Dishwashers - so much for simplicity......

[bungeejumper]

Even though the sharpest knives are flat, regular cutler eventually saw their way through the holder. I've tried some wire mesh in the bottom of the holders to prolong their life but it just gathers crud. After doing research and reading hundreds of reviews I've come to the conclusion that cutlery holders just have a finite lifespan. Or does everyone else have more success?

Trouble is, if you put everything in the cutlery holder upside down, it's liable to have water marks (or worse) by the time it's ready to go back into the drawer. We put the really pointy knives in head-down, and pretty well everything else with the business end pointing upwards. Nobody's been killed yet, and our plastic holders seem to last the distance.

BJ

[neversay]

Even though the sharpest knives are flat, regular cutler eventually saw their way through the holder. I've tried some wire mesh in the bottom of the holders to prolong their life but it just gathers crud. After doing research and reading hundreds of reviews I've come to the conclusion that cutlery holders just have a finite lifespan. Or does everyone else have more success?

Trouble is, if you put everything in the cutlery holder upside down, it's liable to have water marks (or worse) by the time it's ready to go back into the drawer. We put the really pointy knives in head-down, and pretty well everything else with the business end pointing upwards. Nobody's been killed yet, and our plastic holders seem to last the distance.

BJ

With the username bungeejumper clearly you like to live life dangerously!

We haven't had a watermark problem (our tablets of choice are the Aldi Magnum ones that are cheap and highly rated). Another advantage of having the pointy-end down is that emptying the cutlery by the handles is easier and more hygeinic.

[richlist]

Never had a problem with cutlery holders in 40 years. Sharp knives pointing down, everything else pointing up. We lift the cutlery holder out of the machine to fill and empty it.

Perhaps your knives are to sharp ?
Perhaps you are to heavy handed ?
Perhaps you are just generally unlucky ?

[tjh290633]

Odd. Our dishwasher, a humble Blomberg, has a cutlery tray where the utensils lie horizontally.

TJH

[Arborbridge]

I only buy Miele appliances. I fitted out our kitchen 20 years ago and not one of the appliances failed in that time.

I have just had a new kitchen fitted (Mrs RS's idea not mine) lets see if it last 20 years (I doubt it)

John

Well, that's the answer - it was made 20 years ago. I wonder if one made now would last as long, Miele or not?

[redsturgeon]

I only buy Miele appliances. I fitted out our kitchen 20 years ago and not one of the appliances failed in that time.

I have just had a new kitchen fitted (Mrs RS's idea not mine) lets see if it last 20 years (I doubt it)

John

Well, that's the answer - it was made 20 years ago. I wonder if one made now would last as long, Miele or not?

I doubt it very much.

John

[AleisterCrowley]

I have a pristine Bosch dishwasher in my (rented) flat/maisonette.
It has never gone wrong and is sparkly clean.





In two years I have never switched it on.

[Sunnypad]

I know it’s anathema to some, but I find the cheapest gadgets are the best. There’s so many mad bells and whistles on everything now.

I bought the cheapest dishwasher in Argos 8 years ago. No idea how green it is or isn’t.

Mum always buys fancy stuff, it seems to go wrong much more often.

[6Tricia]

When I moved house 21 years ago I bought AEG white goods - dishwasher Favorit oko 4040 model, Competence built in self-cleaning oven, ceramic stove top, extractor hood , washing machine and a dryer. With the exception of the washing machine which lasted a good 15 years and the ceramic stove top which I changed a couple of years ago for an induction model (also AEG), the appliances are all still in good working order. The washing machine was repaired for £150 after around 9 years - after being advised that it was probably one of the last actually built in Germany and quality wise was worth repairing. I now have an LG 8kg model.

I remember my first dishwasher back in the 70's in Germany - a Miele which would have cost a lot of money to repair soon after the guarantee ran out. The programme motherboard needed to be replaced. Cause of breakdown? Feuchtigkeit! (Damp ingress) for which Miele would not accept liability. Since then the name Miele is anathema to me!

BTW I use Lidl all in one tablets for the dishwasher - the new ones which don't have to have the cellophane wrapping removed. A lot cheaper than the big name brands and perfect results every time.

The cutlery caddy is provided with narrow slots at one end where knives can be dropped in to the hilt, so no problem there.

Tricia

[bungeejumper]

Postscript: The saga continues.......

LOL, did I really say that the new Hotpoint dishwasher I ordered might not be better than the Neff that I've just junked, but that at least it wouldn't be the same? How cruelly our words can sometimes come back to taunt us.

The new Hotpoint d/w arrived yesterday afternoon. The good news is, it worked straight out of the box. The bad news is that it's going back to the shop next week.

It wasn't until I tried to fit the decorative panel this morning that I noticed something important. Namely, that the spring-loaded "travel stops" which stop the door from opening too far and wrecking the hinges were dangling uselessly. Not connected to anything. Pivots missing, screw adjusters left to adjust themselves in thin air. All the springing wrong, all the catches gaping and snagging.

Those hinge stops ought to have been a deep integral part of the chassis, so it wouldn't have been a DIY proposition to repair, even if I'd felt inclined to nix my warranty by trying. But somebody in Nanfukit had knocked off for his tea break without hooking it together. A bit like building a car and forgetting to bolt the shock absorbers onto the chassis. And the thing was, his quality control supervisor hadn't noticed......

So, 8,000 km of planet-wasting sea travel later, another 100 kg of Chinese/Australian steel lands on my doorstep and begins its shiny way to the crusher. With any luck, it'll probably finish up back in a Chinese smelter.

All credit to John Lewis, BTW. Collection and refund sorted in one phone call. Fair play.

Back to the drawing board. Can anybody recommend an integrated dishwasher?

