Kenmore 15113 Dishwasher Review

With retailers offering it for around $329.99, this is one of the most affordable dishwashers on the market. Plus, our lab tests found that its performance is on par with dishwashers that cost up to twice as much. The only real drawbacks are the limited cycle selection and an inflexible interior. Still, that’s the kind of fancy stuff you wouldn’t expect on a budget appliance in the first place.

Design & Usability

Nothing fancy here

Other than a stainless steel door, the 15113 is covered in plastic. The black, front-facing control panel features responsive buttons and bright green indicator lights, but its plastic coating picks up every smudge and fingerprint. If you can do without stainless, black and white versions are available for about $50 less.

The interior walls are also made of plastic, and are very bad at dampening noise. When the 15113 is active, you’ll likely be able to hear every hum, whirr, and splash coming from the appliance—especially if you're in a small apartment, which means doing dishes overnight isn't an option for light sleepers. Frustratingly, the one sound it doesn’t make is a tone or chime at the end of a cycle.

With a long cutlery basket hogging up space on the lower rack and a noticeable lack of adjustable tines, the 15113 offers zero flexibility when it comes to loading dishes. We were able to fit ten of our standardized place settings and a serving setting inside the tub, but we imagine users won't have such carefully coordinated sets of dirty dishes. Unless the dishwasher is pretty empty, finding room for tall or oddly-shaped items might be too irritating to deal with.

{{ photo_gallery name="Design Gallery" }}

Features

Covers the basics

Higher-end machines offer energy-efficient cycles, Start Delay, and other assorted perks, none of which are necessary to actually get dishes clean. As a budget model, the 15113 has none of those secondary options, with only three cycles to speak of: Normal Wash, Pots & Pans, and 1 Hour Wash.

Customization options are limited to two ways to boost water temperatures during the wash (High Temp and Sani Rinse) and Heated Dry, which activates by default on the Normal Wash and Pots & Pans cycles. These are the most common settings found on dishwashers at all levels, and are sufficient for most households.

Performance

Takes its time, but delivers remarkable results

Cleaning performance is where the 15113 truly shines. While it can't compete with top-of-the-line dishwashers, each of the 15113's cycles can clean as well as almost any other machine that costs twice as much. The one drawback was that cycles tended to run long.

We found that the Normal Wash—the workhorse cycle designed for everyday use—took just a little below three hours to complete. The results were very good, with only a few instances of leftover food and virtually no evidence of redeposit—food that gets washed off one item and smeared onto another. Mugs and glasses on the upper rack weren't as thoroughly cleaned, though.

The Pots & Pans cycle didn’t have those problems, and took almost exactly three hours to finish. As the 15113’s toughest cycle, we ran it against the nastiest stains we had: burnt cheese, burnt sugar, and baked-on lasagna—stuff you might find left over on your cookware. While it performed competently against sugar and lasagna, this cycle couldn’t quite cut it against the cheese.

The 1 Hour Wash lived up to its name and finished in exactly 60 minutes. Although not as strong a performer as the other cycles, it’s good that there’s a fast cycle in the mix for cleaning lightly-soiled dishes in a reasonable amount of time.

All that extra wash time means more energy, driving up the 15113’s annual utility cost. We estimate that this dishwasher will have an annual running cost of about $35.03, about $5 more than average.

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

Why We Like It

Bang for your buck

Sometimes all we really want is an appliance that cleans dishes. The Kenmore 15113 does exactly that, with none of the bells and whistles you’d find on pricier machines that clutter up the control panel and intimidate consumers. This machine is for folks who don’t need a third rack, interior lights, or a large selection of extra cycles and wash options.

Sure, the 15113 could benefit from some modern elements, like a digital display, folding tines, or better sound insulation. That said, it's still a phenomenal bargain, whether you're a landlord looking to outfit apartments for the next wave of college students, or a budget-conscious low-maintenance consumer looking for something that just plain works.

By the Numbers

The Kenmore 15113 (MSRP $459.99) looks and feels like a cheap dishwasher—which it is, selling for about $330 in stores—but it certainly doesn’t clean like one. Our data found this machine to be a solid performer, worthy for buyers on a budget.

Performance

The Normal Wash cycle on the 15113 delivered very good performance, with no stain score dropping below 99%. Two things stood out about this cycle, though: A wash time of nearly three hours and noticeable performance drops with the glasses and mugs on the upper rack. Many dishwashers can easily remove 100% of tea stains on mugs, but the 15113 left some behind.

This problem didn’t appear on the Pots & Pans cycle, which did even better and took about the same amount of time to finish. We pit this cycle against our toughest stains; while it handled burnt sugar and baked-on lasagna without too much trouble, it scored a disappointing 73.13% against the burnt cheese stain.

1 Hour Wash did exactly as advertised, but did markedly worse than the other cycles. Scores dipped to as low as 96% on dried milk and meat, leaving large, visible chunks of both behind.

Efficiency

The 15113 is a hungry and thirsty machine, with above-average energy and water consumption levels across all cycles. 1 Hour Wash used 0.51 kWh of electricity and 6.12 gallons of hot water, Normal Wash used 1.09 kWh and 3.2 gallons, and Pots & Pans used 1.08 kWh and 7.93 gallons. The Normal Wash and Pots & Pans having similar energy consumption is probably related to their comparable cycle times—around three hours. These figures all add up to a total annual utility cost of $35.03, about $5 above average.

Capacity

We fit ten place settings and a serving setting inside the 15113, but several things conspired to make it difficult for us. The long cutlery basket on the bottom rack and the lack of collapsible tines gave us no room to maneuver, factors that will prove problematic for consumers with novelty dishes or oddly-shaped items.

{{ photo_gallery name="Capacity Gallery" }}