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Reviewed.com / Kyle Hamilton
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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The Bosch 800 Series SHP78CM5N is a near-perfect dishwasher. It scrubbed out every stain we threw at it, in record time, and has great smart features. Read More
The G 5266 blows most other dishwashers out of the water. If your budget can accommodate its premium price, it's one of the best models you can buy. Read More
This Bosch is one of the best dishwashers we've ever tested. It gets dishes clean and dry, quickly, and is ADA-compliant. Read More
This high-end Bosch dishwasher can remove tough stains and get all of your dishes (including plasticware) completely dry. Read More
Here at Reviewed, we've spent thousands of hours studying, testing, and writing about dishwashers. Who doesn't love an appliance that saves you from having to roll up your sleeves and spend valuable time scrubbing the burnt-on edges of a delicious casserole dinner?
If you're looking to buy a dishwasher, but not eager to take on the chore of towel-drying every plate and plastic container at the end of a cycle, we have you covered. We've pulled together a list of dishwashers that earned top marks in our drying tests, as well as being great performers overall.
At no surprise to our lab staff, the best drying dishwasher on the market is the Bosch SHP78CM5N (available at Best Buy for $1,169.99) , not only because of its efficient Zeolite drying, but also its excellent cleaning and high-end aesthetics.
Editor's Note: Appliances purchases are a large investment of both money and time. We’ve not only compiled lists of the best dishwashers to shop, but also the best places to buy in-stock appliances right now and the best times of year to buy appliances to take advantage of sales and new releases.
It cleans even stubborn stains completely
Fast cycle times
It dries dishes
Controls can be finicky
Some options only available on app
Dries plastics
Stellar stain removal
Quiet operation
Nothing significant that we could find
Effective Heavy Duty cycle
Dries dishes completely
Foldable tines and repositionable racks
Dishes got less clean towards the center of the bottom rack
Quiet
Great cleaning ability
Gets dishes dry
None that we could find
Third rack
Adjustable tines
Lots of features
Cleaning power was low for its price
High-end aesthetics
Third rack, bottle jets, and smart features
Inconsistent cleaning
Not the best value at its current price
Reviewed former and present appliance testing team is responsible for running major dishwashers through their paces in our Cambridge labs, including Dave Ellerby, Jon Chan, Kyle Hamilton, Julia MacDougall, Beckett Dubay, and Michael Elderbee. You can feel confident that when we recommend a product, we're giving it our Reviewed stamp of approval, which means two things: firstly, this appliance performs well, and secondly, this appliance is easy to use.
Opening up the door and finding a rack full of wet dishes is always frustrating. Fortunately, some dishwashers do a better job of getting them dry.
Although we test each dishwasher in our labs and look pointedly at stain removal, redeposit, cycle time and special features, in this survey we especially focus on a dishwasher’s ability to effectively dry dishes. Whether it's accomplished with rinse aid, a built-in heater, or a built-in fan, customers expect their dishes to be dry after a wash cycle, as well as clean. We penalize the dishwasher every time a dish doesn’t come out dry, whether it's sopping wet or just covered in a few water droplets.
Extra features can really add the finishing touch to a dishwasher that does a great job cleaning dishes. We look at the various cycles, cycle options, and dishwasher specs and assess both how useful the features are, and how easy it is to actually use those features.
If you ever used a dishwasher growing up, chances are that you remember each dish coming out sparkling clean, dry, and warm to the touch. Now, as an adult, confronted with water droplets on your nice plates and standing water in your Tupperware containers, it probably seems like a betrayal of your dishwasher memories of the past.
However, as it turns out, there are two very good reasons why your dishes may not come out perfectly dry: energy efficiency and plastics.
There are lots of different techniques dishwashers employ to get your dishes dry. Many dishwashers used to include an exposed heating element at the bottom of the dishwasher. At the end of a dishwasher cycle, the dishwasher would automatically turn on the heating element, which would heat up the inside of the dishwasher and cause the leftover water to evaporate away.
Now, though, in an effort to make dishwashers more energy efficient (and more easily able to meet Energy Star requirements), many manufacturers have done away with the heating element.
If you do see a drying option on your dishwasher's control panel, but it doesn't explicitly say that heating is involved, it's probably a ventilation fan that will help get rid of condensation inside the dishwasher after a cycle is over. If your dishwasher has a "heated dry" option, then your dishwasher has a heating element.
However, there are tradeoffs for heated drying—slightly higher energy bills and the possibility of melted Tupperware if it gets too close to the heating element. That brings me to the second reason why your dishes might not be getting as dry as you would have hoped.
Dishwashers have a harder time drying plastics (such as Tupperware, sports bottles, baby bottles, etc.) because plastics are harder to dry in general.
Plastics do not retain heat the same way ceramic, metal, and glass do, so while residual heat from the warm water of the dishwasher cycle can make normal dishes warm enough that they can evaporate away any remaining water droplets, plastics do not share that ability.
Additionally, most plastics are light enough that they can be tossed around by the water jets, so even though you placed your Tupperware containers upside down on the upper rack, there's still a good chance that it will end up right side up, with water at the bottom.
Other than buying one of the dishwashers on this list, you can use rinse aid, which will make it easier for your dishwasher to dry all of your dishes.
Despite its name, rinse aid has very little to do with rinsing and everything to do with drying. Rinse aid's hydrophobic properties make it more difficult for water to collect and stay on your dishes; most water slides off, leaving the dishes water- and water-spot-free.
You can easily buy rinse aid in any grocery store or online.
Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Leigh Harrington has more than 20 years experience as a writer and editor for myriad print and digital publications.
At USA TODAY and Reviewed, Harrington oversees large appliances, including refrigerators, dishwashers, ranges, and laundry, and manages Reviewed's overall home content, including areas of focus like home improvement, cleaning, gardening, cooking, and parenting. She focuses on writing, but mostly editing, consumer ed content and product reviews.
Harrington is also an experienced travel writer, and has authored books including Fodor's Boston, 100 Things to Do in Boston Before You Die, and Colorful Boston, an adult coloring book.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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