KitchenAid KDPM804KBS Dishwasher Review

The KitchenAid KDPM804KBS has a sleek, nearly featureless facade. Its sole vent is squirreled away in the bottom left corner, out of view entirely from most angles, leaving only its large pocket handle visible.

Opening the door, you’ll see a traditional three-rack design illuminated by internal LEDs. The dishwasher's lower rack has adjustable tines and two extra baskets, one that clips into the main cutlery basket for more silverware storage and a narrow one that fits into the left-hand side of the rack.

This KitchenAid's upper rack also has adjustable tines, just fewer than the lower rack. It also has five stemware holders to keep your wine glasses safe as they wash.

Lastly, the third rack features a plastic build and feels sturdier than most. It has enough depth to fit both glasses and other dishes, as well as a removable cutlery basket—an unusual addition to a third rack.

About the KitchenAid KDPM804KBS dishwasher

• Dimensions: 33.5” x 23.9” x 24.5” (H x W x D)
• Capacity: 16 place settings
• Finishes: Stainless steel, black stainless steel ($100 extra)
• Cycles: ProWash, Tough, Normal, ExpressWash, and Rinse Only.
• Cycle options: Top 2 Racks, Hi Temp Wash, Sanitize, ProDry, Extended ProDry
• User manual: KitchenAid KDPM804KBS dishwasher manual

What we like

This dishwasher looks and feels very high-end

We like the level of polish on this dishwasher. Its PrintShield fingerprint-resistant exterior definitely lives up to its name. The KDPM804KBS's racks are sturdy, glide smoothly, and boast foldable tines.

We also like the additional cutlery baskets and how the whole interior is lit by internal LEDs. Even the touch controls feel easy to use.

As a consumer, you interact with your appliances a lot throughout the year, and having a great user experience can take some of the edge off routine chores. We enjoyed our time with the KDPM804KBS, and we’re hopeful this design ethic will make its way into more dishwashers.

It offers a decent cleaning performance

On most cycles, the KDPM804KBS managed to deliver fairly clean dishes, falling just slightly above or below the average marks achieved by the dishwashers we've tested in our labs.

Its Normal and Tough cycles were the best, finishing with fewer dirty dishes than average. The clean dishes were all completely dry. The only difficulty it had was with our toughest stain, pureed spinach, which requires good spray coverage to fully clean off: The KDPM804KBS was able to clean off about 92% of that stain, but a plate with 8% of its stains remaining is going to require another cleaning.

This means the KDPM804KBS can handle most typical food stains without breaking a sweat, but for tough stains it might have trouble.

What we don’t like

Cycles aren’t efficient

Across the board, the KDPM804KBS’s cycles took about 20 minutes longer than average to finish. As well, the machine used more electricity and water in the process. From a consumer's standpoint, we would rather wait a little bit longer if the machine would provide cleaner dishes, but the KDPM804KBS only provided an average level of cleaning each time.

The KDPM804KBS's ExpressWash cycle let us down. It had the most mediocre cleaning of all the cycles, ended with a lot of wet dishes, and took a full 72 minutes to finish: Most other dishwashers can finish in under an hour, if not a half hour.

It isn't a good value

The KDPM804KBS has above-average cleaning performance, an excellent user experience, useful features, and a gorgeous facade—but even with all these points in its favor, it’s still expensive. Other high-end, high-performance dishwashers cost hundreds of dollars less.

While we think there's a lot to like about the KDPM804KBS that's less tangible, like its overall aesthetic and smooth user experience, we're hesitant to say those factors are worth hundreds of dollars extra. While they certainly may be for specific consumers, we think its competitors offer a better combination of looks, performance, features and price.

What owners are saying

The KitchenAid KDPM804KBS currently has overwhelmingly positive reviews, netting an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars across major retailers. Users love its quiet operation, cleaning ability, third rack, and overall aesthetic.

In the few negative reviews out there, the most common complaint centered around disappointing overall cleaning capability.

Warranty

The KitchenAid KDPM804KBS has a two-year warranty for parts and labor. This is longer than the standard single-year warranty that many manufacturers offer—a welcome addition, given its purchase price.

Should you buy the KitchenAid KDPM804KBS?

Maybe—It's not the best value, but it has a unique look and some excellent features

Since we first reviewed the KitchenAid KDPM804KBS, its price has dropped considerably. While it still costs hundreds of dollars more than some dishwashers with better performance, if you're shopping for reasons other than the best cleaning-power-to-price ratio then this dishwasher has a lot to offer.

Its exterior looks beautiful, its racks slide very smoothly, the extra baskets are a welcome addition, and the third rack is one of the better ones we’ve seen. While its cleaning performance doesn't quite measure up to some other higher-end dishwashers, it is solidly above average. Even if its Normal cycle wasn't particularly impressive, it should be able to handle most loads of dishes, while the Heavy cycle is robust enough to cut through most of your more stubborn stains.

If money is no object, you like its look, and you value a particularly smooth user experience, the KDPM804KBS may be a good fit. Other premium dishwasher options include our current highest-rated model, the Bosch 800 Series SHP78CM5N, which costs significantly less, has similar features and is capable of even better cleaning.