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The G 5266 blows most other dishwashers out of the water. If your budget can accommodate its premium price, it's one of the best models you can buy. Read More
This Bosch is one of the best dishwashers we've ever tested. It gets dishes clean and dry, quickly, and is ADA-compliant. Read More
The Bosch 800 Series SHP78CM5N is a near-perfect dishwasher. It scrubbed out every stain we threw at it, in record time, and has great smart features. Read More
This high-end Bosch dishwasher can remove tough stains and get all of your dishes (including plasticware) completely dry. Read More
This feature-filled, high-performing dishwasher comes in a Tuscan stainless steel finish that is sure to elicit jealously from your neighbors. Read More
Here at Reviewed, we've spent thousands of hours studying, testing, and writing about dishwashers. Who doesn't love an appliance that saves you from having to roll up your sleeves and spend valuable time scrubbing the burnt-on edges of a delicious casserole dinner?
If you're looking to buy a dishwasher, but not eager to take on the chore of towel-drying every plate and plastic container at the end of a cycle, we have you covered. We've pulled together a list of dishwashers that earned top marks in our drying tests, as well as being great performers overall.
At no surprise to our lab staff, the best drying dishwasher on the market is the Miele G 5266 (available at Abt for $1,749.00) , because of its efficient drying that removes just about every drop of water from all surfaces, from dishes to glasses to Tupperware.
The luxury Miele G 5266 dishwasher boasts an innovative drying technology called AutoOpen Drying, where the dishwasher’s door will pop open automatically at the completion of a wash cycle. This allows condensation drying to take place, where the cool room air interacts with the hot dishes.
The Miele G 5266 also offers a Sensor dry feature and an Extra Dry option that uses elevated water temperatures and an extended drying period to ensure that all glasses and plastic ware is completely dry.
When it comes to overall performance, the Miele G 5266 is one of the best dishwashers to ever come through our testing labs. If you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed in this investment.
Read our full review of the Miele G 5266 dishwasher
Third rack and adjustable upper rack
Nothing significant that we could find
The Bosch 800 Series SGX78B55UC/13 also uses CrystalDry as its drying technology. What's more is this model is ADA-compliant, which means it has enhanced accessibility features—it's also a bit smaller physically, so keep that in mind if your cabinetry is designed for a standard-sized dishwasher.
Overall, this is an excellent dishwasher, featuring strong cleaning power within relatively short cycle times.
When it comes to features, the SGX78B55UC/13 comes fully loaded, with a third rack, adjustable upper rack, and foldable tines in its lower rack, in addition to Bosch's suite of smart features.
Read our full review of the Bosch 800 Series SGX78B55UC/13 dishwasher
The brand new Bosch 800 Series SHP78CM5N is excellent when it comes to both washing and drying your dishes.
In terms of washing, the SHP78CM5N features a new spray arm design that allows the dishwasher to get significantly better overall coverage than a traditional spray arm array. In our testing we saw it had basically no issues erasing every stain we threw at it.
When it comes to drying, the SHP78CM5N has an ace up its sleeve: zeolite. This mineral has a chemical reaction with water that produces heat, which allows the dishwasher to very quickly clear away any moisture after a wash cycle.
Of course, as a Bosch the SHP78CM5N also features a great deal of attention to its overall look and feel. While we did have some minor issues with controls being finicky, this is a well-built machine. Its interior racks are both adjustable and have folding tines, it has all the smart features you'd want, plus the ability to set up wash quadrants, and it just feels good and intuitive to use.
Read our full review of the Bosch 800 Series SHP78CM5N dishwasher
It cleans even stubborn stains completely
Some options only available on app
When it comes to drying dishes, Bosch has the market cornered, thanks to its trademark CrystalDry technology, which uses zeolite crystals to completely dry all of your dishes, and does so efficiently.
This major selling point of the Bosch 800 Series SHPM88Z75N—and the one you care about if you’re reading this guide—guarantees that even the plastic food storage containers, which always seem to need a couple of passes with a dish towel before you can put them away, will be entirely dry.
