We all have different circumstances when shopping for a dishwasher. Some of us have
strict budget limits; some need to worry about sanitizing bottles for a newborn. The list goes
on…maybe nothing annoys you more than dishes that come out less than 100 percent dry
or a dishwasher that’s noisy. I understand—I’m picky too. To make matters worse, it’s tough
to find the right dishwasher among the more than 500 different models on the market today.
Hi, I’m John with Designer Appliances. We’re the only store that makes it our
number-one goal to take the stress and confusion out of appliance shopping.
Since 2008 we’ve worked with 1000’s of customers in the demanding NJ & NY market,
giving us unique insights into what most people want in a dishwasher.
In this video, we’re covering nine dishwashers that are ideal for nine different reasons.
Stick around, and I’ll take your questions on our picks plus any other models you’re curious about.
Let’s start with the best overall dishwasher. Our pick is a Bosch,
the SHPM65Z55N from the 500 Series, which retails for $1,049.
For the price this Bosch does a lot of things well and it’s built to last… but since it’s so
popular, unless your local appliance store ordered them in bulk last year like we did,
you might not be able to get your hands on one. We like this unit for a number of reasons.
For starters, it has a clean minimalist front with a concealed pocket handle. The controls are hidden
in the open lip of the dishwasher door out of sight and out of reach of kids. This style is
great if you don’t want your dishwasher handle and control panel to clash with your kitchen design.
It doesn’t have WiFi so you can’t control it from your smartphone, but honestly we
don’t find those functions very useful in other dishwashers so this is not a major loss. Bosch is
known for it’s quiet performance with this model clocking in at a very quiet and respectable 44 dB
(the lower the better). For a primer on dishwasher noise ratings i’ll include a link to our video
in the comments below. 44 db is very quiet and should satisfy most people, but if your
family room is connected to your kitchen, you might want to consider something even a smidge
quieter. When it comes to wash performance this model is one of the best, and includes all the
basic cycles you’d expect, including a Speed wash cycle that finishes in 60 minutes and a
sanitize cycle for killing germs and bacteria. It doesn’t have a delicate cycle for things like
crystal and fine china, so if that’s a priority you’ll need to upgrade to Bosch’s 800 series.
Drying performance is a little more controversial.
Like most European brands, Bosch doesn’t have a heating element for drying dishes,
rather they rely on the hot water of the final rinse to create a condensation effect.
Instead of “baking” and potentially damaging or melting things, this condensation gently pulls
water off the dishes, onto the stainless steel side walls of the dishwasher, and out the drain.
This method is incredibly effective while being more energy efficient. The caveat?
Sometimes remaining moisture in the dishwasher can redeposit itself back onto your dry dishes if you
let them sit for too long. Bosch has solved this in the 500 series by including an AutoOpen door
that as the name suggests automatically opens the door at the end of the cycle to vent out excess
moisture. Even still, if you frequently wash a ton of plastics, which can be particularly
tricky to get dry, check out Bosch’s 800 with CrystalDry which we’ll talk about later on.
Finally, loading and unloading is great with this 500 series dishwasher. The racks glide smoothly
and Bosch has these foldable FlexSpace tines to help you fit your specific odd shaped dishes.
It has a 3rd rack cutlery tray which is becoming a popular trend in dishwashers. The 3rd rack let’s
you neatly lay out silverware for better cleaning, and even creates space for things like spatulas
and ramekins, and it frees up space in the bottom rack where a traditional cutlery basket would go.
Don’t worry Bosch still includes a cutlery basket just in case you still prefer to use that.
Overall this Bosch is a great pick for most people. If you like the Bosch brand,
this is the model to go for, unless some of the other points I made resonated with you,
and in that case consider spending a little more on the 800 series which we’ll cover in a bit.
Next up is our best budget pick, the Whirlpool WDT710PAHZ dishwasher. When someone comes to us
looking for a good inexpensive dishwasher this is the model we typically recommend.
It retails for $649 in black or white or $699 for stainless steel.
Whirlpool keeps the price low by eliminating fancy bells and whistles like a 3rd rack we talked about
with the Bosch and by using a plastic tub instead of a stainless steel tub like higher end models.
Also it’s noise level is louder than we typically like, coming in a 51 decibels. So why do we
recommend this dishwasher? For the price point it’s reliable, the build quality is actually
pretty decent, and it does what it’s designed to do well (wash and dry dishes). It has all the
cycles you’ll need including a sanitizing cycle. We also really like Whirlpool’s unique AnyWare
utensil basket that’s designed to save you space by fitting in either the bottom rack or door,
which is fantastic when you’re playing Tetris with big pots, pans, and plates. Overall, if you just
need something to get the job done and don’t want to break the bank, this is a good place to start
Now for the fun stuff: our favorite splurge-worthy dishwasher. We really like the Miele G7316SCUSS.