BJ

[Gerry557]

I still have a Neff in the garage, just needs a heat pump. Oh wait ...................

[Gerry557]

Guess what happened today?

That's right, power was tripped by the dishwasher and its got a fault code and left me with dirty cold dishes.

Good news, if you can call it that, is the engineer is book for tomorrow. Might have to write a letter or am I the unluckiest Neff owner.

Off to rip out the led strip again.

[UncleEbenezer]

Guess what happened today?

That's right, power was tripped by the dishwasher and its got a fault code and left me with dirty cold dishes.

Good news, if you can call it that, is the engineer is book for tomorrow. Might have to write a letter or am I the unluckiest Neff owner.

Off to rip out the led strip again.

Erk!

My prospective new kitchen suppliers have quoted me Neff for all builtin appliances, including dishwasher (along with oven and hob)! Should I apply a bargepole?

[bungeejumper]

That's right, power was tripped by the dishwasher and its got a fault code and left me with dirty cold dishes.

Good news, if you can call it that, is the engineer is book for tomorrow. Might have to write a letter or am I the unluckiest Neff owner.

Crossing my fingers for ya. Did the dishes wash at all? Most of ours were still doing reasonably well even without the heat, although I wouldn't have wanted to bet the household's health on that for very long.

Second update and lessons learned: I mentioned a while back that we replaced our failed Neff with a Hotpoint, which was as good as dead on delivery because it wouldn't operate once you'd screwed the decorative door panel into place. Because the factory hadn't installed an essential part of the hinge mechanism correctly. Or indeed, at all. We also found that we hated the flimsiness of the Hotpoint's upper tray - it wobbled, and you just couldn't get much crockery into it because of a poor design. Back to the drawing board....

Soooo, after much deliberation, we eventually finished up with a £390 Bosch, which had exactly the same chassis and working parts as the failed Neff. (I know, I know, but I just wasn't into spending Miele money.... ) Somewhat to my surprise, the Bosch turned out to have been made in Poland, not China. But the Hotpoint hadn't been a Chinese product either - it had been made in either Italy or Turkey. Probably China would have been better, actually.

Bosch, Neff, Siemens are all essentially the same machine with a few extra programmes here and there. And there's a supply shortage for many d/ws these days, because of Covid apparently. Finally, big thumbs up to John Lewis for making the return of the Hotpoint really easy.

Good luck

BJ

[Gerry557]

Well the repairman has been, changed the heater pump again. A quick functional and its warming. Will do a proper check wash later.

Obviously not 100% happy as the led strips are missing and he left the kick board off as he couldn't close the door with it on.

I shoved it back a bit and got it fitted but then realised he has tried to adjust the dishwasher with the front lifting screw, probably to try and get it to miss the kickboard when closing the door and in doing so made the dishwasher stick out from all the rest of the units.

At least were not on paper plates and I dont know if I should start my complaint letter or play with my tools first.

Asked him to leave me 7 heater motors, you know, to save him a few journeys next week.

Based on the last year or so I would have recommended Neff. Maybe it was better built in Germany rather than Turkey

[bungeejumper]

I shoved it back a bit and got it fitted but then realised he has tried to adjust the dishwasher with the front lifting screw, probably to try and get it to miss the kickboard when closing the door and in doing so made the dishwasher stick out from all the rest of the units.

It's not usually too difficult to readjust those if you alternate a few turns on the rear jack screw with a few turns on the two front leg screws. The trick is to synchronise the two operations, or the machine will either (a) tilt forward or back, or (b) stick out too far, or not far enough. But don't do either if the top of the machine is still screwed to the worktop. Yeah, you'd figured that.

Anyway, well done for having had the foresight to get a five year warranty. It's actually quite nice to hear of somebody getting his money's worth out of those. For a change......

BJ

[Midsmartin]

In support of Bosch, our dishwasher packed up after 12+ years. No local repairer would touch it, but Bosch themselves (or their agent) came out and fixed it. He said there was no age limit on what machine he could fix as long as there were parts, and happily he had whatever it needed.

[DrFfybes]

We also found that we hated the flimsiness of the Hotpoint's upper tray - it wobbled, and you just couldn't get much crockery into it because of a poor design. Back to the drawing board....

BJ

One reason I'm loathe to order appliances online is that you can make anything look good in a photo.

We bought some large dinner plates a few yers ago, turns out they're too tall for most dishwashers, and quite a few don't take baking trays or chopping boards. Similarly our pasta and soup bolws (and we eat a lot of soup) seem to be an odd shape for many. You might get some funny looks taking your crockery into Curry's or Euronics, but at least you get what you want, and they're nothing like the looks you get when testing the toasters are big enough in Argos [1]

Paul

[1] Many budget ones are too narrow to take a crumpet, and too short to toast a whole slice of bread.

[bungeejumper]

We bought some large dinner plates a few yers ago, turns out they're too tall for most dishwashers, and quite a few don't take baking trays or chopping boards.

Present company excepted (natch ) , but upon reading through the online reviews, it quickly becomes painfully obvious that many buyers never find out that their top trays have a high and a low setting, and that a lot of complaints about dinner plates being too big are caused by their owners not RTFM.

We do, however, have trouble getting our soup bowls neatly into any dishwasher, any brand. They're not large, just deep. I can live with that.

BJ

[jfgw]

Present company excepted (natch ) , but upon reading through the online reviews, it quickly becomes painfully obvious that many buyers never find out that their top trays have a high and a low setting, and that a lot of complaints about dinner plates being too big are caused by their owners not RTFM.

And some (such as Bosch ones) are completely removable. You get a grey plastic thing that looks vaguely like a watering can rose that fits over the hole at the back.


Julian F. G. W.