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  • Introduction

  • Front

  • Finish

  • Controls

  • Interior

  • Top Rack

  • Bottom Rack

  • Cutlery Basket

  • Electricity Use

  • Water Use

  • Yearly Running Cost

  • Washing Speed

  • Washing Performance

  • Quick Wash Cycle

  • Normal Wash Cycle

  • Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle

  • Washing Cycles

  • Customization

  • Additional Wash Options

  • Capacity

  • Wash Arms & Filters

  • Lower Dish Rack

  • Upper Dish Rack

  • Cutlery Holder

  • Detergent Dispenser

  • Ease of Use

  • Noise

  • Controls

  • Efficiency

  • Washing Performance

  • Features

  • Introduction
  • Front
  • Finish
  • Controls
  • Interior
  • Top Rack
  • Bottom Rack
  • Cutlery Basket
  • Electricity Use
  • Water Use
  • Yearly Running Cost
  • Washing Speed
  • Washing Performance
  • Quick Wash Cycle
  • Normal Wash Cycle
  • Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle
  • Washing Cycles
  • Customization
  • Additional Wash Options
  • Capacity
  • Wash Arms & Filters
  • Lower Dish Rack
  • Upper Dish Rack
  • Cutlery Holder
  • Detergent Dispenser
  • Ease of Use
  • Noise
  • Controls
  • Efficiency
  • Washing Performance
  • Features

Introduction

Honestly, {{product.brand.name}}, you’re a legendary brand, but just because you can claim Thomas Edison as one of your own doesn’t mean you can charge this much for a run-of-the-mill dishwasher with one special feature of dubious awesomeness. You've made some great products, really. And we’ve given some solid grades to your other products, but this one doesn’t hit the mark—at least not for the asking price.

Front

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The front of the {{product.model}} features an angled handle, a blinking status light, and a GE logo at the bottom.

The front of the GE CDWT980VSS.

Finish

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The front exterior of the {{product.model}} is stainless steel, and was surprisingly resistant to fingerprints. The inside wash tub is also stainless.

Controls

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The control panel is very basic, like the rest of the machine. There are two columns of wash options and cycles with corresponding selector lights. There are just six buttons in all, and they are all located on the right side at the top of the door.

Interior

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The stainless steel wash tub is complemented by a sturdily built set of dish racks, plus a similarly sturdy and spacious cutlery basket.

The CDWT980VSS with door open.

Top Rack

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At first glance, the {{product.model}} looks like the top rack is off-carriage and tilting to the right, but that’s just the design of the top rack, which makes it very spacious too.

The top rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Bottom Rack

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The bottom rack features four rows of tines, two of which can be collapsed for fitting larger, bulkier dishes and pans. While the wheels seem cheaply built for a $1,600 dishwasher, the racks are very firmly constructed.

The bottom rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Cutlery Basket

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The cutlery basket can be disassembled into three units, all of which work together to make a highly spacious and flexible basket. You shouldn’t have any trouble fitting large quantities of cutlery items, but unless you remove the detachable components you may be sacrificing crucial space in the lower rack.

The CDWT980VSS cutlery basket.

Electricity Use

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The China and Normal cycles consumed a fairly average volume of power: 0.51 and 0.55 kWh, respectively. This makes for an electricity cost of 5 or 6 cents per cycle. However, the Deep Clean wash used an astounding 1.26 kWh, which makes for an electricity cost of 13 cents per wash!

Water Use

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As with its power consumption, the {{product.model}}’s water usage varied greatly from cycle to cycle. The China cycle used a surprisingly large amount of hot water (7.99 gallons), while the Normal washed was surprisingly efficient, using just 3.54 gallons. Meanwhile, the highly inefficient Deep Clean used a whopping 10.64 gallons of hot water, affording it the title of the most expensive dishwasher cycle we’ve ever tested (28 cents per wash).

Yearly Running Cost

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The above data, as assorted as they are, make for a cost per wash of roughly 16 cents on the China cycle, 11 cents on the Normal, and (as mentioned) a whopping 28 cents on the Deep Clean. All of this factors to a yearly operating cost of about $34.14.

chart

Washing Speed

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As with efficiency, there was a big difference in cycle duration across the two main washes. The Normal completed in 68 minutes while the Deep Clean was more than twice that length (138 minutes).

Washing Performance

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Surprisingly, this vast difference in efficiency and speed between the two main cycles did not translate as completely to their respective wash performances. While the Deep Clean was clearly superior, both did a good job cleaning dishes.

chart

Quick Wash Cycle

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No quick cycle. Denied!

chart

Normal Wash Cycle

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Because of the big difference in efficiency and speed between the Normal and Deep Clean washes—and the comparability of performance—we’d recommend using the Normal wash most of the time. Most of our stain tests were pretty darn close to perfection, but unfortunately none of the stains (except tea) scored perfectly across both passes.

Normal Cycle

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Heavy/Pots & Pans Wash Cycle

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If a cycle is going to expend more than 10 gallons of hot water, it better do a darn good job of cleaning dishes. Fortunately, the {{product.model}} Deep Clean wash does that. While we were impressed by its power against heavy protein stains (meat, baked-on egg, milk), we couldn’t get the outrageous price of $1,600 out of our heads. For that price, you should expect perfection—and if not that, then some sort of flashy gizmo or new technology. But there wasn’t any of that—just an extremely inefficient, albeit high performing, heavy cycle.

