General Electric GE Dishwasher Model GLD4560 N10SS — Review

Picture of GE dishwasher Model GLD4560.

 

© 2011 Peter Free

 

22 August 2011

 

 

Worst dishwasher I’ve ever used

 

This dishwasher illustrates what happens when engineers (if they can be legitimately called that) design something they don’t have to use.

 

 

GE’s lackadaisical attitude is probably illustrated by the fact that the instruction book for the dishwasher also covers nine other “series” of their units.

 

 

 

Background

 

The dishwasher being evaluated is two years old.  It’s located in military housing.  I’ve had three months of experience with it.

 

The previous family took good care of the home and everything in it.  Consequently, the dishwasher’s shortcomings are not due to two years of abuse.

 

 

Negatives

 

The bottom rack often catches on its tracks and the door, when being pulled out for loading (or any other purpose).

 

The utensil container is located along the side of the bottom rack.  So, one has to pull the rack out to load it evenly.  Otherwise, one has to reach over the utensils in the front section of the container to reach its back compartments.  That’s more annoying than it sounds because you have to navigate in the narrow area between the utensil handles (or blades) and the top dishwasher rack.

 

Utensil handles, fork prongs, and slender knives poke through the bottom and sides of the utensil container and get stuck.

 

The utensil container also catches on the bottom rack’s dish-holding prongs.  So removing it (for emptying) is more difficult than necessary.

 

In use, the dishwasher doesn’t reliably clean even pre-rinsed dishes and utensils.

 

And items loaded on the top rack collect water like no other dishwasher I’ve ever used.  Consequently, even after the “hot dry” cycle, one has to dump water off literally everything and dry each item with a towel.

 

Last, the control touch buttons on the front of the washer are absurdly easy to inadvertently activate, even when just opening or closing the door.  An ergonomic booby trap.

 

 

Positives

 

This dishwasher washes dishes automatically, but somewhat unreliably.

 

If you don’t mind (a) spending a lot of time drying items on the top rack and (b) sometimes re-washing a number of even pre-rinsed dishes or utensils — you might like it.

 

 

Not recommended

 

Truthfully, only a bunch of practicality-challenged idiots could have come up with a time-wasting design like this, after seeing decades of successful design from other manufacturers.