Samsung DW80F800UWS Dishwasher Review

But even ninjas can't beat the kind of heavy artillery that some of this Samsung's competitors bring to the fight. Although its cleaning performance is solid on everyday stains, other products from KitchenAid, Bosch, and GE do a better job with the bigger messes.

Still, with sales prices as low as $629, an attractive, capacious design, and an awesome Normal cycle, this Samsung is no slouch. If you like what you see, check it out.

Design & Usability

Covert operations

The silver strip above the handlebar on the DW80F800UWS is more than just cosmetic: It's actually an LCD screen that tells you if the machine is busy washing, rinsing, or drying your dishes. You can't easily tell it's a display until it's on, though.

Hidden inside the tub is the DW80F800UWS's secret weapon: a red, star-shaped disc loaded with spray jets. This little ninja star is called Storm Wash, and it's designed to scrub off those extra-tough stains. The bottom of the tub contains a hard food disposer instead of the more common detachable screen filter, meaning you don't have to worry about cleaning it yourself when it gets covered in nasty food waste.

There are a large number of plate supports inside the DW80F800UWS. So many, in fact, that we were able to fit eleven place settings and a serving setting. The interior contains more common design features, such as fold-down cup shelves, adjustable height for the top rack, and a pair of simple, sturdy cutlery baskets.

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Features

Equipped for any mission.

A good ninja is prepared for anything, and the DW80F800UWS is no different. You get six cycles to choose from: Smart Auto, Normal, Heavy, Delicate, Quick +, and Pots & Pans. The names are pretty self-explanatory; the only surprise here is that there's such a wide selection on a mid-range dishwasher.

If you're looking to customize a cycle, the DW80F800UWS has a few options. Half Load reduces the number of washes and rinses in a cycle to lower your utility costs when the machine isn't full, and Sanitize raises the temperature of the final rinse. The Storm Wash button turns on the high-intensity spray jets, and the Delay can be set to postpone a wash for 1-24 hours.

Performance

Brute force is not really its style.

This dishwasher's performance is solid, but not outstanding. Although the Normal cycle couldn't perfectly remove everything we threw at it, we were impressed that there were very few instances of redeposit, when stains get washed off of one item and stuck to another. Redeposit can be a problem for even high-end dishwashers. A good filtration system usually prevents redeposit, and the DW80F800UWS's hard food disposer probably deserves all the credit.

We pit the Pots & Pans cycle against our heaviest stains, and found it was not enough to handle our burnt sugar and burnt cheese tests. Although slightly disappointing, this cycle still did a fine job with the other, more common stains. You may need to scrape your plates beforehand, or try using the Storm Wash feature, which isn't automatically engaged.

The Quick + cycle is the fastest cycle on the DW80F800UWS, clocking in at 63 minutes. Usually, fast cycles have problems with the oatmeal and milk stains, but Quick + took care of them just fine. This cycle's cleaning performance was only slightly worse than the Normal's, making it a suitable replacement if you know you have a lightly-soiled load and want it quickly washed and dried in about an hour.

This machine isn't particularly fast or slow. Cycle times for Quick +, Normal, and Pots & Pans came out to around one hour, two hours, and three hours, respectively. Water and electricity usage were slightly below average, and we calculated an estimated cost of $27.05 for running the DW80F800UWS for a year. That number will likely go up if you frequently engage Storm Wash, which is optional.

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

Why We Like It

More than meets the eyes.

The Samsung DW80F800UWS is far from the perfect dishwasher, but you're definitely getting more than what you paid for. This is the only machine in its price range that combines a fancy phantom display, the Storm Wash high-intensity spray jets, and a powerful Normal cycle that has mastered the art of the everyday load.

Another dishwasher that performs similarly to the DW80F800UWS is the GE GDT580SMFES. The two are nearly identical in terms of price and performance, but the GE lacks the Samsung's sleek cosmetic design features. They're otherwise so similar, in fact, that it really boils down to which brand fits your kitchen's design better.

If you want even more features, the Bosch SHP65TL5UC comes with a third rack and a stronger Heavy cycle. The Bosch's greatest appeal is that it gives the impression of a luxury dishwasher at half the cost. The Bosch does have some problems with redeposit, however, so there's a trade-off.

By the Numbers

We found through our standardized tests that the Samsung DW80F800UWS is a great dishwasher overall. We focus heavily on how well a machine's Normal cycle performs on its default settings, since that is the cycle most users run on a regular basis. The DW80F800UWS excels on the everyday load, but doesn't shine anywhere else.

Performance

Average everywhere except with the Normal cycle

The greatest perk with the DW80F800UWS is that its Normal cycle does a great job removing stains. Every item we loaded scored 99% or better, including the difficult baked-on spinach stain. This leafy green vegetable is a test that most dishwashers are doomed to fail, and the main purpose of it is to look for redeposit. The DW80F800UWS did more than just avoid redeposit: It removed 99.82% of the spinach stains entirely!

The Pots & Pans cycle did an even better job, removing 99.93% of the baked-on spinach. Against the same stains used for the Normal cycle, Pots & Pans scored much closer to 100%. However, this cycle left over 20% of the burnt cheese and burnt sugar stains behind, which are two of the toughest food stains we use.

Quick + lived up to its name, and took about an hour to run. We've seen fast cycles on other dishwashers that can finish in as little as 30 minutes, but they aren't nearly as thorough as the one found on the DW80F800UWS. In fact, given how this cycle performed on our tests, we can see using Quick + on more than just light beverage stains.

Efficiency

A little light on resources

We estimate that the DW80F800UWS will cost you around $27.05 a year in utilities. Broken down by each cycle, the Normal costs just 9 cents each run, using 0.46 kWh of power and 3.08 gallons of hot water. Quick + uses more water and slightly more power, and costs 12 cents per run. The Pots & Pans, reserved for the toughest of tasks, uses 8.65 gallons of water and 0.94 kWh of electricity, which is more than double the Normal cycle's resource usage. Needless to say, this is a cycle you want to run sparingly.

Capacity

So many tines…

There are a staggering number of supports on the DW80F800UWS's bottom rack. There was enough room to hold 11 of our standardized place settings and a serving setting, but the interior is flexible enough to hold even more stray plates or cups with a little bit of strategic placement. The upper rack has two height settings, which makes it easier to fit tall items on either rack, and also has a pair of fold-down cup shelves for added space.

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