This is the dishwasher I chose for my own home. At $1,899 it’s not for everyone’s budget
which is why it didn’t make our “best overall” pick, but it’s built to last 20 years, twice the
industry average, making it worth the investment if you are gonna be at your house for a while.
Miele makes every single component of its dishwashers in house
including its professional, commercial grade pumps, which are the most
important part of any dishwasher. With Miele reliable is an understatement.
It features a sleek black panel that happens to go great with the black accents on the rest
of my kitchen appliances. if that’s not your style it’s available with a hidden controls and a handle
or ready to accept a custom cabinetry panel. At 42 dB this machine is very quiet and should
meet just about everyone's needs. It even has a “quiet cycle”. It takes more time,
but it’s able to drop the noise level to 40 dB by reducing the water pressure.
With the wash cycles I’m typically just running a normal cycle,
but you’ll find everything you could want including a pots & pans cycle
and a crystal & china setting. It also has a self clean feature which I try to
run monthly to keep the dishwasher fresh and a cycle for cleaning greasy vent hood filters.
Unique to Miele for this year is their AutoDos system. This system takes a proprietary Miele
detergent cartridge and automatically dispenses the correct amount of detergent based on how dirty
your dishes are. No more loading a detergent pod every day. Each cartridge holds up to 20 loads
worth of detergent and the cartridges retail for around $14 each. Don’t worry you can still use
your favorite detergent if you don’t want to worry about stocking up on Miele AutoDos cartridges,
but Miele gives you a 6 month supply via rebate to try it out for yourself. I’ve actually gone
back to using regular dishwasher pods myself, but it’s just because I’ve been lazy and the
AutoDos cartridges have been on a little bit of a backorder. The system itself is very convenient.
Like the Bosch 500 series, Miele utilizes condensation for drying and has an auto
open door to release excess moisture in the air after the cycle has completed.
Besides overall performance, where Miele really shines is the tactile experience. Everything just
feels well built. The basket configuration is also well thought out and loading dishes is a breeze.
These orange tabs around the basket indicate a movable area and these stemware holders are soft
and meant to carefully hold your finest crystal. Miele invented the third rack
cutlery tray that other manufacturers have started to copy, and we still think their
design is the best. Even the third rack is loaded with options for flexibility.
Overall Miele is our favorite dishwasher to load and unload.
Other unique features include a built-in water softener which is great for our customers near
our Montclair NJ showroom. Miele also has WiFi built into this dishwasher which lets you start
and stop the unit as well as check on how many cycles are left on your AutoDos cartridges.
You should have the budget, you really can’t go wrong with this dishwasher from Miele.
Our pick for the best smart Wi-Fi enabled dishwasher? Samsung’s DW80R9950US, which retails
for $1,149 and can be controlled from your smart phone. If the top of your shopping list includes
the best smart features, we think Samsung is the strongest contender. Their SmartThings app in our
opinion is the easiest to use, and What’s more, it works with all the popular smart assistants,
from Alexa to Google. The Samsung app sends you convenient reminders when it’s time to add
more rinse aid or run a machine-cleaning cycle. As for traditional functionality,
this Samsung boasts Linear Wash technology, which creates a wall of water to cover every
inch of the dishwasher cavity, meaning you get extremely clean dishes throughout the dishwasher.
Have a question about one of these four or a different model that’s in stock near you?
Leave a comment and I’ll get right back to you.
For athletes and new parents, a dishwasher that can clean and sanitize bottles—whether
they be for Gatorade or formula—is essential. For you, our pick is the GE GDT665SSNSS,
which retails for $999. It has a steam prewash, NSF certified sanitize cycle,
and high-temperature rinse that's designed to remove 99.999 percent of bacteria from dishes.
On the upper rack, you'll find four dedicated jets specifically positioned to clean bottles.
You just place your bottle on the tines over the jet, and it sprays water directly into it to get
it ultra clean. After the wash cycle’s done, GE's DryBoost technology helps get all your bottles
bone dry, which means you can abandon the drying rack that’s taking up valuable counter space.
Nothing’s worse than a dishwasher that leaves puddles on your plastics
and glasses that you have to wipe off by hand. For our best drying performance pick,
we like the Bosch SHPM78Z55N from the 800 Series, which retails for $1,249.
