I hate my dishwasher - recommendations please

[PrincessMommy]

Our new house has a spiffy stainless steel Electrolux dishwasher. I.hate.it. About 40% of the time it doesn't even dispense the soap. If it does decide to dispense the soap there's still some left in the dish. When it does wash the dishes they don't come out very clean ...like a greasy film on the dishes. Ugh. I'm constantly re-running the same dishes over again. I know this has got to be more than the loss of phosphates in the soap because my dish washer at the old house didn't have nearly this kind of problem.

 

Anyway, I hate stainless steel too - I think its ugly as heck. My kitchen is dark too, and ss is very dark. I looked up this particular model and the former owners spent $1100 for this piece of junk!! [shock]. I was looking at Lowes and your standard white dishwasher seems to go for about $500 give or take. I'm thinking of craiglisting the current dishwasher for $400 or $500 and going to buy one that WORKS.

 

Any recommendations??

[amsunshine]

We love our Kitchenaid. It's a basic, bottom of the line, Kitchenaid with a stainless interior (not exterior). Cleans like a dream, and it's quiet.

 

One thing I wanted to suggest, though, was running a cleaning cycle with your current dishwasher a couple of times with a dishwasher cleaner. It might help improve the cleaning performance for the time being.

[justLisa]

Funny timing to read this! We are ordering a Bosch tomorrow. My husband visited the Bosch factory in Germany, as he was the architect who designed a computer for several of their appliances! For the price, you can't beat the rating, and the noise level. I am getting this one I will link below, because the next one up does not get me anything I am concerned with.

 

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02216443000P?prdNo=11&blockNo=11&blockType=G11

 

It comes in white, and there is a model with a decibel rating of 51 that is less expensive, and top rated by consumer magazines. The only thing keeping me from clicking purchase, is the decision between white and stainless.

 

BTW the big difference between the really low priced ones, is the lack of a stainless tub. This is necessary for the reduced noise level.

Edited April 16, 2012 by 425lisamarie

[Ellie]

Love my Whirlpool. Will always have a Whirlpool. :)

[PrincessMommy]

We love our Kitchenaid. It's a basic, bottom of the line, Kitchenaid with a stainless interior (not exterior). Cleans like a dream, and it's quiet.

 

One thing I wanted to suggest, though, was running a cleaning cycle with your current dishwasher a couple of times with a dishwasher cleaner. It might help improve the cleaning performance for the time being.

 

I did this with vinegar, but only one cycle, as that is what I found suggested online. Maybe I'll try another cycle or two. Thanks.

[PrincessMommy]

oh, I forgot to mention that I did the vinegar thing about 2 weeks ago. I didn't notice any difference. Maybe doing it more than once in a row makes a difference??

[PrincessMommy]

Oh duh, you are East Coast, not necessarily CT. ;)

 

LOL - yes, we moved from well water (hard) to city water. I'm not sure if its hard or softer? I do miss our well water. Sniff.

[Perry]

We are on our 4th dishwasher in 12 years. I think they're all cr*p. Our current one is a Bosch, which I was very happy with until it stopped working last fall. It was less than a year old, so was under warranty, but it took 4 tech visits and 2 months to get fixed.

 

Good luck. I don't think anyone makes a good dishwasher anymore.

[nukeswife]

I bought this Bosch one about a year or so ago and LOVE it. It's a bit more expensive than you mentioned but has been worth every penny. It still looks brand new inside. I love that there is no heating element in it, so if I wash plastic things and something falls it doesn't melt. It uses the residual heat from the water to dry the dishes. It doesn't matter what soap I use in it, everything always comes out clean. I prefer Finish Quantum tabs, but that's just a personal preference thing.

 

I had a whirlpool before it and although it lasted about 4 years I hated that the racks were coated in such a way that the coating eventually comes off and they started to rust. Well they wanted $220 plus shipping for just the bottom rack, which is why we just bought a whole new machine.

[Perry]

I bought this Bosch one about a year or so ago and LOVE it.

This is the same one I have. I agree, it works great!

 

When it isn't broken. :)

[rafiki]

.

[Ellie]

We are on our 4th dishwasher in 12 years. I think they're all cr*p. Our current one is a Bosch, which I was very happy with until it stopped working last fall. It was less than a year old, so was under warranty, but it took 4 tech visits and 2 months to get fixed.

 

Good luck. I don't think anyone makes a good dishwasher anymore.

