Heaven Help Me!

My dishwasher stinks. It broke down & quit on Monday. Service guy says it  can be repaired for $450. For that, I figure I’ll go get another one; a different brand! I did get them to waive the diagnostic fee because I was “mad” on the phone when scheduling service. I reminded them of that $800 they paid six months after the piece of crap was installed in January 2006 to fix parts covered under warranty, so that was a little leverage. I saved $70 there. I’ve had AWFUL luck with dishwashers. I really have not had one that “washes dishes”. Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do??? By washing dishes, I mean I scrape the plates of all chunks of food, and the dishwasher gets them clean. I’m not expecting it to puree a steak or popcorn kernels – just clean & (sterilize, or come as close to it as possible) the dishes. After all, Kitchen Aid claimed this model would go beyond my expectations – cutting through cheese and eggs – without pre-rinsing.

I bought this “Kitchen – Afraid” dishwasher in Jan 2006. I call it that because it seems afraid to roll up its sleeves and get dirty. It started having problems three months later, the one-year warranty covered the replacement of the motor and pump three months after that, things would be ok (no food residue) for a few months, then they’d have to come out and clean it (I knew enough to have an extended warranty at that point). Unbeknownst to me (I didn’t read carefully enough & they didn’t send me a renewal), this warranty expired, but I just found this out last Monday. On Monday, the touch pad went out & the thing went beserk (off/on, off/on, I push “Normal Wash” and it starts trying to wash on the “China” setting instead ) that I thought it was under mind control from someone far, far away!

I’ve been through three dishwashers in the past 12 years.  This seems so silly. They have all had problems getting the dishes clean. Dishwasher is an oxymoron. I’ve used Cascade complete like they say, had my water temperature & pressure checked, and finally succumbed to pre-rinsing slightly when nothing else worked. Or they work for a while, then begin to leave food residue on the glasses, bowls. Before the touch pad went out, I was checking each dish before handing it out to make sure no one would get a “floaty” in their milk, or a formerly familiar food chunk in their cereal! Ha-ha!

I’m vacillating between spending loads of $ and spending nothing – loads because I still have hope; nothing because I’ve almost given up. A Miele looks flawless. Bosch’s look pretty darn good, too (however, the mixed reviews give me pause). But I know the second it enters my kitchen, IT and all the other dishwashers that haunt me will gang together & turn against me – all the while redepositing food on all my dishes and trying to make my life as challenging as possible.

Can anyone out there recommend a dishwasher out there that does what it says it will do and a manufacturer that will stick by its product and not give customers the run around? Because if there is, I want it.

Go put your head in a hole, Kitchen Aid. I will never buy a dishwasher from you again.

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Posted May 6th, 2009 under Help!, Makes you think, Thoughts. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.