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[*]We have hard water (does any part of the country not?) but we also have a water softener.
Major sections of the country do not. Hard water is caused by minerals in the water, specifically calcium. Calcium is eroded out of limestone, which is pretty rare in the Western US.
Your ideal water should be filtered via basalt formations (created by ancient lava flows,) as that actually removes contaminants.
I can't see anything superhot water as anything other than a plus for a dishwasher. Get the temps good and hot, and you can throw a plastic cutting board covered in assorted bacteria into the machine and all the little nasties get themselves killed off in a perfectly natural way by the heat.
i have a 1960's kitchen aid dishwasher in my cottage thats made by hobart. timer on the bottom right of the machine no bells and whistles one spray arm none of this 3 -6 level wash system stuff. and that thing will out clean some of the new crap there throwing out at us. never a day of trouble with her the only problem i'm having with her is her fronts rusting out. in my house i have a kenmore untra wash dishwaher 6 cycles no eletronic crap. it was made by whirpool. excellent machine don't have to pre rinse off the dishes i just dump em off in the sink and what ever falls off falls off the rest can get cleaned by the dishwasher. iv'e burnt stuff onto pans and tossed em into the dishwasher and they came out clean. would i buy todays machines probily not most of em seem like crap. and them puting screens in em to catch the food particles sorry i don't like to wash my dishes in garbage. seems like there adding more crap to make these things break down and more costly to fix. i know lg and a few others have a steam cycle function to me its a waste of time. the only cycle id'e go for is the sanatizing cycle. i had a hot point in my condo what a pos that thing was it made a better decoration than a so called dishwasher.
I've had my Kenmore for about 2 years; it replaced a fairly old Magic Chef dishwasher that the repair guy estimated was about 15 years old.
All I can say about the Kenmore is it's a fairly basic model. It gets my dishes clean. I like the fact that I can bypass the drying cycle and that I can delay a cycle start time by 2, 4, or 6 hours. It's not whisper-quiet but it's not loud either. I think it was between $400-$500.
I agree that you shouldn't spend a ton on a dishwasher. In my experience as a homeowner, it's the major appliance that breaks/dies the most frequently.
the more you pay for a dishwasher you loose certain things. like the built in food disposer wish is replaced by filters that you have to manualy clean out no thanks. then they cover it up with features like top rack only or bottm rack only cleaning now id'e like to know how thats an energy saver considering it uses the same amout of water and eletricty as running a full load!! and if i was to go out and spend mega bucks on a dishwasher with all the bells and whistles and eletronic controls id'e make sure i had a darn good maintance plan on it or insurance if they can't fix it then i send it back for a refund. after talking to repair men they told me to avoid the eletronic controlls as there problem matic vs a mech timer and there not cheap to fix. id'e spend no more than 600 bucks on one.
We have recently changed our dishwasher. The old one was around sixteen years old and we've swapped that NEFF for the latest NEFF. It seems to work very well, and so it should given how much it cost.
The 'economy' cycle on the old one took over an hour, whereas on the new one it takes just under half an hour and seems to do a better job.
My dishwasher worked far better with the old soap with phosphates in them. Since the phase out of the phosphates, many times half of the dishes have to go though a second cycle to get clean. So much for being "green".
Its a Amana that is eight or nine years old. The 1980's era Whirlpool it replaced was a far better machine. There is no way this one going to last twenty years like the old one did. I doubt it will last ten to be honest.
When they took out the phosphates I started using Finish and it does a good job. The others weren't getting my dishwasher clean and I thought the dishwasher was going but it was the detergent.
you are dead on about the removal of phosphates....its so bad now that some companies claims their soap is "eco" friendly,but in reality they all are with no phosphates....one tip i leared on this very site was to add 1 tbls. of lemi-shine with my soap(thanks missik999 for the post) and it works really well
the problem with the removal of phosphates wasn't about the phosphates themselves, so much as it was about the companies changing their formulas. for the first year or two after many companies switched, most of them sucked. but once they figured it out, most of them are fine. Finish Quantum tablets are rated the best on Consumer Reports, and I actually found that out myself through experience before I read it in CR.
and definitely do the cleaners through your dishwasher periodically. depending on where you live, mineral buildup gets bad.
the problem with the removal of phosphates wasn't about the phosphates themselves, so much as it was about the companies changing their formulas. for the first year or two after many companies switched, most of them sucked. but once they figured it out, most of them are fine. Finish Quantum tablets are rated the best on Consumer Reports, and I actually found that out myself through experience before I read it in CR.
and definitely do the cleaners through your dishwasher periodically. depending on where you live, mineral buildup gets bad.
I just bought some Finish Quantum tablets. Thanks for the info. I hope they work on my dishes. I had been using Cascade complete for while now, but the interior bottom of my glasses never comes clean.
Based on my experience I strongly disrecommend Bosch. OUrs doe snto really dry the dishes at all. You dry them with a towel or put them away wet. It does not clean well and it breaks constantly. Finding a Bosh repairman is very difficult in our area and they charge a premium becuase they have to drive a long way. Parts are expensive and often have to be ordered.
On the positive side, it looks nice, it is really quiet and uses little water (expecially when it is not working - which it frequently).
No more Bosch for me. I will go back to a common brand like Whirlpool or maytag.
One other thing we found is that there is a major difference form model to model, maybe other Bosch models are different, but the one we bought was the CR top pick for that year. Regardless due to the reparia nd parts problems, I would not go back to Bosch.
I just posted in another thread about appliances.. But am reviving this one as we are looking for a new dishwasher & would like reccommendations...
We had a repairman out to look at our current one ( Maytag, Jetclean plus, ss tub) but it is going to cost just as much to fix basically as buying a new one.
The repairman told us pretty much what you said about the Bosch one.
He said the parts are cheaply made, & harder to find & fix. He would never reccommend one to anyone.
He said to stick with Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid or even Maytags are fine.
We definitely want a stainless tub & exterior....
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....one tip i leared on this very site was to add 1 tbls. of lemi-shine with my soap(thanks missik999 for the post) and it works really well