This dishwasher is a step up from the 500 series we covered as our top overall pick. This 800
series features Bosch’s CrystalDry technology, the most advanced drying option on the market,
which is able to naturally transform moisture into heat. At the end of a cycle, a fan pulls the humid
dishwasher air into a zeolit mineral chamber, naturally removing the moisture while heating
the air up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit before circulating back to dry your dishes. What you’re
left with is bone dry china, glasses, and plastic containers. This method is gentler than but
as effective as a heating element while being just as energy efficient as condensation alone.
The rest is the best drying on the market without comprises. And don’t worry, Zeolit is
not a chemical, it's a naturally occurring mineral and it never has to be replaced. The 800 series
is also quieter at 42 dB and has a delicate setting that was missing on the 500 series. If
you are considering a Bosch and want the best, this is the model you should consider.
When you're remodeling a home with the intent to sell it fast, you need appliances that look
nice but won't break the bank. Our pick for house flippers is the Frigidaire FFID2426TS.
Usually on sale for just around $599, this machine delivers performance and looks shiny and clean
in a remodeled kitchen, but it saves you money in the categories where there’s a little wiggle room,
like by having a plastic tub instead of a stainless steel one. Performancewise,
Frigidaire OrbitClean works surprisingly well and is designed to spray four times more water
during clean cycles, so your future buyers won’t be disappointed by how their dishes come out,
but they’ll have a hard food disposer, which can be more prone to breaking down or clogging
over time. Also at 54 dB this dishwasher is one of the louder ones on the market
so make sure you aren’t running a load of dishes during your next showing. That being said,
this dishwasher’s exterior is nice, with a stainless steel finish, unobtrusive handle,
and hidden top controls, and the performance is respectable. So while you could probably find
an even cheaper dishwasher that doesn’t perform as well but looks ok, we wouldn’t advise it… if
you skimmed that much on the dishwasher buyers might be asking where else did you cut corners?
You might not have considered (or heard of) this convenience, but a drawer dishwasher is a great
alternative to a standard full-size dishwasher. Our pick is the $1,599 Fisher & Paykel DD24DCTX9N.
This is a bit of a misleading best of category. Fisher & Paykel (like Michael) is the only
manufacturer that even makes dishwasher drawers so naturally they win. They make
single drawers which we’ve seen integrated conveniently into a butler's pantry or bar area,
as well a double drawer dishwasher which is the natural replacement for a standard dishwasher.
For our pick we’ve focused on Fisher and Paykel’s two drawer unit with a tall tub.
They offer a tall and standard tub unit, but we recommend doing with the tall as it can easily fit
larger dinner plates and things like big colanders and bowls. Just make sure you measure and have the
required space under your countertops… these tall units require a minimum of 34” of clearance under
your counters with no wiggle room. So why would you want a double drawer dishwasher?
Each drawer can run independently, so you have lots of flexibility in how you use it.
I’ve met a ton of people who feel guilty running a half load of dishes in their dishwasher,
usually because they feel like it’s wasteful for environmental reasons.
Running just one drawer is a guilt free way to get your smaller loads clean.
My colleague has this model at home and loves that she never has to empty a full dishwasher
at once—or leave dirty dishes in the sink. Also if you entertain a lot this dishwasher
is great additional to our kitchen. We've seen our customers serve appetizers and drinks and
fill one drawer with soiled cocktail dishes and then go on to fill the other drawer with pots
and pans after dinner has been served. Once the cocktail dishes are done, the dishwasher drawer
is ready for the dinner plates. Gone are the days of hand washing dishes after everyone has left.
If you are looking for versatility, these dishwashers are hard to beat.
Want to learn more about how to select the right dishwasher? Watch our
“5 Must-Ask Questions to Find a Good Dishwasher” video, and
subscribe to our channel for more helpful product reviews and guides.
Finally, we’ve got our pick for the best portable dishwasher, the GE GPT145SSLSS. If you have
limited room in your kitchen, you can hide this 18-inch dishwasher on four swiveling casters
in a closet, and then pull it out and bring it near your sink when you're ready to run a load.
Or leave it out. It has a smooth black top you can use as a makeshift countertop.
this portable dishwasher retails for about $849 and comes with an adapter to connect
the water supply and drain directly to your kitchen faucet. And just because it’s portable
doesn’t mean this GE isn’t ultra sleek or powerful.
It has a stainless steel door with a recessed handle on the exterior, and a stainless steel tub
to reduce noise and to enhance drying. So if you hate washing dishes by hand and don’t have the
ability or space to install a built-in dishwasher, this might be a good choice to consider.
Want to check out great dishwashers in person? Come see us. If you’re in New York or New Jersey,
stop by our showrooms. A member of our sales team will be happy to help you. Not local?
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