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jeri

Dishwashers Drawers or Conventional?

jeri
14 years ago

Hi Everyone!

Those of you who have the drawers  would you make the same decision next time? Why or Why Not?

IÂd also like to hear form those of you who choose not to go with the drawers  what helped you make your decision?

Anyone install 2 dishwashers or more than 2 drawers?

I lived without a DW for years. But after having one  I think I want 2! One just isnÂt large enough for all the dinner dishes and pots/pansÂ

We are trying to buy a fixer upper and I want to start planning the kitchen. :-)

Comments (9)

  • giacomo_it
    14 years ago

    I designed 2 kitchens recently with 2 DW.
    but the next level will be using a new DW from Smeg is 36' wide but I need a big kitchen.

    http://www.smegusa.com/IVisionImages/STO905U.jpg

    http://db.snaidero.it/old/backoffice/ambienti/snaidero/soluzioni_snaidero/immagini/prodotti/2008361729510.sistemazeta_lavastoviglie_g.jpg

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • elizpiz
    14 years ago

    We have a full Miele and one Fisher Paykel drawer. LOVE IT. I've never had a dw before (ever) so this is pure luxury. And yes even though it's just DH and I, we entertain a *lot*, so both get a good workout. During the week or when one of us is travelling, the single drawer is great; the full one kicks in if we're doing lots of cooking or baking. And when we have guests, both of those babies are going!

    Eliz

  • claire_de_luna
    14 years ago

    I have three single dish drawers, and would do the same again in a heartbeat. They are the easiest to load, and I like having them function in my kitchen (zones) the way they do. I often have them all running at the same time as well, but like the option of running them separately when I need to.

  • rhome410
    14 years ago

    We have 2 conventional dishwashers. I can adjust the upper shelf to give it or the bottom rack more height for large/taller items. I can even take a rack out if I need to..Couldn't do that with drawers, and I like the flexibility.

  • erikanh
    14 years ago

    I have 2 dish drawers and I'm very happy with them. I usually run the top drawer every day and both drawers about once a week. I used to hate how especially in the summer the dishes would start to smell bad because I was waiting for a full load before I would run it. Once you get the hang of it they are easy to load and fit a lot. They do a great job getting my dishes clean and dry. They're not as quiet as my old Bosch but still very quiet. Another thing I like is how they don't intrude into the aisle as much as a regular dishwasher.

  • erikanh
    14 years ago

    All the racks in the dish drawers are removable. You can't fit super tall items, but I haven't personally come across anything so tall it wouldn't fit. The new Fisher & Paykel Tall Dishdrawers supposedly will fit taller items but I haven't seen one in person yet.

  • zelmar
    14 years ago

    I love our 2 dd's and can't imagine ever going back to a traditional dw.

    --The dd's makes sense for the same reason many on this forum suggest having many drawers! Putting in a dirty dish just requires pulling open a drawer rather than pulling down the front panel and the pulling out one of the racks (or 2 if you have glasses and plates.) Our dd's are in a busy aisle and it just takes a slight bump of a knee or hip to close them. We used to leave the front down of our old dw during the entire clean up period and my shins became too acquainted with it. No bruises ever with the dd's!

    --It feels as though we get the function of 1 1/2 traditonal dw's from our 2 dd's. I fill up one drawer with prep dishes/pots before dinner and turn it on. The 2nd drawer is available for dinner dishes and additional prep dishes. By the time we do final clean up the first drawer is done (or almost done) and is available for dessert dishes, coffee cups, serving dishes, etc. With one dw I would have to wait until after dinner to fill it all up and then some of the dirty dishes would have to wait for the next cycle.

    --Flexibility: I rarely washed really large items in my old dw. I preferred leaving the space for many small items and handwashing the one large item. If I had a dw with adjustable racks I would probably never bother adjusting them anyway.

    --2 stacked dd's work well for us (we're a family of 4.) The negatives (giving up space, extra plumbing required with added potential for leaks, the potential of break downs and service calls) outweighed any positives of getting 2 dw's for our 13'x16' kitchen since we don't entertain much.

    The negatives, as noted in earlier posts, are the fixed size and noise. Neither of these affect me. Once in a while a load won't clean well--usually because the washing arms are obstructed. Once in a while stuff will come out with gunk still stuck on. I've never had a really great dw so I don't know if the dd's are worse than the other expensive dw's. And it takes time to learn the best way to load them. I'm the only one in my family that can do it since I haven't bothered cluing the others in. I still find it difficult to accomodate steep sided bowls and pots with the racks I have (the ones that came w/ our F&P 4 years ago.) But I relish the positives too much to regret getting them.

  • oofasis
    14 years ago

    I have mixed feelings about our DDs. We got our KA DDs a year and a half ago (when they were still being made by Fisher Paykel), and we've had nothing but problems for the last six months or so. After 5 visits from a repairman who literally had both drawers disassembled on our floor -- twice -- the service provider recommended replacement to KA. Still under warranty, KA wanted a second opinion. New repair company had a different diagnosis and ordered different parts, so we still have unresolved problems.

    I love the ergonomics of DDs -- no bending, only one motion to open instead of two to open and pull out as Zelmar mentioned. And I love the convenience they are for a two-person household -- no dirty dishes waiting for a big DW to get full to do a load, as Ericanh said.

    I'm thinking (hoping) we just have a lemon and will either get it repaired come hell or high water, or get a replacement. If I had to do it over again, I'd really want to do DDs all over again -- provided that my experience is unique and not typical of DDs in general.

  • Jean Farrell
    14 years ago

    I thought about them, but my brother and his wife got them in their new kitchen, and they don't like them, so I decided not to.

    Here is why they don't like them:

    My SIL went out and bought oversized dishes for her new kitchen, and they don't fit in the dish drawers, or at least not very well.

    They always run both, never find a need just to fun one drawer because they always fill both when they load the diswasher.

    They feel they hold fewer dishes in general.

    For me, they just looked smaller, and less flexible. I actually do adjust the racks on my dishwasher a lot to fit taller items, etc. I also know that I would virtually never have a need to run one drawer at a time, with a family of 5 plus an au pair. We run the dishwasher a few times a day.

    When I asked about them at an appliance store, the salesman said that it was about 50/50 -- half the people who bought them loved them, half didn't like them so much.

    I am way into the drawer thing. I have freezer drawers and refrigerator drawers supplementing my regular fridge, and love them. I have a drawer microwave, and love it. Maybe I would have loved the dishwasher drawers, but I didn't want to take the chance. I WOULD have liked to have a single dishwasher drawer in my butler's pantry for washing glasses etc., but decided to forego the expense.