If you had asked me a week ago whether or not I suffered an inordinate attachment to material goods, I would have told you No. I wear sensible clothing; I drive a big ole van; I frequently “make do” or do without. That’s what I would have told you.
But that was before my dishwasher broke.
And it was then that my grieving began. Oh, how I loved that appliance! The quiet way it went about its business, diligently and untiringly, even after the rest of the house had gone to sleep. The reliable way it delivered cleanliness when offered only filth — it was one of the few relationships in my life that actually worked that way. I loved it. I needed it. I would die without it.
We tried to fix it, but our “tinkering” got ugly rather quickly. There was pleading and punching, kicking and crying. But no start. And then tonight, after an entire day of washing by hand, Dan pushed the start button and … it started. Just like that! As if sweet little Ms. Maytag had never been difficult or ornery at all.
Oh please. Nobody is buying it. But if she gets this load done, I just might find it my heart to forgive her. But just in case she’s messing with us, are you in love with your dishwasher? Was it reasonably priced? What brand?
In my opinion, they don’t make ANY major appliances like they used to. If you can save her, by all means do whatever it takes. My CR recommended dishwasher of 5 years leaves my dishes full of specks, spots, germs and junk that I cannot identify. You have touched on a sore subject – what I wouldn’t give to have the OLD, ugly, noisy one I left behind in our last home.
We have had the same experience with our researched and recommended oven, so no help here. My 50 y.o. “everybody loves raymond” Roper oven that came with the house works a million times better than the newbie.
Sorry I can’t give better advice – good luck!!!
What I wouldn’t give for a dishwasher here in China.
White Westinghouse. That is our girl’s name. She is probably about ten years old and still chugging along.
The house we are in right now came with a newer dishwasher so we didn’t even think to move her with us. Thank goodness we hadn’t sold the other house before moving into this one! In less than a month’s time we swapped dishwashers between the houses.
I do wish I knew how to stop her from occasionally leaving rust on dishes from areas that have lost their coating. Doesn’t happen often, but it is disappointing when it does. Any suggestions anyone?
Hope Ms. Maytag holds out Danielle!
I am very attached to my dishwashers. Yes, a family like mine needs more than one. They are 12, 11, and 8 years old. I also have a seperate “dishrinser”. He is 6. They don’t function completely quietly and reliably all the time, but I am very attached to them.
😉
We’ve been operating without a dishwasher for a little over two weeks – but we only have three kids! I have been spending a little over an hour hand washing and drying a days worth of dishes with a baby attached to my leg every day. I really can’t imagine how long it would take to wash and dry dishes for a larger family.
So I watch this post with great interest. I would love a new dishwasher but my dear husband is still convinced he can fix our old one. My sister has a new Bosch, which she loves because it is SO quiet. It has a stainless steel interior. Lowes has them on sale right now!
Oh, and supposedly you can order little plastic tips to put on the rusty parts of the old dishwashers. We lived in a rental home with an almost brand new dishwasher that had rusty tips. You would think those companies could design something a little better!
Haven’t had a dishwasher since we got married nearly 6 years ago. It’s all hand washing here and it’s funny b/c I would like one but it doesn’t take too much time to wash, maybe 30-45 minutes. Just part of the clean-up!
One thing I learned about poorly functioning dishwashers was that liquid dish soap clogs them up. We switched to tablets or the powder and the dishes are much cleaner. Tablets work like a charm, but are a bit more expensive.
I’m about to be in need of a new one. Mine makes a terrible grinding and chugging noise, sounds like it’s being tortured. I wouldn’t dare turn it on as I got ready for bed, no one would sleep. I might not mind that so much if I knew the dishes would be perfectly clean after the ordeal, but they aren’t. They’re filmy and sometimes have white sticky messes on them that still have to be hand washed. Yes, it’s about time for an update.
I was just thinking this evening as I was doing the dishes about how grateful I am for my dishwasher. I was without one (and hot water on demand, for that matter) for about six months, and it was ever so nice to come back to a sink with hot and cold running water and a dishwasher. The one we have at the rental is just your average bottom of the line Kenmore, but I am still so pleased to have it! For our house that we’re currently building we’re looking at a Bosch because they are supposed to work really well and be extremely quiet. I’m not sure if we’ll decide to shell out quite that much money (we’d be looking at something like $600-$700 for a lower end one, if I remember correctly) for a dishwasher though! If we don’t spring for the Bosch, we’ll probably just go with a Kenmore, since we’ve had good results with them in the past (at two other houses, besides this one) and my husband is good at fixing them if need be. (It wasn’t the washer’s fault that it broke, btw, it was because my toddler put a spring in the dishwasher that somehow worked itself into the bottom motor, which made it very unhappy)
Good luck!
