New Era Has Dawned: New Dishwasher

OOPS?

I'd been expecting my Kenmore dishwasher, purchased in 1999, to fail any year since about 2006.

By that time, if not nearly since the beginning, it routinely made a loud grinding and squealing sound during draining especially but also mostly during regular operation.  You wouldn't want to talk over it.  I'm sure it wasn't as bad as an actual sawmill, but it did bring that to mind.

I was giving it up for goners by 2006 but then a friend told me about Lemi-Shine Machine cleaner.  I used it infrequently but enough to keep the machine going for 25 years until I had a major leak across the kitchen floor.  I figured the grinding had finally cut through the pump housing, or the plastic tub had cracked.  It would certainly not be worth fixing.

But just after my replacement machine was installed in November 2024, I noticed a tiny cut out part was left behind, which seemed to be a portion of the drain hose which had ruptured right next to the machine (inside the cabinet made for the dishwasher, so I couldn't see the problem).

So it's now looking like I didn't need to replace my Kenmore dishwasher at all.  If I had only thought about the possibility that it could be just a busted drain hose!

I had looked at the hose under the sink...but it probably busted right next to the machine where I couldn't see it.

But what if I had thought of that possibility (I should have just asked google what could cause a dishwasher leak) what could I have done?  It might have been hard to get appliance repair to even look at it.  Sears isn't around anymore, so I couldn't call Sears.  Independent repair people would say it's too old to get replacement parts, etc.  If I had gotten an appliance repair guy out here, it might have taken weeks for them to get around to it (appliance repair still hadn't come out in 3 weeks for my 13 year old Whirlpool washing machine before I finally decided to buy a new LG machine) they have a minimum charge for coming out and for doing an estimate.  You'd be lucky if that initial charge were only $200, I think it's usually more like $300.  The cost of the repair would probably be $250, for which they'd knock off $150 of the original $300 charge, leaving you with a $400 bill for replacing the hose.

If you knew that a busted hose was the issue, you could do it yourself, or just call a plumber who might fix it for around $250.  But normally a plumber would tell you they don't know anything about dishwashers.  And it might cost as much as $400 too.

So I don't know.  If I had known it was just the hose, I probably would have replaced the hose if I could get that done for $250.  But the dishwasher was long due for replacement anyway.  Besides the incredible noise it made, it didn't work at all with the new wash packs, it didn't clean very well even with liquid Cascade sometimes, and occasionally even left stuff that looked like plastic pieces dried to the glasses (I noticed that on a few pieces just before the leak).  I imagined it was falling apart internally.  I was wondering how much dishwasher micro plastic I'd consumed over the years.  It would be nice to have new dishwasher with stainless steel interior instead and newer parts that aren't deteriorating.  It might fail at some inconvenient time, such as over the holidays when I have a party scheduled.  I often thought about replacing it just for reasons such as those.  So it was probably a good thing to have it not just "fixed" with a new hose but completely replaced, using the $250-$400 repair cost going towards a long overdue new unit.

Deciding, or Lusting?

To be prepared for the decision I knew I'd soon need to make, I started looking at dishwashers in the Sears store at Ingram Park Mall around 2006.  Or perhaps it was as early as 2003.  I many many minutes looking at the dishwashers at that Sears store until it closed in 2017.   It was a convenient detour on my lunchtime stroll from the parking lot to the Luby's Cafeteria next door to Sears.  

I noticed how most dishwashers were converging on the very minimalist stainless steel look of the Bosch dishwashers, though Bosch is still among the most minimalist of them all in appearance (in the general lack of any control or displays visible on front).

And I often read and sometimes even clipped the Consumer Reports columns on dishwashers, at least to be prepared for the moment, any day now, when I might need to buy a new one.  I saw the Bosch dishwashers were, year after year, either at or adjacent to the top in Consumer Reports.

(Nowadays I am very frustrated that the Consumer Reports magazine only has limited content, most often in a kind of "top 5 summary", with the detailed reporting and complete lists only being online.  And since my email address has changed, I haven't been able to access my online account in decades.   Now it's associated t's associated my latest email with a freebee account, so I get none of the benefits of my 40 year full subscription, and I can't seem to change it to anything else.  Fortunately for me, and this seems to have been the case before, I was able to get a full listing of all Consumer Reports tested models, with summary ratings in each category, from Bosch themselves on their website.)

But other than taking a quick scan sometimes of the Consumer Reports summary info when an issue listed Dishwashers on the cover, I hadn't really been keeping up with dishwashers that much recently.  It's always been on the short list of things that might need replacement at any time.

But as I figured I'd probably do anyway, on the day after the dishwasher broke, I looked at all the information I could find, in the past copies of Consumer Reports, and elsewhere.  Finally I tracked down the complete list of Consumer Reports recommendations at the Bosch site, which was the most useful bit of information of all.

And Bosch are all the top winners, for their various Benchmark, 500, and 800 series machines for starters.

Now this is misleading as Consumer Reports often is.  The Benchmark model is shown with identical scores in all the major categories to the 800.  And the 500 series which is shown before the 800 series has a lower drying score, but Consumer Reports lets that fly because it's slightly cheaper and puts the 500 series ahead of the 800 series but the Benchmark highest of all, even though the Benchmark is basically a glorified 800.

