It was time to replace our dishwasher. It was a Kenmore that we've had for about 7 years. Not very long, no. But I'm not sorry to see it go. The electronic power panel crapped out. I figured it would cost about the same to buy a brand new dishwasher rather than pay a repairman to replace the broken parts. Those digital panels can be expensive. Well, that plus I have always hated the color of my appliances so I saw this as a good opportunity to replace it. We bought our house 15 years ago with all the appliances in it. I think the oven was here when the house was built in the 60's. About 7 years ago, the appliances had begun to succumb to old age. The oven temp was off by 75 degrees and didn't heat evenly. The dishwasher had literally fallen apart. The spring for the door had popped and although my husband is quite handy, he could not fix the spring. Whenever we had the dishwasher door open we had to prop it up with something. A Big Gulp cup worked really well until we replaced that with a block of wood. We lived like that for 2 years. The dishwasher still washed fine. I didn't see the sense in replacing it. The door was just a little bit bo bo. About 7 years ago my parents told us to go buy a new dishwasher and oven for our Christmas presents. My parents had just had a house built and my mom's kitchen was beautiful so I took her advice when she said get "Biscuit" colored appliances. That's what they had gotten and they looked great in my parents kitchen in Florida with the birch cabinets, the dark granite counters and the cream colored tile floors. However, they didn't look so great in my kitchen with white and black linoleum, painted seafoam green cabinets and black formica countertops. I don't know what I was thinking. I was just so excited and overwhelmed. I had several salesmen tell me that people aren't buying Biscuit anymore. People are buying black appliances. I should have listened to the salesmen.
I did tons of research and decided on a Bosch Evolution Ascenta Model: SHE3AR76UC based on reviews. It had 4 out of 5 stars on the Best Buy website. Most reviews were totally positive. I really should not have disregarded the few negative reviews because they were way more accurate. The Bosch dishwasher is very small. I ignored this fun fact because I reasoned that the bottom rack dish prongs were closer together so it would hold more. That much is true however, closer together means less water gets between to clean the dishes so careful pre-rinsing is vital. The top rack is also smaller so it holds less glasses which is what we use alot of in our household. Instead of running the dishwasher every 2-3 days I had to run it everyday. The Bosch also touts itself as being a quiet 50 decibels but my husband would complain that he could hear it all the way on the other side of the house from the bedroom when I would turn it on before I went to bed. The dog must have thought so too because he would bark and howl when I turned on the Bosch too. The worst part was that it didn't do a great job of drying the dishes either. There was no heating element. Something my husband warned me about but I decided to ignore because all the positive reviews can't be wrong. (yes they can) From start to finish the wash/dry cycle took almost over 3 hours. When I opened the dishwasher after 3 hours the dishes were soaking wet. I had to put them in the dish drainer on the counter. If I set the dishwasher before bed and didn't open it until the next day around 5pm, the dishes were marginally dry.
Fortunately, Best Buy has a great return policy. I was able to return the dishwasher for a full refund. You get 14 days. I felt terrible for my husband who had installed it and then had to uninstall it, get it on the truck and take it back to Best Buy. But there was no way I could live with that dishwasher for the next 7 years or even 7 days. I offered to pay for the the installation of the next dishwasher to my husband. At Best Buy the installation was $69.99 however at Sears, installation costs $139.99. My husband said "No way! I'm not paying $139 bucks for something I can do myself." My hero!
I went to Sears and looked into Kitchenaid and Whirlpool dishwashers. I decided against Whirlpool because the cutlery bins are on the door. I also don't like that the cutlery basket doesn't hold very much and it's not very roomy. So the Whirlpool was out. I was comparing a Kitchenaid and a Kenmore that looked identical. The Kitchenaid had a price-tag of $899.99 The Kenmore was regularly $829.99 but was on special sale which took the price down to $599 which is what I had paid for the useless Bosch. I decided to go with the Kenmore Model #13269. We picked it up at Sears so that we could avoid the $69.99 delivery fee. My husband has hooked it up and it works beautifully. I love it! Lots of room for the dinner dishes as well as serving bowls. The cutlery bin is a bit larger than my old Kenmore so that's also a plus. The top rack (which is also adjustable, btw) holds so many coffee cups and drinking glasses. I should also mention that it dries beautifully. I always had an issue with my old Kenmore dishwasher where the ends of the cups on the top rack always had a puddle of water in them. This dishwasher must do a better job of drying because I haven't had that issue at all.
Recently on Facebook a friends friend had posted that she was in the market for a new dishwasher and was looking for opinions. I was shocked when 15 out of 20 people responded that they loved their Bosch. Perhaps I got a dud. Perhaps they just don't know what they're missing. I'm sticking with the Kenmore.
Recently on Facebook a friends friend had posted that she was in the market for a new dishwasher and was looking for opinions. I was shocked when 15 out of 20 people responded that they loved their Bosch. Perhaps I got a dud. Perhaps they just don't know what they're missing. I'm sticking with the Kenmore.
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