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The Hamer of Dishwashers?


Armitage

Question

Posted

Ok, we're looking for a new dishwasher... stainless steel.

First I went into Sears (old habits). Generally, Sears goes to the big manufacturers and orders a ton of a couple models and has a couple things changed. Usually minor things that customers have complained about, like poor rack wheels etc... and has them made with the Kenmore name on them. I can get parts easily and cheaply for the few things I'd bother myself to do. 9 out of 10 times with a dish washer, it's the control board and that's about a hundred or so bucks and 15 minutes to swap (most of that is undoing and keeping track of little screws).

I looked at KitchenAid first. The one I liked was $1700, on sale for $1299... all the features. Expected life... 10 years. Ouch.

With the Kenmore name on it, it's on sale for $999 his week. (these prices are for around here). Expected life... 10 years. Again ouch.

I looked a Bosch next. A big prestige name at this price point. The one with the features we wanted is $1900... Well made and expect a 30% longer life... but lots of complaints about the smell. Bosch units have a capture filter that traps food items that don't get mushy enough to pass. You have to clean out the filter often (effortless, you just have to do it). The KitchenAid and Kenmore only stop bigger items like olive pits etc. The Bosh also holds water in the pump and if you don't use it almost daily the water can go funky. Expected life... 13 years.

I looked at Miele an even more upscale unit... the wife likes that. Miele controls the price... they set the sales. You can't even buy parts. So you know there's a huge markup. But it is a better machine, but it has the same problem the Bosch does for smell, use it or smell it. They also control the installation. You can install it... but the store can't. Miele delivers it from their warehouse to your house, and if it's being installed, they install it. It cost almost twice as much to install a Miele then a Kenmore/Bosch or KitchenAid. That kills me, the water fittings etc are already there. It's not much harder to hook up a dishwasher then a garden hose, OK two garden hoses. Once it's delivered, they should install it for free to say thanks for paying their huge markup... well that's the way I see it.

They all claim to be quiet, but use different ratings, the ones that use dB even do that differently, so you can't really compare across brands, and it's not like they'll run them in the store for you.

At this price point they'll all do a great job washing dishes, I just want the wife happy without being ripped off.

The way I see it I can spend a grand on a Kenmore or two grand for the Bosch or Miele (plus install).

Or lets put it this way, for the same money I can get two Kenmore @ 20 years of expected life, for the price of one Bosch or Miele @ 13 years...

So what's your take? Anyone big into appliances?

Recommended Posts

Posted

Velo: What was your 16-year dishwasher?

Here's a product sort I did on the Lowe's website for built-ins with stainless steel tubs, sorted by customer rating. Note the third one, a Maytag. Where the first two are GEs with 37 reviews apiece, the Maytage has 1,002 reviews and still maintains a 4.6 star rating. Also notice that the price is a mere $649 with stainless steel face and tub, food-grinder, steam cleaning, and a 50 dB loudness rating.

I have a Maytag I bought nearly 5 years ago with many of these same features with no issues or service calls whatsoever. The coating on the racks is all still intact as well, and the racks are well-designed, versatile and configurable to load the d/w to the max without drama. The water spray is delivered at the bottom, under the upper rack, and at the top as well. Dishes always come out clean and spotless if you use good detergent and rinse aid. This is not a bare bones unit either, with touch-panel control with delay start, multiple wash times, steam clean cycle, powered or energy-saving dry cycle, etc. Unless you have to have the panache of a Miele or Bosch, or an extra 2 dB of quiet, this thing will totally do the job well, drama-free, and for a long time.

Posted

Velo: What was your 16-year dishwasher?

Here's a product sort I did on the Lowe's website for built-ins with stainless steel tubs, sorted by customer rating. Note the third one, a Maytag. Where the first two are GEs with 37 reviews apiece, the Maytage has 1,002 reviews and still maintains a 4.6 star rating. Also notice that the price is a mere $649 with stainless steel face and tub, food-grinder, steam cleaning, and a 50 dB loudness rating.

I have a Maytag I bought nearly 5 years ago with many of these same features with no issues or service calls whatsoever. The coating on the racks is all still intact as well, and the racks are well-designed, versatile and configurable to load the d/w to the max without drama. The water spray is delivered at the bottom, under the upper rack, and at the top as well. Dishes always come out clean and spotless if you use good detergent and rinse aid. This is not a bare bones unit either, with touch-panel control with delay start, multiple wash times, steam clean cycle, powered or energy-saving dry cycle, etc. Unless you have to have the panache of a Miele or Bosch, or an extra 2 dB of quiet, this thing will totally do the job well, drama-free, and for a long time.

