Product Review: GE Profile PDW7800 Built-in Dishwasher

We were looking for new appliances, one being a new dishwasher. C'mon! A dishwasher is a dishwasher right? Why the heck spend $636 for something that spurts some water around with soap and then heat dries the dishes? I've been around the block a few times buying dishwashers over the 20 years since I joined the ranks of homeowners.

We've had some pretty bad dishwashers. What makes them so bad? Well, some of them just don't seem to clean the dishes! That was one of the problems with the Kenmore that was already in the house when we moved in. Also, the cheaper models don't have enough tines to hold many dishes. Some of them don't seem to clean out all the soap from the dispenser.

With more expensive models comes something most people don't want...a lot of extra features that will never be used

What kind of features come with a $636 dishwasher?
It better be a darn good dishwasher for them kinda bucks. Well, when I have nothing better to do (which is NEVER) I like to pull a step stool in front of the dishwasher and watch all those status indicator lights.

"Oh there goes the Sensing light!!! Now my trusty machine is measuring the amount of dirt and the temperature of the water. The dishwasher will then adjust the cycle I selected to achieve remarkable results...." Well, I really think that GE must have hired a bunch of very small people to hide in the machine to do this. Unfortunately, the guy inside my machine must have failed his eye exam and perhaps he's reading Celsius rather than Fahrenheit. The dishes don't always come clean unless I choose the pre-wash cycle.

BUT, hmmm, sometimes it's difficult to tell if the peanut butter that didn't get clean off the spoon was because the kids just didn't pay attention and the spoons were 'spooned' so no water could get to them.
"Oh Cool, now I see the washing light going on!!! And soon I'll see the rinsing status indicator shine it's beautiful green jealous self. During the heated drying time I'll be able to watch the Drying status light beam itself out to the world. How cool is this???!!! Hey the clean light came on. But, uh, the sanitized light never came on. It's supposed to come on until the door is opened to tell me that not only are the dishes clean but the cycle has met sanitization conditions." Remind me to check on THAT later as well.

We (consumers) pay all this money for a feature that lets the timing of the 7 wash cycles vary based on what the ExtraClean" sensor (the little man inside the dishwasher) feels the soil condition load of the dishes are. For instance: The normal wash if a heavy load will use 9.1 gallons of water (the little man inside measured it and told me) and the cycle will be 77 minutes. If the little man determines it's a medium load the machine will use 6.5 gallons and the cycle will wash for 62 minutes. You get the idea.

This machine has a Anti-Bacteria cycle, cookware cycle, normal wash cycle, speed cycle (uses 7.8 gallons and washes in 37 minutes), a china/crystal cycle, and finally a glasses and rinse only cycle.

Now, if you have kids (or guests) that create really messy dishes you can tell the little man inside that you want to pre-wash the dishes first. Are you energy conscious (like we ALL should be)? Then you can use the Air Dry . There's also a Delay Hours button so if you need the hot water for showers or you want to wash during the night you can delay the start of the wash for up to 9 hours at one hour increments.

Rusting Already???
We've had this dishwasher about a year and already some of the vinyl covering on the tines has cracked and come off, so the metal underneath is already rusting. Unacceptable!!!! I'm hoping the extended warranty will cover replacing that. Update on News at 11 after I call them.

Folding Tines
A good feature (which sold my wife on this model) was the bottom rack with folding tines to allow more room for extra-large and weird shaped items.

But we have these very expense Southern Living dinner dishes which just don't fit in the tines well at all! And the folding tines? They're great when you want them down, but they also have a difficult time staying upright.

The upper rack as well has a utility shelf which you can fold down. It folds over the cups and mugs so that you can lay long items like serving spoons, wooden spoons, spatulas, etc. That fold down rack also has a wine glass holder on my model. It is difficult sometimes to use the wine glass holder. If the glass stems are too thick you find yourself struggling with holder. It may even snap off.

The silverware basket holds a LOT of silverware so it's a positive feature on this. It's actually 3 baskets which clip together so if you need more room, you can remove one or more of the silverware baskets if not being used.

Does the brand of detergent seem to make a difference?
Ya know I think it does!!! We had been using the Electrasol tabs with the little JetDry thing in the middle. We seemed to have had a really bad experience and perhaps we were unnecessarily blaming the dishwashers. One of the online survey sites I belong to sent me a month's worth of unnamed dishwasher pouches which I realized later was the Cascade brand. What a difference. The dishes came out much cleaner!

I hate NOISE
One good feature is that it is very quiet!

To summarize, I don't think this dishwasher is worth what we paid for it. There's lots of tines for dishes, plenty of wash cycles, and it's very quiet when running
On the negative side, this is an expensive machine, some of the tines are rusting already, and some dishes just don't fit well no matter what we do.