Because I’m incredibly lazy, one of the first additions that we made to our house in 2022 was an InSinkErator under-sink instant hot water dispenser (Home Depot):
It failed in 2023 (leak under the sink, quickly caught thanks to our Chinese brothers and sisters at Govee) and InSinkErator offered to come out to replace it or send a replacement so that I would do the labor myself in exchange for a new 3-year warranty. I chose the latter option not because it was easy, but because I thought it would be easy (it actually wasn’t too challenging since all of the connectors were the same and no wrench was required).
The tank failed again this month, not with a leak, but by failing to heat. I called InSinkErator again, having a dim memory of the above conversation. They came back with “the warranty on the replacement expires in November 2026” and, again, offered to send me one more device and extend the warranty to 2029. The device retails for $300 right now at Home Depot ($400 at Amazon) so I’ll take this win-by-losing. (Imagine if the device had lasted just another few weeks!) Given that both adults in the household work from home and we use the instant hot water for cooking as well as making tea, the device probably made over 1,000 gallons of near-boiling water before dying. That sounds pretty good until you reflect that a standard domestic hot water heater will make the same quantity of hot water every week or so and last for 8-10 years. Admittedly, the whole-house hot water heater isn’t heating to as high a temperature. ChatGPT says that the higher temp can lead to more scale build-up and also that packing everything into a compact enclosure shortens the life.
We had the opposite consumer experience with our noisy unloved Bosch 300-series dishwasher the other day. This was installed by the previous owner shortly before we moved in. It’s almost $1,000 for a new one, which is absurd considering that a higher-rated-by-Consumer-Reports-and-quieter Chinese Midea MDT24P7CST is $700 (Midea is now rated #3 in reliability among dishwasher brands by CR, just behind Bosch/Thermador and Miele; I wonder if Miele will continue to be able to charge $4,000 for a dishwasher that is $2,000 in Europe and that doesn’t perform better than whatever Midea cooks up for its next generation). The racks began to fail probably about a year ago, but we didn’t notice until just recently when rust stains began to appear on the dishes. The plastic coating on the steel tines is worn away. Bosch has a five-year warranty on the racks and decided that we didn’t qualify even though the machine is likely right at the five-year mark. We could get new racks for around $300, I think, including shipping, but I decided that it would be a fun project for the kids to use a Dremel tool and a hand file to remove the rust then apply Plasti Dip ReRACK ($21; smells like 1970s model airplane glue), which is supposedly good for about a year.
(We’re apparently not efficient in our use of dishes and pots/pans because we fill and run the machine 2-3 times per day. Adjusted for vacation time away from the house, this is about 800 runs per year and the Federales say that 215 runs per year is the average (source). Miele aims for its machines to last 5,600 cycles, which they say is 20 years (it would be 7 for us). Some older Bosch literature says that they aim for 4,000 cycles over 10 years and our machine is probably close to the 4,000-cycle number. So our racks, perhaps, failed right on schedule. This makes me wonder why the dishwasher manufacturers don’t put a cycle counter display on the unit. Customers might feel better about a failure and an expensive out-of-warranty repair if they could see that a machine had saved them from handwashing 3,286 times, for example. The LG ThinQ app shows that we’ve used our washing machine more than once per day, on average, in the past couple of months, but doesn’t give a grand total for the lifetime of the machine. Our ghetto-class Bosch 300 doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or the app, but ChatGPT says that even those with new machines and the Bosch app can’t see a lifetime cycle count.)
Readers: what dishwashers do you love? The Bosch that we have claims to generate 48 dBA of noise (that’s in a test chamber). In our open kitchen/family room it is way too loud and interferes with conversation, TV-watching, etc. As noted above, the machine is running for 4.5-6.5 hours on an average day (2-3 cycles at over 2 hours each). Cleaning performance is okay, but seems to have gotten weaker over time (circulation pump feebling out? The machine was serviced with a new one about three years ago; ChatGPT says that the top-of-the-line Bosch Benchmark has exactly the same pump/heater as our $900 one). It isn’t completely dead, but I’m considering euthanasia (have to find a Canadian to help?) because there is no fix for the loudness. An appliance sales guy absolutely loves his Cove (Sub-Zero) dishwasher, but a friend has one and she says that she can hear it running from a kitchen table 15′ away (not obtrusive, but audible). Consumer Reports hasn’t tested the Cove for cleaning or noise, but gives the brand a low rank in reliability (that’s based on a survey). Some people love Miele, but as noted above they mark them up to insane numbers here in the U.S. (Bosch, by contrast, is a similar price in Germany and the US). LG makes big claims for their one-hour wash, Consumer Reports found that LG cleaned better than Bosch, and Yale Appliance (big YouTube channel) says that LGs have the lowest first-year service call rate, but some online reviews say that LG was noisy for them and CR gives LG low marks for reliability and satisfaction. We have a Monogram range and Monogram makes huge claims for the low noise level of their latest ZDT900 dishwasher, but nobody has reviewed it (CR gives Monogram low marks for both reliability and owner satisfaction). Does anyone have a dishwasher that they love for (a) true silence, and (b) cleaning performance on the one-hour cycle?