Sorry, I'd read through the thread before I posted the request. In posts from 2012 I was waxing poetic about our Maytag and failed to take into account readers of this most recent post likely wouldn't go back through the thread as I had just done.

My product sort (performed before I posted) looked very similar, just with lower dB ratings. I'll compare your sort with mine and surely see some similarities.

Panache? Wife and I consistently seek life without pretension.

Used to be the whole town was that way... until the yuppies moved in. :lol:

Posted

Well, since you asked...

My Fisher Paykal gave up the ghost and departed that mortal coil some 6 months ago. Good riddance. (PM for details, if interested). I replaced it with a swanky stainless Bosch, which works well, and it was a NOS (last year's model) for about $1k.

I would much rather have spent the $$ on a Monaco, but there you go.

Anyway, the Bosch works well, is WHISPER quiet, but I would prefer that it truly dried the dishes for me. Still, anything other than my daughter's oatmeal (cement) bowls comes out clean. It seems to be a damn fine machine, doesn't stink, and allows me to hear the many mistakes I make when I play my Hamers.

I'd buy it again, if like 6 months ago I couldn't afford the Miele (and I'd rather put the money into a Huber).

Posted

Panache? Wife and I consistently seek life without pretension.

Used to be the whole town was that way... until the yuppies moved in. :lol:

Really? I always thought Skullbone reeked of cork-sniffery. :lol:

1106069797_TrBkj-XL.jpg

Posted

Word of advice: three weeks ago, a colleague of mine lost his house to a Bosch diswasher fire (on the door of the dishwasher) it has been the 5th fire in the city of Quebec for this brand of diswashers. A collective sue is taking place. The fire occurred at a time the family was not at the house, but it was so intense that the metal thingy on the windows melt

It will take three months to rebuild the house.

Here's the news about the fire hazard on the Bosch

My friend's windows

Posted

Thanks for the heads' up, BRW! That's serious stuff. Here are some details on the effected machines, in case anyone here might be affected:

Bosch© Dishwasher Recall – United States and Canada

"On January 15, 2009, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Bosch Home Appliances announced a voluntary recall to repair certain Bosch dishwashers manufactured in the United States between May 1999 and July 2005 and sold in the United States and Canada. Please read this notice carefully and call the Bosch Hotline for a free repair if your dishwasher is included in this recall."

Posted

Panache? Wife and I consistently seek life without pretension.

Used to be the whole town was that way... until the yuppies moved in. :lol:

Really? I always thought Skullbone reeked of cork-sniffery. :lol:

:lol: But you must realize, I don't live in Skullbone, but northwest of Skullbone. Totally different group of folks here:

cityhall.jpg

There are still no yuppies in Skullbone, however... :)

BRW: that's great information on fire safety. We're going to try the dishwasher again just to see if it was an anomaly (no real chance of that), but we'll definitely be home when we do that (breaker box open and fire extinguisher in hand).

So far, JohnnyB's Maytag suggestion seems to be the best choice. I'm hoping to get some time this afternoon to compare a couple of other models. I have to finish a pinewood derby car first...

Posted

called bosch service for free fix on our 13 year old machine . never had any problems with it but learned about the recall here ! probably fail now due to the "fix ". anyway thanx for the heads up !

Posted

We bought a Kenmore several years ago, it was a Consumer Reports top pick. Quiet and reliable unlike the GE it replaced. Way more features than I needed and cleans well.I don't believe in dishwasher corksniffery :D

ArnieZ

Posted

Bump to find out which is the latest greatest Hamer of dishwashers for 2014.

My Bosch was cleaning fine when everyone else said theirs wasn't because we had 130 lbs of water pressure going into the dishwasher. It was cleaning fine at 130 lbs, no good at 30 lbs and is now running just ok with pre-scrubs and the pressure set at 60 lbs. It's time to replace it.

Posted

I prefer to have simple, older models. They're dead-simple to maintain and repair using YouTube and a little common sense.

Posted

I suppose I can follow up on my post from earlier this year: it was a complete anomaly.

We watched the machine closely for a couple of weeks and nothing. It's still running fine. No idea what caused the issues.

Posted

We had our kitchen completely gutted and remodeled in 2000. We got all stainless KitchenAid Superba appliances. The microwave has had the door spring replaced twice, which leads me to believe that it is a faulty design. The dishwasher had the pump replaced about two years ago, and three months ago we replaced the heating element in the dishwasher because it was not drying the dishes all the way. All in all a good experience with everything. No problems at all with the oven, cooktop, or built-in refrigerator.

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