Maytag Legacy - Quiet Series 200

by Chris Duke
(Guelph, Ontario, Canada)

The Maytag QuietSeries 200 was bought in June 2003. It was a low cost, but lowest cost dishwasher in the store. We were told by the sales lady that it would last about 5 years but we did not believe her, knowing it would likely last longer, especially since we had soft water.
Overall, the dishwasher cleans dishes quite well, It has a large volume, and the racks hold a large number of our dishes, glasses, etc. The dishwasher can be set to start in 2, 4, or 6 hours delay which is a nice feature. Actually, this is a very important feature since the machine is so loud that it makes conversation very difficult in the main floor of the house, so we set it to go on in the middle of the night when we are all in deep sleep. This also allows us to time-shift our electricity consumption.
There are a number of problems, besides the very loud noise.
1- The latch to open and close it broke after 1 month of use. I ordered a replacement part and it was very difficult to install. It was also relatively expensive for a small plastic latch. The replacement latch lasted about 4 months and also broke. Fortunately, you can open and close the door without the aid of the latch, so its use is uncertain.
2- The seal around the door does not leak, however, the seal leaves a rim around the door "shadowed" from the washing process. What happens is that scum builds up around the door seal on the inside of the machine. When you open the door you see an unsightly scum residue just inside the entire opening of the tub. This "scum rim" is about 1 centimetre wide around the whole opening.
3- The loud operation must be restated.
4- The wash cycle on "Automatic" is exceptionally long. It takes at least an hour to do a cycle and the loud noise makes it seem like a very long hour.
5- There are 9 different wash setting buttons, some of which can be used in combination. There is too many as we have never found need to use them all. The Auto Clean option works well. The machine has a Sanitize setting which is good for items you suspect may have dangerous pathogens.

6- We just ordered a new cutlery basket after 7 years as the bottom of the old one had small broken spots and cutlery would poke through the bottom. Both the original basket and the new one come with a very poorly designed attachment that can clip on the top, likely to stop small light items from flinging out. The holes on the attached "lid" are too small for cutlery to be inserted into. The lid does not logically hinge open and close, but must be physically clipped on and off. There is no place to leave the lids when not in use. It only illustrates an impractical and cheap design - serving as an example to other parts of the dishwasher design.
7- When repairing the broken door latch, i discovered the exceptionally poor, virtually non-existant thermal and acoustic insulation on the door. The door, of course is where much of the sound would emanate from, unfortunately two small very thin adhesive insulation pads covering about 20% of the inside of the door does not serve any effective sound and thermal insulation.
8- The two door hinges are very light duty and after a couple of years of use the fully open door hangs at a slight angle.
On the positive side, the dishwasher pump has not broken yet. The plastic interior avoids any rusting. I really like the large quantity of dishes and pots the racks can hold, and normally the dishes come out very clean. The "JetDry" dispenser is a nice feature. Since it has not died within the 5 years as promised by the sales lady, we have to live with it until we replace it with a much higher quality, quieter model from another company.