Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dishwashers & Sanitizers

[Douglas G. Larson (ddhle]

We have three Kitchen Aid residential style dishwashers and we do pre-rinse.
As others have noted in their community, we tend to cram ours as full as
possible. This occasionally results in some unclean dishes but that actually
happens a lot less frequently than I would have guessed. Still, it does
happen. 

We have had two of these dishwashers for 10 years and the 3rd for about 12
years. I think we have had maybe 3 repairs in that time. 

In my own home, I have a Miele brand (residential style, of course). I have
had it about 5 years now and absolutely love it. During that time I have had
trouble maybe 4 times, but each time I call the local service dealer for
Miele and over the phone they talk me through pushing a series of buttons,
which so far, as always corrected the problem. So I have had no on-site
repairs done or needed. Miele uses a third tray at the top where all the
flatware goes and it took me a while to get used to laying the flatware flat
instead of putting it into a basket but I find it wonderful. It also has a
button that sprays only the top two racks and saves water, if you have only
a few dishes. 


I have no personal, direct experience with commercial (sanitizers) machines,
but I have observed a Meiko brand at a local Cooking Class establishment.
They have Meiko model FV40.2 and its  an under-the-counter style but does
dishes in about 3 minutes or less. I have spoken with the staff at the
Cooking class company and they seem to love it. It takes removable trays,
like many other commercial brands. Meiko, the vendor, claims the sanitizing
cycle raises water temperature to 180F, regardless of the temperature of the
water coming in. Of course, raising water temperature to sanitize, requires
electricity and I have no idea how economical it is to operate. I also have
no statistical data on the reliability/repair of the Meiko brand. 

Douglas Larson, 
Songaia Cohousing