Dishwashers. What do I need?
Discussion
Never bought / used one before, other than to stick some plates in mums when we're there for dinner, so what are the "must have" features of a dishwasher? Up till I started looking earlier I assumed they were like washing machines - everything goes in on the same setting every time, so you only need one programme, one temperature setting etc... I'm being told that's not the case.
I don't really think there are. Most will have rinse/eco/standard/intensive settings, and that's pretty much all you'll do with them. Things to perhaps check up on would be:
- Size (there are standard and narrow sizes, and some are shallower than others if you don't have the depth)
- Simple buttons/dials on the front
- A progress meter (counter or dial going round)
- Noise (depending on how you use your kitchen)
- Energy and water usage (if relevant)
- All the service bits (salt & rinse aid fillers, drain filter) easily accessible, and with a good indicator of low levels.
HiRich said:
One thing to look at quite carefully is layout of the wire baskets.
+1 - of all the dishwashers I've used, the design of the basket is the most satisfying or annoying aspect. Make sure the 'mesh' is not too sparse otherwise glasses will fall over and the cutlery basket should have a fine square mesh, otherwise stuff falls through it and stops the spinning washer arm. I think a Whirlpool on was best.Make sure you check the operating decibel level, The last one we had (Hotpoint) was way, way louder than the Siemens one we had before it, and you can't disable the "beep" when it finishes its cleaning routine.
As with most manufactured things nowadays, Germany seems to top the quality (and price) stakes with brands like Miele, Siemens, Bosch etc, but they do seem worth it for attention to detail adn pure practicality and efficiency. I was interested in one of those double draw jobbies by Fisher and Paykel who seem popular adn look quite cool, but turns out they are very unreliable. Surprisingly (or not) they are from New Zealand.
As with most manufactured things nowadays, Germany seems to top the quality (and price) stakes with brands like Miele, Siemens, Bosch etc, but they do seem worth it for attention to detail adn pure practicality and efficiency. I was interested in one of those double draw jobbies by Fisher and Paykel who seem popular adn look quite cool, but turns out they are very unreliable. Surprisingly (or not) they are from New Zealand.
AS far as I can make out Siemens (my current) are Bosch (previous) with a fancier but useful electronic display. Happy with both of them, though from experience wouldn't want to go much below their price point for a reliable machine.
Haven't found that top brand detergent tablets are any better at cleaning than budget ones either.
Haven't found that top brand detergent tablets are any better at cleaning than budget ones either.
headcase said:
make sure your plates will fit in it! My missus bought plates that are too big for ours so they never go in it...
Have you checked whether you can alter the height of the top rack? We thought our plates wouldn't go in our Whirpool one but found out that you can raise the top rack by a few centimetres with clips on the side of it.Peter
A rack that tilts drinking vessels over at an angle will stop the annoying pool of water that's left behind in the dimple in the bottoms. You will probably end up using only one programme so loads of choice might not be important. Rinse aid and salt are not needed if you use the 'all-in-one' tablets. We had a Hotpoint (rebadged Bosch) top end model from 1986 until a couple of years ago and that was good in most respects, and the cheap Beko we have now is okay too except for the basket layout being less efficient.
Serious suggestion that sounds daft: Take a selection of your crockery (big plates, tumblers, wine glasses and mugs) into your supplier of choice and see where they'll fit in the display models without blocking the spinning arms. Open and close the drawers a couple of times and see if everything falls over. This would be the single biggest irritation for me. My parents' Zanussi dishwasher has a fairly open top deck and all their glasses fall over every time the drawer is pulled out. Our Neff has a much more structured top drawer and nothing falls over.
We use cheap Tesco tablets and haven't noticed any performance difference compared with the hassle of using separate components (powder, salt, rinse-aid).
Look for a model without an annoying buzzer/beep at the end of the cycle - that used to drive my parents batty in their old house.
We use cheap Tesco tablets and haven't noticed any performance difference compared with the hassle of using separate components (powder, salt, rinse-aid).
Look for a model without an annoying buzzer/beep at the end of the cycle - that used to drive my parents batty in their old house.
SGirl said:
WWESTY said:
What more could you want?
A dishwasher that loads itself. 
I recently spent thoosands on a new kitchen and much to my chagrin, i didn't consider the quality of the dishwasher; It's shiite! The basket layout is poor and the beep annoys me too. I soon gave up with the split powder/rinse-aid/salt malarky.. it now gets a tablet and everything is blasted on max temp/longest wash cycle for good measure 
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