Dishwashers

[Celeval]

Yeah, so... our dishwasher has decided to stop washing dishes, and instead makes a funny buzzing noise and sits there. I'm guessing this is a bad thing.

So it's off to the various big box stores to get a new one. Except that I have really no idea as to what makes a good dishwasher, other than "it washes dishes well". We don't need the funky delay options or bells and whistles. Anyone have any recommendations? Good brands? Brands to avoid?

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Yeah, so... our dishwasher has decided to stop washing dishes, and instead makes a funny buzzing noise and sits there. I'm guessing this is a bad thing.

So it's off to the various big box stores to get a new one. Except that I have really no idea as to what makes a good dishwasher, other than "it washes dishes well". We don't need the funky delay options or bells and whistles. Anyone have any recommendations? Good brands? Brands to avoid?

I hear this happens a lot after 5 + years of being married. Ever thought about trading her in?

[digamma]

She looks like a good one...

[Schmidty]

No one will get this, and I can't find the scene, but I love the scene in Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story, where the lady says, "You will never be more than Dishwasha!". Or something like that.

So here's an unrelated video:

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Yeah, so... our dishwasher has decided to stop washing dishes, and instead makes a funny buzzing noise and sits there. I'm guessing this is a bad thing.

So it's off to the various big box stores to get a new one. Except that I have really no idea as to what makes a good dishwasher, other than "it washes dishes well". We don't need the funky delay options or bells and whistles. Anyone have any recommendations? Good brands? Brands to avoid?

I'm not sure if you're a reader/subscriber to Consumer Reports - but this is the type of purchase where I find them very helpful. They generally give an overview of what to look for and then their ratings.

If you want the info for dishwashers I have a subscription to their site and could do screenshots.

[mauchow]

Having worked at Sears for a good year or so, I know lots about appliances. You would probably be happy with one of their Kenmore's that are considered #1 in consumer reports.. but if you're looking to go quieter without breaking the bank, you could go Bosch, not their lowest level one, but the next one up. It's usually priced right around $600 or so. It's extremely quiet, around 6-12 decibals quieter than the kenmore's. If you need any other recomms. let me know.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Having worked at Sears for a good year or so, I know lots about appliances. You would probably be happy with one of their Kenmore's that are considered #1 in consumer reports.. but if you're looking to go quieter without breaking the bank, you could go Bosch, not their lowest level one, but the next one up. It's usually priced right around $600 or so. It's extremely quiet, around 6-12 decibals quieter than the kenmore's. If you need any other recomms. let me know.

Yeah, wow - actually a Kenmore (1374[2])is rated #1 by Consumers with the rest of the top 5 all being in the $1000+ range.

[mauchow]

I wouldn't read too much into Consumer Reports either.. but that's one that is okay for the money. It won't have a stainless interior or some of the other things that are nice. It's still a good washer, probably the top washer with a plastic interior.

The Bosch DW I'm talking about has stainless on the inside, very nice adjustables, washes great, and is also the most energy efficient, water efficient and quietest DW out there. If I needed a new DW, I'd buy the Bosch but that's just me.

[DanGarion]

You should get the brand new just out Consumer Reports, they went over ALL kitchen appliances. If you wait till later tonight I can tell you their highest rated dishwashers.

[mauchow]

And if you go to Sears, you could probably stay away from the Protection Agreements they sell. Definitely stay away from "Extended Warranties." If you're going to purchase some sort of insurance, Sears has the best plans but they're still a rip-off unless you like that protection. It's smart to have it but I don't like the prices of them. In some cases it is 33% of the appliance to protect for five years. Which is kinda expensive, especially these days.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

I wouldn't read too much into Consumer Reports either.. but that's one that is okay for the money. It won't have a stainless interior or some of the other things that are nice. It's still a good washer, probably the top washer with a plastic interior.

The Bosch DW I'm talking about has stainless on the inside, very nice adjustables, washes great, and is also the most energy efficient, water efficient and quietest DW out there. If I needed a new DW, I'd buy the Bosch but that's just me.

What do you mean by your first comment? I find Consumer's to be VERY reliable and an invaluable tool in many purchases, especially of the $500+ variety.

Originally Posted by dangarion

You should get the brand new just out Consumer Reports, they went over ALL kitchen appliances. If you wait till later tonight I can tell you their highest rated dishwashers.

I just told him the highest rated .

That being said there is a Bosch that is rated #2, but it is $1550 compared to the $650 of the #1 rated Kenmore.

I see mauboy mentions a Bosch around $600 - it is the 10th rated in Consumer's, but is chosen as a "Best Buy".

Really the top 10-15 Dishwashers in here are rated within a very close range of each other. It seems the Kenmore tops the Bosch in "Loading Flexibility" and "Ease of Use".