I have had a dishwasher for the past 3 months–for the first time ever! I LOVE IT! But I think I didn’t give up enough for lent–cause it just broke. Thakfully we are in a rental and the fix-it guy will come by–or we’ll get a new one. So I’m just offering-up the extra wok and hope Mr. Fix-it comes soon.
I love the smell of cascade, along with the quiet purr of the dishwasher, in a clean late night kitchen–my heaven.
Quiet purr of the dishwasher.
Oh i miss that, too. The quiet purr of the dishwasher and the smell of Meyer’s Lemonverbenna (or however it is spelled) and lights out in my kitchen. It was the smell and sound of the work in the kitchen being done.
My substitute for that here in China is the smell of hot peanut oil in my wok for the evenings i’ve cooked in the wok. After wiping it clean, I heat it up to dry it out, and coat the inside with peanut oil. It actually is a welcome fragrance, the smell of everything being done after dinner.
Ah, a dishwasher. I’m glad it’s working again (however long that lasts).
All I can offer are tips about washing by hand, because in this ole farmhouse, that’s the choice I have – wellllll, if the pipes are frozen, then I get the adventure of appreciating running water AND washing them by hand…(I haul buckets of hot water from the tub).
I’m keeping my eye on this thread, though, because maybe someday I’ll be in the market for a dishwasher. 🙂
I am in love with my dishwasher! We bought a Bosch a few years ago (we went years without one), and this thing of beauty is so quiet when it’s running — it sounds like a tiny pot of water boiling. I highly recommend!
My dishwasher broke a few months ago and I went 10 days without and was estatic when my new Kenmore arrived. It is so much quieter than my last GE and is suppose to use a lot less water which makes me feel like I’m helping the environment too. It is a middle of the line model and has some nice features that allow me to fit more into each load also. I am a stay-at-home mother of 4 so I also have a lot more time to spend with my family too. Good luck!!
Love my kitchen-aid. Middle of the road in gadgets and price. I did however see a commercial lately for a dishwasher that doesn’t require cleaning of plates because it has a garbage disposal in it. Imagine that – it rinses your dishes, runs the disposal and cleans your dishes all while you sit down to relax 🙂
Our dishwasher (also a Maytag – I am not happy with that company, but I’ll leave my complaints to epinions) broke two weeks ago and we’ve been washing by hand since. My husband thought we could live without one for a while, since money is pretty tight right now. After two days, however, I insisted that this is one appliance I cannot live without.
We did our research and decided on a Bosch. It’s very quiet, we have good friends who have one and love it, and the mid-level white model (white appliances are the cheapest) was $600 at Lowes. Unfortunately, the model we wanted was not in stock and won’t be available until the end of the month, so we hand-wash on until then.
I’m considering the hand-washing part of my Lenten sacrifice, although in a fit of pique this weekend, I decided that everyone in our family of eight only needs 1 cup (plastic picnic-ware that I have labeled with a sharpie with each child’s name). It makes me crazy that they pour themselves drinks all day and just toss the cups in the sink and take another from the cabinet with each drink. It’s always been an irritant, but the dishwasher eased the annoyance. Without one, the sink full of cups was just too much for this mama to bear. So I have packed up all but eight cups and two coffee mugs (for Mom and Dad) until our new dishwasher arrives. Or maybe I’ll stick to this routine permanently — I’m kind of enjoying the minimalist look of my cupboards ;)!
Mine is a Maytag. She’s on her second life. I had given up my dishwasher and decided it wasn’t too bad but then we had baby 6, CSect #4 and after less than a week of doing the dishes for husband was disgusted that I’d been wasting so much time and water instead of asking for a dishwasher!
I told him I wanted to wait till we did the kitchen. We had to get a portable because there were no counters. The space between the sink and my Maytag was 18 inches! I had a tough squeeze getting to the pantry. It was murder on the vinyl floor to roll it closer, but…
when we did finally do the kitchen he was able to take off the outer case and turn it into a built in.
NB- If your spinning water sprayers come off you can remove built up garbage that is keeping your dishes from getting clean. I also sometimes run it completely empty and wipe all the seals to keep it running.
