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Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

While most of this conversation is about washers / dryers, I have a Maytag dishwasher that's less than 5 years old that we are strongly considering replacing. It simply doesn't wash dishes. It splashes a lot of water around, but there's something strange going on where it throws food bits all over our dishes. This is even after we've basically hand-washed the dishes we're putting in it, so we can't even figure out where all these bits are coming from! We had a repairman out and for a couple weeks it was better, but now back to same issues.

Considering a Bosch, would love to get this group's thoughts on manufacturers and models.

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We probably have the same Maytag dishwasher. It's also only 5 or 6 years old and I'm about ready to replace it - in addition to not being good at cleaning dishes it also has areas inside of it that are just completely gross with old food, etc. We had a dishwasher in our previous house that was installed when the house was built in 1974 and we had that dishwasher until 2011, a Whirlpool. Yeah, it probably used a lot more water than current models, but it got the dishes clean and lasted 37 years while managing to keep itself clean inside.

Bosch has the highest rating from consumer reports and high reviews across the board. They’re pretty good, but even a brand new Bosch sometimes can’t keep up the load of a family with four kiddos…

I think a bug part of the problem is that phosphates were banned from residential detergents circa 2010, and appliance manufacturers have struggled to find alternatives that work as well since.

Avoid the bottom end of Bosch. The entry level Bosch dishwasher that came with my house has a cheap spot weld on the upper spray hose which failed. On higher end models, a proper, repairable fitting is used for the same purpose as the cheap weld.

Some engineers I know that work at an appliance company said German made Bosch dishwashers are the best. This was their assessment since they test/test down competitor products.

I took their advice and bought one when having to replace

I've had a Miele for a few years. It works pretty well and doesn't make too much noise.

Have you cleaned the internal skimmer/trap, do you use a pre wash setting with hot water?

Per the repairman's suggestions:

-- we run the hot water before starting the cycle

-- we add a detergent booster

-- we run regular empty loads with a cleaning product

Separately, we've removed and cleaned any parts that can be removed and cleaned, but with the same results.

I have an Amana washer that was doing a terrible job, I cleaned every removable part, etc. Same thing it was splattering food everywhere. Then we remodeled the kitchen, and put the exact same dishwasher back in 2 months later (it's hooked up to a new garbage disposal). For some reason it works just fine now, we can't explain it. Maybe exhaust pipe was clogged? Maybe it wasn't level? Maybe something wasn't connected right? I guess I'm suggesting removing it entirely and looking for problems?

What's interesting is that the previous dishwasher worked fine, but all the plastic parts inside had become brittle and were breaking, and at the same time some things transpired such that a family member offered us this new-in-box dishwasher. IE: point being that the previous dishwasher didn't have this food splattering problem.

When the repair guy came out, he commented that the garbage disposal hadn't been properly installed (10+ years ago) and that it might be part of the problem. In theory he fixed that issue, and we assumed that might also have been the problem. But, with it back to spewing food bits everywhere it seems unlikely that was the problem. The level issue you point out is perhaps worth experimenting a bit.

The bits of food makes me think it's the garbage disposal. Is there an obstruction in the hose to the garbage disposal and/or some obstruction in the garbage disposal itself? Got any kids? Maybe you'll find a missing Lego piece!

I found the technology connections video about dishwashers improved my washing performance 2 fold, that might help you.

The parallel commenters comment about stuff stuck in the arms could be the issue as well

Replace the spin arms. Once some food or plastic scrap wedges inside, they're really difficult to clean.

I hear you on that - I was working on cleaning them last night and while I could get the water to run clean, it was clear there were some bits stuck in them.

Stuff like this is why I find fears about robots taking over any time in the next few decades just hilarious. I don't know of many machines not made by Honda that can work reliably for a decade or more with zero maintenance.

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