[Pturner]

Does anybody love their dishwasher, not because it's quiet but because it washes all of your dishes to a sparking clean, dries them thoroughly and is flexible enough to handle odd shapes and sizes, large loads or small ones? Do tell.


My search for such a machine, prompted me to write my first blog:
Dishing on Dishwashers (my first blog) | oursistoreasonwhy


... and has frustrated me to no end.


Someone please, point me to such a dishwasher!

[villagetinker]

Ours does a great job, but I have to admit that we help it a lot. We installed a Sears water softener and Sears whole house filter. The result is sparkling dishes, and crystal that is so clean we do NOT need jet dry or similar products. No the dishes are not always dry, but that is because I do not use the heated dry setting. As for the capability for odd shapes, this is a matter of taste in MHO. We have been able to put most of the dishes, pans, etc into the unit. What does not fit gets hand washed.
Hope this helps. This is a Westinghouse unit provided with the house.

[Yung Dum]

Does a water softener make a big difference? I'm not happy with my dishwasher (it's brand new) and thought that may be the problem.

[CFrance]

Yes, a water softener makes a difference. But so does the dishwasher. Don't get one with a stainless steel interior. We had an expensive LG model with that, and the combo of the new dw detergents, the ss interior and the stainless silverware corroded the silverware. And the interior of the dw never dried. And this with a water softener.

I love the Whirlpool that came with our spec home, combined with the water softener we put in, and the use of Finish Power Ball cubes. Very little flatware corrosion, the interior dries, and it really cleans the dishes.

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by Yung Dum

Does a water softener make a big difference? I'm not happy with my dishwasher (it's brand new) and thought that may be the problem.

Originally Posted by CFrance

Yes, a water softener makes a difference. But so does the dishwasher. Don't get one with a stainless steel interior. We had an expensive LG model with that, and the combo of the new dw detergents, the ss interior and the stainless silverware corroded the silverware. And the interior of the dw never dried. And this with a water softener.

I love the Whirlpool that came with our spec home, combined with the water softener we put in, and the use of Finish Power Ball cubes. Very little flatware corrosion, the interior dries, and it really cleans the dishes.

Okay -- here goes . . . No, the following is not a blog. It's a combination of opinion and fact.

Years ago I worked for a Whirlpool distributor and still am a little prejudiced, but there are many quality dishwashers around. The interior of dishwashers are either a type of plastic or stainless. There is no question that stainless wins -- hands down. You'll never see a low end D/W with a stainless interior and the stainless ones will have more options. The first thing I have always loved about Whirlpool is the silverware loads in the door and gives you more interior space.

Having a water softener will not help to have cleaner or spot-free dishes, glasses and silverwear. Sorry, CFrance, but that isn't the answer. We don't have a softener in our house. I used to use Cascade powder and now use Finish Powerballs like CFrance uses. I also use the liquid Jet Dry in the provided dispenser in the door and believe the combination of the two is what gives you really clean, spot free dishes, silverware and glassware.

I only use the normal, short cycle and never use the heated dry cycle. Run your hot water in the sink before you turn on your D/W and also run your disposer so the D/W drains properly. I do rinse off really scurvy dishes because we don't run the D/W every day. When the D/W has finished, and I remember to do it, I partially open the door to let it air dry. My dishes come out looking brand new as does my stainless silverware and glasses.

Here are a couple of things to remember. Never use any of the liquid D/W detergents. They are extremely abrasive and can damage your silverware and china after extended use. When you load glasses, mugs, etc., never put them over the prongs. If you don't load your D/W properly, that could be another reason your dishes may not get cleaned properly.

If you use the right D/W detergent and Jet dry, and your dishes, silver and glasses are still not clean and/or spotted, it's one of a couple of things. You water may not be hot enough, you may not be using the correct cycle, it could be the detergent or you may have a lousy D/W!
.

[jblum315]

Dishwasher that came with the house is perfectly satisfactory. I do have a water conditioner and I use the Finish tablets and I have it set on Normal wash, hot start and heated dry. Some of my glasses are cloudy and some not from the same set of glasses. You do have to scrape dishes; these dishwashers are not designed to deal with stuck-on food.
Oh, and I also turned my hot water heater from the preset 115 degrees to 140 degrees.

[TNLAKEPANDA]

Ours washes great and is fairly quite but it never gets the silverware totally dry! Grrrr

[GeoGeo]

Our current DW has the stainless steel interior. Always before we had plastic interiors and had no problems. With our stainless steel interior we have to be careful what products we use and what we put in the DW. In the past with our plastic interiors I would put cupcake pans and baking pans in the DW, but tried that with the stainless steel interior model and it messed them up....plus my silverware. I had to replace my glassware numerous times. We now use Finish gel pacs. One day the store was out so I bought Finish Powerball Tabs, I think is the name. I figured same Brand....should be okay. Well, that was a big mistake. If I ever buy another DW, I will go with the plastic interior.

By the way, I had a plumber and an appliance repair guy tell me to NEVER use powdered DW detergent. It "gunks" the machine up.