If you want the top performance in all major categories, you want either the Benchmark or the 800 series, which both have Crystal Dry, the latest in Bosch drying innovations (which they've needed, since other goals like energy efficiency have reduced drying performance).

The main thing extra that the Benchmark has is the water softener, so if you don't need that, there's not much to justify the significantly higher price (though I've come to miss the readout time on the floor feature...it's a crying shame Bosch does not show remaining time otherwise, even the numbers on top turn off after awhile).

I'm leery of using a water softener because basically what it's doing is adding salt, which is not good for either people or metals.  (Some may have to, and it's probably ok.)

It turned out there was a "front controls" model, temporarily imported from Europe, of the 800 series but WITH the "water softener."  Getting those would be additional wait time, higher price, and Lowe's didn't even list them I'd need to go to Best Buy.  Lowe's had their own "exclusive model" but it seemed so different it could have been an earlier model, and I think it didn't have the front controls either.

If I had really wanted the water softener, I'd have gotten the Benchmark with time on the floor and everything.  But I felt I could live without all of that.

Delivery and Installation

When I was checking out the various Bosch 800 models available at Lowe's on Wednesday afternoon, the Lowe's website predicted Monday delivery of the model I had decided on, having the "pocket" handle (which has a flush face) rather than the model with a handle bar that sticks out, because the bar model was more expensive, and I worried about the bar coming down and decapitating a cat...but it turns out the Bosch doors do not "fall" down like the Kenmore door did, they need to be gently pushed down, and the Bosch door is so much lower than the Kenmore door that no cat could be even under the flat door, though being hit by the handle would still be worse...it nearly touches the floor).  The bar model also means you are more separated from the countertop above, which is where I do many cooking things including cutting and oiling.  The flush front is ideal for using the countertop above, and it's nicer to be working above or just looking at the flat stainless front of the Bosch than my old bulgy gaudy beige Kenmore.

Lowe's had an 'exclusive' Bosch 800 model which was cheapest of all, but it didn't seem to have the latest options (perhaps I didn't check everything carefully enough to be sure it wasn't the European model that had the "water softener", from the comparison chart it actually looked like it lacked the "water filter" that the regular Bosch pocket and bar models had, and there didn't seem to be a row for "water softener" because none of the models had it, and the exclusive model also did not have the front controls that the European model had...I'm completely fine with the top controls, maybe I even like them better because you don't have to stoop to see which options you are enabling, but I only wish they kept the time remaining visible).

I could have ordered Wednesday night, but there was a special offer that said you could get a full rebate of "basic" installation (that would not include the fee for disposal of the old unit, I presume) but only if you ordered the installation at a Lowe's store.  (Ordering installation at the store might be required anyway, but it certainly was required for this special offer.)  So I decided I would go down to Lowe's first thing after breakfast on Thursday morning and order the specific model I had decided on.

I started looking at some display models and the salesman came up.  I forgot to bring the card on which I had written down the exact model number I wanted.  No problem, he said, I'll just look it up for you.  He started flipping through the models on his tablet.  He usually seemed to focus on the Lowe's exclusive 800 model which was the cheapest of all.  I told him I had not seen the correct model, which I was pretty sure was selling for $1167.  He said it would be better on his main terminal.  So we went there, and once again he flipped through the models, and they didn't seem to match.  Except I noticed that as he was flipping through the 800 models, he started flipping immediately after it came up with the first page, which was only visible for a few seconds.  I asked him to let me try and flipped right to it, as I thought, it was the first one listed when you searched for Bosch 800 Dishwasher.

Whereas Lowe's Online had said they had over 100 units in stock, the salesman said they had 68 in stock.  (But that must be at some warehouse!)  But it would take until Wednesday for pickup at the store.

The salesman asked if I'd like to use my plumber.  Actually, I had not even though of that, but I told him I wanted the Lowe's Installation.  He told me I could possibly get it installed as soon as Friday next week, because Lowe's installers don't get paid until the work is done and so they are anxious to complete it.  (Lowe's doing fast installation is contrary to other stories I have heard, where people have had delays and issues going on for months.  But I hoped he was right and made the sale.)

He told me I should call some number on Monday to confirm I was on the list.  I thought he circled the number on the receipt, but when I checked the receipt on Wednesday the following week (because I had been to busy to call Lowe's until then, and I knew it wasn't getting done until Friday anyway) there was no circled number, in  fact I didn't see a number at all, just the store number.  So I called that and they told me to call the Lowe's Installation number (or perhaps I just figured that out myself from the website).

The Lowe's Installation number sounded like it was a national number not local, and the information was very disturbing.  For one thing the dishwasher had not yet arrived in store and would only be "available" on Thursday.  After it arrived, then I would get a call and arrange for installation.  I asked when I should get that call and they said by Friday.  Well, in that case, it didn't sound like I was going to be getting Friday installation.  I asked and they said probably not.

I was pretty downtrodden.  But it didn't last long.  It was just after 1pm on Thursday afternoon that I got a call from the actual installation contractor.  They left both a phone message AND a text.  Not expecting a phone call until Friday, I wasn't even looking at my phone, and didn't even notice I had both phone and text messages until around 4:45.  Now it looked like Friday had been possible after all, but I probably missed my Friday slot by not being on the ball, again.  Now it might have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  Damned!

