dishwashers – any (black friday?) deals out there?

looks like ours has finally given up the ghost.  13 years old, lamona (howdens) integrated, its had a good life and served us well.

firstly are all integrated dishwashers going to swap over easily?  i get that i may have to drill new holes in the facia to match, but do they generally just interchange easily enough?

if not then i spose a standalone one would do, just not as neat.

not after paying bosch prices, so does anyone know of any offers at the moment while its still ‘black friday time’.  its a full sized jobbie, 600 wide, 900 tall, 600 deep.

thanks

I’m waiting for a compact free-standing Bosch to arrive this morning, so not much help really.

Good luck.

Dunno about deals but installation is piss-easy imo. As you say the trickiest job will be aligning the facia. It’s pretty much just unplug, unscrew inlet and outlet, unscrew any fixing, pull it out, reverse.

Take a look at the Miele outlet near Oxford if your near.

Very STW.  Says he doesn’t want to pay for a Bosch, so someone recommends a Miele (insert smiley face)

Whilst not a difficult job for some, I wouldn’t  describe it as ‘piss easy’.  They should mostly be like for like behind the door and the plumbing requirement is standard.  Levelling them up and attaching the door can be more challenging on some than others.  With time and patience you should be alright, depending what the last person who fitted it left behind for you to work with.

Tried Johnpye auctions? Loads of dishwashers on there last I looked. I got a £500 Bosch for £250 the other week. Had to fit it myself (built in, so wasn’t easy)!

Ha, missed this

firstly are all integrated dishwashers going to swap over easily?  i get that i may have to drill new holes in the facia to match, but do they generally just interchange easily enough?

Yeah, in hindsight, I wish I’d paid £100 for AO to fit one of theirs, but I did manage it. Firstly the Johnpye one didn’t have the template for fitting the facia, so I had to make one and it didn’t work out perfectly (I am totally shite at DIY).. . then I got careless and drilled a hole (tiny, luckily) right through my facia board lol.. doh. Plus the mains connection on the new DW was on the opposite side from the other one (mine was an old Howdens too) and the lead was about 4cm short of reaching the mains socket. And then there’s crawling about on the floor of course.

Connecting up the machine is easy, aligning integrated bits not always so…..

As part of our (5 yr!) house warranty from the developer, we had warranty on the appliances. The dishwasher died and couldn’t be repaired so the developer replaced it. Despite having a drilling template, their joiner/kitchen fitter completely messed up fitting the door. I photo’d/documented all of this and asked them to send me the door parts again to do it myself. The reason (apart from incompetence) that the first attempt a fitting the door failed was because the opening was a bit too tight and slightly misaligned with the other units. I got there in the end

So if there is plenty of tolerance/space and everything is square then it should be straight forward.

The replacement dishwasher (both were AEG) is actually pretty good
https://ao.com/product/fss64907z-aeg-6000-satelliteclean-standard-dishwasher-black-97087-23.aspx

Careful with the John Pye route.  They sell a lot of broken crap as well as ‘bargains’. My mate is a serial auction buyer from them and he’s amassed quite the pile of almost perfect looking, but completely unsafe/unusable kitchen appliances.

If AO want to fit one for £100, I’d let them!

I have a siemens which refuses to die, i do a hot wash and lidl cleaner every month or so and clean out filter. I was planning to get a miele but apparently they arent as good as they were, neff seem to be better value but reviews are mixed. I d have a look on mktplace as theres loads near me.

haha well i fitted this kitchen and swore id never do another, so i dont mind limited drilling and crawling.

had a look at john pye and dont think im totally comfortable bidding on one at an auction, probably come away with a double decker bus or something.

Oxford if your near.

no, lincoln, but thanks.  think itll have to be online really.

johnpye is good. Stuff is usually new, unless otherwise stated. I’ve bought a iPadPro, the dishwasher, a microwave and some Fox 38s from there, (oh and a weird drawing tablet thing, but I sold that on ebay for a slight profit). All been brand spanking.

just had another look and yes, interesting the stuff you could get on there.

sadly, no dishwashers that would do me, altho a lot of the auctions for the next few days havent got a list yet.  its certainly somewhere id go to to look for other stuff tho.  i assume you need to get a login/account prepped before bidding on anything.

cheers

Look at Ikea dishwashers too, we’ve one in a non-Ikea kitchen 5 year warranty.

i assume you need to get a login/account prepped before bidding on anything.

Yep. Card payments afterwards if you do nab anything. Was chuffed with the iPad Pro. My old one was 9-10 years old a d got exactly the one I wanted for £800 cheaper than retail. Gotta watch for the auction fees + VAT (+delivery) . 🙂

In what way is it dead? Ours “died” a few years ago, so I thought I might as well have a look, I couldn’t break it worse… cleaned some sludge out of a float chamber on the side of it and it’s been fine again ever since!

