The MAIN thing they did to ruin dishwashers was to reduce the size of the pump motor from football size to tennis ball size. They can’t pump with enough pressure to blast the crap off the dishes.
I wonder if we can EVER reverse some of the stuff they have foisted upon us. It seems as if everyone complains about it and no on knows what do do, so it must be the Republicans’ fault.
I only know about clothes washers, since I have have never seen the need for a dishwasher, but the entire problem is government mandates.
About 10 years ago (could be longer), they passed the bills for the energy mandates in new washers. Their aim was to get rid of top loaders, first, then gradually transition those to the sort of washers available overseas that only do a small load at a time.
I am a production felter and I foresaw that I would not be able to make my products in that sort of washer. I wrote a detailed letter to Russ Finegold, who was my Senator at the time. I got boilerplate in the form of the law itself in reply.
There was so much backlash and so many people who were willing to pay over $1k for a top loader made in New Zealand, that the effort to kill the toploader failed. However, never fear: they began to tighten the energy mandates and forced the engineers to redesign the top loaders so we now have washing machines that do not clean clothes, dilute hot water with cold in the hot cycle, cannot be opened during a 47-minute cycle, need a second rinse, which never used to be an option, let alone a feature and which also need a second spin in order to not run the dryer twice as long.
My personal response was to begin using reconditioned machines. About 5 years ago, my local recondition shop closed. Probably the replacement parts were getting hard to obtain. I have a very good relationship with my local small appliance store. They know my needs and will work with me. This last time around, they sold me a new electronic machine that just could not be used as I needed to use it. I spent a day online and found two possible machines I could use. I was able to see both in the nearest large city and determined the one I wanted. I called the appliance store, told them the problems and asked if they could get the machine I wanted. They weren’t sure, but they did it. I returned the HE machine and I am mostly happy with the new one, the GE model I referenced in post #166. The clincher was that it had a magnetic lid latch that was easily hacked. My prior machine’s latch was easily hacked by jumping the wires. The integrated electronic locks are not hackable without shortening the life of the circuit board.
One thing I learned while researching is that many, many people are totally PO’d by the new designs. 2 years ago, my appliance store guys were telling me that the agitator-less machines were the wave of the future and would completely replace the old-fashioned machines. Now, they admit that they are getting a lot of returns and there is and likely always will be a market for the mechanical rotary control machines.
Everyone unhappy with their appliances needs to complain loudly and in public and all over social media. Walk through the appliance sections of the big box stores and make comments within hearing of other customers. When people bring up energy conservation, tell them to read the fine print: they include the cost of your electric hot water heater in that yearly energy cost number. My hot water heater is propane and with that cost factored out, my new traditional machine costs $29/year in energy use (for a normal family...I use mine way more than anyone would normally, so it is costing me about $90/year, which is a cost of doing business and affordable.) and yet, it is NOT considered a candidate for Energy Star!!
I may join Pinterest and Pin my traditional machine there.