Stainless Steel Whisper - great little dishwasher

In February of this year the Maytag Whirlpool dishwasher that had served the previous owners for a number of years, finally died.  It had been a reasonably decent dishwasher but was incredibly noisy during its last few months until finally one night after a particularly noisy wash cycle, it finally stopped for good.

I wasn't looking forward to appliance shopping because I knew once I began that quest, the next step would be to replace our poor old fridge as well.  With a little trepidation only because I knew I'd end up spending more money than I wanted to, I headed out to check out the offerings for dishwashers.  What I found was a little overwhelming.  The last time I actually shopped for a dishwasher was when we designed and built a previous home.  My, my how times change.

Today there are dishwashers that do everything but put the dishes away!  After looking at over a dozen different styles I finally settled on a Frigidaire.  For a long time now I've fought the 'stainless steel' invasion and initially my intent was to get a sleek black washer to match my black ceramic top stove.  What I ended up with was a sleek stainless steel washer with a hint of black dedicated to it's operating panel.

The dishwasher came with an Energy Efficient rebate of $150 and no tax!  It was a deal that I just couldn't pass on and the price for what I got was in my mind a steal.  The dishwasher comes with several handy features that include delay wash for 2, 4 or 6 hours so that if you want the machine to run after 10 pm which is the time when electricity charges are at their lowest, you can hit the button once for a 2 hour delay, twice for 4 and 3 times for 6 hours.  This is the feature I think I've found to be the best thing about it.

It also has a sanitization cycle for those times when you want to ensure that what you're washing is crystal clean and germ/bacteria free or if you want a quick run that you are certain is sanitary without doing a full wash.  It comes with the standard Pots & Pans, High heat wash, Upper rack, Lower rack washes individually, an Econo wash and a wash that has all the bells and whistles including heat dry.

The upper rack has a wine/small glass rack to keep glass ware secure and has plenty of room for large as well as small cups & bowls.  The bottom rack is roomy as well and can accomodate nesting of plates which allows you to fill it right up without compromising a good cleaning to do so.  The silverware tray is repositionable and can be placed in the rear, side or front area of the lower level.

I use dishwasher gel tabs that include a Jet Dry solution so I don't have to add additional solution in order to get a clean, spot free load of dishes and so far, it has cleaned some huge loads.  Unlike the old dishwasher, I can load the dishwasher up in the evening and have often just run the rinse cycle because there's still  quite a bit of room left for more dishes.  It is so whisper quiet though that even if I decide to run it at 3 a.m. it doesn't disturb anyone, even those who have bedrooms in the basement level.

I really did hesitate to buy a dishwasher that was inexpensive and had actually almost been settled on buying another Whirlpool that was far more expensive.  So far though, I'm glad I chose this particuar one because it's great so far and as long as you know how to push the Start button on the digital panel, you're good to go.

Now, if I could just find out how to get it to unload and put the dishes away!