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  • Design

  • Related content

  • Features and Performance

  • What the users say

  • The bottom line

  • Design
  • Related content
  • Features and Performance
  • What the users say
  • The bottom line

Pros

  • Great cleaning power for its price

  • Affordably priced—often available under $400

Cons

  • Not many features or cycle customization options

It's not particularly fancy or even that quiet (at 60 dBA), but this modest dishwasher outperformed its price point in our lab tests. And with true heated drying and a stainless steel exterior, the Amana could bring you and your kitchen the clean dishes and sleek looks you're hoping for.

Amana ADB1400AGS dishwasher's top rack
Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Hamilton

There's plenty of room for bowls, mugs, and glasses on the top rack.

Design

The Amana ADB1400AGS comes in stainless steel—a must for a stylish kitchen. You’ll have to polish some fingerprints off the outside of this dishwasher, but it’s easy to fix with a dab of coconut oil on a rag.

If you prefer a white or black dishwasher in your kitchen, it's available in those colors, too, for $20 less.

Although this dishwasher has a filter, like most modern dishwashers, it also has a more old-school exposed heating element, activated during the Normal and Heavy cycle.

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The interior is uninsulated gray plastic, and the two racks offer no options to customize the layout of the tines. Still, if you follow the recommended layout in the user manual (I know, I’m a geek), you may be pleasantly surprised at how much room there is to load dishes. The manufacturer claims that you could fit service for 12 inside, and we found that to be true.

The bottom rack feels very sturdy, the top rack less so. The silverware basket is surprisingly roomy, and it’s easy to remove, so it's a breeze to unload.

You can decide how much liquid detergent to add to any load, since the detergent dispenser offers two levels. Both the detergent and rinse aid dispensers feel a little flimsy, but we didn’t encounter any issues with them during our testing.

The Amana ADB1400AGS dishwasher's detergent dispenser
Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Hamilton

The plastic detergent dispenser didn't feel robust, but we didn't encounter any problems with it in our testing.

Features and Performance

This dishwasher is not rich in features, with only three cycles.

Amana ADB1400AGS controls
Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Hamilton

The Amana ADB1400AGS offers three cycles: a 1-hour quick wash, Normal, and Heavy.

1-hour Wash Our lab tests showed that this "quick" cycle averages just over an hour, and does a decent job cleaning up meat, egg, milk, and oats, though spinach tended to hang onto our dishes. (It does that in expensive dishwashers, too.) Pre-rinsing is useful with this cycle. Don’t expect it to dry the dishes well, so if you use it, you'll have to unload onto dish towels.

Normal The Normal cycle is the way to get dishes nearly 100% clean. Heated drying turns on automatically with the Normal and Heavy cycles, which is good, because this dishwasher really needs it to dry the dishes.

Heavy Melted cheese probably won’t come off your casserole dish on this cycle, unless you scrape it well. But everything else we tested, even the lasagna, washed off, including 98% of the spinach.

We calculate that this dishwasher will cost about $32 a year to run.

Amana ADB1400AGS bottom rack
Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Hamilton

The bottom rack of this dishwasher feels very stable, and the cutlery basket has plenty of room for silverware.

What the users say

Most owners are satisfied with this dishwasher, giving it an average of 4 out of 5 stars over three retail sites. They like its sleek looks and ease of use, and many say that they are pleased with how clean it gets their dishes. A number of owners call out the slow cycles, and challenges getting dishes to dry. One interesting point—although this Amana is relatively loud for a modern dishwasher, people who bought to replace an older model praise its quiet operation, which proves that noise is relative.

The bottom line

This American-made dishwasher surpasses its price point in cleaning performance. In our labs, we found that it got dishes nearly 100% clean on the Normal cycle. And the heated drying did a good job in that cycle, too. If you buy this dishwasher, stick to that cycle, or you'll have to rinse your dishes before you load them.

If you can spend another $150, the GE GDF610P series dishwasher won our coveted Editors' Choice badge, and Best of Year for 2017. it's loaded with features, has shorter cycles, and gets dishes clean and dry. Take a look at it before you make a dishwasher decision.

Meet the testers

Cindy Bailen

Cindy Bailen

Editor

@orangesandlemon

Cindy Bailen loves writing about major appliances and home design and has spent over 15 years immersed in that. In her spare time, Cindy hosts pledge programs for WGBH-TV in Boston and other public television stations.

See all of Cindy Bailen's reviews
Kyle Hamilton

Kyle Hamilton

Product Tester

Kyle Hamilton is a product tester at Reviewed, specializing in home appliances and technology.

See all of Kyle Hamilton's reviews

Checking our work.

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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