Bummer. That's a pretty crummy track record. :-)

[LaxMom]

We have a Whirlpool. It was a convertible - portable until we remodeled the kitchen, then we installed it under the counter. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either.

 

We use Method or Seventh Generation detergent and both work well (the Method - or some other sort of - tablets might be a better option for full dispensing) but we sometimes have the grunge issue. I've taken to using Finish dishwasher cleaner every couple of months. Vinegar never worked for us. (we have extremely soft water, for reference)

Edited April 16, 2012 by MyCrazyHouse

[KAM]

We have a Bosch. We've had for a few years now and it's still going strong. Now that I say that it'll probably break :glare:. But I do love the Bosch. No problems, ever- and the dishes are very clean just about all the time. We had a Maytag before that (terrible) and a Whirlpool before that (which worked ok considering that it was ancient).

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Both houses that I've owned had the builder's grade GE model. My last house was 15 years old when we sold it -- and we sold it with the original dishwasher.

 

This house is about 15 years old and we are still using the original dishwasher (another GE Potscrubber). It's noisy, but works fine.

 

After reading these posts, I'm praying I don't have to replace it with the newer generation of dishwashers --- they seem so troublesome!

[txmom23]

First try a product called LemiShine in the older dishwasher. Our water has a high alkalinity. The dishwasher would gum up with mineral deposits. The spray arm would fill up with grit and wouldn't spray. This stuff works, but you need to use to every time along with dry dishwasher soap.

 

Once it finally died, we bought a Bosch Silenceplus 50 dba. Use Finish Tabs and a rinse aid. Wonderfully clean dishes. This model is practically silent! Love it. This machine doesn't have the same problem with the water, that the old machine had.

[KungFuPanda]

My old dishwasher was great, but it was 20 years old and when it died it just started cleaning less and less until it became a glorified dish rack. I couldn't afford an expensive one, so I got a plain 'ol Amana. It cleans the dishes and I'm happy (I hand washed for a year). The newer dishwashers take forever to go through a cycle, and this doesn't dry as well as my old non-green dishwasher. It does clean my dishes and hold a LOT more because of the deeper tub. I also have the option of putting the silverware baskets on the door to gain more space. The tub is white plastic. I'd never actually seen a plastic tub deteriorate, so I didn't want to pay more for stainless. My brand is NOT one of the quiet ones, but I set the timer to run it when we're asleep. If my bedrooms were closer to the kitchen, this wouldn't be a good option. I paid less than $500.

[magnificent_baby]

I did not see if you mentioned what detergent you use, but we switched from Cascade (made a horrible white film on everything!) to Finish Tabs. So happy with Finish, the dishes come out perfect nearly every time.

 

I have a KitchenAide; not sure what model, but I love it. We spent about $700 on it last fall. Stainless steel interior with tons of room. I think the racks are nylon; the last junk dishwasher we had, many tips broke off and were rusted. This is our 2nd KA dishwasher (left the last one in a house we sold).

[PrincessMommy]

I did not see if you mentioned what detergent you use, but we switched from Cascade (made a horrible white film on everything!) to Finish Tabs. So happy with Finish, the dishes come out perfect nearly every time.

 

I have a KitchenAide; not sure what model, but I love it. We spent about $700 on it last fall. Stainless steel interior with tons of room. I think the racks are nylon; the last junk dishwasher we had, many tips broke off and were rusted. This is our 2nd KA dishwasher (left the last one in a house we sold).

 

I use the finish tabs. I can't count the times I found the tab nearly intact sitting on the rack after running the machine. :glare:

 

Thanks everyone for your imput. Now I have some homework to do.

[Crafty Mathy Mom]

We currently have a GE which is a piece of junk. It has never worked well. I don't use it anymore. We got it when the 20 something year old Maytag developed an unfixable leak. It worked like a champ.

[Plucky]

I bought this Bosch one about a year or so ago and LOVE it. It's a bit more expensive than you mentioned but has been worth every penny. It still looks brand new inside. I love that there is no heating element in it, so if I wash plastic things and something falls it doesn't melt. It uses the residual heat from the water to dry the dishes. It doesn't matter what soap I use in it, everything always comes out clean. I prefer Finish Quantum tabs, but that's just a personal preference thing.

 

 

 

I have the same one. I absolutely love it. It is a mid-price Bosch. Do not buy anything cheaper from Bosch it won't work as well. I also use Finish.

 

It's my favorite appliance.