11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Basically satisified
Date of Review: Jan 27, 2008
The Bottom Line: Overall: I'm satisfied. If they can improve the insulation for better sound control and improve the racking, it'll be a great dishwasher.
The Whirlpool replaced an 8 year old mid-end Maytag. I installed it myself without much trouble. Do yourself a favor and buy the flexible supply line with braided metal sheath. It often comes with the 90* elbow that attaches to the dishwasher inlet. Install a compression fitting for the end of your hot water copper pipe then screw on your supply line...piece of cake.
Likes:
- No issues with quality of cleaning - better than the Maytag due to dedicated upper and lower wash arms. The Maytag had a raised central sprayer that didn't clean particularly well.
- Sanitizing rinse is a nice feature as the flu seems to hit my 8 yo and 5 yo more frequently than it used to.
- Delay timer, good for non-peak hour energy usage and no one can hear it run.
- Large tub has much greater capacity than the Maytag.
- Upper rack can be raised or lowered depending on how you structure your load.
- Door mounted cutlery tray took some getting used to but is a better design than the typical in-rack tray. Long items like knives/wooden spoons can be washed without intrusion. The tray opens up on one side for easy access and faster removal. The dishwasher can be loaded without the tray in place - your kids can put away the forks and knives while you load ;)
- Grey interior should hide stains well.
No Like:
- Quiet Partner III should be called "T-shaped piece of cheap insulation slapped over top of outer casing". The Maytag had a very nicely fitted foil-lined dense foam insulation and as a result, was very noticeably quieter than the Whirlpool. The cheap insulation of the Whirlpool is really quite pathetic....it just drapes loosely over the top, sides and back. It drags on the cabinet opening as you push in to install so tape it down first.
- Long wash cycle. To be fair, The Whirlpool allows for soaking time which does result in cleaner dishes.
- Drain hose and connections seem cheap. I've had no leakage so I suppose they are adequate.
- The lower rack features straight tines that do a poor job on shallow bowls. The Maytag tines were curved to accomodate such things. The upper rack isn't much better - the Maytag was much easier to load.
- Steam outlet is too close to the upper edge of the door. It's bloating the particleboard base of my super-luxo formica countertop.
