Customer Reviews

Danby DDW496W Countertop Dishwasher

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've waited nearly a year to review this product so that I could better speak to it's durability over time. I have to say, I was a bit wary of buying this because of some of the negative reviews, but I'm so glad I did!

I live in New York City and have never had a dishwasher. My kitchen sink was always chock full of last nights dinner plates, utensils, pans, etc. I absolutely hate to hand wash dishes. Every time I'd visit a friend who had a dishwasher, I'd salivate just thinking how great it would be to have one of my own. So, I put the Danby 496W on my wish list last year and received it in mid-December. To date, I've had NO problems whatsoever. It runs like a dream, hasn't leaked, and cleans amazingly well. I was so psyched to use my new dishwasher that I literally washed every single thing I owned the first day I had it. Does this sound extreme, well, if you're someone who'd rather insert bamboo spikes under your fingernails than hand wash dishes, than you understand my elation.

I do think you have to be careful when you use it so that you don't have some of the problems others have had:

TIPS

1. Clean out the food screen each time your run the dishwasher.
2. Run the hot water first to get it really hot before connecting the dishwasher.
3. As soon as your cycle is done, crack the door open so dishes can dry quickly. This will also help save your window's seal and it will be less likely to leak!
4. Clean out the dishwasher once per month. I pour two cups of white vinegar into the bottom of my empty dishwasher (make sure to do this after water has filled the machine, just before the cycle starts) and then run it through the longest cycle. It will help dissolve any buildup and will keep your dishwasher running well.
5. Be careful how you load the dishwasher. As another reviewer said, if you have a dishes or utensils in certain places, they will hang down too low and the spinner arm will hit them and not work properly. This isn't that complicated, you figure out how to best load it by trial and error. It's amazing how much you can cram in this and still get a sparkling clean load! For example, I've put six 10.5 inch dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 3 bowls, 4 mugs, two 10-inch knives, two wooden spoons.
6. Let's be honest, the 'cup' rack/shelf on the upper left side of the dishwasher is useless for cups. I've found it very useful for washing small bowls (i.e. cereal bowls). This frees up more room for mugs in the bottom rack.
7. Once you've got your dishwasher fully loaded, slide utensils like long chef's knives, wooden spoons, etc. in between your other dishes so that they are lying on their sides. Just make sure that they aren't hanging down too low!
8. I find that powdered detergent works better than gel detergent. I have no idea why, but I really thing it cleans better. Make sure to use detergent that contains enzymes as they help dissolve leftover food from your plates and utensils.

UPDATE!
Just wanted to circle back to let everyone know that my Danby is STILL going strong after two years. I've had zero problems with it and continue to love it!

YEAR THREE UPDATE - December 2009

Today was the THIRD anniversary of my beloved Danby dishwasher. Still running perfectly. I will try and post a video showing how it runs and how much you can fit in it. Glad people are finding the tips helpful!

My wife just gave me one of these units for Christmas. I think it's great, it sits where our dish rack was, and get the dishes quite clean. Since our
hot water tank is three floors below us, the sani-wash feature insures we
actually use hot water for our dishes, too. I like this unit a lot.

I have just one problem: my dinner plates, while big (10.5"), aren't huge, but they don't easily load into it. I'm writing Danby to see what they say, but I think I'll end up having to modify the loading rack so my dishes both load, and don't interfere with the rotating arm. If your plates are as big as mine, you'll be fine but have trouble loading the machine. If they're bigger than mine, this machine might not be for you.

I've had my dishwasher for a short period of time, but am very pleased with it. I have a very small apartment kitchen and was sick and tired of doing dishes by hand. This is perfect for a small household. I like that it has a sani-boost option - push the button and it kicks the water up to 160 degrees - so I know my dishes are definately getting clean.

I've heard some complaints about this item - that it doesn't hold up over the long term (about one year is what I read on epinions), that it gets the dishes too hot, etc. I can't address the long term issue, but will say yes, the dishes are very hot when the wash cycle is done - but just pop the door open and let them cool a bit if they're too hot to handle.

It only has a few wash cycles, and no dry cycle - but my gosh after doing dishes by hand for 3 years I'm just THRILLED with my new dishwasher - it's quiet, efficient and has enough features for the average apartment dweller. AND it's a very compact item - in a small apartment that's a huge plus! I would definately recommend this product, and would definately buy another one if I ever needed to replace it.

