Fisher and Paykel dishwasher experiences

[Galliano]

My integrated Bosch dishwasher has died completely - the lights on the control panel have gone out. As far as I can work out it’s wired into the actual circuit ie no plug point and there’s no issue with the main fuse box. The dishwasher has been in situ for 8 years we’ve owned the house and was far from new then so I think has had a good innings.

I have a 4 year old fisher and paykel fridge freezer. I’m having my kitchen replaced in the autumn and going for a slightly industrial look so I’m tempted to get the matching dishwasher. The two drawers arrangement could work well as the population of the house fluctuates between just DH and me to DH, me, our 3 adult DC and their 3 partners.

Concerns are cost (£1500ish) - not unaffordable but is it just profligate/obscene overspending, energy rating is F - new system but still poor, and very mixed reviews - people love or loathe. Oh also looks like it will be ten days to get delivered (sobs). Plus if fridge (which I do really like) packs up I’ll be trapped in a fisher and paykel cycle.

Do you have one, like it, wwyd?

I have one
I love it.
but there’s only me and ds, so it’s good for everyday dishes.
but it’s not good for large stuff, big pots and pans
and my large special occasion dinner plates don’t fit

We have a 2 drawer F&P. Honestly I don't like it. I don't think we can fit as much in as our previous regular one. We are using twice as many tablets as you need one per drawer. Luckily we were randomly given ours but I'd be a bit grumpy if I'd paid for it.

@ZuliKyanLarsFoz I was assuming I’d use gel or powder to get over that. Have you found they aren’t effective?

I have the double drawers a few years ago , they were awful. Big plates didn’t fit. Endless problems with motors meant it was out of action waiting for repairs for weeks at a time, finally gave up the day after the warranty ended . I think there are less problems with the single drawer as it’s a more straightforward design than the double drawers. Neighbour had same problems, have a google for reviews. Wish I’d spent the money on a Miele at the time.

My Mum had one and we loved it. Ability to just use one drawer day to day but both ifhaving people over. Can put them both on but different cycles when entertaining eg glasses in one, plates and pans in the other. You do need to use powder as the dishwasher tablets aren’t designed for it (although the cheaper tablets you can just break in half). She did have to have an engineer out a couple of times for some issue - think that was included in warranty. Wouldn’t get one for a family as no point really but if you have changing numbers of people I think they are really good.

I have a Miele dishwasher and it’s excellent if you’re also considering alternatives

My parents had one, in the house when they moved in. Hated it. Day to day for the 2 of them was ok but as others have said was hard to fit large pots and pans and they had some plates that didn't fit. The set up means you lose quite a bit of usable space inside it.
it broke after a couple years (wasn't that old) and was too expensive to fit. They replaced with a Miele which is more energy efficient. And cost less than the repair estimate.

Love ours. Just bought another one after 10+ years with old one. Drawers are deep enough for us (family of 6) and provided you load it and put it on regularly you never have to have pots hanging out on the worktop. That’s the thing though - I think you do run it a lot more than a normal dishwasher so prob more expensive to run.

We had a Fischer and Paykel, which was brilliant while it worked - though I’d echo that unless your dinner plates are on the smaller side, they may not fit. When it broke after about three years it was very difficult to find a repairer who would even look at it, as the majority won’t touch the drawer style dishwashers. When someone did come out, the cost of spares and labour would have been prohibitive so we had to buy a new (different) machine. As the machines aren’t economical to repair, even if not that old, I would never have one again. (As an aside, the repair man who did come out said that the machines have narrow hoses compared to the standard UK hoses, so you need to be very assiduous in rinsing/scraping plates before putting them in the dishwasher if you don’t want blocked hoses - this may or may not be an issue depending on whether you have put upon teens being nagged into loading the dishwasher from time to time!)

We considered one of the two drawer ones, but they're so expensive and stock levels were a problem at the time we did our kitchen.

In the end we went with two cheapish slimline ones side by side. They're integrated so wouldn't give the industrial look you mentioned but we preferred just not seeing them!

This solution cost a fraction of what one Fisher Paykel would, hold everything a normal dishwasher can (just not quite as much of it!) and the machines are completey independent so if one breaks down we still have the other.

We have the double dish drawer and I love it - I am amazed at how much stuff I can get in. I do not put pans in dishwasher, have always washed by hand but everything else goes in. We have pretty big dinner plates and no issues with them fitting.

