20 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
High Quality Dishwasher for Renters (and others)
Date of Review: Dec 14, 2008
The Bottom Line: I recommend this dishwasher. It cleans extremely well, will last a long time (2 years so far!), and can be used by anyone with a kitchen faucet.
If you are a man or woman who, on account of deep financial foresight, predicted the collapse of housing prices and thus chose to rent - well then, you've saved enough for a dishwasher. In fact, if you're any sort of renter or other individual who wants help with the dishes but can't install a normal dishwasher, then I highly recommend the Danby DDW1805W dishwasher. Let me go through it feature by feature.
WHEELS
This dishwasher is on wheels. We store it in the kitchen closet, and wheel it out to the sink when we want to use it. It's easy to move.
A note on Danby customer service - when we received the dishwasher, one of the wheels was actually bent. We called them, and they sent us a replacement wheel free. We couldn't figure out how to replace it, unfortunately, (it requires unscrewing the whole back of the dishwasher). We called them again, and they hooked us up with some local people who came out and replaced the wheel - again, totally free for us.
POWER AND WATER
The dishwasher receives its power through any normal, three prong, 120V electrical outlet. It receives water by connecting to the kitchen faucet through a quick connect fitting that comes with the dishwasher. To install it, you simply unscrew the aerator (the small piece at the bottom of the faucet), and screw the quick connect fitting in its place.
A note on the quick connect fitting - perhaps it was our ancient faucet, but we had some trouble screwing it on such that it would not leak. But we did get it on without too much trouble, and once attached, it need never be removed. At least not until you move.
The dishwasher connects to the fitting via a hose that comes out of its back. Just turn the faucet on hot before you turn the dishwasher on. When the dishwasher is finished, turn the faucet off. You then press a button on the hose to release the water pressure, and then disconnect the hose. The hose stores nicely in the dishwasher, as does the power cord.
One further note here - some sinks have a sprayer that connects, usually below the sink, to the faucet water line via a hose. The dishwasher manual mentions that the constrained water pressure might blow this hose out during use, but we have never had this happen.
INSIDE
Inside, the dishwasher has space for dishwasher detergent and rinse agent, as well as dishwasher salt, although we never use the latter.
The dishwasher is smaller than most, but not so terribly small as to be unusable. It has a tray with 8 spots for utensils. We normally run something like 11 cups on the top racks, with perhaps 6 plates and 3 bowls on the bottom. I tend to keep plenty of open space on the bottom so as not to obstruct the sprayer, so the intrepid soul could probably double the number of plates and bowls.
That said, this dishwasher actually has two sprayers, one below the top rack and one below the bottom rack. Because I can't see into the dishwasher when it is running, I don't know if they are of equal power - but it does seem to us that the dishes on the top rack are less likely to be clean if we totally obstruct the bottom sprayer. Dishes on the bottom almost always get completely clean, without precleaning - this dishwasher works very well.
CYCLES
Rarely in a hurry, we almost always run the dishwasher on the normal or "pots" cycle, with the "plus" button pushed in, lengthening the cycle even more. This takes perhaps two hours - the time can be shortened by letting your tap water get hot before you connect the dishwasher. (Renters who pay for electricity but not water, take note. Do you want your dishwasher to heat up the water, or that water heater your landlord is paying for?)
This main cycle can be cut to 2/3 or 1/3 its normal length, and there is also a shorter "glasses" cycle. This cycle can be made even faster still by pressing the "rapid" button, then lasting perhaps 30 minutes.
DOES IT WORK?
To reiterate, the dishwasher works very well. Most of the time, every single dish comes out clean. (This despite the fact that we clean its filter probably far less often than we should.) The dishwasher also seems to get the water incredibly hot - good for cleaning, but possibly also responsible for the breaking of a couple glasses we had placed on the bottom rack near the heater, so beware.
