Consumer Reports Mags - Dishwashers?

[plugboots]

Steve, is it quiet? That's the difference I see with the Bosch/Asko vs. Kenmore/Kitchenaide. I prolly depends on the model, of course.

[GeezerSteve]

Steve, is it quiet?

Quieter than our West Seattle dishwasher (don't recall the brand). New one is plenty quiet for me, but I'm single-side deaf.

[The Tortoise]

I have a Kitchen Aid dishwasher. It was $1400 CAD (Paid just over 800 courtesy of Home Depots price matching) so middle of the road. I had to have a pump motor replaced under warranty within a year. The repair technician said I should get the extra 4 year warranty that Home Depot offered. I never did though. I like to live dangerously.

It's really quiet and does a good job.

[4matic]

My 20 y/o Kitchen aid works like a champ. Never a problem. If it ever breaks I'll fix it if I can. It's loud but I'll take the reliability.

[schindlerpiste]

Bosch is great. My German in-laws switched from Miele to Bosch. They are glad that they did. I have owned Bosch dishwashers for over 20 years. Also, if you want an American sounding machine, be advised that Bosch owns Thermador

[stfu&gbtw]

So far the Bosch I just installed (Bosch Ascenta 46) has been working very well since I bought it a couple of weeks ago. It's quiet, efficient, and does a good job. The install was a real pain in the ass. The inlet and outlet are positioned in ways that require fairly specific placement of the access port into cabinet leading to the drain, and attaching the footer that brings the noise level down from about 60dbs to 46 is as dumb an assembly process as I've seen recently. Also, the back and forth of testing the fitment put enough stress on the supply lines that both the line to the dishwasher, and the line from the T to the sink both had to be replaced. They probably needed to be replaced anyway. But now that it's in, we're good. I found that model on sale for ~$450 or so... I didn't want to spring for the fancier models as I don't want to have any ideas about disassembling and repairing this one like I did the last one.

The common things I saw mentioned throughout the reviews I read was that Samsung and LG are crap, and that money can be spent on features, but not reliability. Every manufacturer out there has produced a lemon that was DOA, or failed on the test wash, or died in the first year, or whatever. Meile, Jenn-Air, etc... doesn't matter. Depending on where you live, you can consider whether good service for an expensive appliance can be obtained. Around here, having an appliance warranty is like being able to offer a free afternoon of shelter to some retard who'd otherwise be holding a cardboard sign at the corner of Wadsworth and I70.

Interesting side note... It looks like the inverter overcurrent fault I was getting when shutting off the generator without first closing the AC2 circuit was actually being caused by the dishwasher. Seems like the varnish on the copper windings in the pump motor might have degraded to the point that it was grounding out. Had tested the panel wiring on the generator and the inverter side cabling and couldn't find any problems, but when I shit canned the dishwasher with the dead pump, the problem went away. Not 100% sure, but close.

[The AD]

I've had a KitchenAide for probably 2-3 years now and it works great. Quiet enough that I accidentally open the door while it's running once in a while. My only gripe is the cycle time is pretty long, but I think that's a side effect of the reduced water consumption and probably typical nowadays.

[Captain Awesome]

By way of an update, I ended up with a Bosch 500 series dishwasher. It was installed last Wednesday. To date, we've run it twice (it holds a LOT of dishes, relative to our old one, and we don't generate a lot of dirty stuff). It's amazingly quiet, and gets things very clean. Based on those criteria, I'm happy with my choice, but it seems that the real test will be reliability, and it's too early to make any reasonable assessment of that.

If anything goes wrong, I'll definitely post it up to this thread.

[MontuckyFried]

Time for a bump! My POS fancy pants and barely 2 years old Samsung crapped out on me over a month ago and I'm finally giving up on repair after multiple failed attempts and getting sick of waiting on the typically back-ordered Samsung parts. (BTW, F.U. Samsung!!! You suck!) Local appliance parts stores have all unanimously told me that Samsung parts availability is THE WORST of all the major brands. They've also all told me that Bosch is typically the best in that regard.

Anyway, now I'm in the market for a new machine. Doing my research, I've kind of narrowed it down to Bosch and Miele. You guys still happy with your Bosch units? As much as I don't wanna spend so much for a dishwasher, I'm also feeling pulled toward Miele a bit because the local mom & pop shop who services my Miele vacuum (which I also love) is also my local authorized service shop for the brand so if I ever need support down the line, I know they'll be there for me instead of whatever knuckleheads the big box stores send out for the other brands. They did a great job of trying to earn my business and showed me a couple nice units in their little showroom, so very tempted to buy a Miele from them. However, the Boschs seem to be great as well and I can get into an entry-level unit for like half the price. Tough call, so I'd like to hear your updated thoughts if you guys are still rocking either brand, or perhaps some other brand entirely I'm not even aware of!

[JimmyCarter]

Still love the Bosch dishwasher, mostly because theres nothing to think about. It always works fine, its insanely quiet (I've opened it mid cycle because I couldn't hear it running), and no repairs so far.

Have some other Miele appliances that are awesome, just not sure I'd spend twice as much for a Miele dishwasher when the Bosch has been near perfect.

