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Goodbye dish drawers?

13 years ago

After 7 1/2 years, my FP dishdrawers died ($900 to repair both boards and other parts). I absolutely loved that machine because it saved me the trouble of having to unload everything every time I had a dirty dish and was so beautiful. After initially being so disappointed about the lack of durability, I was willing to bite the bullet and get a new one, but I have seen so many complaints about expensive and repeated repairs on line. Very few people seem to be happy with them for more than 4 or 5 years. I guess I was lucky. Anyone still happy in the long term?

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Comments (5)

dadoes
13 years ago
$900 seems quite high. What parts exactly? Sears lists the main controller board at $140, so that's $280 for two. $50.49 for the one mains board. Add a set of lid motors for both top and bottom ... still not up to $900 for the parts. Of course, you'll have to add labor if you can't DIY.

My DD603 is 7 years old, no trouble of any kind thus far.
alula
Original Author
13 years ago
Well, there were the two boards and four other parts. A little more than $700 plus 9% sales tax and $130 for labor. Since a new one is less than $1100, it didn't seem worth fixing because other parts might later fail. The reviews out of Australia (reviewcentre.com) -- where I presume more of these New Zealand appliances are sold were so overwhelmingly bad that I got scared off. I am sure I didn't see so many bad reviews 7 years ago. My brain won over my heart and I just bought the Bosch Evolution 500 for $765 plus tax.
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You have two single-drawer units? Or one double-drawer unit? "Over 10 years old" covers a lot of ground for the various model revisions. Citing the specific model number(s) is more helpful than an imprecise age reference. Assuming you don't have one of the very early models that have inflatable seals ... The seal (for each drawer) is part of the drawer lid and does not contact the drawer rim until a cycle is started and the lid motors crank the lid down. The lid attaches to lid yokes at the left and right of each drawer, which in turn are connected to the screw-drive motors to raise and lower it. Could be one (or both) of the yokes on both drawer have broken. Could be one or both of the lid motors on both drawers have failed. A drawer can be forcibly opened if the lid motors fail and the lid doesn't open ... but it cannot be closed again without damaging the seal ... the lid motors must first be manually cranked to raise the lid. Could be the link support arm (which supports the wiring harness, fill hose, and drain hose) has broken on both drawers and something is dragging on the drawer ... but you didn't cite the model to confirm if you have the old-style plastic link support (which will eventually break) or the more-sturdy revised metal support. There may be a few other possible causes.
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loved my dish drawers in my last house. I could kick myself for not doing the same in my new house even though I really love my Bosch. I loved the ease of not bending over And pulling out racks after opening the door. I bought mine locally and they had an installer that was an expert at all things dishdrawer. His opinion was that most problems that folks had with this DW had to do with installation. something you said bothered me. ”Great suggestion but that is not an option. The nearest place is 400 miles round trip.”. There is no way I would purchase ANY appliance no matter how badly I wanted it without good, local, easily accessible service. No way.
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I had a hutch included in my kitchen that was supposed to house my blender and the drip coffee maker. Well, turns out that those slide in doors are kind of a pain on a daily basis...and I can't stand seeing them left open. So while the blender still lives in the hutch bottom (used every morning), the 2-3 times a day used coffee maker now sits on the counter. I hide other stuff in the appliance garage, and I never push those doors back in. My everyday glasses, bowls and plates are all stored in large drawers opposite from the dw. It eliminated so much whining from my teens...they don't have to take even 1 step to unload, that alone was a win.
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rob from nj
13 years ago
We've had ours about five years.

It did need a repair under warranty but hasn't had an issue since then.

I'd buy another if ours needed replacing. Its a great design.
plllog
13 years ago
It depends on how dear the price of the new unit is to you. I constantly hear that the new, electronic appliances just don't last the way the old ones did and you're lucky if you get to ten years. If that's correct, it sounds like you had about average results, right? If you're just annoyed that it conked out so soon, but can afford to replace the next one should it give you a similar lifespan, I think it would be worth getting the drawers again because you really love the look and function. I mean, what more can you ask for? One can spend two or three times the price of dishwasher drawers on a machine you wouldn't like as well. So why not get what you like?
User
13 years ago
I'd be checking into my wiring system in the house . Two control boards failing at the same time is very suspicious.

Might want to think about surge supression on that circuit and the rest of the house.

7 years ago they were pretty new especially here and they still did not enjoy widespread distribution. SO, you wouldn't have heard a lot of noise about reliability with so few and so early in the product cycle.

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