OT: Appliances/Dishwasher recommendations

[Kirk007]

I remember when appliances lasted forever. Now they seem to last 5 years if you're lucky. Dishwasher fried itself today so... looking for recommendations. Energy efficiency and water consumption (low) and of course good cleaning are priorities.

Consumer Reports lists Miele highly but there are few actual user reports.

Bosch and Kenmore rank highly but there's a lot of dissatisfied customers on the reviews.

Asko has an expensive model that ranks highly; they make a less expensive model that is really energy efficient and low water use. Local dealer says they sucked quality-wise a few years ago but that he's seen little problems in the past five years. Not many consumer reviews - of the few they're either love em or hate em.

So, any winners out there oh wise forumites?

P.S. Extra points for 953 stainless

[coopdog]

Whatever you do don't buy from Sears. Long story short- they delivered a dryer and installed the cord incorrectly (was not properly grounded) which caused the dryer vent tube to act like an arc-welder by putting a hole in my plumbing. Worst of all, they've been horrible to deal with about getting a replacement dryer or paying for the plumbing repair.

[vaxn8r]

I've had great luck with Searts over the years for many different appliances.

Last year our dryer died and after 15 years thought we'd go to front loading washer. We bought a Bosch set and they've worked flawlessly for the first year. Top quality feel. They are $$ but we recoup it in elecricity and water. Right?

[PaulE]

I'm talking about their residential refrigerators, stoves, range hoods, ovens and dishwashers, one of each of which we have in our kitchen. We bought a new house with a equipped with everything Viking except for a GE microwave and had to buy our own refrigerator. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of buying a Viking refrigerator to complete the set. I can't speak about their "comercial grade" stoves for residential use though. Sorry if anyone out there works for Viking, but I won't be buying anything else from them.

[Bud]

We got a KitchenAid dishwasher 1.5 years ago and are very happy with it. Get one with a stainless "tub." It cleans like a mofo and has fairly low water use. Ours was purchased from Home Depot, I think. Anyway, it had good reviews from CR and has performed well for us so far...

[dschlichting]

We redid our kitchen last fall. Bosch dishwasher and fridge. As to the dishwasher, only annoying thing is that rack on bottom is such that it is not possible to put small items on it --they'll fall through. Unit is very quiet and uses half the soap as teh old Maytag. Requires JetDry. No heating element, so assume it will use less power than the old one.

[H.Frank Beshear]

We've had a Bosch for the last 7-8 years it's very quiet and does a great job. We've got the lowest end unit which has the same issues with small parts on the bottom shelf, for a couple hundred more I'd step up a grade. I'm remuddling the Kitchen this summer and plan to do just that. Good luck with it. Frank

[jhcakilmer]

Can't comment on the dishwasher, but very satisfied with our Bosch front-loading washer and dryer. 3 years of an average 8-12 loads/ week, and my wife constantly overloading it, and it still works as well as the day we bought it!

One thing I don't like about the wash, is the high rpm spin, seems a little ridiculous to spin laundry at 1000 rpm, I always set it to gentle spin, which is still plenty fast, and does the same job, plus less rpm, so it should last longer....right?

[IXXI]

BOSCH! i have the lo end unit and love the performance of it; yes it has some things that could be improved upon presumably with the higher end models, but it is great. very quiet, great cleaning, very efficient. it seems to take a long time but maybe thats part of its efficiency.

cannot believe i am talking about a dishwasher.

[stevep]

i had poor luck with a couple of ge appliances...washer and dryer.
they just kinda sucked...
the switches broke, the knobs cracked... the dryer took too long to dry.
i'd stay away from them

[William]

We've had very good luck with Kenmore over the years. Refridge & washer/dryer/dishwasher/gas stove. The Maytag portable we had also worked well for years.




William

[bigman]

Bosch - good and so quiet.