Helen you are so right about cups! I’m just about ready to go to The ReStore for one of these drink ing fountains:
http://www.restoreonline.org/hot.php#Plumbing
Ours is a Gibson (?). It came with our house and you can tell it’s old, old, old, but darn it if the thing does not produce the most sparkling, clean dishes after each wash! It’s old, ugly, and not as quiet as today’s models, but it does the job SO well and I adore it!!!!
Love my Bosch. It is quiet, works like a charm, roomy, easy to load and unload. A little more expensive than some, but so worth it. I would give up a lot of appliances before I would part with my dishwasher.
Dishwashers are awesome. Paper plates are great, but I haven’t found paper pots and pans that work well yet. I guess they’ll come along when paper pants become the fashion.
My Maytag Quietseries 300 has broken down too often, and it’s only two years old.
It was shiny and cool and recommended, but I don’t recommend it. It seems most often to be the control panel that goes, and when it does, it is always on backorder (I wonder why) which makes the repair take much longer.
The last time it broke it took two weeks to fix, and making matters worse, my right wrist (the one I need the most) was healing from severe fractures. I mention that for the extra sympathy of course, but be assured my arm is in great shape now and the dishwasher is working.
I admit I do love my dishwasher, and it’s been doing a great job every day for 5 years. It’s a Bosch, the most basic one they make, and you can barely hear it when it’s running. It was well worth the more expensive price tag in the beginning.
We have a Maytag “Jetclean dishwasher – EQ Plus” I have no idea if the make this one anymore – but I love it. I run it at least twice day, sometimes 3x’s and everything always comes out perfectly clean no matter which child loaded it. For what its worth, a technician was working on our stove once and he made a point of telling me how great this dishwasher is — he used to repair dishwashers and he said this one rarely broke down … let’s hope he’s right!
My brother and sister in law bought a $1300 ooh-la-la dishwasher about a year ago, and it’s been nothing but trouble. It leaves scunge and crust all over the cups. I really think the cheapy appliances might be better. I know that my cheapy cordless phone is a million times better than my former state-of-the-art one.
Also, I think the addition of Jet Dry makes a big difference.
my 10 year old suddenly errupted with a volcanic type foamy exudate, it was awe inspiring !!
Diagnosis was pump failure and the repairman’s advice, don’t waste time ie.money on it. buy new.
So I did – Kenmore with more buttons and option than I will ever figure out but it has a Quick start mode. you then chose the cycles appropriate to your needs and the little sweatheart remembers them. Next time all you need is to hit the start button and off she goes.
Best feature to my mind is the delay option since we now have “smart meters” which allow for discounted rates if we use during off peak hours
love it.
We have a Maytag that is about 3 years old, from HD. We are sort of minimalist around here, so I did go for the least options with the most space. One thing that I never would have asked for, but is wonderful is a button lock feature. When we bought it, I didn’t think I would have any more little hands around ther house, but here he is at 17 mo, and as a boy, loves buttons. I just have to press my “secret button” for 3 seconds, and he can’t make any other button work. I know, I know, I’m supposed to train him off of it, but doggone it, I’d rather spend my time training him off of other things, like my wireless mouse, that don’t have “secret buttons”.
Here’s another vote for the Bosch line. DH is a contractor and routinely has them put in for clients. We finally got one (medium price range) and it is every bit as good and reliable as you’d expect. It replaced an old KitchenAid that finally died, but we decided that after 15 years of all its noisy washing we’d had enough. The Bosch is truly a peaceful and well-behaved machine!
My husband loved his dishwasher so much he proposed to me.
Make that “married me.”
We purchased a new dishwasher when we moved into our house last year. After looking around we decided on a Bosch. It is German dishwasher so there are a few things done differently. One is that it has a little basket at the bottom to catch leftover food, etc., instead of a grinder which grinds it up then flushes it into the sewer (in our case, that would be septic, which is why I liked the basket). In all honesty, if I rinse everything the way I do, it makes little difference, but I liked the idea of things not inadvertently filling up our septic tank. I think I have emptied the basket once in 11 months. Like I said, I rinse everything. The other difference with this one is that it does not have a heating coil in it. It heats the water as it comes in and it does not super heat to dry. This allows you to put plastic things on the bottom rack (a big plus with all those sippy cups and plastic dinnerware in this group). The only downside to that is the plastics on the top rake don’t always get dry, especially if it is not quite full. One other interesting thing about our dishwasher is that you can take the top rack out if you need to wash something very big. I honestly have not done this, but it’s an interesting concept. My dishwasher is extremely quiet. That is one of the major selling points they advertise. We will often run it in the middle of the day while we are in the same room doing lessons and we barely know it is running. We paid somewhere in the $400 range for it and got a rebate. It is one of the lower end models but it does a good job. I hope Ms. Maytag keeps here act together for you, Danielle.