[Logan]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

The Bosch DW I'm talking about has stainless on the inside, very nice adjustables, washes great, and is also the most energy efficient, water efficient and quietest DW out there. If I needed a new DW, I'd buy the Bosch but that's just me.

You sound like a Chewlees Gum representative .

[DanGarion]

Here are their recommendations. Not just the highest rated one.

These midpriced models provide excellent cleaning and quiet operation:

• Kenmore (Sears) 1374[2] , $650, CR Best Buy
• Bosch SHE33M0[2]UC , $540, CR Best Buy


Both dishwashers are quiet and energy-efficient. The Kenmore has targeted spray jets. The Bosch has a stainless-steel tub and a slightly shorter cycle time, 115 minutes compared with the 125 minutes for the Kenmore. You'll occasionally have to clean the Bosch's filter by hand.
If price is more important than quiet:

• Whirlpool DU1055XTS[Q] , $350, CR Best Buy
• Kenmore (Sears) 1373[2] , $500
• Whirlpool DU1100XTP[Q] , $450


Most of the lower-priced models we tested provide very good overall cleaning. These dishwashers do not run as quietly and often are not as easy to load as some high-scoring models. All three of these Quick Picks offer excellent cleaning, but the Whirlpool DU1055XTS[Q], a CR Best Buy is a bit more basic.

[wade moore]

That's what I said .

Ok, it's not exactly - but I did offer screenshots of the website!

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by wade moore

That's what I said .

Ok, it's not exactly - but I did offer screenshots of the website!

[oliegirl]

Whoever thought there would be a thread with men arguing over dishwashers on this board! And you say the women are feminizing the place?????

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Whoever thought there would be a thread with men arguing over dishwashers on this board! And you say the women are feminizing the place?????

I do all of the cooking and dishwashing in our family. Ask Mrs. Schmidty.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by dangarion

Yes, I know that's straight from the website.

[Celeval]

You guys rock. :-D

We'll probably make a trip to Sears tomorrow to check them out in person... anyplace else that sells Bosch? The Sears website doesn't list the model that CR likes.

[Raiders Army]

Hey, FWIW we need to buy a fridge (please no obligatory pix of William Perry) and went by Sears today as well as Lowe's and Home Depot.

Consumer Reports sucks balls. I looked up four refrigerators at Home Depot and Sears and they weren't on there. I got better vibes from eopinions.com. Right now I'm wondering why the hell I paid for access to their restricted site.

Anyhow, on a Sears-related note the Kenmore Elite we're looking at (French Doors with LED lighting) is $2,899.99 normally and $2,449.99 on sale. If you have a Sears card, you're supposed to get 15% off and other stuff like 0% financing (which isn't something appealing to us since we're going to pay it off right away). Now, I did the math and the price on sale is 15% off. I told them that they should give me 15% off their sale price if I use my Sears card since I got on the internet on my iPhone and saw their sale price was for any method of payment.

They wouldn't budge, damn them. I'll probably still get the Kenmore since LED lighting looks kickass behind beer bottles, but I hate their false advertising.

They also had $2,209 on the Kenmore we were looking at, but if you looked at the fine print it was for the white fridge not the stainless steel. I asked them why they had a price tag that was the incorrect price for the model they had on display and they said, "it is what it is."

Dammit, I go into Best Buy and if the sticker on the CD says $9.99 that's the price of the CD.

[wade moore]

http://boschappliances.com/site_tool...menulevel=0203 is a dealer locator. For me it showed Ferguson, Sears, and a bunch of local places.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Hey, FWIW we need to buy a fridge (please no obligatory pix of William Perry) and went by Sears today as well as Lowe's and Home Depot.

Consumer Reports sucks balls. I looked up four refrigerators at Home Depot and Sears and they weren't on there. I got better vibes from eopinions.com. Right now I'm wondering why the hell I paid for access to their restricted site.

Anyhow, on a Sears-related note the Kenmore Elite we're looking at (French Doors with LED lighting) is $2,899.99 normally and $2,449.99 on sale. If you have a Sears card, you're supposed to get 15% off and other stuff like 0% financing (which isn't something appealing to us since we're going to pay it off right away). Now, I did the math and the price on sale is 15% off. I told them that they should give me 15% off their sale price if I use my Sears card since I got on the internet on my iPhone and saw their sale price was for any method of payment.

They wouldn't budge, damn them. I'll probably still get the Kenmore since LED lighting looks kickass behind beer bottles, but I hate their false advertising.

They also had $2,209 on the Kenmore we were looking at, but if you looked at the fine print it was for the white fridge not the stainless steel. I asked them why they had a price tag that was the incorrect price for the model they had on display and they said, "it is what it is."

Dammit, I go into Best Buy and if the sticker on the CD says $9.99 that's the price of the CD.

If they had something saying 15% off any payment, refused to give you the additional discount, and then had a refrigerator mismarked, I'd contact the department manager, and if nothing happened, the store manager. That's not the way a company like Sears should do business.

