Dishwashers

[AZRedhawk44]

Earlier this summer we rented an airbnb in San Diego for a week as a family getaway.  Good times.

Strangely, one of my take-aways from the experience was just how much I liked the dishwasher that was installed in the rental.  It was a Bosch, I don't know what model.  Insanely quiet, didn't have an exposed heating element.  Heat didn't permeate above the unit and heat up the countertop above it.

Fast forward to today.  My dishwasher is not cleaning my dishes.  We're not talking putting gunky crusty stuff in there.  Juice glasses, coffee and tea mugs, crock pot.  Also, the baskets appear to be rotting out in my unit.  Current unit is a Maytag.

What's the consensus on Bosch home appliances?  I like their power tools.  From what I gather, the Bosch dishwashers are mostly made in North Carolina (not China!), with some models made in Europe.  It appears it would cost me a few hundred dollars above a cheap Maytag or Whirlpool replacement... is it worth it?  Online reviews of their dishwashers seems pretty good.

[Perd Hapley]

Before our kitchen burned up we had a Bosch. Don't recall the model, but it had quiet or silent in the name somehow. And it was. Don't recall how it did on heating the countertop, but I'm guessing granite doesn't heat up much, regardless.

The downside was that it required occasional dosing with dishwasher salt, which the local appliance and hardware stores had never heard of. Had to order it. It was also very finnicky about being adjusted to the pH level of the water supply.

[zxcvbob]

Bosch is a premium brand which means a premium price.  Maybe they are worth it; I don't know.

Your old unit might need a cleaning with some citric acid, and/or the drain screen might be clogged.

What kind of detergent are you using?  Try using plain old cheap powdered DW detergent and make sure you fill the pre-wash dispenser as well as the main one.  If it only has one dispenser fill it and close it, then dump a little more on the door before you close it up.  Dishwashers do a short pre-wash cycle before the main cycle and they need some detergent for that to work efficiently.  The fancy new pods and tablets don't give you that.

[cordex]

We have a Bosch Ascenta that rated really well with consumer reports.  It was $720 back in May 2021.

Eh.

It's plenty quiet (unless almost empty - the water jets hitting the stainless interior can be pretty audible) and does a pretty good job of cleaning - massively better than our old unit, but I wish I had gotten either a higher end Bosch or another brand.  My parents love their Kitchen Aid dishwasher which I think ran higher than mine.

I get the impression you've got the budget - I'd say go for one of the higher-end Bosch or check out Kitchen Aid.

[Tuco]

We have a Bosch Super Silent Plus 42dB. It's still quiet after 8-10 years.  Two adults and 2 children who are now adults, and it ran a FULL load every 2 - 3 days (appx 1,300 cycles). Never had a problem or a second thought since the installation.  I remember shopping for a bit before buying it from Lowes.  Seems like it was in the 75-85th percentile for price at the time.

No regrets, would buy again, but it does bleed heat to the countertop

[RocketMan]

Check your spray bars, make sure they are rotating properly.  We've got a Fridgidaire dishwasher, and it had a fancy double rotating bottom spray bar.  That thing would last about a year before the bearing surface would wear enough to keep the thing from rotating.  It turned fine by hand, but the water pressure spraying out would not turn it.  We'd have to wash dishes two or three times for everything to come clean.
I ran the dishwasher on a simple cycle, opening it periodically to see if the spray bars had changed position.  The lower was at the same clock position every time I opened the washer.  That proved it wasn't rotating.
I replaced it with a simple three spoke spray bar that fit the attachment point the same way as the original unit.  No problems since, washes everything very well.

[Pb]

Our Bosch just died.  Very few people will work on them, and the parts are very expensive.  I was told if it was the computer board that was broken, the part would be $400.  If it was the motor, the part would be $300.

That is a big reason not to get one.

I can't remember how old it was.

I hate all these digital appliances.  I want an analog one with a dial, but I don't know if anyone makes them anymore.

[Bogie]

10 years ago, I paid $25 at the Lake of the Ozarks Habitat for Humanity ReStore for my Whirlpool dishwasher, which sort of fits in my cutout...
 
I had problems initially, likely due to St. Louis City water, but figured out that if I toss in two of the el-cheapo pods from Aldi, and stuff two of the Cascade Platinum pods in the mid-cycle dispenser, that it works great.

[Doggy Daddy]

Dunno about Bosch. 

However, as I mentioned in a previous dishwasher thread some time back, I would highly recommend making sure that whatever new model you get that it has a third rack for silverware.  Not a basket, but a whole separate rack.  ours has vertical tines that hold the silverware in a position that spray hits it well.  I won't say that I would never buy a new one without that feature, but I fail to see why I would want to do without that now that we've had it a while.

Example pic... not ours.

[Pb]

Our bosch wasn't that old.  It was our second dishwasher since we moved into this house about 15 years ago.

[AZRedhawk44]

Check your spray bars, make sure they are rotating properly.  We've got a Fridgidaire dishwasher, and it had a fancy double rotating bottom spray bar.  That thing would last about a year before the bearing surface would wear enough to keep the thing from rotating.  It turned fine by hand, but the water pressure spraying out would not turn it.  We'd have to wash dishes two or three times for everything to come clean.
I ran the dishwasher on a simple cycle, opening it periodically to see if the spray bars had changed position.  The lower was at the same clock position every time I opened the washer.  That proved it wasn't rotating.
I replaced it with a simple three spoke spray bar that fit the attachment point the same way as the original unit.  No problems since, washes everything very well.

