I have the F&P tall tub on top version, with a water softner. I read the thread I'm posting below before I bought. Since I read this thread first, I knew exactly what to expect, learned how to really load it. There is a learning curve, but I will tell you they are wonderful drawers. Absolutely no complaints from here.

Read this thread--the whole way through. It starts out as a doom and gloom scenario, but as you read it you will see how things can be corrected and the problems are usually just user error.

I would suggest to incur the extra expense of having the dealer who knows what they are doing install it. It does take extra knowledge.

We love ours

Here is a link that might be useful: DD Thread

I was going to post that thread too. My suggestion would be to get just one drawer or two top drawers if you can do that. We're just two people also and rarely use the bottom drawer and it's very close to the ground.

I have had my dishdrawers for four years. Love them! Only two people here. A normal dinner fills one drawer but like last night--cheesecake plus dinner stuff so both drawers used. They take the same space as the "normal" dishwasher and are ever much more flexible.

How about an 18" Miele dw? Good luck with your quest.

I read the thread many moons ago, and decided to get them despite pretty bifurcated views. People seem to love them or hate them.

ONe thing seems clear, you need to baby it ... rinse the dishes, and be very careful how you stack.

We shall see ... we have a young family of five!

We've had our F&P DD for over 3 years now and absolutely love them. DH installed ours after hearing stories about botched installs by 'pros'. We load it pretty conservatively, but I use every inch of space before I run it. We alternate between top and bottom drawers, so both get used equally. We almost always run it on eco mode and rarely have issues with things being clean. I do rinse the dishes before they go in, but never clean them first.

Totally agree with Prill, if you are doing a complete reno and have the option, I would really do 2 uppers (tall tubs, if available as single units). And place one on each side of the sink.

We rarely use the bottom drawer, but I do run it at least once a week when I do the baffles from my range hood.

I don't baby mine too much as far as rinsing the dishes ahead of time, I just scrape them.

We had the dealer install ours even though my dh could do it. The reason being the dealer offered a 10 year extended warranty for free on the motors, but of course they had to do the install. And my guys were so great, they even did a little plumbing and also a little electrical (they installed an outlet under the sink and plugged the dd in--usually our d/w are hardwired.

Sorry, I forgot all this, it was pre-first cup of coffee.

My only regret is that I have ever had to unload a regular dishwasher.

Others may clean better (DDs are perfectly adequate), others may be quieter (again, not bad), but drawers all the way.

I had one of the first models and in my new(er) house I got another. Converted my sister. Converted my parents.

My Dh is still trying to talk me out of getting one of these. We already "baby" our dishwasher, so it does not sound like anything would change in that department. Ours is raised up 8" so the bottom drawer should still be at a decent height.

DH will install ours - he's way more particular about stuff like that than anyone I've encoutered - whether they do it for a job or not. But he's not a novice when it comes to stuff like that.

I've got plenty of time, the old one is installed and works so it can stay there until DH and I come to an agreement - and save up a but more $$. I just figured out what I need for my backsplash and it's going to be near $1000 so I'd better not press the dishwasher thing until DH has forgotten about the cost of the backsplash.

I absolutely love my dishdrawers--no regrets. I have a tall double and tall single. The bottom of the tall double is usually saved for glassware so I can run that on delicate. I don't rinse and only scrape. The only time my dishes haven't gotten clean is when something fell through and interfered with the arm. All of mine get run everyday--when the gang is here, more often than that.

We've been using ours for 5 1/2 years and I absolutely love them.

The dd's are excellent for small numbers since dirty dishes get washed sooner with just one drawer being filled.

They are also excellent for large numbers. My 2 drawers act like 1 1/2 dw's because I can load up a drawer with prep items, set it to wash and still have an empty drawer for the dinner dishes. By the time I get to the final clean up, the first drawer is done or almost done.

It's easy to get ds to unload the drawers because one drawer is a manageable amount. I love always having a drawer free for receiving dirty dishes. No more dishes accumulating on the counter after I start the dw.