I bought one of these from a yard sale for use at my small office. I was getting stuck cleaning up the kitchen and decided to see if this little unit was worth it. I'd looked at the small Haier unit and was not impressed with the plastic interior.

I broke a lot of rules setting this up. Its not connected to the hot water supply, since I have a very old sink and the only other connection I had was to cold water lines. Also, the machine is on the floor, under the sink. I bought new hoses to make the connections. Luckily, the standard connectors on the back made this easy - the fill is a standard clothes washer fill line, and the drain can take a piece of garden hose. I was concerned with the garden hose holding up to very hot wash drain water, but so far its been okay. (If I was installing this anyplace else or using this in my home, I might not be so nonchalant.)

My unit was used, from an area where there was very hard water, and the previous owners had never cleaned the innards of the machine. I soaked everything in CLR to remove the scale from the sump grill, the heating element and the wash arm, and cleaned the gunk out from under the door seal, and away we went.

Since we are in an office, we always use the Sanitary wash to keep the cooties down. The machine does an excellent job of getting even cold tapwater super hot, and the dishes will flash dry after the cycle is over, if you pop the door open. The machine has no problem pumping wastewater through the drain line and up 3 feet into the sink.

One reason I avoided the plastic tub Haier is noise. If you load this machine carefully, you can prevent items from clinking against each other too much, and the machine will operate more quietly. We've found that we can run the machine, have the office radio on, and still comfortably make phone calls without much trouble.

My only complaints would be that on occasion, the timer has gotten stuck (once or twice in 100 washes). Also, some plastic items have been slightly warped by the heater. Capacity is very decent, probably because the machine is pretty large. Measure first!

I bought one of these second hand from an Australian couple that swore "it would change my life." They were right. I love not having dishes stacked up in my sink where I'm too lazy to wash them! I have the unit on the counter next to my sink, where it just barely fits below my cabinets (removed the plastic feet to get it to fit.) The hose stows away behind the unit when it is not in use and then it is a quick 5 second hook up to the faucet. It can heat your water to a very high temperature if necessary. Generally though the water temperature from my faucet is high enough, and the unit will heat the water anyway for the last part of its run. The unit is pretty quiet too, not silent, but you can work/watch TV in my small apartment while it is running without any problems.

I haven't had any issues with it at all. Cleans dishes great. My 10.5" dishes fit in without any problems. For your average New York City apartment this is a great addition.

Some great feedback and tips here already, so without repeating to much, here are extra points:

There is an improved unit, the (Danby DDW497W). Looks like the same mechanicals, but with fancier/easier controls (including delayed start).

Most surprising use, not having to look at dirty dishes any more, just load and close.

It uses less water than hand washing. Also useful for saving water in small households that already have a large underused dishwasher.

Typical daily loads, two) one for the pots/pans, one for the dishes.

Takes up only slightly more space than a full size dish drying rack and way more sanitary than a tub of greasy water.

The extra water heater has several uses. It sanitizes, it compensates for unheated water, it improves cleaning power, it speeds drying (open the door at cycle's end). One negative, soft plastic (think salsa containers) tend to bend a bit.

The biggest item we've fit (read:stuffed) inside is this massive double-handled, 5 quart pan. Just don't expect anything else to fit inside at the same time, including the lid: KitchenAid 5-Quart Sauté Pan

Run the silverware basket every other load. Its rarely filled by a single meal's worth of forks and takes up as much room as 2-3 bowls.

Load dirty side down for maximum cleaning.

It seems calibrated for Corelle bowls and plates, so if you have that, no worries on fit.

I brought the included faucet adaptor to a specialty hardware fittings store and bought a compatible quick release, to which I attached a flexible nozzle. Now when we disconnect the washer, we connect the nozzle. No more splash and pressurized water [again] reaches the whole sink. See customer images (adaptor setup) for view.

If performance drops, run a cycle with distilled vinegar and then an empty one with just water. Rerun the water-only cycle until no more suds come out.

Final tip: if you have a particularly soiled pot/pan, run it on the second load. Putting it in the sink under the drain spout of the first load makes a great pre-wash.

I've had a Danby Countertop dishwasher for a couple of years now (mine was the model DDW396W). It worked pretty well until the plastic window came loose. This is apparently common with these machines--Danby has instructions on their website on how to fix it. I glued the window back in with 3M Scotch-Seal Industrial Sealant 800 and the dishwasher is now back in use. I like this machine, I just wish it was more durable. Perhaps the newer DDW496W model is a little better built.

