Until now, the only review of this type of Fisher & Paykel dishwasher was a quick video over on Apartment Therapy (you can see it here). It's a one minute tip that was made almost two years ago. We haven't experienced the problems hinted at in the video, but we're eager to hear your thoughts if you have.
Here are the PROS, in our opinion:
• Compact and space-saving. This is by far the biggest draw. A big door on a standard washer can take up a lot of room in a small kitchen. In our last apartment, which had a very narrow galley kitchen, it didn't open flat because it hit the oven across from it. We've also knicked our shins on the edges of a heavy dishwasher door. These drawers pull out smoothly, and you can open them just a few inches to throw in a dish or two.
• Smaller loads. We don't create a ton of dirty dishes, and it would take a while to fill a standard-sized washer. With the drawers, we fill up one every couple of days and run it. It uses less water than a bigger version, and we don't wait around to fill it up.
• Multiple settings. We'll get to the downsides of some of the settings in a second, but at least it does have an "eco" option and standard and fast settings, in case we want to do a small load in a hurry.
• Quiet as a mouse. We get a tiny bit of humming and whirring when we first start it, but really, you can barely tell it's running.
And the CONS:
• Problems when you overfill it. You really have to keep the dishes separated and not cram things in. We've had a few loads where dishes come out with food still stuck on them, and it's always when we put too much in. Caveat: We always use the eco setting, so maybe if we turned that off, the higher heat or greater water pressure would take care of business. Anyone know the answer to that?
• Fast setting has its tradeoffs. It's half the time of the normal setting (44 minutes instead of 87) but it leaves the dishes dripping wet. That's not a huge deal, but a little annoying.
• Occasionally gets smelly. We've mentioned this problem before. Even though we rinse our dishes, if we leave them for more than a day, the dishwasher can really stink when we open it. We think it's because the seal on the drawers is so tight, it stays really moist and warm in there—no air circulates at all. It's always a little damp, which of course contributes to things thriving and smelling.
• Bottom drawer gets neglected. We almost always use the top drawer; we don't alternate. The bottom only gets a workout after a big dinner party, and we wonder if that will affect the wear and tear down the road. Of course, when we have kids, we're sure we'll use it more often.
Overall, we're happy with our dish drawers, even though we didn't choose them. They look good, and they are so much more comfortable to use than a regular washer with rickety racks and heavy doors.
We're interested in other dish drawer users out there (Fisher & Paykel or other brands). What do you think? Any tips?
Related: Smeg Horizontal Dishwasher for Small Kitchens
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Comments (25)
When we redid our kitchen last year, we seriously toyed with the idea of getting a F&P drawer dish washer. But a friend of mine got rid of hers because it was leaking. We decided instead to go with a traditional Bosch -- love it.
F&P does look really sleek, though.
I've had my F&P Dish Drawers since a 2002 kitchen re-do and I have to say I still love them. In our 2 person household I can clean an evenings batch of dishes and glassware in one drawer (always on the eco setting). I use the bottom drawer frequently (sometimes I'm too lazy to empty the top), and it's really handy during a dinner party: you can load one drawer with dishes from the first course and have then washing while your serving and eating the main course. I wish I had had the space to install one drawer on either side of the sink as I have seen elsewhere. The only drawback I've experienced is the need for service annually as soon as the warranty expired (but that seems to happen with every appliance, ipod, cell phone, etc.).
I have a single F & P integrated dish drawer.
Haven't really had any problems with it and I do a large amount of cooking. In other words, I jam it pretty full quite often.
I do believe it's important to use a rinse additive.
Plastic has a tendency to not get perfectly clean sometimes.
But, I think a single dishdrawer is really all that an average urban single or couple apartment dweller would need.
Full size dishwashers are great too. The only thing I don't like about full dishwashers is that it can take a long time to fill one up with dirty dishes.
My parent's have this and while it's convenient and yes, quite silent, it seems to break an awful lot. Like three, four times in a year. My regular old, I don't even remember the brand, dishwasher that came with my condo hasn't broken once in the same period.
The other thing is, it's hard to find someone to repair a fisher-paykel. My dad's lucky, because he can do it himself, but someone who wasn't so handy might have a real hard time with it.
You'll have to pry my Bosch from my cold, dead hands. I have never loved an appliance like I love my dishwasher.
If you are short of space, consider an 18-inch-wide dishwasher. They're about half the price of the drawer models but still fit plenty.
My parents have 2 of the single drawers. They keep kosher and it's an AWESOME solution...one for meat, one for dairy...on opposite sides of the kitchen...makes it very hard for guests to mess up.
Mom's had some trouble with smell/food getting trapped. She figured out how to get the screen out and scrubs it with a toothbrush once a week. But, she's super-duper anal...so it's probably not necessary to do it that frequently.
Dishes get really clean, washer is very quiet, and they fit great drawers underneath the washer where she keeps tupperware (on the dairy side) and skillets (on the meat side).
When I renovate my teeny tiny kitchen, I plan on replacing my crappy huge old beast with just one of these. I need the extra drawer space, and in a small house like this, there's no need for a large dishwasher...run out of cups, spoons, mugs before it's even close to full.
I had an F&P dish drawer at my previous apartment, and while it was space-saving and quiet, it stripped the finish off all my coloured Tupperware and crazed the majority of my drinking glasses. My current house has an Asko, which is far superior. I'll never buy anything else.
I dislike their TV commercials!! If you'll notice, the woman is always the one doing the work, while it's the man who comes up with the idea of an appliance that can make her chores easier.