Finally, as long as we’re talking cooking, I thought the kids might want to get some explicit instruction in cooking from The Joy of Cooking, but then realized that the 1975 book on the shelf (1) had ten pages about aspics that might not engage them, (2) wasn’t printed on acid-free paper, and (3) had some issues with binding separation. The 2019 update is quite a bit plumper, despite the aspic section having been reduced from 10 pages to 1. It’s amazing how much can be communicated compared to online recipes (10 pages per recipe vs. 10 recipes per page?).
Maybe you should remove the noise constraint and run the dishwasher exclusively at night. Depending on the limiting factor (too few dishes or too little dishwasher room), you can factor in the cost of paper plates, more dishes or a second dishwasher.
When my dishwasher started doing a worse cleaning job, I cracked her open and was horrified to see the state of the filter. It was almost completely blocked by a paper label and other detritus. So, contra much advice about not needed to rinse dishes, that’s what I do now. But, anyway that might be a more likely culprit than an actual motor failure.
The filter is a quite clever design which has a filter wiper whose direction is controlled by the flow of water to wipe stuff off the filter and send the debris out with the waste water.
Running at night makes sense for efficient families, but we’re running it 3X per day. So we’d have to stack up dishes all day and then set alarms for the middle of the night to unload and reload.
Our Bosch filter is almost completely clean (I brush/rinse it out once/month).
> Our Bosch filter is almost completely clean
That’s the easily accessible filter, I assume. I’m talking about a cylindrical, thin, perforated metal filter that you access by pulling out the dishwasher and digging into the guts. This is on a Kitchenaid.
ChatGPT says that the Bosch doesn’t have anything like this. I guess I haven’t pull off the drain-pump cover and looked for tiny hard items to pull out with tweezers. I did that once before when the performance degraded suddenly. Little fragments can sit in there and jam an impeller.
How are you running it 3x per day? Do 20 people live at your home? Is “senior management” the type that feels compelled to wash with only a few dirty dishes? (A family member is like this with laundry)
samue: I would love to know the answer to this! Bosch says that the dishwasher holds 12 place settings. We run it nearly full 2-3X every day. Five people here at the moment. Every meal cooked from scratch, including for Mindy the Crippler (commercial dog food began to upset her stomach a couple of years ago). Lots of Tupperware-style containers for leftovers. Kids’ lunchbox items. Plates, etc. from the kids’ elaborate pre-bedtime snack. Usually one pot and multiple measuring cups in each load. It’s not the “get yourself some cereal if you’re hungry” household in which I grew up!
We have two Bosch 800 Series. VERY quiet. So much so we need to use the little LED light to see when the cycle is done. I also have a Gaggenau 400 Series in our NYC apartment which is essentially a Bosch in different brand wrapper with some extra sound deadening. I think the reason there is so much standard deviation on individual installations sound levels experienced is the resonance of the cabinetry it is installed in. Crappy, thin plywood installs with decent space between the unit and panels create harmonics and almost a Passive Speaker system. I had that with an under-counter drink fridge and I used the automotive sound deadening material and it’s the quietest fridge ever now.
I like the Bosch / Gaggenau lines because they are easy to repair oneself. Tons of online parts support for very low prices.
In short, kind of like people who buy expensive home theater equipment and wonder why it sounds like crap, you really need to deal with the acoustic environment first. A cheap system in a well planned acoustic room will sound 100x better than an audiophile system in a boxy, untreated drywall room.
