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  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Features

  • Performance

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Performance

  • Efficiency

  • Capacity

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Features
  • Performance
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Performance
  • Efficiency
  • Capacity

Introduction

Of course, we only had to turn to the owner's manual to see that the machine is actually made by Whirlpool. IKEA just slapped its name on the outside of the box and added the five year warranty.

Design & Usability

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It's stainless, inside and out

The stainless steel finish looks somewhat dark, so check to see if it'll match your other appliances. It’s also not exactly impervious to fingerprints. On the hidden control panel, cycle and wash options are indicated by a blue light, and a status display on the right side reveals each stage of the wash cycle—though it's not like you can see it.

The racks are designed well enough to allow for flexibility when loading.

The stainless steel interior serves more of a practical function than a design feature, as it helps expedite the drying process. You can't find a dishwasher with a stainless interior for much less than $649. We were able to fit 10 place settings in the Nutid dishwasher, including a serving setting—a fairly standard score for a modern dishwasher. We don’t imagine you’ll have much trouble fitting your dishes, and the racks are designed well enough to allow for flexibility when loading.

{{photo_gallery "Front Closed Photo", "Fingerprints Photo", "Controls 1 Photo", "Controls 2 Photo", "Front Open Photo", "Interior Detail Photo", "Top Rack Photo", "Top Rack Detail Photo 1", "Top Rack Detail Photo 2", "Top Rack Detail Photo 3", "Bottom Rack Photo", "Bottom Rack Detail Photo 2", "Bottom Rack Detail Photo 3", "Cutlery Basket Photo", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 1", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 2", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 3"}}

Features

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The Nutid dishwasher offers a fairly run-of-the-mill array of options.

Features include a Sanitize option, which heats the water to a bacteria-killing temperature (155ºF in our tests); a High Temp wash, which is essentially the same thing (but not quite) as hot; and a Heated Dry, which hopefully is self-evident in what it does. There’s also a 4 Hour Delay, allowing you to postpone the start of your wash cycle. There's also a Rinse-Only cycle.

Performance

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Dishes get a good clean with average energy efficiency.

Despite its lack of a quick cycle—an important component for many consumers—the Nutid boasts a very strong cleaning performance in both its Normal and Heavy cycles. In fact, Quick cycles are usually not that good at cleaning, so we doubt the addition of one would've changed our view of the Nutid very much.

When it comes to efficiency, we have no complaints. We expect that for an average consumer, the IKEA Nutid dishwasher should cost about $34.67 per year to run—not ideal, but better than other machines we've tested that edge closer to $40 per year.

It's important to note that IKEA includes five years of warranty coverage on the Nutid.

We don't test how long appliances last, but it's important to note that IKEA includes five years of warranty coverage on the Nutid. That's five times longer than the industry average, and may sway your decision one way or the other.

Conclusion

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A good value, even if it's missing some features.

The IKEA Nutid 40142371, made by Whirlpool for the Swedish furnishings giant, is a solid performer with an impressively minimalistic design. While its overall score was hurt by its lack of a quick cycle, few owners will be able to complain about its strong cleaning performance. And for an MSRP of $649.00, it’s certainly a market competitor. The five year warranty doesn’t hurt either.

Science Introduction

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All of our dishwashers go through the same tests, with standard plates stained with standard food that you wouldn't want to eat (ground spinach, egg yolk and burnt cheese, anyone?) The Nutid did fine when it came to bringing our plates back to pristine condition.

Performance

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No Quick cycle, but the cycles that were present were quite powerful.

No one will be impressed by the Nutid’s speed, but no one will be frustrated by it either. The Light/China wash was the quickest, but at 88 minutes it wasn’t quick enough to be considered a “quick” cycle. The Normal wash took a little under two hours to complete (119 minutes), and the Heavy cycle a little more (133 minutes).

The Normal cycle was very impressive. Its reached a peak temperature of 158.2ºF during the drying stage, it certainly got hot enough to clean off proteins, meaning it did well on egg and meat tests. It also did well removing dried spinach and oatmeal, and whatever food stains remained were negligible.

The Heavy cycle did well in each test category. It achieved a perfect score in our burnt cheese test—truly a rarity in the world of standardized dishwasher testing. While this was kind of amazing, it’s worth noting that it didn’t actually melt the cheese—it left it caked around the wash tub filter, making for a rather filthy cleaning process. But because the Normal and Heavy washes both offered strong performances, we would recommend choosing the more efficient Normal cycle far more often.

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Efficiency

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Right in the middle

Between the Light/China cycle and the Heavy wash, the Nutid uses 0.52 to 1.02 kWh per wash. Somewhat of an average figure, this makes for a cost of roughly 5 to 11 cents per wash—not bad, but certainly not ideal.

The Nutid dishwasher was less efficient in its water consumption, but once again, it wasn’t deplorable. The Light/China cycle soaked up 5.93 gallons of hot water, compared with 6.35 gallons in the Normal, and 8.03 in the Heavy, neither of which are very efficient numbers. This level of consumption will make for a water cost of 6 to 8 cents per wash.

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Capacity

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Meet the tester

Tyler Wells Lynch

Tyler Wells Lynch

Contributor

@tylerwellslynch

Tyler Wells Lynch is a freelance writer and journalist whose work has appeared in Vice, Wirecutter, Gizmodo, The Rumpus, Yes!, and the Huffington Post, among others. He lives in Maine.

See all of Tyler Wells Lynch's reviews

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