In a state of panic, I ended up leaving the phone message first, and getting confused about the time (saying 1-3PM when actually they had said 12-3, which was better actually but at the time I was leaving the message I couldn't remember exactly what had been said I was so nervous about losing my slot).  Then I left a responsive text too, and simply saying "afternooon."  (I should have checked what they said first so no ambiguity.)

In about 15 minutes my text was answered, and I was given the afternoon slot, just as I had asked.  I was jubilant.

The installer actually arrived at 1:30, and took a look at the situation and determined I needed to have a new supply valve because the old one was broken.  I should have a plumber fix that then call him back.

So I immediately called my usual plumber, Primo Plumbing, and they first promised Monday but then called me back 15 minutes later with an available slot at 4pm, which I accepted.  So before 5pm, my plumbing was fixed and I then left a message at the contractor office and then after that I called the actual installer, who answered and said he'd make sure they got the message.

By 11am Saturday morning I got a text from the contractor saying that Monday would be available.  I did not notice that text until 11pm and then texted back that anytime Monday was fine and Tuesday afternoon also.  Once again I was worried I'd lost my first available slot.  So I was uneasy.  But by Sunday morning I got the reply that Monday was possible and they'd let me know the time later.  By 4pm on Sunday afternoon my appointment for 11-2pm was offered and confirmed.

The installer arrived around noon and was finished by 1:15, including the 15-minute "test clean."

Now that the plumbing was fixed, it was a piece of cake.  The plumber had replaced the dual valve with a single valve and T connection.  That's probably the usual thing nowadays and the installer said nothing about it.

The dishwasher was installed about as quickly as it could possibly have been installed!  It was almost a miracle I got my usual plumber to come out 90 minutes after the Lowe's installer determined a new cutoff valve was needed and so I got it done that very day.  Then it was another miracle I got the dishwasher installed on the very next business day.

I told the installer I had been worried this would take months.

I only noticed later that while I was doing all this messaging with the actual installer, a contractor, I was also getting calls and texts from Lowe's Installation, which I had (perhaps fortuitously) ignored.

Despite the installer saying it wasn't necessary, I ran a full empty cycle with the Normal cycle and Sanitary in the owners manual (which I dug up online, because strangely it wasn't included with the actual dishwasher--only the multi-language installation manual).

I should have chosen the Heavy Duty cycle with Sanitary option but the manual only said "with the highest water temperature and doesn't specify the Heavy Duty cycle as such, which made it confusing, I figured Sanitary would be the highest regardless but Heavy Duty Sanitary is just a bit higher.

This machine is so quiet, I wondered at first if it was even running.  The refrigerator makes far more noise.  Even the water filling is nearly silent.  I didn't expect that at all.  This is not just different and better than before, it's way better, it's like a miracle.

I ran my dishes which had in many cases been waiting for a wash for days on the Heavy Duty cycle, and I have never seen dishes come out so clean with my old dishwasher.

So perhaps I could have avoided it, but a new era has dawned, probably long overdue.

A Way Better Dishwasher

The Bosch Dishwasher is fantastic in many ways.  It's actually quiet (unlike all previous dishwashers I've had which were as noisy as hell).  It seems completely sealed so that no moisture or smells are emitted during washing or otherwise.  That means I can run it while I'm in the kitchen doing other things and not be bothered by Dishwasher Fog as with the old Kenmore, despite the Kenmore claiming automatic sealing as a feature right on the front panel.  It's like the Kenmore was only "virtually" sealed, whereas the Bosch is actually sealed.  I'm sure this helps make the Bosch quieter too.

The Kenmore had an active vent system that supposedly closed during operation but never did close very well.  The kitchen would always get more humid when the dishwasher was running, and I'd worry about all the chemicals in the detergent getting into the air too so I'd open the outdoor vent (my motorized kitchen vent) or run it late at night.

It seems to get the dishes cleaner, and possibly even dryer than the Kenmore did.  (I always used the Kenmore on no-heat drying, the Bosch never uses electric heat in drying, just the optional patented CrystalDry if you select it, which I do.)

It looks very very nice in all stainless steel (which is lacquer coated so dirt just wipes off...and use of an abrasive stainless steel cleaner would ruin it).

I was worried that the racks would work as well as the Kenmore did for my quirky set of dishes, but I was wrong, the racks work just fine, maybe even better.

Downsides.  As might be expected, the basic German Engineering is wonderful but the user interface features are crap.  (I feel similar dissatisfaction with the user interface of asian products.  US manufacturers don't have perfect interfaces either, but often they are better.  My Whirlpool washer had very intuitive controls, and I replaced it with an LG which is at least as good, will hopefully last longer, but has overcomplicated and unintuitive controls, which I recall is typical with Samsung as well.)

1) There is no built-in time delay feature.  With the Kenmore I simply pressed the "delay" button once for each hour of delay I wanted, and it showed up on the time indicator.  I'd think any dishwasher above the base metal level should have this feature.

But with the Bosch, to use a time delay or scheduled start you must use the Bosch smart device app known as Home Connect.  This is much more complicated and inconvenient.    

