Fisher and Paykel DD605SS Double Dish Drawer

by Jeremy
(Dayton, OH)

We’ve owned this dishwasher for almost two years and my feelings on it are decidedly mixed. For starters, it looks great! I can’t tell you how many people have commented on the appearance, how modern it looks, etc. The double drawer design is great for washing small loads since you can wash just one drawer. This is particularly effective when you use the “eco” cleaning option. The design also makes it very easy to load and unload the dishes. The flip down “wings” on either side of the drawer allow you to use the space more effectively and fit in items like ladles and long serving spoons that might not fit vertically in the cutlery basket.

One the down side though, I’ve gotten cleaner dishes out of much cheaper, traditional dishwashers. We’ve become used to having to rinse the dishes very well before placing them in this dishwasher, or they don’t come out clean. We can’t use the detergent tablets that we had come to like, as this dishwasher will only use traditional powder. For as much as it costs, I expected better performance.

But by far my biggest complaint is related to what I think is a fundamental design flaw. If for any reason the drawer doesn’t completely seal when you shut it, there’s a good chance a small amount of water will leak into the body of the dishwasher. We find this happens occasionally when you have a large item like a pizza tray or cutting board sitting on the top of the load. There are electronic components on the bottom if the dishwasher under the bottom drawer, and there is a moisture sensor there as well. As soon as it detects water near those electronics, it begins beeping and making a “whooshing” noise. At this point you two options: cut the power and wait a day (or two) for the moisture to dry up, or cut the power, remove the bottom drawer, and get down there with a paper towel and a blow dryer to make sure all the moisture has been removed. This first time this happened we had a service rep come out and even he took about an hour to return the washer to service. I’ve had to do it 3 or 4 times (over 2 years) since then and can usually do it in about 30 minutes.