[EWG]

My newer kitchen aid died after 4 years. I’m in the business so I have a guy I trust. I went to this appliance guy and asked what he recommended based on what was good vs the price he could give me etc. Without any hesitation he said I had to get a Bosch. Pricing didn’t matter, availability, features whatever. Get the Bosch. So I did. All good so far.

[Wrecked]

When my dad re did his kitchen I took his 12 or 13 year old Bosch dishwasher and put it in my house... that was a few years ago and it’s still rather perfect...

[Buster Highmen]

We have had Bosch and Mieles. Our Bosch fried a controller board after 5 years or so and had to be replaced at significant cost.
Both are quiet, efficient and have a variety of settings.

The MIele's we've had have been solid except for an intake drain sensor issue which I fixed myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LaqSO-Oyuw

I think this design flaw has been fixed (ours is about 14 years old).

[GeezerSteve]

Our Kenmore Elite (made by KitchenAid) is going strong after 3-1/2 years, nary an issue other than resetting the computer (a 3-second task) once a year or so. My neighbor's Bosch fried a circuit board after 2 years, cost more than our KE to replace. YMMV

[jackstraw]

Can we all agree that all appliances just suck today?

Just replaced my 5yr old KitchenAid with a Bosch 3 weeks ago. Sales guy says you're lucky to get 5-7 out any of them today.

Throw away society ftw

[plugboots]

Hmmmmm... buying from the local mom-and-pop does feel good though. If something goes wrong you can probably guilt them into providing good service to fix it.

[jackstraw]

^yeah, I do buy from the local mom an pop. But their hands are tied by the corporates. All you can do is buy an extended warranty.

[El Chupacabra]

Our new-to-us house came with an LG dishwasher. So far, it's been fine: very quiet, large capacity. Takes almost 2 hours to run a complete cycle, but I think that's because the drying cycle is air-driven; there's no heater element visible in the bottom.

I hope it holds up OK. LG has a marginal reputation for kitchen appliances, but apparently makes decent TVs and washers/dryers.

Our (now 11 year old) LG is holding up fine. I had to redo the wiring where it was installed, but I think that was an installation error. Replaced the utensil plastic holder because of some holes in the bottom. Also had to clean out the drain once. That's it, no other issues.

Someone mentioned the soap door not opening properly : if you put tall item next to the soap door it blocks it, so watch how you load.

[oftpiste]

My Bosch hasn't been the best. It cleans the dishes, is quiet. Like my Sub-Z and Bosch W/D it has had many, many service calls in its life of something like 15 years, which maybe isn't so bad considering the short life stories above. Last time I had a call the scheduling woman on the phone remarked about how any times they've been to my house over the years.

Currently only one cleaning mode works and the display is wonky. It'd probably cost me $500 to fix so, no. I probably wouldn't buy another one, but maybe their reliability has improved since the days in which mine was manufactured.

When it fully takes a shit I intend to find a 120V commercial under-counter machine, probably high-temp vs. chemical. Sub 60 second cycles, instant drying and makes sense with how few dishes I use living solo. I usually run the DW not completely full because I run out of plates before it is.

[riser4]

I am convinced modern appliances all suck and we are past the "golden age" of such things. I am tempted to invest instead in a 3 bay sink and hand wash the correct way with a sanitizing rinse.

[RootSkier]

Does anybody have two dishwashers? If you were planning a full-scale kitchen remodel and you have kids who go through dishes like fucking mad, doesn't this seem like a DAMN good idea? We run ours every single day. Hell, I bet we do 9 loads a week.

Also, I took out a Bosch from 1996 because the control panel was acting wonky and replaced it with a POS Kitchen Aid that cost $350, because we have this remodel in the works a year or so out. That was a MISTAKE. This thing sucks ass and gets nothing clean. Should've spent the money to fix the Bosch, even though it was 23 years old.

[pepperdawg]

Our circa 2007 Bosh has been good to us - the detergent drawer stopped staying closed this past year - bought a new OEM part for $29 bucks online and with the help of You-Tube replaced it in about 20 minutes.

[skaredshtles]

Have an Electrolux that is going on 5 years now. Had one issue that had to be fixed under warranty (can't really remember what the issue was) but has been solid since. VERY quiet, stainless steel, cleans well (as long as it's not loaded retardedly) and only occasionally (2x year maybe?) need to reset the breaker it's on because of some sort of weird "freeze" of the computer panel.

[skaredshtles]

Does anybody have two dishwashers? If you were planning a full-scale kitchen remodel and you have kids who go through dishes like fucking mad, doesn't this seem like a DAMN good idea? We run ours every single day. Hell, I bet we do 9 loads a week.

Also, I took out a Bosch from 1996 because the control panel was acting wonky and replaced it with a POS Kitchen Aid that cost $350, because we have this remodel in the works a year or so out. That was a MISTAKE. This thing sucks ass and gets nothing clean. Should've spent the money to fix the Bosch, even though it was 23 years old.

Two dishwashers?!? FUCK NO.

Have the kids start washing their dishes by hand - they'll cut down their use in NO TIME.

[old goat]

CR still loves Bosch. We have a 20+ year old Asko (which CR doesn't review) still going strong. In the last year or two it doesn't stop spraying if you open the door mid cycle. Of course who knows if a new one would be as good. Pricey compared to CR's best buy Bosch.