Overall, the SHPM88Z75N is everything we've come to expect from the Bosch dishwasher brand—quiet, efficient, and stylish. This dishwasher does an amazing job removing some difficult stains, like burnt-on cheese and spinach. However, as is the case with most dishwashers, the spinach that got blasted off of our test dishes was occasionally redeposited onto other dishes.
Read our full review of the Bosch 800 Series SHPM88Z75N dishwasher
Nothing significant that we could find
The Samsung DW80R9950UT dishwasher has it all, from customizable Bespoke panels to its AutoRelease Door drying feature. The latter means that the dishwasher’s door opens automatically for the final few minutes of a wash cycle to allow fresh air to circulate within and dry dishes. Inside the washing compartment, an internal fan activates to help the process.
The Samsung DW80R9950UT’s cleaning performance is top-notch. During testing, the Normal, Quick, and Heavy cycles were all able to remove more than 97% of our test food stains and did so rather quickly.
Read our full review of the Samsung DW80R9950UT dishwasher
None that we could find
The LG LDTH7972S is another dishwasher that incidentally has excellent drying power. Though it may have some trouble with plastics, the rest of your dishes are going to come out of a wash cycle bone dry. We checked: There wasn't a single bead of water remaining on the glasses or dishes.
The LDTH7972S is also no slouch when it comes to scrubbing out stains. We liked its Heavy cycle the most, which was capable of cleaning over 99% of our most difficult stains. We also liked its 1 Hour Wash & Dry cycle, which does exactly what it says on the tin: Exactly one hour later we had clean, dry dishes.
This LG also has some good usability features as well, like adjustable racks and foldable tines.
Read our full review of the LG LDTH7972S dishwasher
Foldable tines and repositionable racks
Dishes got less clean towards the center of the bottom rack
The Bosch 500 series SHPM65Z55N is an inexpensive entry point into the world of Bosch dishwashers that still comes with some excellent drying power. This model doesn't feature CrystalDry with zeolite, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable of delivering dry dishes. Just about everything but plasticware came out of a wash cycle completely dry.
The Normal and Heavy cycles removed almost all stains, occasionally leaving just tiny bits of spinach and no redeposit. You don’t get CrystalDry, but the Auto Air function opens the dishwasher door automatically so that your clean dishes get a jump start on drying.
Of course, being a Bosch, you'll also get the usual array of excellent extras for user experience: quiet operation (44 dBA), folding tines, and adjustable-height racks.
Read our full review of the Bosch 500 series SHPM65Z55N dishwasher
None that we could find
There's a lot to love about the KitchenAid KDPM804KBS—especially its drying power. While cycles do take about 20 minutes longer than average to finish, when they do the dishes are dry.
We also thought it had good cleaning performance, though it does lag behind some of the other dishwashers on this list in that regard. Still, most users won't have any issue with this dishwasher's stain-scrubbing power.
If you are interested in this dishwasher, just know that part of what you're paying for is its design. This dishwasher has a beautiful exterior, smoothly sliding racks, an extra utensil basket, and a well-designed third rack. It feels great to use and will look stellar in anyone's kitchen.
Read our full review of the KitchenAid KDPM804KBS dishwasher
Cleaning power was low for its price
Given that the Dual Convection Ultra Dry feature is one of the GE Café CDT875M5NS5's flagship features, we're happy with the results it put forth in our testing labs.
Café really goes all-in on making sure the CDT875M5NS5 gets dishes dry enough to go straight from the dishwasher to your cupboard—it’s even able to get plastics mostly dry, and we didn't see any water pooling on top of our reusable containers.