In what way is it dead?

been packing up slowly for the last year or so.   select a programme, press ‘go’, nothing.  leave it til next day, it works.  week or so later, same.  now its more often than not.  slect programme, nothing.  switch it off at plug try next day, sometimes works sometimes doesnt.  but its always worked in the end.

now it hasnt actually come on for about 2 weeks so we’re calling it dead.

Often these issues are caused by blockages, it might be worth checking as well as the inlet valve.

Could save a load of cash.

If you’re buying new avoid statesmans.

Beko are about as good as any and parts easily available.

well i thought the old gal had had a reprieve when we’d just about given up hope, i pressed the button one last time and hey presto it worked!!  much to mrs ex-punks dismay 😀

however, my joy was shortlived, twas just the once and it hasnt worked since, so ive had to accept she’s right and ordered another.

after contacting howdens and asking if they still did the same model (this ones lasted 13 years after all), we were going to order another lemona, but common sense has (probably) prevailed and we’ve paid £50 more for a discounted bosch from john lewis.  still more than id have liked at £400, but im hoping itll be worth it and give us 20+ years service 😀

thanks for your help

well the bosch dishwasher was delivered this afternoon.  its not as simple as i thought it would be, its fighting me 😀  i connected the water/waste/electrics, but i just dont understand the instructions for anything else at all.  its just a fold out sheet with confusing diagrams, just cant make sense of what theyre trying to show.  that sheet also seems to be the confusing template for the door screw holes.

i dont want to ‘just wing it’ on a £400 machine, so ill have another look tomorrow.

firstly, its come with feet fully retracted and around 815mm height for a 900mm gap.  i assume the right height will be just so it fits snugly, no gap at the top yes?  the feet are sooooooo tight too.  shows a spanner adjusting them in the diagram but theyre so tight to get to the point where a spanner will fit it.

id be happy to firstly get to the point where its in and fitted to the units and do the door tomorrow.

Those feet are always very tight. Loosen them before fitting the machine.  It wants to fit tight to the worktop, not crushed up tight but within a 2-3mm.  it may be too short though as European kitchens are lower than most UK, I normally end up with a panel underneath the machine to pack it up.  If you don’t put it all the way up to the worktop, the door will contact the machine at full open at the bottom.

There’s 2 angle brackets that need screwing to the top of it before you fit as well, bend them at the dotted line so you can screw to the worktop or cabinet side.  There’s also a metal plate to stop the steam affecting the worktop, this can be fitted once the machine is in the hole, but before you screw it into position.

fitting the door requires a bit of thinking.  That bit of paper has all the holes marked for drilling, 2 at the top, 2 at the sides and 4 lower down for the bottom fixing brackets.  Ignore the 4 at the top and sides for now.  I offer up the lower fixing brackets (cranked about 30mm long with 2 holes) onto the machine and take a measurement from the underside of the worktop, I can then reference this to the template (don’t forget to allow a closing gap offset, so the door aligns with the other doors or drawers)

drill the bottom 4 holes and fit the brackets with the shorts torx head screws.  Some machines have 2 Velcro pads supplied, fit these on the metal near the top of the machine, these will help you at the next step…

offer the door onto the machine using the bottoms brackets to see if you’re happy with the alignment of the door to the rest, if so there’s some short screws to remove from the machine door that align with the holes in the template, these need swapping for the 4 long stainless screws supplied, which will go from the inside of the machine through to attach the cabinet door to it.  ONLY do this if you’re happy with alignment as you can’t move them afterwards.

minor alignment can be done with the legs on the machine afterwards.

good luck!

Now you see why I said it was worth £100 to fit one for you if they offered!

Good luck getting it going. My Bosch has impressed so far. It is so quiet! I keep checking its actually on. And there’s a “Silent Mode” that we haven’t even tried yet – I think it’s for dinner parties in Tiny London flats, I can’t imagine having a need for it. I think all the valves and motors have a nice soft-start, smooth sort of action. There’s no clunk-gush-clunk-wirr-clunk-gurgle that you get with Curry’s finest. Shimano XT level dishwashing.

@Blazin-saddles are your instructions specific for Bosch? I fitted an AEG one and I don’t remember it having so many steps. Generally was slide in, adjust feet, attach brackets, drill and fit door. The door could be adjusted after fitting too. I didn’t use the drilling template, instead took measurements from it. This was because a so called joiner messed up the first attempt at fitting using the template. I had to offset my drilling by 5mm vertically so the holes were in the right place horizontally, then compensate for the offset with the door height adjustment…… actually maybe fitting an AEG was as involved!