[Raiders Army]

My wife made a good point after we left. I consider myself to be reasonable and if they can come up with a reasonable explanation I'll take it. My wife said the sign said: "15% off plus 0% interest for 6 months or free delivery". The way I read it was an additional 15% off, but my wife pointed out that if you use your Sears card, you will get the 15% off plus one or the other. Still misleading, but I understand what my wife was saying.

They didn't say it though.

We're just tired. Tired of fighting. The closing company on our house (we close tomorrow) forgot to add $750 in pre-property taxes and we're having to deal with that less than 24 hours from closing.

Army transportation screwed us royally last week.

I didn't get my end of month pay nor my cashed in leave so we're hurting a little for money.

I had to pay $1,000 for a business conference fee today that was unexpected. I'll be paid back, but it still hurts.

We're debt free right now, except for one car payment which we started last year (3 year loan) and our soon-to-be house payment. We've been credit card debt free for a while now and I didn't realize my wife got rid of all our credit cards. We don't even have a credit card to charge things and pay it off later this month when our money hits.





Anyhoooooo....I'm tired of fighting with people.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Yeah, so... our dishwasher has decided to stop washing dishes, and instead makes a funny buzzing noise and sits there. I'm guessing this is a bad thing.

So it's off to the various big box stores to get a new one. Except that I have really no idea as to what makes a good dishwasher, other than "it washes dishes well". We don't need the funky delay options or bells and whistles. Anyone have any recommendations? Good brands? Brands to avoid?

Im reading this thinking of a restaurant. So im reading this thinking "their dishwasher stopped washing dishes and sits there making buzzing noises?"
Im still chuckling at myself. Can you picture a 16 yr old sitting there making buzzing noises.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

My wife made a good point after we left. I consider myself to be reasonable and if they can come up with a reasonable explanation I'll take it. My wife said the sign said: "15% off plus 0% interest for 6 months or free delivery". The way I read it was an additional 15% off, but my wife pointed out that if you use your Sears card, you will get the 15% off plus one or the other. Still misleading, but I understand what my wife was saying.

They didn't say it though.

We're just tired. Tired of fighting. The closing company on our house (we close tomorrow) forgot to add $750 in pre-property taxes and we're having to deal with that less than 24 hours from closing.

Army transportation screwed us royally last week.

I didn't get my end of month pay nor my cashed in leave so we're hurting a little for money.

I had to pay $1,000 for a business conference fee today that was unexpected. I'll be paid back, but it still hurts.

We're debt free right now, except for one car payment which we started last year (3 year loan) and our soon-to-be house payment. We've been credit card debt free for a while now and I didn't realize my wife got rid of all our credit cards. We don't even have a credit card to charge things and pay it off later this month when our money hits.





Anyhoooooo....I'm tired of fighting with people.

Sounds like you have had a rough week RA Go have a beer or two and take some deep breaths...you'll get through it.

[mauchow]

The pricing at Sears has always been retarded and will continue to be stupid. The price that you see on the sign typically is for the color white, first of all. Look closely for the price of the color you want. The 15% is likely already taken off the regular price. 15% off an appliance there is about as good a deal you can get unless you're buying in a package or if you want until friends and family night, which is held on a Sunday about four times a year. You'll get 20% off Kenmore items and on top of that, an additional 10% off your purchase. Pretty much the best deal you can get.

As for my comment on Consumer Reports, most of the reviews are a load of shit. They run the machine once in most cases, look at the options and write up what they think. They've ranked some pretty bad machines very well in the past and as someone already said, epinions is a much better way to go.

However, the two dishwashers that consumer reports lists as the Best Buy, are both actually okay. The Kenmore dishwasher runs at 59 decibals and the Bosch one runs at 51 decibals. 8 decibal difference=cuts the noise level in half nearly THREE TIMES. The Kenmore one is at an industry average as far as quiet factor goes, so to say Kenmore is quiet is not entirely true. It will be quieter than the <$500 dishwasher out there, though.

If you're looking to spend $2000+ more on a refrigerator, I wouldn't go Kenmore. Kenmore Elite's fridge's aren't all that great. I'd look into another brand... GE Profile as a start. I guess I'm assuming you'd be going with the Bottom freezer. If you want other suggestions, I can help for the most part.

If it's not 15% off at Sears, wait less than a month and it will be, or if you really need one right away, use their 30 day guarantee and get a price match within 30 days.

[mauchow]

Another thing most people don't know about sears, if it's not deliverable the next day as long as its before 3pm, you will get a $50 gift card or free delivery... which delivery is usually free after mail in rebate(again, if its not offered with the sale, wait until it is).

If an employee says that don't know about the upcoming sales for the rest of the month, they do know. They probably won't know about the next month's sales though, until a few days before the new month.

