Blog: What You Should Know Before Buying A Dishwasher
Have you ever wondered why some dishwashers are $250, and others are $900? I mean, really, how many bells and whistles can you add? It’s a dishwasher. Well, I found the answer during a recent trip to an appliance store. The price difference is all about how quiet it is. In other words, most machines are fairly equal, quality-wise – and the price increase is mostly for increased insulation.
Basically, if the dishwasher goes in a far corner of your home - where noise won’t be an issue – you can go with the cheaper version. But if it’s somewhere the noise might bother people – like, near the family room where everybody watches TV – you’ll want something quieter.
And the lower the number of decibels, the better. For a quiet dishwasher, the salesman recommended 51 decibels or less. But how can you tell if the dishwasher you’re considering is a quiet one? You could ask the sales staff to look it up, or check the brand and model number on the Internet. But there’s actually a cool, easy way to tell – right there in the store. Just grab your cell phone, and play a song on it with the volume turned up; then stick it inside the dishwasher and close the door. (Obviously, you don’t want to try this in a dishwasher that could be turned on!) If it sounds like the phone’s sitting right on the counter, it’s a loud dishwasher. But if you can’t hear the music, or it’s really faint, you know it’s a pretty quiet one. Ahh – the magic of technology!