You have to go through all the usual crapola to install the app on your phone.  Then the app will decide your dishwasher needs a firmware update, and you need to wait for that too.  Then finally you have to agree to let the app Start your dishwasher by enabling the permanent remote start mode.  The app advises you that there may be risks, but you need to do this for the optimum experience.  Basically that means doing time delay starts and time starts.  You must either give the app permission each time or enabling permanent remote start.  I wouldn't have wanted to give the app this permission, but I ultimately had to.

I tried to use the app time delay without enabling permanent remote start and nothing happened.  I got no notifications, no button appeared telling me I needed to enable remote start.  It simply didn't start.

I'm not giving Bosch any extra credit for having an app.  Sure it enables controlling the a few complicated features that would be more difficult to control on the device itself.  But dealing with an app makes everything more complicated.  I'd be much happier if Bosch simply made the regular controls easier to use.

And all Bosch would have had to do is add one more button for the same kind of time delay convenience I used to have with my Kenmore.  And then I might never need or use the app at all.  The default settings (which can also be controlled on the dishwasher itself) are fine.

It looks like at one time they did have such a button, but on the most current generations of Bosch dishwashers the time delay button has become the Home Control App button.  The Home Control App button could have been some kind of menu item instead.  Or just have another button, but that might have required an expensive redesign like the one Boeing failed to do for it's Max planes, but probably not quite that expensive.

2.  There is no built-in indication of the time remaining before the wash is complete.  Almost all dishwashers have this, but it would deviate from the austere minimalism of the Bosch exterior design.  Now in many ways, I like the Bosch exterior design.  But I'd like it better if instead of giving me a little light telling me the dishes are being washed, it gave me a readout of the estimated time remaining.

Now Bosch does have a digital time readout, but it's on the top edge of the door where it's normally hidden by the countertop when the door is closed.  I could still read it anyway because the gap between the dishwasher door and the countertop is just wide enough for me to see it at a steep angle but still readable.  But that digital time readout simply stops when the dishwasher is running, so even though I could have read it, I can't.  And there is no option to keep that display going when the dishwasher is running.

Instead, you can read the estimated time remaining in the app.  Once again, that's a lot more inconvenient that just reading it on the dishwasher itself.  Also in the Home Page of the app, the display time doesn't show continuously, it flashes very sporadically like 1 second every 30 seconds.  You have to press on the big blue option block to get to the page where it shows the percentage completed, finish time, and time remaining (that's nice, but just time remaining would have been sufficient).

Now, it the much more expensive Benchmark model you do get a time remaining indication from the actual dishwasher.  But even that is not on the dishwasher itself.  It's projected onto the floor and called TimeLight.

The back story here is ridiculous.  Since the dawn of electrical devices, they have had lights that indicate when they are running.

But, incredibly, Bosch was so into their minimalist aesthetic that they did not bother with such things.  Instead, for the pricier models, they invented InfoLight which projects a dot of red light onto the floor when the dishwasher is running.  Integral to InfoLight is that you can turn it off with a setting option, if you didn't happen to want a dot of light projected on the floor (I'd rather not call any more attention to my worn out floor personally).

I thought I'd rather have a light on the unit itself, and it turns out that the particular 800 model that I purchased, the InfoLight is actually just a light on the door.  Even within the 800 series, there are some models that project InfoLight on the floor and some that just have it as a light on the door.  But it is still called InfoLight and you can turn it on or off with the same setting used for other Bosch models.

Ok, I'm fine with a light on the door telling me that the dishwasher is running.  I don't even have a compelling reason to turn it off.  I find it very amusing that a "light on the door" has a trademarked name.  I love to enunciate InfoLight in a deep radio announcer voice.  What a concept!

But on the pricier Benchmark models, InfoLight is replaced by TimeLight where it projects the remaining time, in digital clock format, onto the floor.  (I don't think there is a Benchmark model where they have the TimeLight on the door, where it would be just like the remaining time indicator on my old Kenmore and probably most dishwashers.)

You can call it whatever you want, but a small digital readout of the elapsed time on the door would be nice.  Or just don't turn off the indicator that is on the top edge of the door.

And I have one other complaint, though I think it's part of the deal of having a better dishwasher:

3.  The dishes get as dry as they did with the Kenmore.  But the inside of the dishwasher has condensed water on the sidewalls.  I think this is because water condenses more easily on stainless steel than on the plastic liner of my old Kenmore.  And it is much better sealed.  Also because of the better sealing, if you keep dirty dishes inside the Bosch for very long, it begins to stink when you open the door,  more than the Kenmore did.

One More Thing

In every way, my installer seemed competent and professional.  I'm not going to fault him for what I am about to describe at all.

But I don't think an electrician would be very fond of the way the dishwasher is wired into my electrical system.  It uses, I think as installed by the original home builder in 1982, a "floating electrical box." An electrician would tell me that it's against electrical code, even though builders built a lot of homes that way.  The wires come out from under the wall and go into a sealed electric box resting on the floor.  Current electrical code requires all electrical boxes to be "permanently attached to the structure."  Well, actually, by this time the "floating box" is essentially permanently attached to the structure, via debris left by generations of carpenter ants.  I bet you'd have to pry it off the floor.

