Choose the Right Dishwasher for Your Kitchen

Dishwashers have a pretty simple task: getting dishes clean. But you should expect a little more from the best dishwashers. Here are some of the most important qualities:

Powerful cleaning
A good dishwasher should thoroughly clean your dishes and leave them decently dry. A lot of dishwashers have a hard time getting things fully dry—especially plastic items, which are tougher to dry than glass or ceramic—but your appliance shouldn’t leave them dripping wet.

Quiet operation
The quietest dishwashers we recommend keep the noise level to a minimum. You won’t find a totally silent dishwasher, but the ones that score the best for noise in our tests keep the clanging and whooshing to a minimum.

Eco-friendliness
A good dishwasher is energy-efficient and uses minimal water to get things clean and dry. An energy-efficient machine is gentle on the environment and can save you money, too.

The right features
The best dishwasher features for you will depend on your needs and preferences, but a few things are desirable for just about anyone. A stainless steel interior tub is better than plastic because it’s more durable and stainproof. And some level of adjustability in a dishwasher’s racks ensures that your dishes will fit.

Along with testing dishwashers in our labs, we also survey CR members about their appliances to find out how different brands perform over time. In our latest survey, we gathered responses from more than 59,000 members about more than 69,000 dishwashers across 28 brands, all purchased new between 2014 and 2024. 

From the responses, we identified performance problems and breakages in these dishwashers and used those findings to predict the likelihood that a dishwasher from a given brand will develop problems or break in its first five years of service.

The survey results show that no brand is free of problems—and it’s worth noting that a brand’s quality can vary over time with changes in design and production. But some of the brands that rose to the top for predicted reliability were Bosch, Gaggeneau, Miele, and Thermador. Just behind these in reliability scores were Beko, Ikea, LG, Maytag, Signature Kitchen Suite, Whirlpool, and Hotpoint. The most common problems members had with dishwashers were machines that failed to clean and dry well, followed by those that failed to drain away water and dish racks and control panels that broke or stopped working properly.

To read more about the results from our latest survey, see our guide to the most and least reliable dishwasher brands. And if your dishwasher has broken down or needs repairs, you can use our interactive tool to help you figure out whether it’s worth paying for repairs or replacing the machine altogether.