Dishes Should Be Cleaned and Not Heard

Question: My old dishwasher leaves food on the dishes and is noisy. What are the quietest designs available? Will they save energy and are they attractive?

Answer: There are some totally new dishwasher designs that will fit your needs perfectly. They are extremely quiet and also super-efficient, so the energy and water savings will offset the cost.

Some of the new models are designed so that they are totally hidden when closed for a modern, contemporary kitchen decor. With a matching cabinet-front covering, they look exactly like the other cabinets. The electronic controls are built into the top edge of the door.

The very newest designs are actually called “dishdrawers.” These models are built into a standard drawer area with one mounted above another, like double drawers. Although the inlet and drain plumbing is shared, they can be used independently for efficient small loads or together for large loads.

These designs are convenient for today’s smaller efficient kitchens. To save cabinet space, the clean dishes can be left in one drawer. Your family uses the dishes from the clean drawer and places the dirty ones in the other drawer. When it is full, clean those dishes and reverse the procedure.

Washing controls have become more sophisticated on new models to save energy and water and to reduce the noise level. For example, for partial loads, only one or two of the spray arms function instead of all three. Special timed wave patterns are used so the sprays do not interfere with each other.

Most of the highest efficiency and quietest dishwashers use a two-pump system. This uses one powerful, high-pressure pump for the spray cleaning and a low-pressure, high-volume pump for the draining of the dirty water.

A two-pump design requires a smaller reservoir of water since each pump is physically smaller. This saves hot water. Your present dishwasher probably uses about 12 gallons of hot water per load. The new dishwashers use as little as 4 gallons and they have their own preheater for more savings.

Many models now have automatic soil sensors to determine the optimum water temperature and cycle times. By measuring the soil in the first cycle, the electronic brain makes all the appropriate settings.

Some other features to consider are built-in mini water softeners, self-cleaning filters, large particle food grinders and high-temp sanitizing cycles.

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Write for (or download at https://www.dulley.com) Update Bulletin No. 538, a buyer’s guide of the 16 efficient, quiet dishwashers. Please include $3 and a business-size self-addressed stamped envelope and mail to James Dulley, Los Angeles Times, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244.