cool option reference
Exactly Shannon. All options will give one clean dishes, KA, ISE, and Maytag RR. As I mentioned above the Maytag RR in not raucous. One can stand right next to it, while it is running, and easily hold a conversation. But, you definitely know it's running. Personally, I like the sound. It's the sound of power. It's a background sound and is not annoying. I sm not sure why many today think a dishwasher has to be near silent, especially when the cost of that quietness comes at the cost of performance. So many of today's machines have underpowered motors, which indeed wash quietly, as there is so little water pressure. However, two and even three hour wash times are the price one pays to get the dishes clean. Something that could be done with equal, or even better results, by vintage machines often in approximately 45 minutes.
My family's Modern Maid, which we got in the summer of '68 was quite a bit louder than the Maytag RR. Yet, it was noticeably loud, but not obtrusively loud. My mom grew up on a farm, without electricity. For her to get to the point in life where she now had a machine to do her dishes was phenomenal. My dad was talking about the noise of the machine shortly after we got it. My mom replied it didn't bother her and she said she was rather proud for guests to hear it and know she had a dishwasher.
As far as the loading of a Maytag RR, sometimes people have problems with a paradigm shift. Even back eighty/ninety years ago, most dishwasher had plates on the bottom rack and glasses on top, if they were an impeller machine, which most were. They had to be racked this way because water had to flow past the plates to get to the top rack. It was a necessity racking be done that way or you wouldn't get the top rack glassware and cups washed.
So a convention developed. Dishwashers had to have plates on the bottom and glassware on top. Industry created this paradigm in us. Later when pumps were utilized and wash tubes, and secondary wash arms came along, that type of loading arrangement was no longer necessary. But, by this time this is what we became used to and expect in a dishwasher.
In the late sixties, realizing that this type of loading was no longer a technical necessity, Maytag developed a method to allow more dishware to be held in a machine
and give a superior wash, in many ways. It entailed putting glassware on the lower rack and flatware and plates on the upper. This was in the very late sixties. After roughly fifty years of industry creating the paradigm in people's mind that plates have to go on the bottom rack and glasses on top.
Some humans, in fact most humans, do not have the intellect to override the disquieting effect of change of viewpoint. To deal with change requires a paradigm switch in their thinking. Once humans get a particular mindset, it tends to be set in stone, whether it be the way we do things or the way we look at things. Even when there is a superior way. Look at the current qwerty typewriter/computer keyboard. Many more efficient and fast keyboard patterns have been developed but they go unused because people are reluctant to give up what they are comfortable with, even when a superior option exists.
For a person who has had a dishwasher for many years, to see a Maytag reverse rack for the first time, they might feel uncomfortable putting plates in the top rack. There might have even been some people, who saw a RR in the showroom, and thought "that's strange." and not purchased the Reverse Rack. It didn't matter there were superiorities in the system. They just just didn't have the intellect to deal with a paradigm shift, and stuck with what they were accustomed to just because they didn,'t want to deal with something new.
Conversely, someone who never had a dishwasher before, would not have a predetermined bias. That is, they would not have a paradigm to deal with that had been set into their mind by industry. These people would be more able hear the the salesperson's presentation of information of the inherent advantages of a reverse racking system and use this information in a logical manner to make an appropriate buying decision. That is their decision would be made on facts rather than the emotion of dealing with change. Often we think what we are familiar with, and or comfortable with, is superior or should be the way things should be.
Although the conventional dishwashers were very good performers, as a rule, by the late sixties, the new Reverse Rack offered outstanding performance along with loading advantages. Not only was there a full sized wash arm below the lower rack, but a full sized wash arm ABOVE the upper rack. So, silverware, cups and plates were being washed with two water delivery systems, a wash tower from below and a full sized wash arm from above. As I mentioned earlier, the Maytag RR was the only machine that could scour the underside of pots and pans, placed in the upper rack, as well as the inside of the pots/pans.
In the very first year of it's introduction, the Maytag Reverse rock hit number one, in performance, in Consumer Reports magazine. The only thing they downrated the portable RR machine for, was that opening the lid too quickly caused the full sized wash arm, mounted on the underside of the lid, for potentially giving the user a shower of water on their face and upper body.
Maytag's RR Design lasted from the 1969 model year through the 1991 model year. Twenty two years. There were enough first time dishwasher buyers and enough people of intellect, who were willing to make the paradigm shift that kept these premium priced machines popular.
However, in 1992 Maytag conventionalized their machine to cut production costs. They went to a plastic/polymer interior, like virtually everyone else had at this time, and to a conventional racking system, also like everyone else had, at the time. Maybe they thought they could get more sales from the people who did not have the mental ability to deal with paradigm shifts. And, they were probably right.
I think that the RR system should be applauded for being unique, easy to load, handling many dishes and offering some cleaning options, for example, the ability of scouring the bottoms of skillets and pans, that no other machine could offer. This was Maytag's first offering of a dishwasher to the public and they were brave enough to offer an unconventional design.
I've said this many times, but most of the major brands, GE, Maytag, Whirlpool, Hobart KA, all offered fine machines that gave clean dishes. Each brought something to the table, in the case of specific attributes that might be advantageous for one user and other one might bring something different to the table that another user prefers.
