So the “fails to complete a cycle without erroring out” rate finally seems to have reached 100%, on the Samsung dishwasher that came with the house.
What do I need to know when picking a new one, and/or what models do y’all recommend?
I’ll take recommendations about how to fix the current one too, I guess, but I already got advice from an appliance repair man, who basically said “it would need a new control board, I.E. ditch it.” The error code it’s giving is supposedly about insufficient water or water flow, but the water feed is completely fine, as far as I can tell.
Never buy a Samsung appliance is my best advice. I wish I would have listened when the salesman time me that. I won’t buy their electronics either but that’s just because of how shitty they were with the appliances.
I did all Samsung in my current kitchen. Microwave died in 3 years, I’ve repaired the dish washer 3 times now it and doesn’t even clean that well and the bi metal switch that cools the stove electronics got stuck so I had to take the whole thing apart to replace a $5 part. Never buying Samsung again.
That’s pretty much what the repair guy told me too. He was here looking at the Samsung oven.
Yeah I bought a Samsung range and it started to fail after the warranty ran out. Terrible quality. Range eyes stopped working so we wound up with one eye that we could cook on, and the oven temperature sensor went bad and after replacing it twice (an easy part to replace) it wouldn’t keep temperature. I’ll never buy a Samsung appliance again. Went with an inexpensive, used Frigidaire Gallery and even though it has fewer features, it’s rock solid.
Totally anecdotal but we chose a Bosch about 9 years ago because, in theory, they were good dishwashers and we’ve never had an issue with it in those 9 years. It’s relatively quiet (I think they make them even quieter now), fit and finish so to speak is good, love the shallow top (3rd) rack. I don’t 100% love the rack set up, like where the tines(?) are, but it’s manageable. I compare it to my parents’ dishwasher and the tines on the bottom rack are so spread out that they can’t pack as many plates in. Oh another huge plus in our case is that I’ve never had a piece of plastic melt on the bottom rack. I can put anything down there, even the stuff that says top rack only.
Bosch 800 series are great. Had one in our last house. New house, couldn’t get another within a year. Went with Beko, somewhere near the top of their line. I would say it competes well with the Bosch. Close enough to call it a draw after one year.
That said, check the drain and supply line on the one you have. If you have too much restriction or if the linea are routed higher rather than lower (requiring more pressure to pump) it might be stopping due to flow rate issues. Could be as simple as a line maybe got kinked.
Seconded on the Bosch 800 series. Have had mine for 4 years now. It does a great job cleaning dishes, much better than the GE it replaced. Mine is run just about once a day and the screen needs to be cleaned every week to two weeks.
It’s also very quiet. You can’t even tell it’s running when in the kitchen.
I too have come to evangelize for Bosch. Here’s a game you should play when you are looking at new model dishwashers. Pay attention to what the button layout looks like between brands. Then look inside at the racks and general hardware. You’ll start to notice that they are all essentially the same model with slightly different features, but wildly different prices. I swear they are all made in the same factories but one gets they maytag treatment and one gets the whirlpool. Then look at the Bosch and you should notice how weirdly different it is overall. My Bosch has been reliable as rain and has never gotten moldy or stinky or anything like that.
I’ve noticed this for sure, when visiting family or friends and seeing theirs.
I’m not familiar with Samsung, but a couple of things to consider:
- does your model have an internal filter or screens? If so find them and clean them
- pull the sprayer arms and inspect the water ports. Sometimes gunk or hard food debris clogs them. You can clean them out with a toothpick and some shaking
- get a dishwasher cleaner pack and run it on the sanitize cycle. *Alternatively get some citric acid powder and run a few cycles with that inside the tub.
It’s disappointing to hear a repair person say “get a new one.” My last dishwasher was 20 years old. I repaired damn near everything on it myself including the control board.
Point being" with the control board, is it costs damn-near as much as a whole new unit.
Oh also there may be a float inside to measure water level. Not sure if it’s possible to inspect it with a ohm meter easily, but it’s worth checking.
Last time my dishwasher died I just had to take it had and clean the pump underneath. Basically the connections apart under and had to just scrub them out. One tiny bit of plastic was gumming it up, causing some checks to fail. Stopped it running.
They’re surprisingly simple machines.
For Samsung I always buy the extended warranty. For our washer and dryer Assurion must have spent a fortune keeping them running. A lot more than I ever did to guy them. They’re only 8 years old too. It’s sad, but for Samsung they work nicely but fail frequently,
For your next one but Bosche. They’re all good, get a base model and it’ll clean well and reliably.
Is it giving an error code, or just glitching out? I just repaired my Samsung control board. It would glitch out (display goes nuts, relays clicking). I found that there was cracked solder joints on the main board relays. I resoldered them and it’s totally fixed now. I think the bad connection causes the relays to pulse which creates back-emf that glitches the display. Getting the board out of the potting compound is annoying and messy, but otherwise it was an easy fix.
It fails with a pretty specific blinky-light error code, 10-20 minutes into a cycle.
I’m anbelectronics engineer myself, so I’ve got no issue repairing any visible damage on the control board, if there is any.
Been super happy with my LG dishwasher over the last couple of years, it’s a bit noiser than Bosch ones I’ve seen but it cleans well and dries well too.
Miele is high quality. I love mine. But you won’t find them in chain stores.
+1, mine is great too
Finding them depends on where you live, I guess.I got to see a few models in local mediamarkt. Extrapolating from tgose few to choose among the ones available online was tough though.
Bosch but only if it’s 6 series or above because those are the German made ones.
I also love my Asko washer that is Swedish.
off topic but feed ur dishwasher softened water to avoid limestone formation. water softening device is a good investement in this regard, to feed multiple appliances: washing machine, water heater, etc …
Maytag MDB9959SKZ
Pricey but you can get it on sale for like 400 off. We bought ours because the one we wanted wasn’t in stock anywhere and we ended up taking the floor model at an additional discount.
That said we’re very happy with it. I’d honestly buy another with no hesitation if I needed to.
Quiet, efficient, and no maintenance issues after a couple years. Highly recommend.
Did you check the little filter that you might have on the thing that connects the hose to the valve? There might also be one on the other end, but most of the time there isn’t. It could be that the aquastop if you have one (the bulky thing on the end of the hose) malfunctions.
I bought a AEG and i like it so far, especially for the price.My wife and I just had to replace our dishwasher. She did a lot of research and to my surprise ended up going with a high end Samsung. We just got it installed and it washes fine and is super quiet, can hardly tell it is even running. We did get the extended warranty, we have not always had good luck with appliances in the past
My kitchen aid is a fancy rebranded whirlpool I think. It cleans super well and has not failed me, currently run it twice a day, no issues.