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Best $400ish dishwasher


Scarlett
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I have not had good luck with dishwashers. My Frigidaire was not cheap and did not last well. I had to replace numerous parts including the door seal twice and even then the stupid thing would leak on the floor. My GE was over $400 and was not particularly old, before I had to replace the pump. In my experience, it feels like a crap shoot.

 

Of the two, I definitely would not buy another Frigidaire.

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We looked at reviews before choosing a new dishwasher that is in your price range. What surprised me when we actually bought it is that "normal" cycle is about 2.5 hours long, and that's with air drying. The only shorter cycle is one hour, also with air drying. There are a couple of longer cycles, one that is "soak" lasting 7 hours.

 

Sheesh. For 7 hours, I'd wash my own dishes. We've never used that one.

 

So no recommendation, just a heads up if you may be as surprised as I was. I really don't care about saving water to this extent. I just want the dishes done!

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I HATE how long it takes to run a dishwasher these days. My usual cycle takes more than 90 minutes and that's the 'light' setting. 

 

We had a Bosch and it was fine until it needed repair. For real- nobody within 150 miles would come out to work on it. Nobody nearby works on them and the folks I found farther away wouldn't come to my town.  We ended up buying a new one even though the Bosch probably could have been fixed. It was leaking a lot of water with every load so it wasn't something we could just live with. 

 

 

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We bought an $1000 Bosch as a returned, out-of-the-box special at Home Depot; it was under $500, cash-and-carry, no delivery or installation available.  They tried to warn us away from it, but we bought it anyway (it clearly had never been installed), and it's been fine.  You never know what the local HD is going to have as a floor model or similar, so it's worth stalking their aisles for a bit.  Their markdowns were much better than the local Sears Outlet, whose prices are nearly identical to full-price with applicable discounts at regular Sears.  We were looking for one that was very quiet (19 decibels), so we just stood in front of the mostly-unmarked row of dishwashers and googled their model numbers until we found one in that range.  

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I'd get a Kitchen Aide that was dented or something.  

Bosch has higher but close ratings, but has diagonal tines so you can't put tall pots in it upside down.  It's also harder to find service technicians who are willing to work on Bosch products.

 

Be aware that nothing on the market right now is all that reliable--as with washing machines the manufacturers have not yet caught up with how to save energy and provide reliability.

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When we renovated our kitchen we put in 2 single dish drawers( https://www.fisherpaykel.com/us/kitchen/dish-washers/dishdrawer.html )  I LOVE them.  The first time I ran a load I had to check that it was really working as it was SO quiet.  I have a dish drawer on either side of my kitchen sink so one is always available for dirty dishes if the other is running.  A normal load takes 2 hours, but as I usually run that after dinner it works for me.  I have friends who have a double dish drawer & they like that as well.  We had the room so chose the 2 single units.

 

 

Edited by Deb in NZ
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We have a Whirlpool, but when it dies, we're going Bosch if I can find a local repairman.  My FIL's Bosch is so quiet!

 

Home Depot (where we bought our Bosch) had a list of Bosch repairmen so we felt ok buying it. However when we needed repairs we found out the Bosch guys worked on other Bosch products but not dishwashers. Every last one of them.  No idea why or if it's just our area. 

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My parents had a Bosch and ran into the repair person problem. They ended up getting a Kitchen Aid when they replaced it and stuck with the Kitchen Aid when they moved into their new home. The one in their new home (also not cheap) did end up needing repair semi-recently. It was much easier to find a repair person.

 

I like the suggestion of the open box/clearance at Home Depot, but I’d also pre-shop repair people because I think it needing repair is an inevitability. I have found my repair person and would stay with brands he could repair for sure. My BIL replaced the motor on my dishwasher for me this last time so I didn’t have to call the repair person in, but he’s more reliable than my BIL so I would have called him if my BIL couldn’t follow through.

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We recently bought this, 

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-24-top-control-built-in-dishwasher-white/5848804.p?skuId=5848804

 

and it seems to be a good dishwasher.   

 

To some extent, it seems that you can get a better dishwasher at the lower end.   The higher end ones have removed things like food grinders on the discharge to make it quieter.   That seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.  

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Home Depot (where we bought our Bosch) had a list of Bosch repairmen so we felt ok buying it. However when we needed repairs we found out the Bosch guys worked on other Bosch products but not dishwashers. Every last one of them.  No idea why or if it's just our area. 

Our next door neighbors bought a Bosch at the local Lowes, with a warranty.

It failed very quickly so they called Lowes and were given the name of the local repair guy.  They called him and he said, "I don't know why Lowes gave you my number.  I never work on Bosch machines."  They called Lowes back to complain, and Lowes offered them a replacement machine, so they insisted on a brand that that guy would actually work on.

 

Moral:  Call the repair place before you buy to make sure they really do what the store says they do.

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I'm getting a dishwasher really really soon and I'm a wreck deciding. I'm leaning toward Bosch. It's frustrating because there are a lot of bad reviews about every single brand. Thanks for the advice about finding a repairman. I'm calling around to see if I can find someone to work on them in my area.

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For me, it would be a Whirlpool. Mine has been a great machine, and when it eventually dies, I plan to replace it with another Whirlpool.

 

Us too.  We've had Kenmore, Frigidaire (worst repair record!), and Whirlpool.  Ours cost less than $400 as we go cheap rather than fancy, but it cleans really, really well - better than the others.  I'd stick with the brand if we needed another.

 

We picked it in the first place due to great reviews for cleaning.  I don't care so much about noise or length of time it requires.  I just want to put dishes in dirty (not having to clean them first) and get them out clean.

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We have a Whirlpool Gold Quiet Partner III that's about 10 yrs. old and I've never liked it. The dishes have to be very thoroughly rinsed, even on the "Pots and Pans" setting.

 

I was talking about dishwashers to an employee at Home Depot last night, and he said they used to sell Bosch (and they were great) but they had such a hard time finding parts for repairs that they quit selling that brand. His opinion on best brand they sell was Kitchen Aid.

 

I wish Speed Queen made dishwashers! 

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Our old Kitchenaid sucked. SO many repair calls. But our cheap Amana in our rental has held up quite nicely. Go figure.

 

Our Kitchenaid died after under six years with pretty light use.  We almost replaced it with an Amana that had great reviews, but got a great deal on a Whirlpool.  The Whirlpool is only a few months old, but so far we like it.  

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I have a low-end Bosch and HATE IT.  Glitchy and the arms clog and it grows mold even if you leave it open between dish loads.

 

I don't even use it anymore.  I "replaced it" with a pile of scrubby dishcloths and a good looking 30yo guy who manages to get the dishes clean AND puts them away when they're done.

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I have a low-end Bosch and HATE IT.  Glitchy and the arms clog and it grows mold even if you leave it open between dish loads.

 

I don't even use it anymore.  I "replaced it" with a pile of scrubby dishcloths and a good looking 30yo guy who manages to get the dishes clean AND puts them away when they're done.

 

Wonder if Home Depot has a sale on those!

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