Ken: I think that our house was reasonably well built, though the dishwasher is installed in a part of the counter that separates the kitchen from the breakfast table (i.e., there is no full wall behind it). I’ve never seen the dishwasher out so I don’t know if it would be possible to put some sound-deadening material behind it, which would be an awesome idea. Now that I look more carefully at the installation environment, there is a 1/2″ gap (early Tesla body panel gap?) between the widest part of the dishwasher at the top and the left side cabinet enclosure. This expands to about a 3/4″ gap for much of the dishwasher’s height. So if the left side of the dishwasher is generating noise it has a direct path into the kitchen. The gap on the right side is minimal. I might try to stuff some foam in there and measure the noise level with and without the foam. I guess I’d have to pick the same number of minutes into the cycle for consistency.
Gaggenau, incidentally, doesn’t measure nearly as quiet as Bosch Benchmark (same internals?) in the lab. The top-of-the-line Gaggenau is rated at 42 dBA vs. 38 for the quietest Benchmark (39 if you get a Benchmark without the recessed handle, for some reason).
I did some measurements. It looks like the cabinets are completely standard 24″ depth. Behind that is a 6″-thick half-wall made of, I guess, drywall and studs. I wonder if this is open at the back of the dishwasher. I am going to try to figure that out. Maybe it is time for a borescope inspection?
The best borescope turned out to be a metal yardstick. I was able to insert it on top of the dishwasher all the to a 30″ depth, which is almost exactly standard cabinet depth plus the thickness of the half-wall. On closer inspect, what I thought was a gap on the left side of the dishwasher is in fact filled with maybe a folded black rubber sheet? Probably a Bosch baffle?
It is fascinating and always entertaining reading Phil’s blog. I mean that sincerely. It is a collection of truly random posts that outshines in randomness his complaints of what the West has become. All of the random people of the West wouldn’t even be able to hold a candle up to it.
It’s like “I woke up in the morning. I realized France was burning, so I did a novel and interesting calculation on how much their security apparatus cost. Then I took my plane to Boston, where I saw a man walking with a mask outdoors. This immediately caused me great fury. Then I opened Google Maps and set a route for the nearest independent bookstore where I knew I would have a good time looking at the gay books.
After a good day travelling around the entire USA to visit the specific places I hated, I flew back home and replaced the dishwasher”
Thank you, Anon! Small correction: the outdoor maskers of Boston and San Francisco don’t cause me “great fury”. They delight me, especially when the wearer has a full beard. That reminds me to wonder why outdoor maskers are much less common in NYC (unless you count Islamic female outfits). New Yorkers were devoted followers of Faucism. Did they just collectively decide to go back to wallowing in filth, including aerosol virus filth?
Regarding cookbooks:
Shouldn’t you introduce them to a more scientifically oriented book like one of Kenji’s. And you/they might enjoy reviewing what people were eating back in the 50’s: The Gallery of Regrettable Food (https://www.amazon.com/Gallery-Regrettable-Food-James-Lileks/dp/0609607820)
P.S., we used to run dual KitchenAid top of lines. Good cleaning, but loud and broke down in 5 years. Also, a failed experiment with a Paykel Drawer Dishwasher over the years. One side was the Paykel drawer and the other a KitchenAid. The drawer one just didn’t work with big family and constant loading and unloading.
I rented a house with a Paykel Drawer and was enraged by the machine. The water in New Zealand must be completely different if people there think that the Paykel actually washes dishes.
Consumer Reports rated a Paykel at 2/5 for wash performance (Bosch is mostly at 4/5 and LG sometimes hits 5/5, which Samsung also hits but CR readers hated Samsung for reliability and overall satisfaction). If we wanted to celebrate the Rejectors of Fauci and All Things Trump we could get 5/5 wash performance and reasonable quiet from Asko (HQ in Sweden; manufacturing in Slovenia). Mediocre reliability and owner satisfaction, though (worse than LG; higher than Samsung).
We had Paykel drawers. The only good thing was not having to bend over, since we almost never used the bottom unit. It was loud, it didn’t wash worth a crap, it held very little, and it broke over and over and over. We eventually replaced it with a Bosch 800, which is super quiet, washes well, and dries the dishes very nicely.
In our lake house we are having a Cove installed, with some trepidation. I would have preferred another Bosch, but the Cove added to a Wolf range and a Sub-Zero frig yielded a nice addition to the warranty. So we will soon be able to compare.
Anon: Please email me or post here once you’ve tested out the Cove. I’m especially interested in the quick cycle performance (test with powdered detergent to be fair; the pods take a long time to dissolve because they’re designed for the multi-hour cycles) and the noise!
