The great dishwasher search

And so begins the great dishwasher search.
For non famblee-members, that’s because the sealed bearings on our almost 18-year-old Maytag overheat and lock up, stalling out everything.
Repair would cost over $200, almost the cost of a new dishwasher.
The search for a new dishwasher could be exciting, if it didn’t gobble up so much time.
And so we set out yesterday afternoon (Sunday, December 9, 2007) for mighty Lowes in Canandaigua.
Getting to Lowes takes 30-40 minutes. A trip to Sears® at Eastview Mall in Victor would take about the same. All dishwasher outlets are about a half-hour away, at least.
And my wife had done considerable Internet research — although she is frustrated that our washer/dryer (Kenmore) were bought based on Internet research and are somewhat unsatisfactory. (Probably our ISP.)
The washer is somewhat rough on clothes and sounds like a railroad steam locomotive.
The lint-filter on the dryer doesn’t work very well.
Playing against all this is that our Bucktooth Bathtub is one of the best vehicles we’ve ever owned. In fact, if it were a car, it would be the best. The Faithful Hunda was a car — the Bucktooth Bathtub a van.
There also is our fantabulous Sanitaire “Mighty-Mite” portable vacuum-cleaner; an Internet recommendation.
So into mighty Lowes we go. All kinds of stuff is stacked sky-high under a 40-foot ceiling — an incredibly huge “big-box.”
The dishwashers were arrayed in a row in “appliances,” in the shadow of giant google-eyed front-loading washer/dryers — and water-dispensing refrigerators that looked more like billboards.
KitchenAid, Maytag, Frigidaire®, Bosch — interestingly, the ignitions and fuel-injection on my Volkswagens were Bosch.
Frustrating is the fact everything is made by who-knows-who. The Elite Kenmore is Bosch, and lesser Kenmores are Whirlpool.
Some of the Maytags looked like KitchenAid. They’re probably all made in China by Chinese child prison-labor from lead casings.
Perhaps two things differentiate: the tub and the front-door.
Our old Maytag’s tub was porcelain-enameled steel, but you no longer can get that.
Now it’s plastic or stainless-steel; and the stainless-steel looked chintzy — too thin.
The other differentiation is the front-door: enameled steel or brushed stainless. A stainless front-door is way more expensive. We don’t need that; we’re only trying to wash dishes, not impress the neighbors.
Okay, so plastic-tub and non-stainless front-door.
Dishwasher science has apparently advanced over the last 18 years. A spraybar does underneath the top-shelf, and there often is a small spray-head in the top. The top-shelf rolls out, but plumbing connects the spraybar with a water-feed when slid back.
Our old Maytag had one spraybar under the bottom shelf and a second in the roof — about eight inches above the top-rack dishes.
The idea is to not have to wash the dishes before putting in the dishwasher.
To us there are two other things to consider: -1) whether there is a way of superheating incoming water, and -2) capacity.
Our old Maytag only had a small heating-element for heating what water was already in the machine.
We also saw quite a few dishwashers that put the silverware in baskets in the doors. This frees up space in the rack that would otherwise be used as a silverware-basket.
So I guess what we want is silverware baskets in the doors, and a way of superheating the incoming water.
Our old Maytag also made a humungous racket. Maytags were notorious for this.
But recent dishwashers are a lot quieter — although more sound-insulation reduces capacity.
Hopefully tomorry (Tuesday, December 11, 2007) is mighty Sears®.
I also noticed mighty Lowes wants $130 for installing the dishwasher. I suppose Sears® will too.

“Mighty Lowes” is the Lowes national chain home-supply outlet.

RE: “Getting to Lowes takes 30-40 minutes........” —In the words of my siblings we are “centrally located: 25 minutes from everything.” (We live in the country.)

“Victor” is a town nearby. Eastview-Mall is not actually in the village of Victor, but in the town (ship).

RE: “Probably our ISP!” —ISP equals Internet-Service-Provider; in our case RoadRunner via the cable. Last July my macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston visited, and set up a wireless Internet connection to my router. His Internet reception was spotty, so he loudly blamed our Internet-Service-Provider (ISP). Now anything untoward is due to my ISP.

“The Bucktooth-Bathtub” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van; called that because it’s white and like sitting in a bathtub, and appears to have a bucktooth on the grill.

“The Faithful Hunda” is our 1989 Honda Civic All-Wheel-Drive station-wagon, by far the BEST car we ever owned, now departed — replaced by our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV; which we’re not especially happy with — it’s a truck. (Called a “Hunda” because that was how a fellow bus-driver at Regional-Transit-Service in Rochester, where I once worked, pronounced it.)

My “Volkswagens” are late ‘70s and early ‘80s. But not the Beetle; a Dasher station-wagon and two Rabbits.