We have a KitchenAid. It’s about 4 or 5 years old and I’ve never had any problems with it. It’s the basic, three wash cycle model with the stainless steel interior. That (the interior) makes a huge difference because the water will stay hotter and thus, the dishes cleaner in the end. I do have to blast it with Dishwasher Majic every so often because we have very hard water here.
We had to get a new dishwasher last year since our old one was involved in the GE recall. I got a new GE so as to get the offered rebate, but we upgraded. We got a GE Profile with Quiet Power 4. Let me tell you this baby is QUIET! Our kitchen is right next to the family room & we had to turn up the TV in the evening to hear it over the old dishwasher. You have to be in the kitchen & paying attention to notice whether the new dishwasher is running. I do rinse the dishes, but it seems to do a nice job getting everything clean. I wish they’d make a clothes washer this quiet!!
Good luck.
Heather your comment was “Price” – less! 🙂
Ooooo – my dishwasher broke last Lent, and I turned it into my Lenten penance. That hurt. We then did a bunch of research and ended up getting Consumer Reports best buy which was a Kenmore QuietGuard 4 with racks that don’t rust. It was around $500. Working very nicely, and I’m sure glad I’m not doing without it THIS Lent while pregnant with #6:-)
We have an ultra-quiet Kenmore. We mostly love it, but some of the plastic do-hickeys inside didn’t last very long.
If you have to replace, do so with one of the quiet models!
Do NOT buy a Frigidaire Gallery
it’s been four years with no dishwasher…can only imagine how nice it’ll be when the time comes…!!
Money saving tips when purchasing appliances:
1. Pay cash!
2. Ask for a discount – you’re paying cash, you don’t want to open up another account to get the discount for that day…ask for the discount for your cash purchase instead. This has always worked for us.
3. For those appliances not actually used on the display, buying the display model is a great way to save money on a new appliance. Again, ask for the discount because it was on display, but the warrenty is still for a NEW item!
That’s how we save money here. I do the hunting and husband does the negotiating. I come home happy with working appliances. By the way, I’m a big fan of Fisher Paykel appliances!
I currently have a Maytag Quiet Series 300, and it’s hardly worth it. Unless the dishes are washed before going into the machine the items on the top rack are full of specks and gunk that sticks like glue. Only 4 years old and the racks are rusting, we’ve broken the handle twice and we’ve already replaced the control panel. Thank goodness dh is handy and did the repairs himself.
I’m saving my money for a Bosch.
I hate to be a contrary voice, but I absolutely do not love my Bosch. When it’s running well (which it is currently) it does an ok job, but certainly no better than my Kenmore and it requires a whole lot more pre-rinsing. The spray arms have a tendency to get clogged up with little stuff (like kernels of corn) if you don’t pre-rinse completely, even though the selling point at the store was that this was a machine that didn’t require pre-rinsing. You also have to make super sure that you run the hot water before you start a load or the dishes really won’t get clean. With our old hot water heater we had real problems with the dishwasher. It’s been better since the new hot water heater was installed, but it stil doesn’t do as good a job as any of the 3 Kenmores I had before it (over the course of 32 years we’re on our 4th dishwasher and the first two were highly used Kenmores, the last one ran for us for nearly 20 years). The Bosch is quiet, I’ll give it that, but every time I have to carefully clean out the spray arms (which involves taking both them and one rack out of the machine and then using a sharp instrument and tweezers to pick the stuff out) I wish I had a Kenmore back.
This is so funny! I was just checking your blog after getting out the appliance stores phone number because our dishwasher is having all sorts of issues…and we are so desperate that we are running it through the part of the wash cycle that works, then canceling it out and doing a rinse hold, then opening the racks (overnight and during naptime) to air dry the dishes…I hate handwashing!
Ours is a Kitchenaid that probably fell off the back of a truck (the guy that was redoing this house before we bought it was all about getting a deal…) so, we’ll have to see if the repair guy can fix it, or not…
I may be combing these comments very carefully soon, because I have a feeling we may be in the market for a new dishwasher!