That’s a very unappetizing brand for a hot water heater. Those of us in the water recycling capital of the world learned to affiliate the water from our in sink erators with a certain odor but probably not the Boston fans.
The InSinkErator tank that people are mostly buying, I think, is the newer digital one. It’s $609 for the tank alone (plus another $500-600 for the faucet): https://www.fergusonhome.com/product/summary/1750327
Add the plumber’s fee and it could be $2000?
When I looked at this recently, I decided (using your anecdotal posts on dishwashers in the past) that they are all going to fail relatively quickly. On the other hand, my last LG only recently broke down after 10-15 years. I am closer to the average of ~200 cycles/year though. I am very happy with all my LG appliances. For this one though, Samsung got great washing performance evaluation from both CR and wirecutters but universally hated by readers, I decided to go with Samsung, just to be a contrarian for once. If they all fail, I might as well try to get the good washing while it works. I am happy with it so far, very quiet. The drying performance is not quite as good as I expected from the score on CR: everything is dry except for the plastic bottles.
Anon: How long/how many cycles have you had your Samsung? And how quiet is it?
This Boston-area dealer, which is moderately popular on YouTube, stopped carrying Samsung because it was too hard to get parts: https://www.yaleappliance.com/
I have only had it for a couple of months, maybe 20-30 cycles. I got the 41dB model and it delivers: around 40dB when pumping water and well below that afterwards according to a phone measuring app. It is less noisy than my freezer when running.
The part availability concern is fair enough, I haven’t tested it yet. I looked up and there is a samsung authorized service center within 20 miles of where i live, that’s all i know.
P.P.S., related to dishwashers. We have an ancient Sears Kenmore water gobbling machine in our Vermont house. It washes rapidly with great clean. I spoke to dishwasher engineer, and to what I think you are referencing, the new Water Use Laws have the machines using such low water we have to 1.) bathe our dishes in blue chemical rinsing agents (likely will turn out to be the cause of dementia and autism) 2.) use 1 gallon of water pre-washing the dishes before we put them in.
I have been keeping the machine in Vermont alive at all costs. (Mostly the cost is time in hunting down the occasional replacement part online).
I bought a Whirlpool in late 1996, I think, for my Harvard Square condo. It was noisy, but it had a one-hour cycle that would blast baked-on cheese from casserole dishes. No modern dishwasher cleans as well. It probably did use 2X the water compared to the stingiest modern ones.
Separately, the evil Trump dictatorship has apparently given dishwasher companies the freedom to use more water. And the limits aren’t particularly stringent for the 1-hour cycle. It could use twice as much water, legally, as the normal (2+ hours) cycle. But in practice the companies don’t seem to be offering an “I don’t care about water/energy use” machine. Bosch says their one-hour cycle might use 3.8 gallons vs. as little as 2.6 for Auto. I guess in theory the Bosch can go up to 7.4 gallons on “Heavy/Pots/Pans” and use higher temps for more of the cycle, but that cycle will take forever.
> I bought a Whirlpool in late 1996
Maybe the detergent also had phosphates then since it was before ~2010.
The Bosch application “Home Connect” does have a cycle counter.
https://www.bosch-home.com/qa/en/experience-bosch/homeconnect_1/homeconnect-dishwasher
I had that water heater, lasted about as long. Got aa Ready Hot to replace it in 2021; that’s still going strong but we don’t use it as much as it sounds like you do.
Dave: Ours is only 750W. The Ready Hot at Costco for $180 including hot-only dispenser is 1300W (so is the $600 InSinkErator digital tank). Maybe 1300W is actually bad for some people who don’t have a dedicated circuit.
About two years ago, I installed a ThermoMate Mini Tank Electric Water Heater (1.3 gallons, under-sink model) [1] for one of my commercial office tenants.
I installed it because the faucet was too far from the main hot water tank, causing a delay of at least five minutes before hot water reached the faucet. The mini-tank heater has been working well ever since, and my tenant is happy with it.
Once the existing hot water tank gives out, I won’t replace it. Instead, I will install the same mini-tank heaters for my remaining four tenants. After all, the only time they need hot water is when washing their hands.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BFXM5ML?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1
I have a Bosch Evolution 500 Series dishwasher that I installed back in 2008 when I remodeled my house. It is still going strong, although I have to admit that we only use it about once or twice a week on average.
That said, Bosch dishwashers used to be at the top of the market when it came to quality and durability, which is why I bought it back than. Sadly, they have lost their touch.