@Blazin-saddles well wouldnt you know it, of course singletrackworld has an ‘integrated bosch dishwasher installation’ expert, why wouldnt it! 😀

ive found some of that out already, by way of struggling on and cursing before i read your post 😀

Those feet are always very tight. Loosen them before fitting the machine.

they are indeed.  tap tap tap with a screwdriver and small hammer to get them to a place where i could fit a spanner on them.

It wants to fit tight to the worktop, not crushed up tight but within a 2-3mm.  it may be too short though as European kitchens are lower than most UK, I normally end up with a panel underneath the machine to pack it up.  If you don’t put it all the way up to the worktop, the door will contact the machine at full open at the bottom.

bang on, too short!  found that out last night when the legs started free-spinning before reaching full height.  just been into work to cut off a couple of ‘dishwasher sized’ bits of wood.

i thought id raise the feet until i could feel a stop, that ok?  didnt want to leave a gap as the brackets seem to suggest they should be flush with the wooden worktop to screw in.

There’s 2 angle brackets that need screwing to the top of it before you fit as well, bend them at the dotted line so you can screw to the worktop or cabinet side.  There’s also a metal plate to stop the steam affecting the worktop, this can be fitted once the machine is in the hole, but before you screw it into position.

yes those brackets.  it didnt look right as when i screwed them to the machine, it squashes the rubber seal down which i thought would be wrong, but thats what the instructions seem to show (*shrug shoulders emoji).

it shows to bend them for stone woktops, leave straight for wood, which mine is.

and they must be cutting costs, no metal plate now, just a sticky laminate strip.  to be fair, ive already got a sticky silver heatproof tape there from the original.

i’ll try and get it fixed in this morning before going onto your door panel advice.

thanks a lot mate

EDIT:

Now you see why I said it was worth £100 to fit one for you if they offered!

even considering my pain, id still prefer to save the money and learn something that may come in helpful to me or someone else later 🙂

expert is stronging it a bit, but I’ve fitted hundreds of the buggers.  The instructions were from memory, and vary model to model, but much of a muchness.

40mm packer usually works under the legs, normally a bit off worktop offcut!

you’re correct on the bracket at top, I’m usually fitting to quartz tops these days so leave em straight for timber, and yes, they compress the rubber seal slightly.  Completely normal.

when fitting the door, measure thrice, cut, er, twice? Seriously though, just take time measuring and referencing things and you’ll be fine.  I normally fit the bottom brackets, offer it up to make sure it aligns, then place a clamp at the top and just screw straight to door without pre drilling or using the template, if the holes are even a mm or two out using the template, you’re hosed.

yes those brackets

I didn’t have those. And the set I bought were wrong. So I ended up fixing it with screws via the holes (with covers) in the sides.

Funny reading blazinsaddles post… exactly all the pain I went through. But had to make my own template for the door… you’d never know to look at it (*lol emoji*)

expert is stronging it a bit, but I’ve fitted hundreds of the buggers.

hundreds?? sounds like an expert to me! 😉

when fitting the door, measure thrice, cut, er, twice? Seriously though, just take time measuring and referencing things and you’ll be fine.  I normally fit the bottom brackets, offer it up to make sure it aligns, then place a clamp at the top and just screw straight to door without pre drilling or using the template, if the holes are even a mm or two out using the template, you’re hosed.

think ill take your method.  just offered up the template and poked a hole through the top two holes and they do seem slightly out with lower markings.

ive just fitted the two bottom brackets, plus the sticky pads (not unpeeled the top yet) and they seem perfect, so ill do as you say and clamp it up and just drill.  slight problem is tho the original door looks to have been cut out for a cupboard by howdens back in the day.  obviously fine for their template, but sods law, i need a top screw where one of the cutouts is.  just have to hope 5 screws rather than 6 will hold it.

there are 6 screws supplied, 3 per side.  diagram shows where they go, the top 3 out of the 4 holes per side.  but…… there are actually 5 per side on the dishwasher.

which screws do i do?  top 3 of 5?  or 1,2 and 4?

btw, screwhole 4 doesnt have anything in there to replace, its just a hole.  is that right??

nearly there 😀

From memory, it’s the top 2 and then on the sides, 1st and 3rd.  The others are blind and the long screws won’t pass if you’ve got it wrong.

And yes, it’s a pain when there’s a hinge hole in the wrong place.  I usually glue a block in there then screw into that.

16:05 – good to see he uses the same fixing method as me 🙂

ohhhhh i wish id seen that video yesterday!!  tis indeed a very good video.

juuuuust finished now, had an uneven gap to sort out so a bit of faffage.  pleased its done, £100 saved and new knowledge gained, i bloody ache tho.

16:05 – good to see he uses the same fixing method as me

you screw into the next cupboard from the inside???

i dont see anything that suggests its possible.  this is what the inside looks like, around the same area that he screwed into.

Remove that cap to right and you’ll find a hole to screw into the cabinet

@sadexpunk – youtube is the 1st place I search when doing anything new.