Fully integrated dishwashers

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Soldato
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31 May 2009
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When we move to the house, there was a fully integrated zanussi dishwasher, which is now experiencing heating issues, isn't the element, seems to be the control panel.
As the Italian made machine has such awful drawer layout, and placement is terrible, I've decided to replace rather than repair.

Anyone suggest a fully integrated model they would recommend personally? Model and make and how much it cost you please.
Would be nice if people say if they installed it themselves, and how tricky things were.
 
It is pretty easy to fit an integrated dishwasher, hanging the door is the hardest bit, just remember that the door is designed to sit flush with the top of the dishwasher. You would be amazed at how many people have the wooden door two inches about the dishwasher door.

There isn't a great deal of difference in the drawer layout to be honest, at the end of the day that are 60cm wide and you can only put so much stuff in.

What makes you say the heater is fine?

What is your budget.
 
I fitted a Siemens one earlier this year. It was the cheapest one they did and it's excellent. It was almost as much to get someone out to fix the old one as fitting the new one.

Went through co-op electrical and they charged £10 to dispose of the old one which was well worth it.

Fitting is easy, I've never fitted anything before apart from hooking up the washing machine pipes and managed it. Hardest bit is drilling the holes on the front panel to fit it on the front.
 
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OldCoals said:
It is pretty easy to fit an integrated dishwasher, hanging the door is the hardest bit, just remember that the door is designed to sit flush with the top of the dishwasher.
What makes you say the heater is fine?

What is your budget.
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Budget is highly variable tbh, I've looked at prices from 250-600, no fussed on spending top amounts, they seem to vary greatly without much obvious added benefit.

Heater seems fine, as doing various testing, the zanussi has a very strange element, long cylindrical thing, and on certain cycles still heats, but on others makes no effort to heat, from reviewing different responses to that models issues elsewhere this apparently is a sign of issues with the control panel.

As for the layout, the lower section is fine, but the upper section has curves and bends that fit absolutely nothing we own, its almost as if the Italians use wine glasses for everything and wouldn't think to put anything else in the top drawer, most other layouts, most German stuff anyway looks like it'll fit our glasses and cups easily, without them toppling over through lack of support.

I am usually happy enough fitting things, but with a dishwasher, I haven't had the old one out yet, and seeing the weight of these things being around 40kg, or maybe that was just the one I looked up, they seem rather heavy.
 
Our Siemens was £440 and is brilliant. Probably worth spending enough to get a half decent one.

The one I took out wasn't heavy once drained, easy to move it myself and I'm a weed.
 
The higher-end Bosch (and presumably Siemens and Neff too) models have a drawer at the top for cutlery instead of using that basket thing, which takes a little longer to load but does mean they get a good clean.
 
a1ex2001 said:
We have a Beko DW686

http://www.beko.co.uk/Item/DW686?col=&route=/Bekorange/Category-Dishwashers/Fitting-Integrated

It has a which best buy award and was sub £300 quid after cahsback, it's been in about 6 months and I can't fault it runs quietly and cleans perfectly. I installed it to replace a hotpoint one that had expired after nearly 10 years of daily use swapping it over was pretty simple and certainly within the powers of any DIYer.
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Was looking at that model earlier in the year, great dishwasher for the cash.
 
platypus said:
Are these things more economical than filling a bowl full of hot water? Not asking about the quality of the clean.
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Depends how well you do you washing up in the bowl! If you do it thoroughly then a modern dishwasher is probably more efficient. If you just slap it in don't care how cold or greasy the water is etc then a bowl will be costing you less!

Our dishwasher can do a full load with less than 10L of water which would fill about two washing up bowls which for me wouldn't be enough hot soapy water to clean the contents of the machine by hand.
 
If it's intermittently heating check the sump for anything possibly blocking pressure switch hose point (located at roughly 4 o'clock with 12 being the back 6 the front looking down), being careful incase it's glass ;)

Zanussi's have a two stage fill both are to the same point but the second fill has the wash pump moving water around, if it takes to long to register between the two stages it will proceed with wash without heat, unless other fault conditions are met. :)
 
I've got a Siemens in-built unit, been flawless the past 5 years. I give it a clean out every 6months with dishwasher cleaner to keep it in top condition.
 
Minstadave said:
Probably not, but it's a lot less hassle. I could cut the lawn with scissors to save energy but I prefer using a lawnmower (extravagant I know!).
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It was a genuine question, rather than trying to point out if it was extravagant or not. I'm interested because we have a built in dishwasher in our new house (rented) and we've never used it, and if the dishwashers are more economical we may well start using it. I guess I need to find out how many litres of water is uses per wash, and how much power.
 
In that case think the most efficient ones use 6L with the cheaper ones using 12L. The electricity would be more than the water used I think, but not seen any figures.
 
Well water is dirt cheap here, and electricity is subsidised by you fellas back in blighty :p. I'll see if I can find a manual for it.
 
If that's the case, why is efficiency so important? :p

Of course once you take into account the cost of dishwasher tablets etc it might work out more expensive for you but I think most people will agree it's a convenience/time saver thing rather than an efficiency thing.
 
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