We built here (NZ) and the builder had the double dishdrawer in the specifications - we changed it to a normal dishwasher and the builder put the double one in by mistake. I would never go back to a normal dishwasher but there is only two of us and that could make a difference.

I have had a F&P double drawer for 6 years and love it. One drawer had an issue with a motor during lock down and F&P were quick to come out and fix (and it wasn't expensive). My white IKEA dinner plates fit in it no problem.

I've had 2 over the last 16 years. First one lasted 10 and now on the second

There are not many dishes I can't fit in - I sometimes hand wash biggest oven trays but that's all, or put them in flat horizontally if I'm feeling lazy

The fact you can have 1 drawer on and be loading the other - so nothing ever on the worktop or in the sink - is worth it for me

I would vote no because I have a fisher and Paykel oven and it’s shit. Doesn’t work properly and never has. Heats unevenly and often takes an age to heat up. It’s less than 2 years old.

just don’t do it - as a brand their reliability is awful. Have a Miele dishwasher and it’s ace!

my experience FWIW
There was a two drawer one fitted in the kitchen when we moved house. Looked great but we hated it. It was only three years old. Not as expensive as the one you are looking at though.
Incapable of washing thoroughly. Couldn’t fit dinner plates in. Usually had to fill both drawers , even though just two of us. Really long cycles and very noisy. It was such a relief when we changed it for mid range Bosch

Hugely mixed experiences proving my initial love or hate statement! I’ve gone ahead and ordered so may live to regret it if I fall in the hate camp. My plates are bog standard Denby and do measure small enough according to f and p…I did call in to John Lewis hoping to test that out but they no longer have one on display (and very little stock of available dishwashers at all which didn’t help in trying to weigh up alternatives).

This idea is great and I would have definitely had 2 dishwashers if space wasn’t limited!

Yes, the main downside is that it takes extra space: 900mm total for two 450mm slimline machines, rather than 600mm for one full size.

I had one of the single-drawer ones for five years in my last rented flat.

I found that it was very fussy about detergents. I could never get it to clean properly with powder or gel, meaning I had to buy the tabs. And it only seemed to work properly with Fairy Platinum, which are of course the most expensive ones. I got quite good at sniffing out offers on those!

You have to stay on top of cleaning the filter. I found that I had to take the thing apart about once a month to clean the spray arm, filter and filter plate (which is a big disc at the base of the drawer).

It was also useless on anything other than the full 70 degree programme, even with the Fairy tabs. The quick clean simply didn't work and the middle programmes were varying degrees of ineffective. The 70 degree programme cleaned everything up OK, but took a long time and obviously used a lot of energy. Upshot being, it was expensive to run.

Mine also had repeated problems with the drive/motor burning out (a common issue, according to the engineer). The parts seem to be quite difficult to get hold of (at least here in the UK) and this meant about once a year we were without a working dishwasher for a couple of weeks. Not the end of the world, but a pain.

They also change the design of the ring seal every so often, meaning whenever a new motor assembly was fitted, the rubber ring didn't seal properly, and then the machine leaked all over the drawer underneath. New rings seemed to be equally awkward to get hold of.

The F&P service engineers seem good though, IME they always turned up when they said and were friendly and knowledgeable.

Fine for glasses. Not for anything else

Hated ours. Got rid of it and replaced with a standard dishwasher.

Ours is good. Works fine with cheap tablets and more expensive eco ones, but then we have very soft water and can use half a tablet. Seems to be lasting well at 9 years old and three installations.

I see you have splashed out, I hope you will love it as much as I love mine. I've had the 2-drawer F & P for over 17 years now and it's still going strong. It looks magnificent in kitchen, love the slightly industrial look. I'm not a slave to any one brand, each appliance was chosen to fit in with the aesthetic of the kitchen, so we also have LG, DeDietrich, Hotpoint & Sharp for other big appliances.

Family of 4, we run the top drawer once everyday, very occasionally twice. Bottom drawer is great when we have additional guests. I wash most pots separately. It's a joy to load and unload. Never owned a dishwasher before and I didn't grow up with one - but the one we had at work used to freak me out, it was often easier to wash my mug in the sink and put it away than to try and shift items in an illogically stacked dishwasher.

I have a Miele dishwasher and a bad back. A friend suggested I had the dishwasher raised up with a drawer underneath. This has been very successful and is a pleasure to use.