[Too Tall]

Bosch : I've installed 3 (myself thankkewverrymluch) and they take a beating no problems. Quiet :)

[DfCas]

A friend I ride with works at a store that sells appliances and sold me a low end Asko. Absolutely quiet,stainless interior,energy efficient,and the stuff comes out clean.


5 years old,never a problem.

[AndreS]

Isn't it amazing how people can have such different experiences with the same product?

I've always had good luck with Kenmore (incl. dishwasher).

But, after watching my mother's unending headaches with Bosch (dishwasher, clothes washer/dryer), I wouldn't take a Bosch appliance if you gave it to me free. Actually, I'd pay to have you haul it away. The dishwasher seemed to work OK, until it didn't. Then, good luck getting service and when you do, be prepared to pay through the nose for both parts and service (her last repair bill was in excess of $300). As for the washer/dryer, the magnitude of the suckage of those two is on a par with that of a black hole. Just tooooo many problems to go into here - plus they are very poor in doing the job that they were supposedly designed to do in the first place. I'm glad others have had positive experiences with Bosch, but that has not been my mother's experience. Maybe different models, and maybe quality of service varies depending upon provider? (shrug)

[Larry8]

Bought a Miele, never looked back
Bought a Legend, never looked back.




--Larry

[paczki]

Children and/or whomever doesn't cook.

[jspa]

A friend just had an LG dishwasher die in a year, it took like 3 hours to go through a cycle. He just bought a bosch and loves it.

I have a fridgedaire that always leaves the glasses dirty.

[stackie]

had frigidaire in house when purchased. suffered that pos for a year. got miele. we now have a game of seeing what it will clean. dried on oatmeal-clean. dirty pot used to make ragu for three hours-clean. only problem is that the thing is so quiet you seriously cannot tell if it's running. btw, had bosch before in another house-good. but, miele is better. get a miele.

jon

[IXXI]

ge should make it official and get out of the appliances business as they've clearly already done that but forgot to tell the manufacturing and packaging lines.

on a separate but related rant, check out b&d's "objective": Black & Decker's objective is to establish itself as the preeminent global manufacturer and marketer of power tools and accessories, hardware and home improvement products, and technology based fastening systems.

great. except they forgot about manufacturing stuff that people want, that works, that might last beyond the 30 day warranty. which, good for them, isn't in the objective. so yes, objective accomplished.

but back to dishwashers. miele, bosch, kenmore. all faith in them.

[dwoodard]

When we remodeled the kitchen we bought a DCS two-drawer dish washer (made by Fisher-Paykel). It's the one thing I miss more than anything after we sold that house. Dead quiet and could hold a surprising amount. Also, fastest washing cycle I have experience.

[Hardlyrob]

Stay away from Frigidaire - the range is fine, the DW sucketh - failed touch pad twice, leaves glasses dirty etc. On the positive side, it is pretty quiet, which I guess you should expect for a dishwasher that doesn't clean very well.

Rob

[stackie]

you must be deaf. the only thing our frigidaire did well was make noise. it could have built new dishes for the noise it made. you couldn't even watch a movie in the living room when this thing was running.

jon

[Ray]

In our last house, we bought a GE dishwasher and the pump died within about three years. When the repair guy came out, he quoted us a price that would make considering a new dishwasher competitive. I asked him which dishwasher were the most reliable. He suggested Whirlpool in terms of the pumps in the machines being the most reliable by far. He also recommended getting a model with the dial on the front - not electronic/digital controls. Whirlpool had just discontinued those types of controls so we went with a digital version. We had the machine for several years with no problems. When we moved last summer, our new place has one of the ooolllddd Maytags - the ones they built their reputation on. That repair guy didn't recommend Maytag anymore, but said their old stuff was solid. This one is still very solid and I suspect we're going to keep it until it dies or we do.

