Dishwasher-repair or replace?

[dennis thompson]

My grandson tripped over our dishwasher while the door was open. It now leaks some when we run it. It's a Bosch, 13 years old and worked fine. Do you think I should have it repaired or replace it? If replace, what brand would you suggest?

Thanks

[Stan Calow]

Assume you've checked the gaskets to see if they are out of place or can you see the door frame is bent? Thirteen years seems like a pretty good life, so unless you can fix it cheaply, I'd buy a new one. We have a Kitchen Aid that we really like. Very quiet. But as we found out while shopping, a lot of different brands are actually made in the same factories. If you shop for them in a store, open them up and see that the internal parts (detergent dispenser, for example) all look the same.

[Jim Becker]

If it was far newer, I'd opt for attempting a repair, but a 13 year old appliance is very close to end-of-life in the majority of the real world. If you like Bosch, stick with it. (Thermador is also Bosch under the covers). We opted for KitchenAid at the time of our last DW purcahse over Bosch simply because the interior of the units we were choosing between was better setup in the KitchenAid than the Bosch, but these things fluctuate over time. My friends who I did the very large kitchen island ("continent") top for have a Thermador that has a really nice slim drawer setup for flatware that I "covet", for example. I look at those kinds of things very carefully when choosing an appliance...function is important.

[Bill Dufour]

Does anyone make a dishwasher whose door opens from the side? Not that important in a DW but I know there are three ways clothes dryers open. 2/3 of them are wrong for my setup. Including our current one that opens down so there is no room for a laundry basket in front. But it is better then a left opening one which would totally block access. For some reason very few are right opening. I guess my house is old fashioned since the garage was added in the 70's. But left opening would have been used in the original tandem garage from 1948.
Bill D

[Paul F Franklin]

I tend to agree that a 13 year old dishwasher is nearing end of life. Bosch was and still is a good brand, I have one and folks I have recommended it to like them as well. Very quiet, hard to tell it is running much of the time.

A few things to keep in mind though. Because of changes to reduce energy and water use, current model dishwasher have much longer cycles (like clothes washers). The typical auto cycle on my bosch is 2 hours and 10 minutes. For the most part, food grinders have been eliminated as well, replaced with filter screens to capture larger food particles. The screens need to be cleaned periodically or they start to smell. It just takes a few minutes. You don't have to rinse your dishes before putting them in the DW, but you should scrape off any larger chunks of "stuff". Finally, most models have eliminated electrically heated drying cycles. Instead, they use super hot water for the final rinse and depend on evaporation for drying (with moving air assist). This works pretty well for glassware and china and metal; not so well for plastic items which don't retain enough of the heat from the hot water to flash off the water afterwards. Get used to having water droplets remain on plastic items and the tops of upside down mugs, etc.

And of course, they haven't gotten any cheaper.....

Having said all this, our Bosch cleans dishes better than any of the previous 4 or 5 dishwashers I've owned.

[Jerome Stanek]

appliances are not what they used to be a 13 year old appliance would be just getting broken in

[Barry McFadden]

We have a Maytag dishwasher that is around 22 years old... still works well but has a few issues like the door spring is shot so you have to be careful of not letting it just fall open on its own... but I'm reluctant to get a new one because it seems that these days anything you get new doesn't last near as long as the old ones. I was thinking of updating my central vac in the house which is also about 22 years old and the guy at the vacuum store said that unless something was wrong with it keep it. He said if you get one made now you'll be looking to replace it in a few years....

[Jerome Stanek]

I always like when people say that something is at the end of it's life. Like cell phones I had one that was 3 years old my carrier said it was at the end of it's life and I should get a new one. I kept it for 5 more years and it still was going strong even the battery would still give me over a day of use. I only gave it up when I switched carriers and then my wife grab it and used it for over a year.

[Neil Gaskin]

As a remodeling contractor I’d recommend either Bosch or Kitchen Aid. At 13 years old I’d replace.

[Ronald Blue]

Definitely replace. If you like your Bosch then go with another one. They were the first super quiet one. We went with all LG in our new home. No complaints with those either. Full dishwasher cycle is over 3 hours.

[Jim Becker]

I always like when people say that something is at the end of it's life. Like cell phones I had one that was 3 years old my carrier said it was at the end of it's life and I should get a new one. I kept it for 5 more years and it still was going strong even the battery would still give me over a day of use. I only gave it up when I switched carriers and then my wife grab it and used it for over a year.

It's absolutely true that many things exceed their manufacturer's/vendors's "intended life spans" when they are taken care of, not abused and the stars all align. For a dishwasher, 13 years is a very respectable run and it does sound like the OP's unit has still be working well. But repairing it from the described damage may incur a cost that's a healthy chunk of what replacing the unit with a new one will cost. End of life isn't always about function...it's also about cost to repair vs cost to replace.

[Peter Christensen]

We have one of the Fisher & Paykel drawer models. Because there are just the two of us half the time we only use one drawer to wash the day’s dishes. It is quite and doesn’t use a lot of water.

[Jim Becker]

We have one of the Fisher & Paykel drawer models. Because there are just the two of us half the time we only use one drawer to wash the day’s dishes. It is quite and doesn’t use a lot of water.

I originally had the dual drawer unit in our kitchen when I first renovated back in 2003. We liked the system a lot...until it failed. The cost to fix was major because of parts and not having and experienced labor nearby qualified to service it. That's when we got the KitchenAid I mentioned earlier.

[jared herbert]

appliances arent what they used to be. We have two water heaters in our house, not that big of a house but thats the way it worked out. just replaced one water heater that was 7 years old, I replaced the other one last spring, it only lasted 4 years so the 6 year warranty replaced it free, I still had to install it. Dont know about any one else, I have tried different brands of propane water heaters and none of them last much much more than 6-8 years it seems like, just long enough to get past the 6 year warranty. These heaters were made and sold by an offshoot of the Rheem company which I always thought was a good outfit. They were built in Mexico.

[Peter Christensen]

Jim how long did your F&P last until it quit?