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  • Introduction

  • Front

  • Finish

  • Controls

  • Interior

  • Top Rack

  • Bottom Rack

  • Cutlery Basket

  • Electricity Use

  • Water Use

  • Yearly Running Cost

  • Washing Speed

  • Washing Performance

  • Quick Wash Cycle

  • Normal Wash Cycle

  • Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle

  • Washing Cycles

  • Customization

  • Additional Wash Options

  • Capacity

  • Wash Arms & Filters

  • Lower Dish Rack

  • Upper Dish Rack

  • Cutlery Holder

  • Detergent Dispenser

  • Ease of Use

  • Controls

  • Efficiency

  • Washing Performance

  • Features

  • Introduction
  • Front
  • Finish
  • Controls
  • Interior
  • Top Rack
  • Bottom Rack
  • Cutlery Basket
  • Electricity Use
  • Water Use
  • Yearly Running Cost
  • Washing Speed
  • Washing Performance
  • Quick Wash Cycle
  • Normal Wash Cycle
  • Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle
  • Washing Cycles
  • Customization
  • Additional Wash Options
  • Capacity
  • Wash Arms & Filters
  • Lower Dish Rack
  • Upper Dish Rack
  • Cutlery Holder
  • Detergent Dispenser
  • Ease of Use
  • Controls
  • Efficiency
  • Washing Performance
  • Features

Introduction

Front

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The front of the GE CDWT980VSS.

Finish

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Controls

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Interior

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The CDWT980VSS with door open.

Top Rack

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The top rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Bottom Rack

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The bottom rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Cutlery Basket

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The CDWT980VSS cutlery basket.

Electricity Use

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We found that this washer used between 0.32 kWh for the 1-Hour wash and just over 2 kWh for the ProWash cycle.

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Water Use

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The more powerful cycles also used a lot of water, with 7.24 gallons of hot water being used for the ProWash cycle, and 6.2 gallons for the 1-Hour wash. Basically, the more powerful cleaning modes are significantly more expensive to use.

Yearly Running Cost

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All of this works out to a yearly running cost of $47.45, based on an average of 4 washes a week, with 25% being the 1 Hour cycles, another 25% being the ProWash cycle and the other 50% being the Normal cycle. That's above average for a dishwasher.

Washing Speed

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The {{product.name}} offers a range of cycles that run for very different lengths, from the appropriately named 1-Hour cycle to the ProWash mode, which takes a rather long 3 hours and 14 minutes.

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Washing Performance

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We found a mix of performance from the {{product.name}}, with the quick cycle being rather disappointing, but the Normal and ProWash modes providing plenty of cleaning power.

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Quick Wash Cycle

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The quick cycle of this washer is called the 1-Hour Wash, and it lives up to its name. We did find that there is a price to pay for this speed, though: the cleaning performance was somewhat disappointing, with significant amounts of food remaining on our test dishes, and some food being transferred from one dish to another. The 1-Hour Wash did clean the tea from our test tea cups and saucers, though, and removed dried oatmeal from our dishes. But we would only recommend it for use with very lightly stained dishes: anything heavier than a light stain may not be removed.

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Normal Wash Cycle

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The Normal cycle is designed for everyday use, with mixed loads of dishes, and we found that this dishwasher did a very good job here, removing most of our stains. The tea, oatmeal and meat stains in particular were completely removed on all of our test dishes, but it struggled with the lipstick on the rim of a teacup and the more persistent egg stains on cutlery.

Normal Cycle

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Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle

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For this test, we pull out all of the stops to test the ultimate cleaning power of the washer on a number of test dishes and bowls coated with burnt sugar, cheese and the remains of a failed lasagna experiment. We used the ProWash cycle for this test, and we found that it did a very good job here, removing the great majority of our stains and leaving most of our dishes spotless. However, it struggled with the lasagna, leaving a few very small spots of burnt pasta sauce on the lasagna dish.

Pots & Pans Cycle

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Washing Cycles

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The {{product.name}} offers six wash cycles, ranging from the long heavy duty cycle down to the 1-hour cycle. This list also includes a combined light/china cycle for washing delicate items.

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Customization

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Some of the wash options below allow you to customize the wash cycles, such as the ProWash feature which uses sensors in the water to determine when the dishes are clean and stop the cycle. The Top Rack Only feature uses less water by only washing the top rack if you don't need the full wash.

Additional Wash Options

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Other options allow you to add extra rinses to the cycle, such as the Hi-Temp scrub (which increases the temperature of the main wash water) and the Sani Rinse, which heats the water for both the wash and the final rinse to sterilize the dishes. The only issue here is the limited delay: with a fixed 4-hour delay, this dishwasher is not as flexible as some that give you more control over when to wash so you can schedule the wash at a time that is more convenient, or which saves you money by using cheaper electricity.

Capacity

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The {{product.name}} is a large washer that can hold a lot of dishes: we found that it could hold 12 place settings, which are composed of a mix of plates, cutlery and bowls that a typical family would use. In addition, we were able to squeeze in some additional cutlery and small plates.

