Frigidaire Gallery FGID2466QF Dishwasher Review

Compared to other Frigidaires in the Gallery line, this particular model is a straight upgrade of the FGBD2438PF, and is also similar to the FGID2474QS—except it swaps the 2474's stainless tub for plastic.

In our lab tests, we found that the FGID2466QF does a decent enough job cleaning dishes, but had some issues with water filtration. If you tend to put heavily soiled dishes in your dishwasher, you'll likely encounter redeposit—the unsightly mess that occurs when food particles are sprayed onto other plates, instead of going down the drain.

Design & Usability

Hides its imperfections well

The FGID2466QF looks great from the front. A protruding, transitional-style handlebar smoothly slants outward from an all-stainless door. The controls are all hidden on top of the door, and no logos or other markings interrupt the aesthetic.

Once you open that door, though, you’ll quickly find this Gallery's interior to be rather dull. The control panel itself, while responsive, lacks any pizazz. Gray plastic coats the interior walls, and an exposed heating coil—useful for quick drying but potentially harmful for plastics on the lower shelf—juts out of the bottom of the tub. The blue trim on the excellent OrbitClean spray arm is the only oasis in a colorless desert.

In terms of the functionality of all those interior fiddly-bits, the FGID2466QF can only be considered adequate. There aren’t very many adjustable parts, so you’re out of luck if you find your bowls too deep or your plates too thick. Using our standardized dishes for capacity testing, we were able to fit 11 place settings and 1 serving setting, but it sure wasn’t easy.

Lastly, even though the three-piece cutlery basket provides some flexibility, its middle section doesn’t have slots for keeping your silverware separated. While many users find the slots inconvenient to load and unload, keeping your spoons from spooning means they actually get clean.

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Features

Fine-tune your wash settings

If nothing else, the FGID2466QF sure gives you options. There are eight wash cycles to choose from, including a My Favorite cycle, which saves a cycle-plus-wash option configuration for easy recall later.

Default settings on each of the aptly named cycles do their jobs well enough, but the myriad wash options let you customize them even further. After picking a cycle, you can choose from three different wash pressures, three different wash temperatures, and three different drying methods.

Rounding out the already long list are a couple more creature comforts: 1-24 Hour Delay to postpone a wash, and Child Lock to prevent curious kids—or significant others—from starting or interrupting a cycle.

Performance

Filtration failure

When we put this Frigidaire through our battery of stain removal tests, we noticed that it was very good at cleaning off the original food stains we baked and dried on to dishes. However, it did a poor job keeping those stains off, and we frequently found spots of food particles on dishes that were clean to begin with.

This phenomenon is known as redeposit, and usually indicates poor filtration. We spotted it in varying degrees on each of the cycles we tested. Both the Normal Wash and Power Plus cycles, which are the two cycles where cleaning power is especially important, exhibited visible levels of redeposit.

With a 2-hour Normal Wash and a Power Plus that clocked in at a little under 3 hours, the Quick Wash is a welcome option for when you need dishes done fast. It finished in a brisk 33 minutes, but did a far worse cleaning job than the other two cycles. Best to use this one for light stains only.

Our meters found the FGID2466QF also uses more water than other dishwashers currently on the market, with Power Plus draining more than ten gallons per wash. This added up to an estimated annual cost of $39.08 per year, which is above the $29-30 range we see in other machines. The dollar amounts aren't that intense, but if you live somewhere there's a drought, keep that in mind.

For in-depth performance information, please visit the Science Page.

Warranty

The FGID2466QF comes with a standard one-year warranty, during which Electrolux (Frigidaire’s parent company) will pay all repair and replacement costs for any defective parts.

Why We Like It

Good for a stainless kitchen upgrade

For all its faults, the stainless steel FGID2466QF is still a very solid dishwasher given its low upfront cost. It is right in the middle of two other dishwashers in the Gallery line: the FGBD2438PF and the FGID2474QS. While not worth it for the full asking price, the FGID2466QF is much more tempting when you find it on sale.

One crucial advantage the FGID2466QF has over other dishwashers hovering above economy grade is the fact that this Frigidaire disguises itself so well. If you’re shopping in this price range, it's nice to have an option that actually looks good. You’re not only getting an appliance that can reliably clean your dishes, but one that just might boost your home's resale value.

By the Numbers

No appliance is perfect. Everything we test in our lab usually returns at least one score we’re not happy with. The Frigidaire Gallery FGID2466QF asks for a low price up front, which is a number we are happy with, but we quickly found that some sacrifices were made in cleaning power and efficiency.

Performance

In general, the FGID2466QF does a great job washing stains from dishes. The Normal Wash and Power Plus cycles were both exceptional at removing baked-on spinach, which usually takes a lot of mechanical force to evict. Once liberated, though, the stain had a tendency to return, ending up on other dishes during the wash.

As a result, otherwise clean dishes were getting spinach stains stuck to them, which sandbagged overall cleaning scores. We also factor time into the cleaning scores, though less heavily on everyday and heavy duty cycles that most users would simply run overnight. Still, it was clear that redeposit had a direct impact on the FGID2466QF’s numbers.

The Quick Wash is a cycle for which speed actually matters, and it did well in that department at just 33 minutes. However, it did not do a very thorough cleaning job, scoring especially low on meat and amplifying the redeposit problem that appeared on other cycles. This cycle should be reserved for only the lightest, freshest stains.

Efficiency

The FGID2466QF seems to have taken a lesson from one of Kevin Costner's worst movies: Each cycle consumes far more water than equivalent cycles on other dishwashers, leading to a higher annual operating cost and environmental impact.

The Normal Wash used 7.35 gallons of water compared to the usual 2.5 to 4 we see in other machines. Power Plus used a whopping 10.21 gallons, and a run of the Quick Wash used 5.56 gallons. Each cycle’s electricity usage is far more reasonable and closer to average, but we still calculated a total annual operating cost of $39.08 per year. For comparison, many other dishwashers come in closer to the $29-30 range.

Capacity

We found room for eleven place settings and a serving setting in the FGID2466QF, but it wasn’t easy. Almost none of the tines can be adjusted, which makes it harder to fit large items such as casseroles, pots, and pans. The three-piece cutlery basket was the only saving grace, allowing us to consolidate space while still fitting all the items we needed.

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