded like all 20 people were jumping up and down it was so loud, they ended up going out the front door, still fighting, yelling really LOUD. I called the police and others around had too. Then, the college guy came down to my house drunk knocking on my door and telling me how sorry he was and he was drunk and kept falling on me. This was like 230 am. He wasn't there long before someone else moved in and they were very quiet, but then we had an ice storm and were without power for 7 days. That was my worst rental experience. I was never so glad to move into my new house in 2004

 

[vacerator]

Mark, GE made good

basic appliances back then. My friends duplex still has the Nautilus dishwasher he installed in the late 90's, the GE slide in self clean range, and the original to the property Roper top mount 18 cubic ft. fridge from 1986. The old range was Roper/GE, but he felt renters would appreciate a self clean oven. The old Roper dishwashers got rusty racks, so he upgraded them. He has nice Kitchen Aid appliances on the side he lives in.
As far as bad tennants go, he's had his share. The one whose kid broke things also stuffed plush toys in the toilets, and left them, but I don't think the kid did it. He kept her security deposit.
Aside from being noisy, and or messy, some do not tell you when things break, so you can repair them.
I think of Lexington as a nice clean city, so neighbors like you had? Then again, college kids are wild. The bleach water sounds like the result of an overflowed toilet.

 

[mark_wpduet]

It is a nice clean city

but remember, UK is here, so this guy went to UK and was temporarily renting the apt. He told me so. And the lady before that (with the kid) she was just flat out strange.

 

[ilovewindex]

They don't look that awful

http://www.chinoecreek-prg.com/index.aspx

 

[mark_wpduet]

The apartments were not

awful. I had the best view ever of this huge yard, it almost looked like a field. My balcony faced the back and all you could see what this huge field with a treeline and a creek at the far edge of it.

It was the 2 out of 3 people who lived above me that were awful.

 

[vacerator]

Not low

rent either. Had best be fairly nice.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Ya I got so lucky

getting the back side of the apartment. That view was awesome. It's an older apartment complex though, but the ground were very well maintained. Too bad about the people above. From what I see, they have upgraded a lot. The faucets, stove, dishwasher, and the walls look wallpapered. At the time in 2002, I can't remember, but I think the rent was 750/month, 2 bed/2 bath. Now it's much higher from what I see. There was a small Kroger shopping center within walking distance, literally right beside the apt complex - I remember that being very convenient. Looking at those pictures of the kitchen, I see they upgraded the dishwasher one knob wonder and BOL stoves.

I remember that layout so well.

 

[Chetlaham]

Is that a Kenmore made GE?

 

[wayupnorth]

Mine was an avocado Hotpoint "Whisper Clean". Noisy as hell and didnt clean dishes at all, unless they were pre-washed very well and water was scalding.

 

[Chetlaham]

I take back what I said, that most likely is a Hotpoint.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

best dishwasher

Best dishwasher I've had by far is the Kenmore built by Bosch. That thing could clean anything. There's nowhere for dishes to hide, not even the ones with stuck-on cheese and Alfredo sauce I had from that shrimp Alfredo casserole. It reminds me of the Whirlpool power clean with a removable filter and concealed heating element. The worst dishwasher would be a Frigidaire. It lasted a year before it quit.

 

[imperial70]

Never owned a bad dishwasher

Since 1987 I've used/owned Whirlpool / Kenmore powerclean module dishwashers and now I have a 12 year point voyager based Whirlpool. In all I've only purchased 2 dishwashers and inherited 2.

 

[appnut]

My first house had a D&M produced Kenmore (1st generation without rotorack) that was the absolute worst dishwasher I've ever come across my entire life.

 

[rinso]

My worst dishwashers were a 1959 DM made Frigidaire portable with a plastic impeller and a late 70's GE built-in Potscrubber. The GE was festooned with cycle buttons and cycle modifier buttons. Lots of options, but no food particle filter. The GE had no less than 6 water changes. (Wash-rinse-rinse, wash-rinse-rinse-dry) The design engineers probably though those water excursions would make up for not having a food filter. They didn't.....

 

[gelaundry4ever]

according to my dad...

It was the GE Kenmore. Not because of the cleaning power, but because you could hear that thing all across the house, especially when it tried to recirculate the water and suck on air. That pump would vibrate like heck. I will say that it did a good job cleaning. I remember when we were doing laundry in the GE filter-flo, my mom started a load in the dishwasher. That thing sounded like it was about to break out due to that pump. When it did fill with water, the loud vibration would stop. And this was with very good smelling dishwasher detergent and rinse aid. Of course, the GE filter-flo was at normal speed of course. Other times, the dishwasher pump would buzz as if something was caught in it. And this was when the basin was completely full of water so the spray would be consistent. The pump would run at 3000 rpm as it did that. That was when I'd listen to the symphony of laundry and dishes being done.