Pots & Pans Cycle
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Washing Cycles

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There are four main cycles—China, Auto, Normal, and Deep Clean. While these four cycles are enough to satisfy most dishwashing needs, the lack of a quick cycle is a bit annoying.

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Customization

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Each of the {{product.model}}’s wash options are also customization features, in that they are manually added onto chosen wash cycles.

Additional Wash Options

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Wash options include a Steam rinse, Heated Dry, and an Added Heat feature. There’s also a delay option(2, 4, or 8 hours), but that’s it—no sanitize rinse (the Deep Clean automatically sanitizes), no extra wash, no timer, no rinse only. For a mid-range machine this wouldn’t be an issue, but a mid-range machine the {{product.model}} is not.

Capacity

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We were able to fit the standard 10 place sitting, including a serving setting. This is a very average score, but it should be noted that we came close to fitting 11 place settings, mainly thanks to the very spacious and flexible upper rack. What held us back was the somewhat limited lower rack, which features a large cutlery holder and widely spaced tines.

Top Rack

Bottom Rack

Wash Arms & Filters

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Another example of the {{product.model}}’s bloated price tag: the flimsy, plastic, single wash arms. These should be expected in a midrange or low-end dishwasher, but not the supposedly elite “Café” line from GE.

The CDWT980VSS wash arms.

The DW 14140 upper wash arm

The CDWT980VSS filter.

Lower Dish Rack

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The lower rack look pretty spacious, and it includes two adjustable tines, but ironically enough, the wide space between the tines limited its overall capacity. The rack itself is sturdily constructed, and the large, adjustable cutlery holder can be easily removed.

The bottom rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Upper Dish Rack

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Contrastingly, the upper rack cannot be adjusted, but we were able to fit far more dishes—relatively speaking. This is because the right side of the rack angles down into the wash tub, affording the upper rack plenty of extra space for glassware, mugs, and small bowls.

The top rack of the CDWT980VSS.

Cutlery Holder

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The cutlery basket can be detached into three units, which is useful if you want to fit large, bulky dishes and pans in the bottom. Even so, it is very spacious and well built.

The CDWT980VSS cutlery basket.

Detergent Dispenser

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There's actually a surprise hidden here. In addition to the regular detergent dispenser, this GE hides a device that automatically dispenses detergent. Fill it up once every few washes, and you're good to go. One big caveat here which explains why this technology never took off, despite it debuting to great fanfare about four years ago: If you mix different formulations of detergents -- even if they're from the same manufacturer -- it can form a rock-hard mass inside the dishwasher door. In order to remove the hardened detergent, you need to take the door off and clean it out. No thank you. We'll stick to our traditional dispenser.

The CDWT980VSS detergent dispenser.

Ease of Use

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As mentioned, the {{product.model}} is straightforward and easy to use, but this is no excuse for the price tag. After all, the main reason it’s so straightforward is because it was deprived of any cool features.

Noise

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Pretty standard volume. There’s a quiet ding at the end of each cycle, and the stainless steel interior does a pretty good job of suppressing noise.

Controls

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The push-button control panel is responsive enough, but again, $1,600 for push buttons? You couldn’t install some nifty sensor technology or something? Aside from this, the interface is easy to use. Just scroll over your desired wash cycle, then engage any additional options and hit the Start button.

Efficiency

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The {{product.model}} is both efficient and inefficient. We say that because its two main cycles are polar opposites when it comes to preserving water and energy; the Normal does a good job of doing so, the Deep Clean a bad job (although the cleaning power in both is pretty decent). We calculated that the Normal cycle will cost you about 11 cents per wash. The Deep Clean, however, will run you a whopping 28 cents per cycle, thanks to its draining of more than 10 gallons of hot water and 1.26 kWh. These figures make for an about average yearly operating cost of about $34.14.

Washing Performance

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The {{product.model}} performed pretty well, but for such an expensive machine we were expecting more. Also, the lack of a quick cycle—in a $1,6000 machine, no less—is pretty frustrating. The Deep Clean, as inefficient as it is, does a great job on proteins and baked-on stains, and we don’t imagine anyone will take umbrage at the machine's overall cleaning power.

Features

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This thing includes few extra features, which would be fine were it some $800 cheaper. There’s a delay, a Steam wash, a Heated Dry, and an Added Heat option. These are in addition to its four cycles—Auto, China, Normal, and Deep Clean. The machine’s sanitation option is encoded in the Deep Clean wash, meaning you can’t sanitize your dishes on the Normal wash. That’s kind of frustrating—once again, especially for a $1,600 machine!

The biggest disappointment was the automatic detergent dispenser. If you fill it with the exact same kind of detergent every time, you shouldn't have a problem. But accidentally put in one kind of Cascade instead of another, and you'll fill your dishwasher with a solid mess of soap that requires a major repair. There's a reason more dishwashers don't have automatic detergent dispensers, and this is it.

Meet the tester

Tyler Wells Lynch

Tyler Wells Lynch

Contributor

@tylerwellslynch

Tyler Wells Lynch is a freelance writer and journalist whose work has appeared in Vice, Wirecutter, Gizmodo, The Rumpus, Yes!, and the Huffington Post, among others. He lives in Maine.

See all of Tyler Wells Lynch's reviews

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