I was wondering about this floating electrical box and asked the installer.  He said that he found such a "floating box" about 70% of the time, and it was perfectly fine and legal for him to plug the dishwasher into it.  He said I could return the interconnection box that Bosch had provided in the event there was no plug for him to plug into, but only a bare wire from the wall.  Since I already had "a box" I didn't need it, I could use my Bosch Dishwasher with the attached electrical cord plugged into the outlet that was already there, atop the floating box.

This setup is still a concern, which I now feel is best addressed by changing the dishwasher breaker to a GFCI.  That is not currently the case in my house.  It is also currently required by electrical code.

If I live to see this dishwasher replaced, I will consider putting in an actual wall outlet behind it.

New Dishwasher and Rinse Aid

I'd been expecting my 1999 Kenmore dishwasher to fail any day now since about 2006.  It was then that Debby, a nice lady at work, told me about Lemi-Shine Machine Cleaner.  Thanks to Lemi-Shine machine cleaner, my Kenmore dishwasher kept running for 25 years.  Whenever it was getting super noisy, I'd run a cleaning cycle and it would be back to normal.

I had also bought some of the Lemi-Shine Power Booster (which can also be used as machine cleaner) and I was using that up (the combination of Power Booster and Cascade was leaving crud on my glasses even after one cleaning cycle, so I'm not going to do that again).

Perhaps it was coincidence, but on about the 3rd day in a row I used Power Booster, the motor was sounding as quiet as brand new...but it started leaking.  Water ran down the kitchen floor towards the sliding glass door (because it slopes slightly that way).  I mopped it up right way with towels, this could have wrecked my 30 year old kitchen run under the kitchen table.  (I can see why dishwasher leaking is such a big concern now.)

Researching dishwashers, I decided to get a Bosch 800, is among the most highly rated at Consumer Reports and Elsewhere.  Actually CR rates the Bosch Benchmark series the highest, then lists the Bosch 500 series because it is cheaper even though it doesn't have the rated drying performance of the 800 (that's the key difference, because the 800 has CrystalDry) and it's not better in any other way either.  So basically, if you want the best (and don't care much that you could save a couple hundred bucks) it's between the 800 and Benchmark models.

The benchmark models are a lot more expensive.  That gives you quieter (probably just more insulation), the "on" light reflected on the floor shows the time remaining (which you could also read on top), a

lighted interior, and one actual performance feature: water softener.

Strangely the addition of the water softener made no difference in the CR rated washing or drying performance of the Benchmark vs 800 models.  Sometimes water softening agents (salts) are included in cleaning pods, might be included in rinse aids, and rinse aids already virtually eliminate spotting.

What I see is a lot greater complexity here, with potential downside risks.  Always mixing in salt (which might be redundant anyway given your rinse aid) would not be good, I would think, for all the metal parts (even if stainless).  I suppose we're not talking about 10 years, but what about 25 years?

I even worry that the reduced sound level might be achieved while trapping greater heat in the motor, causing it not to last 25 years either.

Now these sorts of estimates could always be wrong.  Sometimes the most deluxe models are not just the same stuff with a bit added on, but better basic parts, or perhaps built on a different line where more care is taken.  The cheaper models may include the parts that didn't make the grade for the top.  Etc.  One never knows.

But I decided I could do without the extra Benchmark features and costs.  Also, there was an 800 model that was temporarily imported from Europe because US production was lagging demand.  That model takes longer to get from any source.  I don't recall seeing them listed at Lowes at all but at Best Buy,

and the soonest delivery was almost a month away.  You had to really dig to find the info on that model.

One unquestionable advantage of the imported 800 was that it also included the "water softener" (which is basically just a dispenser that dispenses salt in the water).   I would have to pay slightly more and wait a month longer for a feature I have concerns about and don't really need.

Lowes also had an "exclusive" model of the 800, which didn't seem to have any different features at

all, simply a lower price.  I wanted to go with the standard 800 as rated in Consumer Reports.

Along with all this, I did notice in another Consumer Reports article that Miele is the brand most highly rated for reliability of all (though this was for all products, not just dishwashers).  But Miele didn't actually rate very well in CR's tests, and they didn't get good ratings from Lowes customers either--who often complained about installation issues.  It seems to me if you're getting a superpremium luxury product like Miele, you should get it from an elevated dealer, like Ferguson for example, and have it installed by certified plumbers.  And not even buy such a product if your city doesn't have Miele service (which San Antonio does).  This is probably going to add $500 to the cost, but if you're buying Miele you shouldn't be fretting about that.  (Yes, the Miele does have a water softening system too.)

There's a general principle and that's to stick with the main line.  The further off the main line you go, the greater issues and risks.  At Lowes, the Bosch 800 is the upper part of the main line, but still the main line.  They stock as many (or nearly so) as all the other models.  They were shown as having 68 in stock.  Miele is nearly a special order for Lowes, not something every installer is necessarily going to be familiar with.

But all this about dishwashers and water softeners got me thinking about rinse aids.  I haven't been 100% in keeping my rinse aid dispenser full, more like 5% maybe, but I think it does help a lot.

For the fancy energy saving dry (I've always used no-heat dry as I think it saves wear on the machine) the rinse aid is more important than ever.

Bosch is known for recommending Finish rinse aid, which may well be the one I've usually bought.

By many accounts, Bosch recommends that brand not because others would be harmful, but because Finish pays them for that endorsement.

