Which dishwasher ? When dishwashers first appeared they were considered a luxury, however today they are considered a necessity. Mind you when the first dishwashers hit the market they were ridiculously expensive, plus you had to wash the dishes by hand before placing them in the dishwasher! Thankfully things have changed, dishwashers today are cheap to buy, cheap to run and are very efficient at cleaning your plates. Of course there are a huge selection available with price ranging from below £200.00 up to £1000.00, mind you for £1000.00 we think they should be able to cook the meal as well. The average price is around £300.00 and many makers aim for this figure when marketing their product. Although we are called Discount Appliances, we prefer not to sell the very cheapest models. We believe that this saves you the consumer from purchasing goods which may not live up to your expectations. So we stock the makes we believe offer the best value for money without sacrificing the quality. Most dishwashers are 60cm wide and hold 12 place settings, although there are some now boasting as many as 14 place settings. Do remember that place settings do not include pots and pans or bakeware, so it is suprising how quick they can fill up. If you are tight for space you might consider a slimline model which is only 45cm wide, but they only hold 8-9 places. And again once the pots and pans are added it can be quite a squeeze, in reality a slimline model may be more suited to a single/couple. With integrated dishwashers all of the above applies, but the only extra consideration is semi or fully integrated? With a semi integrated the control panel fascia is on show above your furniture door, with a fully integrated it is completely hidden and the controls are concealed in the top of the door. If you are planning a new kitchen our advice would be to avoid a semi integrated model if possible, because if you are integrating to hide the appliance why show the fascia? We believe it defeats the object.
Triple AAA rated means ? Like most appliances, dishwashers are rated for energy efficiency, wash performance and drying capabilty. The scale is A-G with A being the best down to G being the worst. Most dishwashers are an A rating or at very least a B for energy , the same is true for the wash performance. With drying the average seems to be B rated but there are lots of A rated also, some cheaper models may still only be C rated. Some dryers use the heat left inside to dry the items, this is called residual heat drying. Others use various types of hot air methods to dry quicker and more efficiently. Whilst the energy conservationists will tell you how important it is to buy an energy efficient appliance, it is just worth mentioning that you would be hard pressed to notice a difference in your electricity bill between A and B rated. Although with 60% of all the worlds energy being used on appliances you can understand why it is an important issue.
So what do you get for your money? Programmes, in a nutshell thats it, the more you spend the more programmes you get. Plus it is usually quieter also, although from our experience, next to a washing machine a dishwasher is fairly quiet anyway. We would recommend that you get at least three programmes, delicate, normal and intensive, and make sure that the intensive has a temperature of 70 degrees. It can be easy to get carried away and buy the top of the range model with 12 programmes and a clock that displays the time in 9 diffent time zones (we made that last bit up) But be warned the more complicated the more to go wrong, the more it will cost to be repaired. Having said that it may pay to choose a more expensive model if there is a difference in the quality which is possible.
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