Will do.  I'm still doing some testing on it, probably will make a final determination this upcoming weekend whether to replace it or not.  I was looking at the spray bars yesterday and had a suspect feeling about them.

[MillCreek]

I will say that we have been happy with our high-end LG dishwasher that we got on sale from Costco.  I recall that it was $ 1150 and we got it on sale at $ 200 off.  After a couple years, it developed a hardware fault in that the main circuit board failed due to moisture from a leak in some seal.  This was a known issue that was corrected by the manufacturer, and Costco replaced the entire dishwasher with a new unit of the same model.  No trouble since, and it does an excellent job of cleaning, is very quiet, and I like the LG app that allows me to run diagnostics, download additional cycles and reminds me to clean the dishwasher.

[MechAg94]

Dunno about Bosch. 

However, as I mentioned in a previous dishwasher thread some time back, I would highly recommend making sure that whatever new model you get that it has a third rack for silverware.  Not a basket, but a whole separate rack.  ours has vertical tines that hold the silverware in a position that spray hits it well.  I won't say that I would never buy a new one without that feature, but I fail to see why I would want to do without that now that we've had it a while.

Example pic... not ours.

Mine has the third tray, but not like that (Frigidaire I think).  I use it for lids and such.  It works well for that.  The tray for silverware has the individual slots that make it easy to set in the silverware.  Only complaint on mine is the drink tray is fairly short so taller cups won't fit. 

[Jim147]

Will do.  I'm still doing some testing on it, probably will make a final determination this upcoming weekend whether to replace it or not.  I was looking at the spray bars yesterday and had a suspect feeling about them.

Also check your water fill level. A plugged inlet screen will not give it enough water to turn the arms.

I've had a two drawer Fisher-Paykel for over 15 years. One drawer is the perfect size for 2-3 people. Not sure what they go for. I got mine for a small amount of soldier after it had been replaced. The other company put ever board in it without diagnosing anything so Fisher replaced with a new one and gave me the old one to scrap. My washer and dryer are the only appliances in my house that I had to buy. There are a lot of bad techs out there.

[sumpnz]

The water from my well is super tough on dishwashers.  Would love to get a new one, but will keep hand washing for a while yet.

[Perd Hapley]

The water from my well is super tough on dishwashers.  Would love to get a new one, but will keep hand washing for a while yet.

Hard water?

I think that's why our old Bosch needed salt. Must have had a built-in softener. It was the dishwasher that came with the house, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking into it.

[Jim147]

Yeah our well pump was very hard on anything water related. It has been a backup only for years. Rural water here is only $30 a month and we make that back not replacing valves and water heaters.

[Fly320s]

Dunno about Bosch. 

However, as I mentioned in a previous dishwasher thread some time back, I would highly recommend making sure that whatever new model you get that it has a third rack for silverware.  Not a basket, but a whole separate rack.  ours has vertical tines that hold the silverware in a position that spray hits it well.  I won't say that I would never buy a new one without that feature, but I fail to see why I would want to do without that now that we've had it a while.

Example pic... not ours.

I have that model.  The top tray is great.

The Bosch diahwasher is very quiet and also very slow.  A standard cycle is 3 hours.

[sumpnz]

Hard water?

I think that's why our old Bosch needed salt. Must have had a built-in softener. It was the dishwasher that came with the house, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking into it.

Somewhat.  But iron is the real problem.

[K Frame]

"A standard cycle is 3 hours."

Blame the EPA for that bullshit.

The less water they mandate a dishwasher use, the longer the cycles take, and the less well they clean.

Pretty soon it's going to be a mandate that dishwashers have to create more water than they use.

[Bogie]

Seriously - check out used. You might have to fix something (and the internet is a wonderful thing), but there are seriously good bargains to be found.
 
Frankly, I picked my $25 dishwasher on the basis of "it's clean, and it's the first one and will be easiest to move." Different brands of the chemistry also will matter.

[WLJ]

"A standard cycle is 3 hours."

Blame the EPA for that bullshit.

The less water they mandate a dishwasher use, the longer the cycles take, and the less well they clean.

Pretty soon it's going to be a mandate that dishwashers have to create more water than they use.

Our old 35-40 year old Whirlpool was 30 minutes from start to clean not counting drying time.

[Pb]

Our old 35-40 year old Whirlpool was 30 minutes from start to clean not counting drying time.

AGH!!!  Modern appliances are garbage!  They take two hours to wash, and don't last ten years!   

[MillCreek]

^^^I loved my Kenmore washer/dryer that we got for our first house back in the early 80's.  Mechanical controls, service manuals, and the Sears part store 5 miles away meant I could do all my own work on them.  Nowadays, not so much.

[K Frame]

My washing machine is an Amana professional model that the ex and I got when we moved into the house.

Nearly 30 years old and never a single issue with it. Mechanical controls.

My dryer is a Maytag that I bought from a friend when he upgraded. It's probably darned close to 40 years old. I had to replace the drum rollers, idler pulley and drive belt a few years ago, but it's still going strong. The one cycle section of the mechanical dial control started getting a bit... chancy on whether it would stop, or if it would go through the next cycle and stop there. I keep meaning to pull the control dial out and see if it's just dirty contacts, but I figure it's easier to just use a different drying cycle.

Kenmore microwave, new in 1989. I had to replace one of the high voltage fuses after a lightning strike around 1994, but since then, absolutely zero problems.

Current dishwasher I put in around 2006 to replace the original one (bottom rusted out). It's a GE and is still doing OK. I figure it's got some years left in it. We'll see.