I had a Fisher Paykel dishdrawer in Australia. Dishwashers are less common in Oz and most of them tend to be small. Ours, being no exception, was a single drawer. We used it over a period of two years from new to worn. The points below are the cons of the experience.
Eco Mode = "Arh my dishes are still dirty!" mode.
One drawer was never enough space. Dinner parties took four loads (i.e. 8-10 hours) Dinners where I cooked at home took two loads.
After two years the grey plastic discolored to orange. Washing with vinegar did not fix this problem. (and no it was not mould.)
If the slightest bit of food was left on a plate the drawer became plugged and flooded the dishes. That meant fun clean up time.
Sometimes dish soap would solidify and clog the works. (how I do not know. It was a liquid cascade style soap.)
I often had to clean the insides of the drawer with a wire hanger.
Sometimes the electronics would get confused and have an error. To fix this I would have to turn off power to the dishwasher via the circuit breaker.
You know, thinking about this now, I would never get a dish drawer again.
I haven't even really seen any of these! How cool! I do like our dishwasher in our rental apartment, but it's not at all top-of-the-line, so I have to deal with many of the same drawbacks just because of that. Ah well. Someday I'll choose my own.
Emily
Mine came with my apartment so I didn't choose it. I've used it fairly often since I cook a lot but its only been 3 months. So far I really like it.
Pros:
*Extremely quiet (its literally 10 feet from the living room)
*Small and perfectly sized for NYC apartments
*The fast/eco mode is perfect for most loads. If I'm cooking a lot, I usually wash as i go and the load is done in time for the next one.
*For the pots or really dirty stuff, running it on normal mode has gotten it all clean.
Cons:
*the electronic system sometimes gets confused - it pauses and beeps to alert us of something wrong but when I check there's nothing wrong. It happens almost 1/3rd of the time but usually happens within the first 5 min. so I know to stick around to restart it. To me this is just a minor nuisance.
Overall I love it and haven't had any issues.
Thank you, GreatFriend! I thought I was the only one who was bugged by that ad campaign. It definitely isn't enough to make me reconsider buying an F&P drawer (when I eventually can afford one), but it definitely struck me as quite outdated.
Seriously keep it old school and wash your own dishes. No power use, able to control the amount of water you use, can grey water for your garden if you use the right dish soap.
I hope someone can answer this question. I have a tiny kitchen and was wondering if it is possible to install a regular sized dishwasher underneath an electric cooktop?
My thought is to get rid of my stove and replace it with the cooktop, with the dishwasher below, and a combo convection/microwave with exhaust above the cooktop.
Am I crazy, or will this work?
F&P get my kudos simply for the fact that they took the initiative to create a universal design for a commonly used appliance.
Traditional dishwashers require a counter that is too high to be accessible. And the traditional drop-down door made using the appliance virtually impossible for any person with physical limitations.
What is amazing to me is that F&P's competitors haven't stepped up and offered their own universal design solutions. As a commercial interior designer, I discuss the issue of universal design with every single client and the majority now use F&P dishdrawers because of the inclusivity benefits. A few multinational corporations are even standardized on F&P equipment. GE and Maytag are practically handing the market to F&P.
I've never had a client complain about maintenance or unnecessary repairs.
The thing that makes me nervous about Fisher & Paykel devices is that they have terrible service records. According to Consumer Reports, they're dead last for reliability in surveyed brands, with 23% of F&P owners reporting that they'd needed repairs or had other serious problems with their dishwashers.
Here's a space-saving and energy-saving idea: get RID of your (electric) dishwasher! I have a dishwasher. I'm married to him. Works great and no repairs necessary.
Don't electric dishwashers save a lot more water than handwashing?
@MCNicole
That totally depends on how you wash your dishes by hand (leave the faucet running, fill a tub, only turn on the faucet for a few seconds at a time as needed, etc.).
It's a F&P, so you'd better get used to having it out of action while it gets repaired on a regualr basis. (We've had these down here in Australia for years, and they've got a horrible reputation.)
Given that the F&P dish drawer has received bad reviews from Consumer Reports due to repair issues, perhaps buying a competitor's dishwasher drawer is the wiser action. Kitchenaid and some other manufacturers make similar and probably more reliable models.
I have one and I love it. Or a least I used to, now its that I love you but I'm not IN love with you stage. Before I had thing 1 and thing 2 it was perfect and a big dishwasher would have been too much, it would have taken forever to fill it. Now being a housewife instead of working (eating 3x a day at home for 3 people) the dishes add up and I usually run at least one of them every day. Also before everything went into the dishwasher. Now the larger glass stuff has to be washed by hand, it just doesn't fit. But I still think I'm happier with it that a regular one.
Two of your cons can be eliminated. If you use Fast and Eco together you sometimes get food left on and dishes that are wet. Just use the fast setting (not the eco). It takes 56 (v. 44) min but I find it works much better.
Also: I've had the dish drawers since 2004/2005? and I just had to get them serviced for the first time ever. Minor problem, they fixed and I'm good to go again.
I was totally swayed by the wonderful design. It looks great, it fits great into my small kitchen and that is where my love affair ends. We got one of the very first models sold. It was horrid. You had to rinse all dishes before loading to the point of almost washing them...Eventually the company replaced it with a slightly improved version. Many years latter, I am SO ready to replace it. A zillion expensive repairs later, the top one hasn't worked for 3 years and now the bottom one needs repairs. I give in and refuse to spend another time on this ineffective beauty.
Are there any other brands than F&P that make dishwasher drawers (that are Energy Star)? We're planning to install one below our sink, to the make the best of the room there and free up the only under-counter space we have (which is currently eaten up by a full-size regular dishwasher that is also blocking a blind corner).