Customer Reviews

Kitchenaid KUDD03DTSS Double Drawer 6 Cycles / 4 Cycle Options Architect Series II

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The water noises are disturbingly and annoyingly loud. Sounds like someone taking a shower in the middle of the kitchen. Or like it's raining. If you can, buy the version made in New Zealand by Fisher & Paykel. Which I have in my other house. They look almost exactly the same but the F&P-made one is so much quieter and smoother operating.

UPDATE (Jan 30, 2012): After three weeks I exchanged the KitchenAid for the similar Fisher & Paykel model, which I've had for over three years now with no problems.

Normally, I do consider not only function, but form. But, heck, what good is a dishwasher that doesn't clean your dishes? This thing is piece of junk. AND I paid top dollar for it! I figured - go with a well-known brand, buy the top of the line unit they have and I won't have issues, right? I mean, how can you manufacture a dishwasher for $1500 and not get the very basic function... cleaning.. correct?

Was there any quality control on this thing at all? There couldn't have been because this thing didn't clean - right out of the box.

Do not buy. No No No.

My dishwasher is four years old, and taught me a very important lesson: Never buy new technology.

Fortunately, I spent the money for the extended warranty, and am so glad that I did! It will be expiring this year and I will be getting another (any other) dishwasher. What's frustrating is that it replaced a dishwasher that was nearly 20 years old, and a contractor grade appliance at that.

First, the pros:

1. Very, very cool looking.
2. The ability to wash a small number of dishes in one drawer.
3. It's very quiet. As one reviewer said, this must be the one made by F&P, because it's virtually silent.

Cons - oh where do I begin?

1. Doesn't always clean dishes well.
2. As I sit here waiting for (still yet) another serviceman to figure out why the top drawer keeps opening on its own during midcycle...
3. Doesn't always empty completely.
4. Sometimes the top drawer (when it's working) leaks into the bottom drawer, which means that I have to wait until the top drawer has finished its cycle before I can start the bottom cycle.
5. The rinse agent cups leak, which means that the top drawer leaked into the bottom drawer. We don't know where the bottom drawer leaked to.
6. It's rare to find someone who can fix it. I'm thinking that a lot of my problems are due to servicemen "guessing" how to fix its various quirks and problems.

So as you can see, it's beautiful, but completely unreliable. For the money spent on this, I think it's reasonable to expect it to work *at least* as good as the old but noisy dishwasher it replaced. I've had this for nearly five years, and it's been very frustrating almost the entire time. My tax refund has already been earmarked to purchase a replacement ... cheaper and more reliable. I can't imagine that any other could be more unreliable than this one.

Update 8/5/10

I am now the proud owner of a Bosch 500 (or maybe 550. or something) Dishwasher. I've had it for a few weeks now and have passed everything remotely washable through it and it hasn't even burped. The KitchenAid opened midcycle and flooded the bottom drawer one last time too many. My retailer (the extended warranty rocks!) offered to replace it. After about 8 visits from the repair people this year alone, they decided to cut their losses and replace it.

Ditto on the previous reviewers' comments for this dishwasher. It looks pretty but that is it - the functionality is terrible. It does not clean, does not dry, leaves a residue, is very loud, long cycle, and the drawer will open during mid-cycle. I am extremely disappointed. My previous dishwasher was Kitchen Aid and it worked very well, however, it was a tub dishwasher. I am buying a Whirlpool tub dishwasher to replace this one as I am tired of hand washing my dishes after they come out of the dishwasher!!! Kitchen Aid really struck out on this one. Practically my entire kitchen has Kitchen Aid appliances, however, I may never buy a Kitchen Aid appliance again.

I can't add much to what has already been entered here. The dishes NEVER come out clean, if what you are trying to put in is anything but TINY, it won't fit, I am sick of the repair man interrupting my work day, only to have him leave and find yet another problem. I've stopped calling, even though I have an extended warranty. I'm pretty sure no other dishwasher on the market, no matter how inexpensive (and as we know, this one was NOT inexpensive) can cause your dishes to come out looking any worse. The only reason I gave it ONE STAR is because the page wouldn't let me complete my review without checking something.

JUNK JUNK JUNK. I have NOTHING good to say about this appliance.

I bought this dishwasher from best buy and it has been nothing but problems. One would think spending 1500$ on an appliance would ensure quality but this dishwasher leaves food debris and film on all the dishes. I essentially have to completely wash the dishes before loading them which defeats the whole purpose of having a machine in the first place. I have had service people out at least 10 times and since the product is newer it seems that no one knows how to fix it.
This product looks cool and the concept is great, but if your looking for function spend your money elsewhere.

Floor Model Cost: ~$700+ tax
Installation Cost: (includes delivery of new model & haul away of old model) < $200 (including tax) as needed extra length water connectors and add'l labor to left of sink past pull out wastebasket cabinet

My experience is with a clearance floor model connected by an experienced installer who took his time to install it properly. He followed the installation guide instructions (you can download those from the KitchenAid website) and made sure the unit was properly balanced adjusting the two front legs with the bottom dishwasher drawer removed, then again checking it after the bottom drawer was put into position and engaged. The unit MUST be level to work properly. He made sure the model was secured into position. Anyone who has drawers opening mid-cycle likely does not have the model absolutely level and that is NOT the mfgr's fault!
BTW, the connectors are located on the side of the unit--as you face it, they will be on the LEFT side. This would be easiest for installing to the right of your sink as you face your sink, but can be installed to the left of your sink as the hoses are long enough to even go behind a pull out wastebasket cabinet.

I find the externally attractive two dish drawers very, very easy to use, especially the top drawer for anyone with back issues when they first get up and yet still needs to unload the machine if it was run in the night. One only has to be careful not to accidentally press the touch sensitive control panel when loading or unloading items, but cancel works well ;) Each drawer has the same extensive touch sensitive control panel set up.

