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Hi. Does anybody know of any dishwashers that are not full of flimsy little plastic attachments? In my experience these constantly break or snap off and end up being more trouble than they’re worth. I’d be happy to have a dishwasher with one set, unchangeable interior and forgo all the options that come from moving things in and out, flipping things up and down etc, if that interior were made of metal and would endure as long as the rest of the appliance.
Been looking and can’t find anything.
Thanks.This is something that gets asked a lot.
Can I get metal instead of plastic dishwasher wheels/baskets, fridge freezer shelves/door fixings, washing machine doors/knobs and on and on the list goes.
The short answer is no, you can’t.
The long answer is, you can’t and with very, very good reason.
To keep it simple and save me writing an essay on it, there are elements in any product (doesn’t matter what really) that are designed in a way that one easier to replace and the cheaper component fails (often for safety reasons as well) before something else does that is harder to replace or indeed irreplaceable.
To give a common example, integrated door slides on a fridge. They’re all plastic and we are often asked for metal alternatives but, it’s only one such example from many.
The reason that they are the way they are is, if they were metal there’d be no flex, no tolerance and that’s a problem with so many moving parts in use. then there’s noise, metal against metal, it’s not gonna be quiet. Then there’s that if they’re stronger than the wooden door or indeed, the appliance door, the doors will rip apart before the brackets do.
It’s all very well having the brackets that don’t fail, not much cop if your doors are ripped apart.
So in many cases, it’s the lesser of one or more evils.
The solution, to be blunt, is to buy better plastics. To buy better plastics costs, just as buying better anything costs.
So, if you go buy a cheap dishwasher then yes, the plastics will be, ehm, not very good and they will break.
But a good one and whilst you’re not totally immunised from failure, it’s far, far less likely.
As to machines without all the “features” people want on the spec sheet, if they weren’t there (even if never used like most), they’d not sell any. So…
I hope that helps you understand and perhaps appreciate that the price you pay isn’t always about what you can see, some stuff you can’t see yet it is better or worse depending on what it is and how much it is.
K.
Interesting, thanks.
Actually I was thinking about other appliances as well. I’ve just been replacing the plastic fronts on the drawers in the freezer compartment of my Bosch fridge-freezer, as they have broken when the drawer gets a bit “sticky” with ice and has to be pulled out with too much force. I can see your logic here as if the drawer were a single piece of moulded metal, and there were ice sticking it to the interior sides of the freezer, you could pull it out and find you rip shards out of the sides of your freezer.
What I’m talking about with the dishwasher is a bit different – not so much simply replacing the plastic parts with metal ones, but redesigning the whole interior so it’s more simple and solid, and doesn’t HAVE so many fiddly moving parts. Simple example: The one I’m throwing away because it doesn’t work any more has a simple immovable plastic plate holder at the front of the bottom tray, and then behind it there is a whole set of complicated clip-on attachments allowing a second plate holder to either be sprung up into service, or laid down so you can put saucepans etc. there. Over time half the attachments have broken or got lost, so when I use it, it’s all kind half-supported and wobbly. Is there any reason why there couldn’t simply be a second immovable one there, OR an empty space for pots and pans? I’d gladly forgo the flexibility to have the solidity.
So maybe let me rephrase my question: Are there any dishwashers on the market without moving, clip-on, pull-down, flip-up etc. adjustable parts inside? Is there anything that you open the door and it just IS, one particular way, with everything built to stay in place. If plastic is the best material to build it from, then fine.
Gomer wrote:I’d gladly forgo the flexibility to have the solidity.
You might be okay with that, how many other people looking up specs will be? Forgo a place setting or two and have to have it explained at length why that they can only have 12 place settings, not 14 as it makes it more durable.
Manufacturers cater to mass market demands, not individual ones.
If people demand durable and the proof, manufacturers will cater to it. If not, they will not.
As ever, the power rests with the consumer but, all or a “reasonable proportion” of them and not just a few. The few, they can’t be bothered with.
So to answer the last bit of your post, no. As people generally want that flexibility and look for it when buying so, it exists and machines without it won’t sell when compared to one that does. Therefore, from a manufacturer’s perspective, there’s no point in making one that doesn’t have it.
K.
Yeah, I was afraid that might be the case as I’ve been looking for some time and not managed to find anything.
On your wider points, I would only say that in a market as large as dishwashers, you would expect some variety and small numbers of manufacturers catering to niche markets. I’m not asking all or even most manufacturers to provide what I want, just whether there’s one somewhere who does.
Anyway, there you go. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine – the superiority of simple, durable design and difficulty finding it.
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