Anyway, now that I'm paying more attention to ingredients, and based on reviews, availability, and cost I've purchased Ecover rinse aid.   It's in the "better" group that has excellent performance as well as not having toxic ingredients.  The "best" group has the safest ingredients of all, but doesn't work as well and pricey/hard to find.

The actual dishwasher detergent stuff is rinsed off.  But the rinse aid is part of the rinse water, and some eventually dries on your dishes (even though the whole point of rinse aid is that as little dries on your dishes as possible).

Sliding glass door "lubrication" with pure dimethicone

In October 2023 I shattered the stationary part of my sliding glass door by trying to drill out the pin hole larger.  Apparently this drilling hit the glass envelope (so that's why the pin was so hard to get in) and shattered it.

I had to seal up the back with plastic sheeting until I could get repaired, which I did pretty quickly.  I also complained about the sliding part dragging and advanced that I needed new rollers (and so they also replaced them).  The rollers were the originals, now 40 years old.  (I wasn't sure afterwards if that was really necessary, perhaps cleaning and lubrication would have been sufficient, the original rollers looked like they might have been better made.)

The door worked great for awhile, and I am convinced now that the pin locking method, combined with some house settling, forced the wheels down into a lower position where they started dragging.  So possibly you should not use pin locks for windows with rollers, and especially not where there is known house shifting.

But without regular cleaning (and "lubrication" ?) a year later the door was getting increasingly difficult.  I tried vaccuming and olive oil (which oxidized right away) and then I tried adjusting to make it better.  I tried to adjust the opening gap as you are supposed to, but it was hard to get there.  Then for awhile I was simply cleaning the track with isopropyl alcohol, which seemingly needed doing each time.  Finally, after a last bit of adjusting, the door completely froze up.  I called the sliding door company again.  For nearly a week I couldn't use the back door at all, which meant I didn't go to the backyard or to Lyndhurst.  I didn't refill the birdbath.  Oh, sure I could use the side gate, but I'd have to get dressed and bring my Zap cane in case of dogs (there have been dogs on the street and walking by my house these past few months).

The sliding glass door company came out and fixed it for free (apparently there was a warranty of some kind for a year or so, I didn't even know).  Two strong guys lifted the door out of the track (it was not easy and I don't think I could do it myself as I had been planning to before) and found that one of the rollers had been adjusted too far so it came out of it's thread and was now just dragging.  They adjusted the opening (but in the end, I think they simply had to adjust the back up all the way and the opening wasn't really any better than before).  I did some more track cleaning while they were busy.  It wasn't clear if they used some kind of lubricant (but I'm thinking they did on the door wheels axles themselves, which is where it really counts).

They told me I should keep the track clean and lubricated with Silicone Spray.  My friend Noelia is always telling me I should "just use Vaseline and that will fix it).  Some experts say track lubrication isn't really necessary, it's the wheels that need lubrication and the track is supposed to stick just a little so the wheels turn--and that was my go-to opinion until now.

I continue to believe now my biggest failing was not keeping the track clean.  When I started working on the door, and prematurely adjusting the wheels first, I found the rack was full of cat hair and dirt which took multiple cleanings to get off.

But I decided to research the lubrication question.  Silicone Spray is indeed what most manufacturers and installers recommend.  Some recommend graphite.  Just a few recommend Vaseline or oils, but Vaseline and oils are more often criticized for attracting dirt.

I began to wonder, "What if I could do the cleaning and lubrication in one go, that would make sense."  And indeed there is a product just like that, recommended by more than Vaseline.  You may have heard of it.  Pledge.

Now some picky furniture people say to NEVER use Pledge and the stuff should be taken off the market.  It seems some fancy wood finishes (and not bog standard Urethane) are made cloudy by repeated use of Pledge.  (Actually, many commercial polishes also contain a bit of silicone too, for a smoother finish.)

But on Urethane coated wood, which is essentially sealed in plastic, you can use anything, even water (if there are no gaps...).  So Pledge should be fine with that, Pledge will make it nice and slick.

It turns out (and I knew this before) that the old fashioned Pledge formulations contain silicone!  That's what gives the smoothness and shine--silicone in the form of Dimethicone.  This is the same stuff that's in silicone spray.

Now you should never use standard WD-40 for any lubricating purpose (it's a protectant and water displacer) but the same company, under the label "WD-40 Professional" makes a Silicone Spray which is "perfect" for sliding glass doors.  If you go to Lowes looking for a Silicone Spray, that's what you will find.

Now that's what the installer might recommend (and maybe what they used on the wheels, but I didn't see them use anything) but I got to thinking Pledge would be better, as I could do the cleaning and "lubricating" in one go, every week or so.

If you ask google AI, it will tell you Pledge is a fine way to lubricate your sliding door track, but there are other options.  (In a long thread I read, some manufacturer recommends Endust, which has no silicone but another kind of polishing ingredient.)

I had a new liquid pledge on hand but it turns out it's a "cleaner" only with no silicone (Everyday Clean Multisurface PH Balanced cleaner).  SC Johnson has now bifurcated the Pledge products into two kinds, the cleaners and the polishes, and only the polishes contain Dimethicone, so that way you can easily avoid it (though I see no reason to).

Then I started looking at the ingredients in these products.  I quickly came to the conclusion that the Dimethicone (which is used in many personal care products and cosmetics) may well be the safest ingredient there.  Dimethicone is used in drugs too, and it's the core ingredient in stomach gas relief products.