*shrug*

Typically you can't barter down for a better deal at Sears, either. Occasionally they'll knock off an extra 5% if you speak with the store manager or something.. but typically not.

[Raiders Army]

Thanks for the tips mauboy. We're looking for a French Doors fridge with LED lighting. The saleslady said that they would adjust our receipt if there was a sale in the next 30 days (since I have a feeling there will be some 4th of July sales). I'll look again at the GE Profile.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Thanks for the tips mauboy. We're looking for a French Doors fridge with LED lighting. The saleslady said that they would adjust our receipt if there was a sale in the next 30 days (since I have a feeling there will be some 4th of July sales). I'll look again at the GE Profile.

I highly doubt they'll do it automatically for ya. At least call it in. Whenever anybody called in for an adjustment, I was able to do it by getting only your phone number.

GE has more than a handful of french door fridges. Depends what you're looking for within that. Water in the door? Water and ice in door? Neither. You name it, they've got it whether its on the floor or not.

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Yeah, so... our dishwasher has decided to stop washing dishes, and instead makes a funny buzzing noise and sits there. I'm guessing this is a bad thing.

So it's off to the various big box stores to get a new one. Except that I have really no idea as to what makes a good dishwasher, other than "it washes dishes well". We don't need the funky delay options or bells and whistles. Anyone have any recommendations? Good brands? Brands to avoid?

Isn't that what your wife is for...cook...clean...do the dishes...make babies?

[fantom1979]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

We're looking for a French Doors fridge with LED lighting.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW ... we've got a Bosch dishwasher (sorry, not going back upstairs again to figure out the model number right now) and it's probably the most aggravating appliance I've ever owned. Not entirely the fault of the appliance, which leads me to my #1 piece of advice about dishwashers:
Make sure you get one big enough to handle your normal routine.

I feel like the one we ended up buying must have been intended for a bachelor airline worker who was only home a couple of days a week and it's the #1 appliance regret I've ever had.

The Bosch is quirky on its own accord too. I think the top rack is the worst design I've ever seen, the prongs for the glasses/cups/etc are poorly spaced and insufficient in number. The bottom rack doesn't seem to have been designed with any thought of the existence of things such as cereal bowls as they really don't fit anywhere in the rack.

Biggest advice I'd have probably really just boils down to try to make sure you're actually going to be happy with what you end up buying. It's a real bitch to spend the bucks that these things require today & have them end up being a source of daily aggravation.

[mauchow]

Jon, I agree with the design of Bosch's top rack on their cheapest model. It is unbelievably horrible. No other dishwasher adopts the way they did it.... for good reason. The next step up dishwasher does have a much better top rack, which is why I suggested that one. It also has the Half Wash option, which is good for saving more energy and water yet. Anyhow, during my job there I probably heard the best things about Bosch most often from customers.

To each his own. Just like cars, I stand behind Toyota all the way and there will be people who stand behind just Ford... *shrug*

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

Jon, I agree with the design of Bosch's top rack on their cheapest model.

And FTR (and IIRC) I don't think we got the absolute cheapest but it was almost definitely no more than the next small step up from it.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And FTR (and IIRC) I don't think we got the absolute cheapest but it was almost definitely no more than the next small step up from it.

Which, whenever you bought, may have been a standard design which they've continued to keep for their now cheapest model.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Whoever thought there would be a thread with men arguing over dishwashers on this board! And you say the women are feminizing the place?????

I am highly disappointed that no one has really jumped on oliegirl for this. I mean, the thread is rife with fodder

SI

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by mauboy1

As for my comment on Consumer Reports, most of the reviews are a load of shit. They run the machine once in most cases, look at the options and write up what they think. They've ranked some pretty bad machines very well in the past and as someone already said, epinions is a much better way to go.

Wow. You couldn't be more wrong.

Is this what they tell you in Sears training?

[flere-imsaho]

This website may be helpful (note that it's not Consumer Reports).

[Barkeep49]

Actually watching the video from the consumer reports website, it does indeed look like they only do one load, though they do a variety of foods in that load.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Actually watching the video from the consumer reports website, it does indeed look like they only do one load, though they do a variety of foods in that load.

They show you one load in the video for you to see how they do it.

They're not actually just running one load and pulling ratings from that.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by wade moore

They show you one load in the video for you to see how they do it.

They're not actually just running one load and pulling ratings from that.

This is my impression as well, but I can't find any documentation to support it.

[Barkeep49]

DOLA - And the actual magazine doesn't state test procedures at all.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

DOLA - And the actual magazine doesn't state test procedures at all.

Well, the magazine has the "by the numbers" section in the front that might be helpful now, but I don't have the magazine with me .

Yeah, the website doesn't go into the specifics - but those numbers in the front give a pretty decent understanding that it's just not one test for each of however many of an item they have.