These dish drawers will come in at 56 DB, around the same DB as the 12 yr old dishwasher that had to be replaced. Mid-range single door dishwashers with stainless steel interiors come in around 49 DB. High-end single door stainless steel interior type dishwashers will vary in DB and some go as low as 43 DB for the TOL model level. I have a French Country Kitchen-Family Room combo area that is very large, so any sound made by the dish drawers is not an issue for us--we go into the living room and we can hear the TV in there just fine, or more often, I run the dish drawers during the night when we are asleep on another level at the other end of the house. I can, however, work just fine in the Family Room area with the dish drawers running in the background.

Ten key points to keep in mind:

1) Your hot water temperature for your sink faucet should be 120 degrees F and run it (then turn it off) so the water going to the dishwasher drawers is very warm before starting either dish drawer;
2) Fresh, powdered detergent is the preferred type of dishwasher detergent to use with this model; most Americans have hard water; if you do, be sure to fill to the hard water level in both pre-wash & main wash for each dish drawer; NEVER use less than 1 Tbsp per load;
3) Use Rinse Aid of some type as the drawers are plastic (we all know stainless steel interiors dry the best so plastic needs a little more help); the default rinse aid setting is 3; if you adjust that down, then expect to need to towel dry some dishes, especially plastics; there is an indicator light for a low level of rinse aid--refill as needed;
4) Sensor cycle works quite well; there are two double-sided silverware holders total for the two drawers and load tines and knife points face down;
5) You can use Pro-Dry option for all cycles except the 30 minute Quick Cleanup cycle (I like this cycle for pots and pans that only had liquids cooking in them);
6) Sani-rinse is a great option to always use;
7) Always load items correctly-- soiled pot & pan surfaces facing horizontally DOWN for the bottom of the drawer spray arm access, or frying pan or plate surfaces loaded vertically into the rack inserts (be sure not to block the Pro Wash Bar sprayer in the top back of either drawer); I load items as I go along throughout a day or evening cooking spree and run the first drawer that fills up when it fills up and then start loading items into the next drawer; sometimes I fill up & run both drawers concurrently; if items need to accumulate overnight into the next day and then you plan to run either or both full drawers, do run the rinse cycle for each partially filled drawer before going to bed;
8) Never overlap plates or bowls; Dishwasher safe plastics really will be safe in either dish drawer in my experience.
9) Remove the rack inserts when you have larger pots and pans to wash--it is so easy to take the rack inserts out; I find these drawers very, very easy to load and unload;
10) If you choose the High Temp Scrub Option, you MUST allow the dry fan to run for the extended 3.5 hrs; you cannot use the High Temp Scrub option with Light/China cycle; you should use the High Temp Scrub option with the Heavy Duty cycle.

Because one can accidentally touch the very sensitive touch control panels when loading or unloading either drawer and because one must be very careful when filling the narrow detergent and rinse aid compartments for each drawer, I rated the model 4 out of 5 stars.

I Would agree with all who posted! I have owned a lot of dishwashers and this one is BY FAR the worst. I also have a very personal relationship with my repairman thanks to this piece of junk dishwasher. Besides the fact that is breaks down, it has never truly cleaned my dishes well and now 2 years after owning it it is leaving a hideous film on all my dishes to the point that I have to re-wash most items (including silverware) and even just trash some of my plasticware. All that $ and it is a total lemon! Don't buy this dishwasher!

When I purchased this drawer dishwasher, we were excited to be able to start downsizing kitchen chores, using less energy made sense as our children started going off to college. Based on our experiences with past KitchenAid appliances (a refrigerator we own and using a full sized dishwasher at the in-law's house) we were confident it was a good decision. Well, we couldn't have been more wrong! Within a month of installation (done by the dealer), we came home to find the kitchen floor flooded after leaving the dishwasher running when leaving for work, called the dealer who came out and replaced some of he hoses. Six weeks later, same problem, but this time we noticed that one of the "covers" over the vents on the inside of the front end had fallen off. This time we were told to call KitchenAid service since we were now using our extended warranty. A service call was made to our house to replace the cover which we now learned, had fallen off due to the plastic fingers that engage the vent opening in the front wall of the drawer had broken/worn off.

Since then, KitchenAid has replaced the original dishwasher with a new one (we begged for a different model but they refused) and subsequently has dispatched a service rep more than 10 times to replace the same part, on both drawers, after leaking all over the floor, again. All of these visits have required that someone miss a day of work waiting for the repair, and the last time, the service rep had 6 new caps shipped to our house directly from KitchenAid parts, so we could replace them ourselves, after the kitchen floods. I have run out of this shipment of parts and will be placing a new service call to have someone come out again, another day of missed work, and replace the same cover. For this much money, at least KitchenAid should stand behind their product instead of hiding behind it. They should have recalled these a long time ago for all of the problems and poor performance.

The worst kitchen appliance I have ever owned and the last KitchenAid appliance I will ever buy. Don't buy it. I am looking at a Samsung as a replacement since I am afraid of the permanent damage to the flooring and cabinets.

I only wish I had thought to look up reviews on this machine before paying $$$$ at Best Buy. I have to wash my dishes with a scrubber after they come out of this machine and I make sure they are clean before I put them in. I DON'T GET IT. THEY CALL IT A DISHWASHER BUT IT DOESN'T WASH THE DISHES. It puts this heavy film on everything. I hate it but I have only had it for about six months and I paid a fortune for it so I am stuck with it for a while. THE MACHINE SHOULD BE RECALLED!!!! It really deserves 0 stars or minus 5 stars.