Read our full review of the GE Café CDT875M5NS5 dishwasher
Third rack, bottle jets, and smart features
Not the best value at its current price
Reviewed former and present appliance testing team is responsible for running major dishwashers through their paces in our Cambridge labs, including Dave Ellerby, Jon Chan, Kyle Hamilton, Julia MacDougall, Beckett Dubay, and Michael Elderbee. You can feel confident that when we recommend a product, we're giving it our Reviewed stamp of approval, which means two things: firstly, this appliance performs well, and secondly, this appliance is easy to use.
Opening up the door and finding a rack full of wet dishes is always frustrating. Fortunately, some dishwashers do a better job of getting them dry.
Although we test each dishwasher in our labs and look pointedly at stain removal, redeposit, cycle time and special features, in this survey we especially focus on a dishwasher’s ability to effectively dry dishes. Whether it's accomplished with rinse aid, a built-in heater, or a built-in fan, customers expect their dishes to be dry after a wash cycle, as well as clean. We penalize the dishwasher every time a dish doesn’t come out dry, whether it's sopping wet or just covered in a few water droplets.
Extra features can really add the finishing touch to a dishwasher that does a great job cleaning dishes. We look at the various cycles, cycle options, and dishwasher specs and assess both how useful the features are, and how easy it is to actually use those features.
If you ever used a dishwasher growing up, chances are that you remember each dish coming out sparkling clean, dry, and warm to the touch. Now, as an adult, confronted with water droplets on your nice plates and standing water in your Tupperware containers, it probably seems like a betrayal of your dishwasher memories of the past.
However, as it turns out, there are two very good reasons why your dishes may not come out perfectly dry: energy efficiency and plastics.
There are lots of different techniques dishwashers employ to get your dishes dry. Many dishwashers used to include an exposed heating element at the bottom of the dishwasher. At the end of a dishwasher cycle, the dishwasher would automatically turn on the heating element, which would heat up the inside of the dishwasher and cause the leftover water to evaporate away.
Now, though, in an effort to make dishwashers more energy efficient (and more easily able to meet Energy Star requirements), many manufacturers have done away with the heating element.
If you do see a drying option on your dishwasher's control panel, but it doesn't explicitly say that heating is involved, it's probably a ventilation fan that will help get rid of condensation inside the dishwasher after a cycle is over. If your dishwasher has a "heated dry" option, then your dishwasher has a heating element.
However, there are tradeoffs for heated drying—slightly higher energy bills and the possibility of melted Tupperware if it gets too close to the heating element. That brings me to the second reason why your dishes might not be getting as dry as you would have hoped.
Dishwashers have a harder time drying plastics (such as Tupperware, sports bottles, baby bottles, etc.) because plastics are harder to dry in general.
Plastics do not retain heat the same way ceramic, metal, and glass do, so while residual heat from the warm water of the dishwasher cycle can make normal dishes warm enough that they can evaporate away any remaining water droplets, plastics do not share that ability.
Additionally, most plastics are light enough that they can be tossed around by the water jets, so even though you placed your Tupperware containers upside down on the upper rack, there's still a good chance that it will end up right side up, with water at the bottom.
Other than buying one of the dishwashers on this list, you can use rinse aid, which will make it easier for your dishwasher to dry all of your dishes.
Despite its name, rinse aid has very little to do with rinsing and everything to do with drying. Rinse aid's hydrophobic properties make it more difficult for water to collect and stay on your dishes; most water slides off, leaving the dishes water- and water-spot-free.
You can easily buy rinse aid in any grocery store or online.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time. The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.
Senior Manager of Lab Operations
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Leigh Harrington has more than 20 years experience as a writer and editor for myriad print and digital publications.
At USA TODAY and Reviewed, Harrington oversees large appliances, including refrigerators, dishwashers, ranges, and laundry, and manages Reviewed's overall home content, including areas of focus like home improvement, cleaning, gardening, cooking, and parenting. She focuses on writing, but mostly editing, consumer ed content and product reviews.
Harrington is also an experienced travel writer, and has authored books including Fodor's Boston, 100 Things to Do in Boston Before You Die, and Colorful Boston, an adult coloring book.
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