Top Rack

Bottom Rack

Wash Arms & Filters

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The wash arms that fire the water at the dishes are pretty standard, with a rotating arm under the bottom and top trays, plus a series of water jets at the back of the body that fire water at heavily stained casserole dishes, etc.

The food removed from plates is filtered through a removable filter at the bottom of the dishwasher. This can be removed to be cleaned pretty easily. The top part of the filter captures larger pieces of food, and the grille in the middle captures smaller pieces. The ease of removing the filter is fortunate, as it might need to be done quite often, as we found that it got filled quite quickly with larger pieces of food (such as pasta and vegetables). There is no grinder to break down these larger chunks, which is present on many more expensive models, which removes the need for a filter.

The CDWT980VSS wash arms.

The DW 14140 upper wash arm

The CDWT980VSS filter.

Lower Dish Rack

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The lower rack of the {{product.name}} is a large, metal and covered in nylon. The tines are arranged in 6 rows, the back two of which are adjustable, allowing you to angle them to a couple of positions or fold them down out of the way when putting larger dishes in place for the ProScrub washing option. The other sets of tines are not adjustable, but are well laid out to allow them to hold small and large plates, as well as pots, pans and other larger items. At the front of the rack is a small basket that KitchenAid refers to as the Culinary Caddy, which is designed for holding utensils and serving spoons. Unlike the cutlery holder, this is not removable. The entire rack can be removed by rolling it out onto the door and lifting it off.

The bottom rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Upper Dish Rack

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The upper dish rack has one feature that we wish was present on all racks; a handle to pull it out by. This makes it much easier to pull out and push in than others, especially when it is loaded. There are 4 rows of tines, the outer two of which are adjustable to two positions or folded right down, making the rack more flexible for larger items. There are also two stemware holders on the sides, which can hold a total of 8 wine glasses by holding their stems in place, so that they don't get knocked about and possibly smashed during cleaning.

On top of the upper rack is another smaller rack called the culinary tool rack, which can hold small or flat items such as knives and additional cutlery. This is a very useful feature, but we did find that the items in this top rack did not get especially well cleaned, so it wouldn't work for heavily soiled items. This third rack has two low baskets and is big enough to hold cutlery and serving spoons, but it is not tall enough for larger items such as soup ladles. It can be removed if not required, or to provide more room above the upper rack.

The height of both the upper rack can be adjusted, with two positions on offer. The height can be adjusted without having to remove the tray; you just press the lever on the side and push it down or lift it up. This makes it much easier to adjust than the Kenmore, where you have to remove the upper rack to adjust the height. The upper rack can also be removed to allow for washing very large items in the bottom rack, but it is rather awkward to do so and replace, requiring you to push in a latch whilst lifting the rack.

The top rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Cutlery Holder

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The cutlery holder of the {{product.name}} is a large grey plastic holder with 4 compartments. It offers plenty of space, and two lids on the top of the holder provide spots for forks or knives to be held in place. The holder can be easily removed for filling or emptying.

The CDWT980VSS cutlery basket.

Detergent Dispenser

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The detergent dispenser is a fairly typical design, with two compartments (for the main wash and the pre-wash) and a rise aid dispenser alongside it. There are two levels on the main wash compartment: one for soft water and one for hard.

The CDWT980VSS detergent dispenser.

Ease of Use

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The {{product.name}} is a very easy to use dishwasher: we found that the racks slid in and out easily both empty and full, and adjusting the height and layout of the racks was very easy. This dishwasher would be well suited to those who entertain, thanks to the extra capacity that the third culinary tools rack offers.

Controls

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The controls for this dishwasher are all located on the top of the door. This means that, for most kitchen worktops, the buttons will be hidden out of sight under the edge of the counter, but they might poke out a little bit in some kitchen setups. We found that the buttons were fairly sensitive, but not so much that they would be accidentally triggered by a brush of the fingertips.

Efficiency

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The {{product.name}}'s yearly cost to run was about average. Like all dishwashers, it used more energy on the longer, more powerful cycles, and less energy for the quicker cycles. No matter what, it uses less energy than handwashing.

Washing Performance

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The {{product.name}} features wash cycles of varying lengths. The 1-Hour Wash cycle takes, appropriately, 60 minutes while the ProWash cycle takes a whopping 3 hours and 14 minutes.

Performance strongly correlates with wash time. The 1-Hour Wash leaves heavy stains intact — except when it transfers them from plate to plate. Longer, stronger cycles do a much better job, removing everything but the toughest baked-on pasta from a failed lasagna experiment.

It's important to note that the {{product.name}} doesn't have an internal disposal to chop up big pieces of food that wash off dishes, a feature found in many dishwashers. Instead, it has a filter that you'll probably find yourself cleaning out fairly often unless you scrape the food off your dishes before washing them.

Features

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The {{product.name}} is outstanding when it comes to usability. Easy-to-load racks, comfortable handles and a third rack for cleaning cutlery make a labor-saving device even easier to use. The door feels solidly built, racks slide out with ease, and our only complaint was an overly-sensitive row of touch sensitive buttons.

Meet the tester

Richard Baguley

Richard Baguley

Contributor

@@rbaguley

Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.

See all of Richard Baguley's reviews

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