[CFrance]

I have researched this extensively online due to the corrosion problem between my silverware and the stainless steel interior of my $700 (in 2007) LG dishwasher in Michigan. It is the only dw I've ever had that, even when using the heated dry cycle, did not dry the interior of the dw, nor the dishes. Despite two service calls. And rust spots all over the silverware. It's also the only dw I've ever had with a s/s interior.

Part of the problem is the fact that the US does not manufacture its own steel for stainless steel silverware anymore. To keep the costs down, the steel is coming from third-world countries and is inferior to the stainless in your mother's silverware. What few pieces of silverware I have left over from my mother-in-law and her mother never had this problem in the LG.

My builder-supplied Whirlpool does not have s/s interior, has many options, and does a fantastic job on the dishes & silverware, without depositing corrosion spots anywhere. I found online several suggestions to use Finish Power Ball. Since phosphates were banned several years ago, few dishwasher detergents will do a decent job. You used to be able to get restaurant-grade detergent with phosphates at Gordon's, but they have taken the phosphates out of that too.

I use normal wash setting, high-temp wash and sani-rinse so I don't have to turn the water heater up and scald us the rest of the time, and heated dry. And either Finish Power Ball or Finish Gel. The Power Ball works better than the gel for keeping spots off the silverware, but Publix had a BOGO on the gel a year ago, and I couldn't pass it up. When I think of it, I use liquid Jet Dry, but I hardly ever remember to refill it. It really is redundant with the water softener. I can tell immediately when our softener runs out of salt. There's water spots on the glasses and also the shower floor!

And I replaced my silverware with the best quality silverware I could find, manufactured in Italy, on sale from Sur La Table. Not cheap, but I got tired of throwing out spotted silverware that I was embarrassed to use when we had guests.

Sorry, Bonnie, but I don't agree with all you said. I've been wrestling with this problem since 2007 and have finally came up with a solution that works for me. Could it be the LG brand? Maybe, but I'm not going back to a s/s interior just to check.

[applesoffh]

I have an upgraded Whirlpool (3 years old) and a whole-house water filtration system. I use Finish tablets or Cascade tablets and the dishes are glean, glassware shines, etc. That said, even on the heat drying cycle, there is still a bit of water in the interior of the machine. I had called Whirlpool about this, and was told that because everything is now HE, the drying time ends when the dishes are dry, and remaining drops in the interior will not evaporate further. Who knows, but I find a big difference with treated water.

[Jgg7933]

Originally Posted by Pturner

Does anybody love their dishwasher, not because it's quiet but because it washes all of your dishes to a sparking clean, dries them thoroughly and is flexible enough to handle odd shapes and sizes, large loads or small ones? Do tell.


My search for such a machine, prompted me to write my first blog:
Dishing on Dishwashers (my first blog) | oursistoreasonwhy


... and has frustrated me to no end.


Someone please, point me to such a dishwasher!

Our Dish Washer works FANTASTIC! He is relatively quiet, can handle an unlimited amount of dishes at one time, any size or shape dishes and they ALWAYS come out clean and ... it uses NO electric to run it. The best thing about our Dish Washer is we NEVER run out of dishes or silverware waiting to fill up the machine either... Ahhh yes, My husband does a GREAT JOB washing those dishes daily!

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by Jgg7933

Our Dish Washer works FANTASTIC! He is relatively quiet, can handle an unlimited amount of dishes at one time, any size or shape dishes and they ALWAYS come out clean and ... it uses NO electric to run it. The best thing about our Dish Washer is we NEVER run out of dishes or silverware waiting to fill up the machine either... Ahhh yes, My husband does a GREAT JOB washing those dishes daily!

You are using much more water to hand wash dishes than you would be using with a dishwasher.

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by GeoGeo

Our current DW has the stainless steel interior. Always before we had plastic interiors and had no problems. With our stainless steel interior we have to be careful what products we use and what we put in the DW. In the past with our plastic interiors I would put cupcake pans and baking pans in the DW, but tried that with the stainless steel interior model and it messed them up....plus my silverware. I had to replace my glassware numerous times. We now use Finish gel pacs. One day the store was out so I bought Finish Powerball Tabs, I think is the name. I figured same Brand....should be okay. Well, that was a big mistake. If I ever buy another DW, I will go with the plastic interior.

By the way, I had a plumber and an appliance repair guy tell me to NEVER use powdered DW detergent. It "gunks" the machine up.

Your plumber and repair man gave you bad information. You dishwasher or even your washer will not "gunk" up from powdered detergent unless your hot water is not hot enough. Your hot water should be set at 120 degrees.

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by jblum315

Dishwasher that came with the house is perfectly satisfactory. I do have a water conditioner and I use the Finish tablets and I have it set on Normal wash, hot start and heated dry. Some of my glasses are cloudy and some not from the same set of glasses. You do have to scrape dishes; these dishwashers are not designed to deal with stuck-on food.
Oh, and I also turned my hot water heater from the preset 115 degrees to 140 degrees.

Many dishwashers will not do a good job on dried food on plates when using the normal cycle. You probably would need to use a pots & pans cycle or a heavy duty cycle.

You probably know that a water heater uses the most electricity in a home. Your 140 degrees setting is really too hot and your're wasting your money with that setting. Try turning your water heater's thermostat to 120 degrees. It should do the job for you and will save you a few dollars every month.