 

[appnut]

That
Was just the normal GE.Dishwasher sound and progression that started in the late sixties in early seventies

 

[wayupnorth]

My worst was a Hotpoint "Whisper Clean". Very noisy and very poor cleaning. Best was my Lady K Roto-Rack.

 

[appnut]

Tim, my current 1984 vintage (I bought in 19860) was blessed with a 1984 Hotpoint "Potwasher". What a joke after living with a GE Potscrubber for 10 months beforehand being transferred here. The 1980 Kenmmore was still worse, but not by much.

 

[DADoES]

 
1982-ish Frigidaire in my first house.  Apparently no filter.  I quickly replaced it with a KUDS22 when greeted with ground beef residue on a finished load.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

extra rinse

Whenever my dad would run an extra rinse and it would empty nearly completely, the vibration got worse. Boy, after it filled up it did that full pressure spray only for it to do that vibrating noise after it drained, trying to suck whatever was left it was trying to recirculate. It sounded like a car driving down the road. My second Kenmore, which was a Whirlpool tall tub wash much quieter. Oh, and the GE had a big fan in the motor you could hear. My dad's workplace once had GE dishwasher that did that grinding noise while it was full of water, which immediately reminded me of the Kenmore I had. That GE dishwasher was not only loud, but it didn't clean anything. They had to wait until they left from work to resume its cycle. Memories!

 

[vacerator]

I can't say that any have been bad, yet, but;

I have only had four. A 1989 Maytag portable, which was excellent, a Whirlpool built in from the 80's, which was as well, a 90's Whirlpool which was the first electronic, lasted until 2011, but was stuck on normal, and our current GE profile from 2011, still going.
I have been looking at new ones. I don't think I would buy this GE model GDT225SSLSS
It appears to be identical to a Haier model. Not as quiet as some more expensive models.
I think we'd opt for another Profile model with air dry assist. The new ones have flood guard, and a few have a solid poly base below the tub.
Bosch models look difficult to install, as there is no room betwwen the tub and bottom to work. The back, sides, and front are solid to the floor. The power connectors rerquire an outlet, and the water connection parts are extra cost.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

GE!

I forgot to mention that the GE/Kenmore I had, as well as the GE single dial and switch wonder just had an arm and tower. This was back in 2004. That very same year, they got another GE which was much quieter.

 

[michaelz08]

My history so far is short

… having only spend enough time with about 4-5 dishwashers.

I’d have to name the worst one as the FGID2466QF6 that came with my condo. It cleaned and dried fine, save for the occasional thing here or there, and wasn’t too loud either, but it was kind of overwhelming with the number of options it gives you (why should I be given the choice of water pressure for each cycle?).

It was impressive they got fan enabled drying and a variable speed pump in for the price, however it came at the cost of build quality.

> Barely 5 years old and the racks were starting to rust.
> It was just thoroughly cheap feeling in every way and had racks that were not efficiently designed. These weird spider leg things on the upper rack fit absolutely nothing.
> The door latch that didn’t always register as closed when you closed the door normally. Multiple times I went to start it before bed then realized it never ran overnight because the door needed an extra nudge.
> The door and the door seal didn’t quite make good contact with the door all the time. So it was quite sometimes, and other times it sounded like it was washing with the door open (and letting steam out to areas it shouldn’t). I had to pull it out and fiddle with the way the door catch was mounted to try and get it “pulled” into the seal more. The plastic tub flexed like nobodies business.

And it’s a nitpick, but I don’t like how the black bezel of the control panel is visible when the door is closed. Companies like Whirlpool have figured out how to cost effectively make the entire front all metal without seams like that at the top. Plus the equivalent Whirlpool models seem to have magnetic door closures which make them feel so much higher quality and help the door seal better.

All the Frigidaire appliances that came in my place were functional but didn’t feel like any thought was given to their design compared to the equivalently priced WP kitchen I’d come from previously. The only true failure was the fridge was dead by year 4 of its life, all others I replaced out of just plain not liking them. Even the microwave managed to annoy me. I’ll never be touching the brand again.

Based on someone else’s recent thread it’s good I got rid of the DW as the orbit clean arm has a tendency to fail in one way or another and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend a dime on it to repair.