Speaking of kitchen appliances, I don’t bother buying everything from the same manufacturer. I don’t care less whether my refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher are all from the same company. What matters is that each appliance is among the best in its category.
For example, going back to 2008, my refrigerator was made by Samsung (they lost their touch, too), and my stove was made by Frigidaire (they lost their touch as well). All are still going strong.
And before I wrap up, my washer and dryer are 25-year-old Frigidaire models, and they’re still going strong. Sure, they are not “efficient” in their water and gas use as today’s models, but they get the job done and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lasted another 25 years!
Related, I use phosphate detergents in my dishwasher and laundry. They work better and seem to keep the washing machines clean longer.
House of 8, laundry at least 2 loads a day for 12 years, dishwasher 1-2 loads a day for 5 hours years. Old dishwasher was 10 years old when it went to the cabin 6 years ago, still works as new but much less use now.
I had thought that phosphate detergents were banned in order to protect the environment. Bizarrely, though, a search reveals that phosphate detergents are still allowed for commercial use. That makes no sense to me. Aren’t commercial users some of the heaviest?
You’re buying dishwasher and laundry detergent that is sold into the commercial channel? Or you’re buying grey market stuff from overseas?
My father was a research chemist and one of his projects was optimizing laundry detergent post the 90’s ban of phosphates. His basic conclusion was they will never be as good and its was just degrees of compromise. He said Tide was the clear winner by a wide margin at the time. So I always used it as an adult now. Kind of funny was, he had a big container of Phosphate powder left over from his experiments and brought it home. I won’t say or not say, he used to put a little in each load….
I don’t see any phosphates in the current Tide Professional at Staples. A trick my father taught me if you want to know the “secret” ingredients in any product, just pull the Material Safety Data Sheet. They have to publish everything by law.
Sadly I can’t paste this as an embedded link. Sorry.
sds.staples.com/msds/24626706.pdf?_gl=1*m68axf*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3OTI2Mjg4NTkuQ2p3S0NBand4ZUhXQmhCUEVpd0FpcXRRLWEycHFXZHhUai15SG1adXJvdzQ0RnBfejl3aEVMeENTVW5yRXVZbFhxMnZtZWgwT1ZnbUhSb0N0VFVRQXZEX0J3RQ..*_gcl_au*Mzk4OTA5MDc3LjE3OTI2Mjg4NTk.*_ga*MTA0NDI2Njk0Mi4xNzkyNjI4ODU5*_ga_GJ9W4FPBWL*czE3OTI2Mjg4NTgkbzEkZzEkdDE3OTI2Mjg4NTgkajYwJGwwJGgzMjUxNzQxMDAkZE5JM1h3cW4wNndUVm10SE1LUUVnRUUzamVwc21NU25ubGc.
Another cool thing I like about my Gaggenau is the built in Water Softener system. You put dishwasher salt in a dispenser and it will soften the water. I have not tested my NYC water hardness level yet, but it is probably a bit hard and could use some softening. I don’t have that feature on my Bosch 800’s. I think only in the Benchmark Series in USA. It’s included in the 800 in Germany.
I have an Neff I bought in 2019 and it’s been great. Runs quiet even on Chef setting (70C) and 65C 1 hour cycle. The Eco cycle (50C) is iffy, good enough for light loads with not much gunk on the cookware/dishes, but for heavy loads with lots of stuck on crud like pasta noodles, it sometimes is inadequate. Mind you I only run it once a day. But I have three Russians in the household, and they are pretty rough on my household equipment and electronics… I find a lot of times problems arise more often due to operator behavior than any defects/shortcoming in the equipment. For example, my nespresso latissima is meant probably for 1 servings at a time, but my wife insists on hitting the button 4 times for a bigger cup.
The Interweb says that Neff is yet another disguise for Bosch! Shared internals.
I forget to mention it has a water softener built inside, just need to add salts.
Neff vs Bosch:
https://guide.washerhouse.com/en/posudomoyka-bosch-ili-neff/
interesting! didn’t know they are the same!
Same situation in the U.S.: Whirlpool, Maytag, JennAir, Amana, and KitchenAid are all made by the same company (Whirlpool) and using mostly the same parts. As it happens, Whirlpool also owns InSinkErator.
