GE Cafe CDWT980VSS

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.

Design & Usability

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

Because of its simplicity, the {{product.model}} is easy to use—save for the fixed filter, which is a pain to clean out.

We liked the {{product.model}}’s design, as minimalistic as it is. There’s not much that stands out, but that’s sort of how we like it. It has a stainless steel finish that's surprisingly resistant to fingerprints. The inside wash tub is also stainless, and is complemented by a sturdy set of dish racks, plus a similarly sturdy and spacious cutlery basket. The flimsy, single plastic wash arm, on the other hand, was very much the opposite of sturdy. We expected more from a dishwasher this pricey.

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, they're responsive enough and they are all located on the right side at the top of the door. Just scroll over your desired wash cycle, engage any additional options and hit the Start button.

{{photo_gallery "Front Closed Photo", "Fingerprints Photo", "Controls 1 Photo", "Controls 2 Photo", "Front Open Photo", "Interior Detail Photo", "Top Rack Photo", "Top Rack Detail Photo 1", "Top Rack Detail Photo 2", "Top Rack Detail Photo 3", "Bottom Rack Photo", "Bottom Rack Detail Photo 2", "Bottom Rack Detail Photo 3", "Cutlery Basket Photo", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 1", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 2", "Cutlery Basket Detail Photo 3"}}

Features

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

For $1,600, we were hoping for some neat bonuses—not a massage chair, but something to give us more bang for our buck.

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 and hurt this machine in our scoring. Supplemental wash options include a Steam rinse, Heated Dry, and an Added Heat feature. Each of these options can be manually added onto a chosen wash cycle. 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 as unusual, but a mid-range machine the {{product.model}} is not. As far as noise, it gave off a pretty standard volume. There's a quiet ding at the end of each cycle, and the stainless interior does a pretty solid job of suppressing noise.

That said, there's actually a surprise hidden here. In addition to the regular detergent dispenser, this GE contains 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—the combination 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 save our money and stick to our traditional dispenser.

Performance

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The lack of a quick wash is disappointing, but the Normal and Deep Cleans functions were nevertheless very impressive.

The Deep Clean cycle took over two hours to finish—more than twice the length of the Normal—and was exponentially less efficient in terms of electricity and water consumption. Surprisingly, the vast difference in efficiency and speed did not translate to their respective wash performances. While the Deep Clean was a slightly better cycle overall, we’d recommend using the Normal wash most of the time, due to its superior speed and efficiency. Most of our tests came back pretty darn close to perfect, but unfortunately none of the stains (except tea) scored perfectly across both passes.

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. 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.

Conclusion

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

This is a solid mid-range machine that any middle class consumer will appreciate. Oh, what’s that? It costs how much? $1,600?! Give me my money back.

The {{product.model}} performed pretty well, but for such an expensive machine we were expecting more... like a quick cycle... or better energy efficiency... or anything else, really.

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. Sale prices of $1400 just aren't enough to make this gimmicky piece of technology worth it.

Science Introduction

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

Given this dishwasher's high price tag and minimal feature set, we expected some pretty amazing results. Our tests gave us a very mixed bag in every area, however.

Performance

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

Even tough stains like overcooked pasta can be tackled with relative ease here.

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). The four primary tests involve staining dishes with egg, milk, lipstick, and oats. In each of those four tests—except for lipstick removal—both Normal and Deep Clean cycles removed over 99 percent of the residue (only about 15 to 29 percent of the lipstick came off). We put the Deep Clean through a few more paces, to see how well it could remove burnt lasagna and cheese; about 91 percent of the lasagna came out, while only 51 percent of the cheese was successfully removed.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 1 Images"}}

Efficiency

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

The Deep Clean is a workhorse that requires lots and lots of energy; Normal's lower rate of consumption makes it the superior go-to cycle.

The China and Normal cycles consumed a fairly average amount of power: 0.51 and 0.55 kWh, respectively. This makes for an electricity cost of five or six 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!

As with its power consumption, the CDWT980VSS’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 efficient Normal cycle used just 3.54 gallons. Meanwhile, the highly inefficient Deep Clean required 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). On the whole, we expect this machine to cost about $34.14 per year to operate.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 2 Images"}}

Capacity

{{section_header}}{{section.name}}{{/section_header}}

An unusual design makes for decent storage overall, though the lower rack isn't as flexible as we'd hoped.

An angled top rack affords plenty of extra space for glassware, mugs, and small bowls. The bottom rack features four rows of tines, two of which can be collapsed for fitting larger, bulkier dishes and pans. Ironically, the wide space between the tines actually limits its overall capacity. 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. In total, we were able to fit just under 11 standard place settings into this model.

{{photo_gallery "Science Section 3 Images"}}