Friday, May 22, 2009

More to whine about

My dishwasher died.

Soon I'm going to inherit a chunk of money. I'm using part of it to buy cars (used cars) for the girls and me. I want to invest some of it and the rest I'll put into the house and supplement my income until I finish school and can get a better job. When I say that I want to put it into the house I'm talking about fixing some issues like an ancient sprinkler system, spent landscaping, gutters, tree removal and poor yard drainage. I do not want to replace what's already working. That means that shit has to KEEP WORKING. I knew the water heater was a goner. I was prepared for that (mostly). Yesterday as the HVAC was humming along I thought, jeez, I hope that thing lasts a good, long time. But I think that system is fairly new. It should be ok for a while. So, ok, a dishwasher isn't a huge expense. I didn't like my dishwasher anyway.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have dishwasher advice: buy one that doesn't have a little grinder in the bottom. They make them now so they have tiny dispose-alls in the water outlet, which sounds like a good idea, but you'd better rinse all your dishes before you put them in there because if you miss a toothpick or a tiny chicken bone, that's the end of the little grinder: $250 repair.

Bosch and Asko make them without grinders, but those are the expensive ones. Those are only the ones I know about, there might be other models.

Also, nobody needs the heating element in the bottom. Your dishes get just as dry without it, even if you don't open the door and let them air dry. And without a heating element, you can put plastic in any part of the washer. Most dishwashers let you turn the heating element off. Mine doesn't even have one. It's just an extra electricity sucker.

dean

Donita Curioso said...

Thanks for the info. I'll look into dishwashers without grinders. I don't think mine has one and that may be part of the problem. If it gets clogged up with food it's really hard to clean it out. But my dishwasher is really old so maybe the newer ones are easier to clean. I agree about the heating element. All you have to do is open the door and let them air dry. i don't like how steamed up the kitchen gets while the dishes are drying with the heating element.

Anonymous said...

After I wrote that advice I googled dishwasher grinders and I find them well reviewed and thought of, and they make sense, but I bought a Kenmore Elite and the grinder lasted a month and the repair guy said "I never saw a dishwasher that didn't work better if you rinse the dishes first." Well DUH! You should HAVE to rinse the dishes first!

I refuse to rinse--I will scrape, but I will not rinse. It defeats the purpose. If you are a rinser, the grinder might be just fine.

dean

atiol--differing experiences with appliances

Anonymous said...

That should be you SHOULDN'T have to rinse the dishes first.

ps. I made Sears take the dishwasher back.

Donita Curioso said...

I don't usually rinse but I also don't put them in with lots of crud on them. I usually scrape them into the trash.

What I want is a dishwasher that loads in a sensible way. I want one that can handle things that are a little tall, like my glass pitchers or my dinner plates. Dinner plates, for crying out loud. The dishwasher I have now won't take dinner plates. In the 22 years that I've been living on my own I've had 5 different dishwashers and only one of them was designed for stuff people actually use. I should take a dinner plate with me when I go shopping. A plate and a pitcher.

Anonymous said...

The top shelf of mine is adjustable, I can set it down a couple of inches and put really tall glasses on it, but it's too much trouble; I don't ever do it. I put the tall things in the bottom. It fits my dinner plates, but it doesn't fit chargers. They're too big.

dean

VO said...

They probably don't fit because dinner plates have gotten a lot larger. Here is a link to someones blog regarding dinner plate sizes: http://numskullery.com/2006/06/14/the-psychology-of-dinner-plates/

If your dishwasher is old, it probably means dinner plates were regularly smaller than nowadays. And things like pitchers etc were supposed to be handwashed.

Just a point of interest.