How much is it worth to have this huge slice of a huge market? The stock is down 90% in five years. WHR is worth only about $1.7 billion (not enough to build and equip one hallway in one data center?).
https://www.wsj.com/business/whirlpool-abandoned-its-global-ambitions-now-its-in-a-world-of-hurt-622ba54f
The manufacturer’s focus on North America has tied its fortunes to the slumping U.S. housing market
… Two of the company’s main rivals, LG and Samsung, are redoubling their efforts on the continent after falling short in China, said Troy Stangarone, visiting senior fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America. … In 2022, following the most profitable year in its history, Whirlpool announced one of the biggest deals in its history. It acquired the garbage-disposal company InSinkErator for $3 billion in cash—$2.5 billion of it borrowed. Some analysts questioned the price. But Bitzer said the deal gave Whirlpool a new appliance to pair with dishwashers. Disposals are typically replaced every eight years, he said, making them a steady source of revenue even when the economy isn’t doing well.
I’m keeping my pre-modern dish washer until it dies. It seems to do a pretty good job.
I won’t/can’t recommend any specific brands, but perhaps you could look at restaurant-tier dish washers at some commercial supplier? Those should be able to run 2-3 times a day without falling apart.
If positioned correctly, could also lead to bragging rights.
Thanks, Tom, for the idea, but I don’t think that restaurant dishwashers are dishwashers. They’re more like 5-minute sterilizers. Hobart says that they can handle “48 racks/hours” in a commercial undercounter dishwasher. https://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers/undercounters/hobart-advansys-lxnr-undercounter-dishwasher
I’m pretty sure that the staff (migrant enrichers?) has to prewash everything. The commercial machines are also way too hot for the plastics that consumers have at home. They’re noisy, but they run for only a few minutes so I guess that doesn’t matter. They can’t be installed in a Florida house without tearing up the slab and installing new electrical and plumbing. See https://www.gofoodservice.com/guides/commercial-vs-residential-dishwashers-guide
Ha. I know this is beating a dead horse, but, I just got back to my NYC apartment for the week. I am running the Gagganeau and it is LOUD!! Especially compared to our newer Bosch that say 40 db on it. No sticker on the Gagg. It’s one with a wood panel to match the cabinetry, so maybe not as much door insulation? Anyway, although the guts are Bosch it’s louder. It is older model. 2017 Model Year. So maybe that has changed. The two Bosches in Swellesley are 2025.
As noted above, the newest Gaggenau models are both claimed to be 42 dBA, which isn’t great compared to the Bosch Benchmark that presumably has exactly the same internals. I guess wrapping it in thick enough stainless steel to satisfy the elite prevented BSH from putting in as much sound-deadening material?
ChatGPT found a catalog from 2017 where the 400 was supposedly at 41 dBA. So maybe it is the installation? Could there be a lack of Rockwool behind it?!?
Maybe. I actually had to pull the Gagg door apart to replace the detergent and Rinse Aid dispenser. It was leaking rinse aid. Ordered a replacement online for like $20. Pull the door apart to install it. I was under impressed with thickness of the stainless steel and sound deadening. I think the door is about half the thickness of the Bosch we have since they need to make it fit flush to cabinets after a approx 3/8” wood panel is screwed on. I would NOT recommend the Panel versions for that reason.
I’m glad Missus Hippy isn’t a luxo queen, even the higher-end dishwashers seem to be getting worse. We shopped for dishwashers after our KitchenAid started to intermittently lose the wash pump. My policy was not to buy any replacement I couldn’t see in a show room. I looked at the Bosch 800, and it just seemed flimsy (the door? I forget.) We ended up getting a $800 Frigidaire with a stainless-steel tub, some least-worse local maxima of dishwasher-shaped objects. The door is palpably lighter than the old one.
The one we sent to the landfill looked brand-new, but was totaled because the pump would have been half the cost of a new unit. We go through so many dishes, too, that even a day without one would mean hours of hand-washing. Replacing an appliance these days is like Adventures in Babysitting II: Geriatric Dishwasher.
Isn’t it ironic that today’s appliances, even high-end models, don’t last nearly as long as the ones our parents bought decades ago? How much longer will consumers put up with paying more for products that need replacing sooner? When will they finally get fed up and boycott these manufacturers?
And where is the Greta Thunberg of durable appliances? You would think someone would be championing products built to last, rather than encouraging a throwaway culture that wastes resources and fills landfills. Apparently, fighting for the climate is important, unless it means demanding that manufacturers stop making appliances that fall apart.