Maytag Dishwasher .... more help than FEMA after a hurricane.
Written: May 15 '06 (Updated May 18 '06)
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Pros: Gets dishes sparkling clean.
Cons: Connection hoses could be longer.
The Bottom Line: The bottom line is all washed up.
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| patsyv's Full Review: Maytag MDC5100A 24 in. Portable Dishwasher |
Now that another hurricane season is upon us, I must pay tribute to my Maytag Portable Dishwasher. I have had many dishwashers, most of which were very satisfactory. But I am from the old school, which says you must pre-wash all dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Maybe this is because the earliest dishwashers were not so efficient. Anyway……to make a long story not so long……when Hurricane Frances hit two years ago, we had no electricity or water for seven days. The dirty dishes were scraped off and put into the dishwasher just as they were. After seven days, just about all of my plates, cups, glasses and silverware were jammed into every square inch of that dishwasher. Ugh! It looked awful and smelled worse.
Finally, one day some wonderful utility workers from Indiana came and repaired the electric lines. After giving the water heater enough time to get up to speed, I started the dishwasher. I anticipated having to rewash most of the dirty dishes, but thought that at least some of the crud would have been removed. But, no, with the exception of two plates, every single item was spotlessly clean and shining….even the silverware that was jammed in ever so tightly. I was amazed.
Hurricane Jeanne, and the following year, Hurricane Wilma also struck our home with the same week-long lack of water and electricity. The results with the dishwasher remained constant. Perfectly clean and sparkling glasses and silverware after each week-long episode of primitive living. (I wonder why seven days is the norm for FP&L to get us back on line.)
Having told you about my satisfaction with the Maytag, let me tell you about its features.
I bought the Maytag portable because there was no space in the kitchen for a built-in. I have it sitting at the end of my counter, but I have to roll it over to the sink each time I use it because the hose is too short to reach the faucet. I used to own another portable dishwasher with a hose that would reach the sink without moving the machine. It was much more convenient. This is the only thing I am not entirely happy about. I have tried to come up with a way to extend the hoses, but so far I have drawn a blank.
When I bought the machine, I was under the impression that it had two sprayer arms. It has not. The second sprayer is on the top and it sprays downwards. Therefore, any water sprayed up into the glasses and cups in the top level has to come from the sprayer arm at the bottom of the machine or from a center spray tower. However, to my surprise, this system cleans the glasses and cups completely. It also cleans glasses that are placed in the far corners of the top rack.
There are two fold-down racks (called stack-racks). One is in the upper level, and holds things like juice glasses, custard cups or long handled utensils. The other fold-down rack is on the lower level, and holds just about anything that is not too wide. There is only one good place for serving bowls, and that is under the fold-down rack. So, if your serving bowl is too big, you cannot use the fold-down rack.
Someone should have spent a little more time planning the placement of the tines in the machine, because this machine is hard to load efficiently. I have had it two and a half years, and I still get cranky about loading some items.
There is a removable silverware basket with four sections for utensils and a covered section for small items to keep them in place. The cover on this section also has slots in it in case you wish to load knives with their points down.
The machine is so quiet that sometimes I open it to make sure it is running. It is controlled by push buttons. It has a rinse and hold, light wash, normal wash, and heavy wash. You can air dry or use heat. You can heat the water to a certain temperature. You can set a delay start. Indicator lights tell you what the machine is doing: clean, dry, wash, or heating delay. I wish there was some way to tell how much time was left on the wash. On the normal cycle, there is a pre-wash of five minutes, wash of twenty minutes, rinse of one minute, final rinse of thirty minutes, then dry. I don’t know how long dry is because I air dry and usually open the machine. If I forget to do that, I later find that the “clean” light is on. This light goes out when you open the door. If you want to add a forgotten item, just open the door slowly, add the item and close the door. After five seconds, the machine starts up again. You can also press the Delay/Resume button to stop the machine, but I never bother to do that.
There is a one year warranty , but I have never had a problem with the Maytag yet.
I purchased this at Sears in October 2003.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 537.89
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Epinions.com ID:
patsyv
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Member: Pat
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 55
Trusted by: 194 members
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