It's the other stuff in the Pledge products I have more concerns about.  In future, I see no reason not to use HEB Field & Future cleaner, which seems to have the safest list of ingredients of all, be non-acidic, available without fragrances or dies (why can't we get those out of everything!).  The Pledge multipurpose cleaner is better than many previous generations of cleaners, just not quite as good as as Field & Future in terms of ingredients, in my judgement.  But no reason not to use it up either.

Then I looked at the WD-40 Professional Silicone Spray, but it's worse.  Sure the Dimethicone is there and it's safe, but the rest of the stuff is a pile of awful petroleum based propellants.

I then decided on an all new approach (still not tried as I've been sick for a few weeks and haven't actually cleaned the sliding door track weekly as hoped or even monthly yet--it's just about a month since the repair and the door still slides like glass).  First I'll do the cleaning, with any cleaner safe on aluminum and steel (even that Pledge multisurface cleaner, or the HEB "Field & Future" brand household cleaner (which, btw, is excellent and about the safest cleaner you can get, even safer than the Lemishine cleaner I used to get because the latter contained a chemical now banned in EU).  Then, after the cleaning, I'll lubricate by rubbing in a few drops of dimethicone spaced along the track.

It turns out you can simply buy pure "Cosmetic Grade" Dimethicone in a bottle, and I also got a dropper for it.

Bathroom Vanities

Why isn't my bathroom vanity at the same height as my kitchen countertops, I was thinking years ago.  That height is 36 inches.

In fact, that's exactly what Ferguson recommends for a master bathroom vanity.

(Both of my vanities are at 29.5 inches high.  That must have been the builder's default or cheapest option.  30 inches is the recommended height for a kid's vanity.)

At the 29.5 inch high bathroom vanity I always have to bend down.  It's terrible for my back.

But I've got so many other unfunded priorities now:

1) New oven

2) Carport

3) New Patio and cover

4) Additional foundation piers around (existing) patio

5) Complete the garage conversion (after Carport)...currently 1/2 of the garage is converted to a bonus room.

And big things may need to be replaced soon:

1) Car (!!!)

2) Dishwasher (still going after 24 years)

3) Refrigerator (still going after 14 years)

4) Central Air Conditioner (3 years left on 10 year warranty)

Wet Bulb alone is not sufficient

The latest widely cited paper on human limits does NOT endorse the wet bulb temperature as accurately mapping human limits.

Quite the opposite.

A lowered wet bulb threshold of around 30C (86F) is suitable for assessing high wet bulb temperatures that are mostly from high humidity below dry bulb temperatures of 40C.  Above 40C (104F), the wet bulb temperature does not adequately assess the stress from dry heat alone.  At 50C (122F) the critical wet bulb temperature has fallen by 4C to 26C.

It still looks like the wet bulb temperature limits, with these caveats, are good to 50C dry bulb, and predict these limits better than other measures.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to make no sense of the heat index in these regards.  The heat index can also be calculated by temperature and humidity, but the result does not highlight the danger of very high humidity at relatively low temperatures in the same way that wet bulb temperature does.  Comparing a few calculations, it appears to me the heat index underplays humidity at low temperatures, and overplays relatively high temperature and low humidities, as compared to the wet bulb temperature, and probably human limits as well.  

For example, the Heat Index of the now accepted threshold for wet bulb temperature in humid environments (30C at 100% humidity) is merely 112F.  Holding the wet bulb temperature constant but raising the dry bulb temperature to 40C where wet bulb is still a useful measure (40C at 46% humidity) yields a heat index of 126F.  Adaptability is about the same but the Heat Index has shot up by 14F.  The heat index at the formerly believed wet bulb threshold temperature (35C at 100% humidity) has a staggering Heat Index of 161F.

The heat index is only useful because it more intuitively maps higher than average humidity levels into elevated temperatures.  Without a full explanation, and possibly some un-learning, people lacking scientific backgrounds may find it hard to fully understand the wet bulb temperature criterion (I myself have had great frustration trying to explain it to people with more verbal than quantitative backgrounds) because the threshold numbers just seem too low.  But you can't just add 20C to the wet bulb temperature to get the heat index, they are based on different functions.

Wet Bulb and Heat Index

 One of the things I learned from living one week without central air conditioning during a heat wave in Texas is the critical importance of humidity.  

While we often talk only about temperature, humidity is just as important as temperature in determining comfort and safety.  They really need to be combined in one index for that purpose.   The two most common ones are Wet Bulb Temperature and Heat Index.  Those are two different ways of combining temperature and humidity into one number.

 (There are endless other similar indexes you can find at Wikipedia, sometimes adding in more information like sunlight and wind speed, of these the WBGT is most commonly specified for occupational safety...but rarely measured directly).