The door on our old dw was always left open during clean up--it ended up blocking cabinetry and I sometimes bumped into it. The drawers never get left open. But if a drawer is open when we're loading or unloading, it's easy to bump it in to let someone by (we ended up changing the dw position during our reno and put it on a tight aisle. The drawers allowed us to do this. A traditional dw wouldn't have worked.)

We didn't have a choice at the time, but if I were to buy dd's today I would still go with the equal size drawers--that way they can be used interchangeably and one drawer doesn't have to be saved for certain items.

We had one service call when the drawers were still new (under warranty). The flood sensor went off but the service person could find nothing wrong. We did have a problem with the flood sensor going off about a year ago. A small amount of water had leaked into the bottom tray. We searched on the internet and found out how to remove the bottom drawer and thoroughly dry out the tray and sensor area. We haven't had problems since. I think I probably piled things too high and disrupted the seal.

There are some minuses (what doesn't have some minuses?) but in my kitchen, the pluses overwhelm the minuses and I'll never willingly go back to a traditional dw.

I can't believe I still feel so passionate about an appliance I've been using for over a 1/2 decade.

I have the Kitchen Aid dishdrawers and love them! I've had them about 4 years and no problems....If we build a newer home, I would love to have 2 single drawers, (maybe on each side of sink)..
I don't regret purchasing them at all and would do it again! I think you will love them!

Love my FP dishdrawers. Makes life so much easier when loading and unloading the things. I agree though that maybe getting 2 tall tubs is better than getting the double unit (which is what I have). The only thing I dislike about them is the way that the washing powder goes into the unit, it's a little clunk to be honest.

Oh wow, this is unbelievable. You guys/gals are incredible! Seeing only one lone DD among two dozen DWs at the appliances store, I didn't expect there are many DD owners out there, let alone many passionate ones. Thank each and every one of you for taking your time to respond. I still need to convince DH the beauty of this toy, but I feel more confident myself going into it now.

Gardenweb rules!

I'm back...gosh, I really must love mine! lol

jgopp, regarding that issue with the soap, I totally know what you mean, but when I was reading that thread I posted at the top, someone mentioned that they bought a sugar dispenser from Crate & Barrel for something like $7. Awesome, it measures out the detergent by tsp increments. And the drawers use 2 tsp on the large side and 1 tsp on the small compartment. It has a little spout that helps get the soap in there! It's great.

And one other plus I thought of, with the drawers, I don't throw water on the floor on the other side of the d/w door. It was always wet over there from loading the old dishwasher.

You don't need to baby the thing. You DO need to learn to load it and guests might not do a good job. But once you figure it out, it's just a dishwasher. But better.

And if you get a paneled one, you can hang a towel on the handle and it won't hit the floor when you open the dishwasher. Try to do that, Miele!

mudworm, give your dh time to mull it over. When I first saw these things in the store I wrote them off as expensive gimmicks. Then I started reading about them on the appliance forum and I started being able to visualize the use. Once I got a good picture, there was no turning back.

I brought our dinner plates to the showroom to test them in the drawers. They didn't fit in our old Kenmore but they do (just barely) fit in our dd's.

Love mine. It's so much nicer to have the two drawers to alternate between. I bought a discontinued floor model (603 series) and finally got it installed a few weeks ago. So far, so good.

This has been very informative. I'd never considered getting DDs, although I had thought that if my mom's DW ever croaks I would recommend that she get DDs since she lives alone and only runs her DW 2x/week. We run our DW at least once a day and sometimes twice. It would be nice to be able to run it with all the dirty prep dishes before dinner and still have an empty drawer to handle the 4 plates, platter, 2 serving bowls, etc. from dinner. I do my pans by hand, BTW. I'm definitely going to check into these--thanks everyone for all the info and to mudword for starting this thread!

Another DD semi-lover. We've had a double DD over 5 years. I do love the top one, but hate the bottom one - too low to the floor!!!!! I only wanted a single, but DH insisted on a double. Last time I will listen to him.....

Here is a link that might be useful: my DD

LOVE love love our single DD. We have a full size Miele and the single (larger) FP DD. Hands down prefer the FP. Don't know about the comments regarding tricky loading; we've never had an issue with things being dirty.

I like the idea of having two larger ones flanking a sink - that would be very cool.

Eliz