When we moved into our house 7 years ago there was an older dishwasher that wasn’t working too well. Though I had NEVER had a dishwasher as a married woman (the old house had a very small kitchen with no room for a dishwasher), I was so happy to have one (since my 5th child was on the way). We went to Sears and, after careful deliberation, decided on a Kenmore. Two days after it was installed it broke. I immediately called the Sears repair line, and they scheduled the repair man to come out — a week later. I was a little miffed at that, since the thing was brand new, but I waited (and washed those dishes by hand). When the repairman came the next week he took a look and said, “It needs a new part. The new part won’t be in for two weeks.” I said, “Take the machine with you.” I then went to the local family owned store with very limited selection and asked the owner what brand he recommended. He said Maytag is the best in the dishwasher line. He also recommended one without all the “bells and whistles” which he said is the best for ANY appliance you buy (and my repairman concurs). Other thoughts:
1. If you use the pillow packs and find your machine is not cleaning well, it might be because the pillow packs can clog the machine. I now clean my machine regularly — all you do is pour a cup of vinegar in the bottom of the empty machine (I know, when is it ever empty??!!) and let it run through a wash cycle. If you want you can also pull off the rinse arms and the bottom center piece (where the water comes from and drains into) and clean out the gunk periodically. Amazing difference!
2. Go with a hometown appliance store rather than the big department stores or hardware stores. Much better service.
Danielle, I have also had the problem once or twice with the electronic control panel “freezing” up or flashing lights for me. Sometimes I just let it sit for a little while then come back and find it works fine. I think it has something to do with the child safety control. Also, we have a “light switch” on the wall that turns the electricity off and on for the dishwasher. I always keep it in the on position, but now and then someone will come along and turn it off!
I hope yours keeps working! If not, time to teach the kids a new chore!!
Hi, I have been married for 47 years and have had dishwashers for 40 of them. Started with a WasteKing. That was still going strong when we sold the house 4 years later after we bought it. Of course by then, I was hooked on a dishwasher and I had 4 little boys at that time. So we moved to the farm and bought another Waste King. That went for about 15 years. Had no calls on it. It just wore out. After much looking we went with a Maytag. By then had 7 boys and one daughter. It was the best dishwasher I ever had. The kids all loaded it and didn’t clean waste off the dishes but it had a waste cycle that back washed and the dishes came out clean as a whistle. I would get another in a snap.
I love my Kenmore, its about 5 years old but I wouldn’t give Sears my business. Long story and won’t get into it.
We purchased a GE dishwasher – mid line. I would never purchase another one. The installers (GE employees) hooked up the wiring incorrectly and it caught fire. They gave me an upgrade to the top of the line. The cycle takes forever – dishes and glasses are not always clean. I rinse with soap and dish brush before putting in the dishwasher. We have to use the dry cycle which takes forever. Our last one dried without the dry cycle. Even with the dry cycle the dishes are not always dry. Our history with GE appliances has been very good and we thought this would work out. Big mistake. Good luck getting your Maytag to work again.
We bought a Maytag Quiet Series 300 two or three years ago. It generally works fine (we have a lot of lime in our water that causes issues with everything) but I’m satisfied and only wish I had another half-size dishwasher (my sister-in-law has one) to supplement it! I paid extra for a top rack that will raise up to accommodate especially large items on the bottom but I shouldn’t have bothered; we have never needed it.
I too have a Maytag. When our old one finally died we decided to go with another Maytag because we had good luck with it. The old one started to stain our dishes. We decided to get a stainless steel tub. We had so much trouble with a horrible film buildup on our dishes that we never had with our old one. The dealer said that we needed to buy a liquid cleaner for it. Of course, it was very expensive and as far as I was concerned toxic. Then my husband decided to put some vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher. Not only do the dishes come out great but there is no buildup on the heating coil which we were getting worried about. So with every load, along with our dishwasher detergent in its regular place, we put about one third cup of vinegar in the bottom of the dishwasher.
I can only tell you that you definitely do not want the type of dishwasher I have. Over my 25 years of marriage, we have moved about 17 times, most places being blessed with a dishwasher. To date, I have never had the kind of trouble and the lack of response from a manufacturer that I have had with GE. Yes, our brand-new home with our brand-new dishwasher has not worked well since day 1. I called the service people… had multiple visits… they indicated that probably I was loading it improperly or using too much soap, but that they couldn’t do anything to help me get it to clean the dishes! sorry for my rant, can you tell I am tired of re-washing everything?
So, DO NOT buy General Electric!!!