I've bought highish-end bikes and guitars because they matter to me, but appliances we go for the cheapest ones that work and don't junk up the kitchen. We've had pretty good luck with most stuff. That dishwasher pump was the only outright failure we've had. Had to replace a belt on our washing machine once, but it's still going strong years later and I don't think we paid more than $300 for it.

-Ray

[Spinner]

... until we re-modeled our kitchen several years ago and outfitted it with: asko dish washer; wolf range top, range hood, oven, microwave and warming drawer; sub-zero refrig. this equipment is engineered extremely well, is terrific to use and looks great. while these appliances initially cost 3X what standard stuff would have, the investment was well worth the price.

the re-model job was initiated because the old refrig, stove and dishwasher were name-brand junk that i was spending a small fortune to maintain.

you get what you pay for.

[PaulE]

If you want high end, I would recommend Sub Zero over Viking, having owned both. My first house with high end appliances came with a Sub Zero fridge. Separate compressors for the fridge and icemaker, the ice never smells like garlic or onions. We didn't know the condenser coil had to be vacuumed out periodically and we ended up with a $500 repair bill. Also, the icemaker stopped working once and that was another $500 repair bill. When we moved to a newly constructed house, it came with all kitchen appliances except a fridge, and except for the GE microwave, all were Viking residential units. After our Sub Zero experience, and since we had so many Viking appliances already, we decided to complete the set and get a Viking fridge, which cost as much as a Sub Zero but is a re-badged Amana. This was a big mistake.

The Viking fridge has only one compressor and the ice always smells like onions and garlic.

The icemaker has a mind of its own, making ice when it feels like it. Sometimes the ice is overflowing and sometimes it doesn't make ice when it's empty for days at a time. This has been looked at several times by an expert.

The installation instructions don't give any directions for setback of the raised panel door insert so that the fridge door will be able to fully open. Sub Zero provides this information.

The interior hardware is junk, always falling apart, the freezer baskets are rusting.

I put my finger through the freezer door gasket trying to clean out the crap that falls in over time.

The stove's cast iron burner grills have little rubber feet so that they can sit on the stove's glass top. These little rubber feet break off or come out. Viking's only fix is to buy another burner grill at about $40 a pop.

The stove and oven control settings are painted/pantographed on the stainless steel and come off when you clean the stainless steel with soap, water and a sponge or cloth, not from scrubbing with scotch brite or other abrasives.

The stainless steel interior of the dishwasher rusts where stainless steel flatware comes in contact with it. The dishwasher's touch pad control broke through from using the on/off button - the switch head underneath the touch pad is a piece of plastic stock with an "X" shape, designed to cut though the touch pad with use.

Did you know Wolf is owned by Sub Zero? If I ever do it again, it will be Sub Zero if I go high end.

[93legendti]

I remember when appliances lasted forever. Now they seem to last 5 years if you're lucky. Dishwasher fried itself today so... looking for recommendations. Energy efficiency and water consumption (low) and of course good cleaning are priorities.

Consumer Reports lists Miele highly but there are few actual user reports.

Bosch and Kenmore rank highly but there's a lot of dissatisfied customers on the reviews.

Asko has an expensive model that ranks highly; they make a less expensive model that is really energy efficient and low water use. Local dealer says they sucked quality-wise a few years ago but that he's seen little problems in the past five years. Not many consumer reviews - of the few they're either love em or hate em.

So, any winners out there oh wise forumites?

P.S. Extra points for 953 stainless
We've had the Asko dish washer for 2 years and run it almost everyday (have to clean the baby bottles...) No problems here, very quiet as well.

[zap]

snipped

Did you know Wolf is owned by Sub Zero? If I ever do it again, it will be Sub Zero if I go high end.

We purchased our Wolf range before sub zero purchased wolf. Great range, awesome burners and the oven is huge.

We renovated our kitchen 8 years ago, boy time flies, and installed a Bosch dishwasher. It is very quiet and does a great job. Never had a problem.

Companies and products change so I'm not up on whats good today.