Dishwasher

Although we only have 3 people living at home right now, I need a dishwasher that can take a beating! Ours runs at least twice a day. Sounds like alot for only three people, but I have to wash and sanitize the milking supplies twice a day.

I have a few requirements for dishwashers. My dishwasher has to be able to stand up to heavy use running at least twice a day, it has to have a sanitize cycle, it has to be fairly quiet since we spend much of our day in the Great Room near the kitchen, and it has to hold a BIG milking pail and lid.

In May our old dishwasher (an LG) needed repaired again. That was it's death sentence. So Hubby went to Sears to look for a new dishwasher. He has done plenty of research on dishwashers (see our experiences with other dishwashers at the end of the post), and decided to give Kenmore a try.

After almost 4 months of use I still LOVE my new dishwasher! It holds big buckets, the top rack comes out if I need to clean larger items, it is quiet, it washes extremely well. I've never had a dishwasher that cleans dishes and kitchen items as well as this Kenmore does. I only scrape the dishes--I never have to rinse them before loading. It washes lasagna pans and plates that have cheese melted on them. I can use any type of cheap dishwasher detergent and they all work well! I can't say enough good things about this Kenmore dishwasher!

The buttons are on the outside. I have friends with young children that like their buttons on the inside of the door so they are out of reach of the children. The buttons are fine for me. Easy to see, easy to push, and easy to clean. I wish that the dishwasher had a 'time left' indicator but that is the only thing I would change.

See how much it holds! The bucket is a 4 gallon bucket that has a lid (you can see the lid to the left of the bucket). The large bucket is our holding bucket that sits in a bucket of ice-water. That is our VitaMix blender to the right.

Another view of the bottom rack. You can see the smaller milking bucket (it holds 1-gallon) behind the large bucket. The small bucket will also fit on the top rack. We milk into the smaller bucket and transfer the milk (after weighing it) into the large bucket to bring into the house after all the milking is done. You can also see some of the containers that fit into the dishwasher. We use 1/2-gallon glass containers most of the time, but sometimes we run out and have to use plastic.

Our Dishwasher Experiences
We have had a number of dishwashers in our 29 years of marriage. The first one was a Maytag and lasted for about 12 years. It started it's life as a portable dishwasher while Hubby was getting his Ph.D, and was later installed in our first home. It worked for the new owners for a few years after we sold the house. It was a great dishwasher. Since Maytag is now made by Whirlpool, we decided that Maytag was not an option anymore.

The second dishwasher was a Whirlpool. I will never buy another Whirlpool dishwaser (or refrigerator) again. Although some people love theirs, I did not like having to scrape and almost clean dishes for 7 people before putting them in the dishwasher! It lasted about 8 years, which is a good amount of time for a dishwasher, but it never did a great job on the dishes. It was also very picky about which dishwasher detergent worked best. (I love my front-loading Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer, though!)

The next dishwasher was an LG. Hubby researched with Consumer Reports to find out which dishwasher was recommended. The one he bought was highly recommended. I think we got a lemon. It had to be repaired in the first 3 months of life. It was big, and quiet, but it needed repaired three times in it's two years. Not a good track record! I had to use Cascade Complete to get clean dishes. I prefer to use whatever dishwasher detergent is on sale or least expensive.

My aunt, who is retired, bought a Kenmore similar to mine. She loves hers, too. If you need a new dishwasher, I'd give Sears and Kenmore another look.