Wow. That image of the sump and wash arm. That is sexy. I didn't expect to see something that sleek. Whirlpool has plenty of haters, but they know how to craft beautiful appliances both inside and out and have perfected a balance of form vs. function. I'm keeping an open mind about the platform itself until I can see/feel it in person but I'm actually really excited to see more about these machines, and eager to see what the KitchenAid side is going to look like.
The more I've watched the video, and looked at these photos, the more intrigued and impressed I am. I'm not sure exactly what kind of black magic is happening to create that amount of space from top to bottom, but it looks like what they've essentially done is positioned the pump assembly adjacent to the sump, where previous designs have the entire assembly stacked on top or close together. It looks like the higher parts of the bottom of the tub are what would be the bottom in the current tall-tub designs, which is why they didn't have to reduce the motor size at all, they just positioned it under that high side while bringing the entire sump and wash arm assembly lower in the center. It's very pretty, and I'll bet when a camera is put inside it's going to look really cool seeing how the water flows around and into that new sump design. And I'm ABSOLUTELY glad to see those giant clown-shoe looking wash arms that have been in the Maytags as of late going bye-bye.
It also doesn't look like anything is changed as far as the actual motor/pump assembly. When they debuted that CleanWater/MicroClean wash module back around 2015, they sort of retrofit it onto the existing GlobalWash assembly, whereas now it's offset underneath, largely unchanged, but seems that it's going to be the flagship platform now.
I think it's a genius move. That pump assembly is the most innovative change to dishwashers in probably the last three decades. Until this design, the formula has either been a removable filter, or a disposal blade wash system with a soil accumulator. This is blending the best of those worlds: the quiet, energy-efficiency of a filter, with the maintenance-free ease of a self-cleaning disposal system. The idea is genius: a filter cylinder with laser etched holes that are microns in diameter, just like Dyson's filter shrouds on the Cinetic and V8/V10, but that filter is spinning with the impeller, while a deflector baffle continually lifts the soils away and prevents them from sticking, keeping the soil continually in suspense, to be sucked away when the drain pump kicks on. No other manufacturer to my knowledge has been able to implement anything like it, and if Whirlpool doesn't market the crap out of that kind of innovation to combat companies like LG and Samsung and their gimmicky products, it will be a terrible disappointment.
I really hope this is going to be Whirlpool's "step up your game" era. The changes to their design are all highly competitive selling points, the filtration, the taller tub, the huge third rack design, etc. Whirlpool needs to get people excited about their products like they used to years ago. The market is too stagnant now to afford otherwise.
