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14-Apr-2005
Pros: Interesting concept (drawers) and still looks cool.
Cons: About $200 to $800 more expensive than more traditional dishwashers AND DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY.
The Bottom Line: If you value uniqueness and effectiveness in an appliance, check out this appliance. It gets the loads clean, looks good, and allows you to handle varied loads more efficiently.
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Full Review
3 YEAR UPDATE:
Well, our experience after year one with this machine has not been good. Shortly after writing the review (figures, eh?) the lower drawer stopped getting the dishes clean (food particles still on the items, water spots as well). About six months later, the top drawer bailed on us. The repairman indicated that we were using too much soap - that we should use no more than one teaspoon of powdered detergent. We told him that's what we'd been doing. He then said, "make sure to run your hot water in the sink just before you start the dishwasher". We assured him that we had been.
Despite several trips to get it working, it doesn't - even to this date. We have had the spray arms replaced twice now - typically with marginal improvement for a month or two. At a cost of about $400 a pop (total for both drawers). We have used the recommended dishwasher cleaner every 6 months. Yet we are made to feel as though we're not doing something right (the repair guy even searched our under-sink cabinet for liquid detergent, saying we MUST have been using liquid detergent). We've never had such problems with the less expensive dishwashers - they don't look as cool - but that hardly matters when the product no longer works.
I'd consider the rest of this review to be invalid now, but here it is if you'd like to see what we originally said (and sorry if we helped lead other folks down the wrong path):
OLD, INVALID REVIEW:
We purchased our Fisher & Paykel dishdrawers one year ago when furnishing our new home. We were somewhat reluctant, despite our excellent experience with another Fisher & Paykel appliance (washing machine ...) due primarily to the salespersons advice that some of her clients complain that plastic items do not dry properly in the drawers. What sold us was talking to some of her clients independently, who to a person said that they had no such problems.
Our experience has been very good with the dishdrawers. We had ours fitted with the "custom" wood panels in order to better blend in with our kitchen cabinetry. They look great and frequently draw comments from people who have never seen this type of dishwasher before, although they are becoming more common.
It is VERY convenient to load only one drawer and have the other available for a later load. It did take some practice to get the amount of detergent down just right for our water hardness and the "food load" on our dishes, glasses, and silverware. The drawers require a surprisingly small amount of detergent to properly clean the load; putting too much in quickly damages glass and flatware (etching). We have had no difficulty with spotting; and our plastic ware come out dry. The drying cycle is set at a lower temperature than most other dishwashers, and the load will not feel HOT when done, just warm. Maybe this is what has caused some folks to complain that their loads don't get as dry as they want them.
We have had no maintenance issues in the thirteen months we've been operating the dishwasher. The drawers slide in and out just as effortlessly as when first purchased. We ordered the optional, larger "American" dish grates, and are glad that we did. It is much easier to load plates into a drawer equipped with these grates.
The controls are easy to use, with a variable delay feature allowing you to quickly set your drawers to come on late at night (delays in one-hour increments). There are the relatively standard wash cycle options, including: heavy, normal, delicate, fast, and rinse only. And you may choose to disable the drying cycle as well.
The washer is very quiet during the wash cycle, and there is no appreciable difference in noise level when operating both drawers at the same time. Steam venting is not an issue either - some dishwashers vent steam in a manner that causes damage to countertops - not these ...
The drawers cost a bit more than most of the competition. But the appliance is something different; they are very clearly NOT your run-of-the-mill dishwasher. I don't think there's a huge qualitative reason to select these over the more traditional dishwashers, although the energy efficiency of running a full load in one drawer vs. a partial load in a full dishwasher IS an advantage. But I don't notice a superior cleaning capability with the Fisher & Paykel DishDrawers. But they are aesthetically pleasing and unique. For us, that alone was worth the $100 to $200 difference in price.
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