An ex-coworker once gave me a sound bit of advice. He said when contemplating a purchase, a new job, or life change, one should judge it according to how it would affect the quality of your life. Well, after an extended visit to the In-laws, and using their under-counter dishwasher, we found ourselves once again wishing we could have a dishwasher to handle the moderate daily accumulation of glasses, bowls, and silverware that sit in the sink. Unfortunately, short of a total remodeling, there is no way to fit a traditional under-the-counter dishwasher in our kitchen. The Danby countertop proved to be the solution.

Is it small? Not exactly - it takes up quite a bit of counter space, and we had to shave a quarter inch off of one cabinet to make it fit. Is it quiet? As dishwashers go, it's not too bad, but it is up at ear level, so if you are in the kitchen while it is running, you know it. Is it easy to use? Yes, once you decipher the cryptic little symbols on the front. The thing that looks like a fried egg apparently is the international symbol for "drying with heat", and the button that controls whether the heating element is used is hard to figure out. There is no locking handle like on most under-counter models. You push the door closed until it clicks. This also takes a little practice until you gain confidence. Is it easy to install? Yes. Other than the aforementioned cabinet mod, it was just hook up the hoses and plug it in. Oh, we did have to replace a non-standard thread Price-Phister faucet with a utilitarian Moen to get the quick-disconnect adapter to fit. BTW, they recommend you do NOT have a sprayer on the faucet to which you connect the dishwasher, as high back pressures could cause it to burst. Usually the connection for the sprayer can just be plugged.

Does it get the dishes clean? YES! Does it eliminate hand washing? Not entirely, partly because it doesn't hold much. (It is designed for plates, and we use a lot of bowls.) We have not yet tried to wash plastic things using the "no heat" setting, which only uses the temperature of the incoming water and not the heating element.

Has it improved our quality of life? You bet!

Minor quibbles: 1)The unit is very heavy, very shiny and slippery, and therefore hard to lift. (The unpacking instructions mention a handle...there is none.) If you are a senior or a small person, get some help to unpack and install it. 2) In order to use the quick-connect hose, you have to install an adapter piece on the end of your faucet. This piece, although it contains an aeration screen, has a very small opening, and it takes practice not to squirt water all over the place when you turn the water on when the washer is not connected. The inclusion of a quick-connect sprayer nozzle would be a great improvement on the product.

I bought this dishwasher in August of 2007. It worked well for about a year. My only complaint was that glasses placed in the corners often came out dirtier than they started, and if our water pressure got low, it didn't clean very well at all.

In November of 2008, the dishwasher broke and flooded our entire kitchen. I'm talking about a lake in the middle of the floor. I called Danby, and the woman I talked to said that the dishwasher was guarenteed for 18 months, and sent me to a repair place. The closest repair shop was extremely far from my house. I left the dishwasher with them for almost a month. Then, when it was finally fixed, I went to pick it up, and all of a sudden the Danby people were claiming that all of their products are guaranteed for 12 months, not 18, and they denied that anyone had ever told me that my dishwasher was covered. After a LOT of arguing, they finally gave me my dishwasher back, but told me they would never cover another repair again.

So guess what? I took the dishwasher home, it worked for a month, and then it exploded and flooded my whole kitchen AGAIN.

I read all 14 reviews and went ahead and bought it. So far, so good! It is working just as promised. I think part of what helped me was reading everyone else's responses. I made sure I had everything tight. I ran the hot water before I hooked it up. I knew to take the round thing off the bottom of my faucet so I could attach the nozzle (the nozzle sucks - it throws water and aerates a bit too much), but it has to be there for the dishwasher attachment. I was also able to attach it without any tools. Anyway, my daughter helped me hoist it onto the counter and I had it hooked up and running in 10 minutes. We HATE washing dishes and this is worth the price. Everything has come out clean and shiny. I am not afraid to eat off my own plates anymore!

It is a little large for most counters, but it fits under my cabinets and the hoses are long enough that I have it shoved in the corner so I have a bit of counter space next to the sink. My apartment is small (kitchen is a 6 foot long galley), but I am more than happy to lose the counter space to get clean dishes in return.

Check all hoses before turning on, watch for leaks the first time you run it, and pay attention to plates in case they drop down through the rack and stop the spinner-thing (my salad plates cannot go in the right-back corner - have to be in left-back corner). Well worth the price so far!