The Wet Bulb temperature is the temperature that would be read from a "wet bulb" covered in saturated wet cloth that is evaporating water.  At low humidities, evaporation is increased and the wet bulb is far cooler than the normal ("dry bulb")  Only at 100% humidity is the wet bulb temperature the same as the dry bulb temperature  Once you grasp the basic idea, it is a very powerful tool, because it is easy to understand that when the temperature and humidity are high enough, your body can get no cooling effect from perspiration, and you cannot survive that situation for very long.  And this relates to our body temperature of 97-99F.  To carry off the heat our body produces at rest, the Wet Bulb temperature has to be 95F or less for even the most healthy people.  Recent studies show a better number is 86F for most people including young and elderly.  These are often referred to in Celsius: 35C for very healthy people, and 30C for most people.  These maximums assume you are in the shade and getting as much air cooling as possible (possibly with a powered fan helping, and light if any clothing).

Using this information, and a Wet Bulb calculator it is easy to calculate the maximum safe humidity at any temperature (which the highest point where the Wet Bulb temperature is still below 86F).

Below 86F....all humidities are "safe" with sufficient air cooling and shade

86F        99%

90F        84%

95F        66%

100F      54%

105F      43%

110F      35%

115F      28%

120F      22%

Above 122F is dangerous regardless of humidity or air movement

Because the outside humidity virtually always drops as the temperature rises, dangerous Wet Bulb temperatures are very rare in areas that humans inhabit.  However, this is changing because of global heating and dangerous outside Wet Bulb temperatures are beginning to appear more often.  Inside there may be trapped humidity combined with solar heating, leading to more dangerous and uncomfortable wet bulb temperatures than outside unless you have air conditioning.

The Heat Index expresses the combination of temperature and humidity more intuitively for most people, as it relates everything to a typical and comfortable temperature/humidity combination, rather than the 100% humidity extreme case which is rarely observed.  So the heat index goes higher than the dry bulb temperature when the humidity is notionally "high" and therefore matching our intuition that high humidity is making it "hotter." So, to show how this works, look at the Heat Index for 100F:

Temp    Humidity    Heat Index    Wet Bulb Temp

100F    30%              102                76F

100F    35%              106                78F

100F    40%              109                80F

100F    45%              113                82F

100F    50%              118                84F

100F    54%              123                85.7F

Here is a calculator for Heat Index.

Here is an article on it.

Plan B now proven

My new LG 1419IVSM 10000 DOE BTU (14000 BTU by the previous standard before last year) portable air conditioner meets my expectations as a substantial upgrade over the 6000 (8000) BTU LG portable I've been borrowing from a friend, and likely good enough for emergency household use.

The improvement is substantial and significant, in cooling my entire old and leaky 1240 sq ft home for an emergency (waiting for central AC to get repaired, and as murphy's law would have predicted, the AC failed right at the time it was most needed, in a late July heatwave, and when the backlog for repairs was also greatest).

As I explained in earlier post, I don't have accessible windows in any room I want cooled, so it's not easy for me to use window units (and, yes, I know window units are more effective as room air conditioners than portables, just as Consumer Reports says).  Instead, I'm using the accessible window in the half converted garage (which I don't even care about cooling) as the output window for the portable, which is seated in the doorway to this (otherwise closed and insulated) room, blowing out to the hallway for the rest of the house, with circulation by small fans all around on the floors.  I had to reposition the fans slightly because this unit blows much harder than the previous one, requiring the fans to start a few feet away from it for best effect (and positioning the fans makes about as big an effect as anything, and I probably need a better set of fans too).

Since the air is blowing out at about gut level (I have set it to about as low angle as possible from the floor to still be effective), and I have blocked off the sides of the unit with baffles, the return air comes from the upper part of the rooms, which is not fan forced, which is likely to be the hotter air.  The room the portable is sitting in (which I don't care about) is getting all the waste heat, and is warmer than the rest of the house, so it's also fine that it is from there that the portable gets it's second stream for the compressor side.

However, this portable AC is no miracle either.  During the peak interior temperature hour (9pm) just as the sun is setting, it shaved a mere 1 degree off of yesterday's performance with the smaller unit (90F vs 91F) at approximately the same humidity or slightly better (31%).  That sounds horrible but actually was quite fine with the ceiling fan running on low, largely thanks to the AC lowered humidity (if not so much temperature).

But then, unlike yesterday, when it stayed at 90F until just before midnight (and when I'd already had the larger unit running for over an hour),  it pretty quickly fell back to 88F right after 9PM.  88F at 31% humidity is really fine (as I am writing this) with the ceiling fan on low.

Most of the day, it tracked being about two degrees lower than before with the smaller unit.

But I had had my hopes built up even higher  during the 12-6 am interval, when it seemed like the new portable might even be doing too well.  I had (and continue to have) the temperature set to 60F (the minimum) rather than anything I really need simply to crank out as much from it as possible.  But the downside of that approach could be, if the need falls very low, I could wake up freezing.

I was indeed quite worried about that, as the temperature had already fallen to 82F at 4am.  At that rate, it might be below 75F at 8am.  (It was probably stupid to worry about that...).

So I decided to slow it down by re-opening all the hallway doors to unused rooms.  Most were very much like the bedroom but with no cooling fans.  This would create wind eddies and such and mean less was flowing to the bedroom, but still cooling off the rest of the thermal mass in the house.

As a result, it never got below 82F in the master bedroom.  I should have kept the doors closed to get the bedroom as low as possible, in preparation for the afternoon heating.

It's almost certainly true that to get colder and colder is harder and harder, as the greater the difference from other sides is, the more potential they have to slow it down.

But anyway, in those wee hours, it seemed as though the 10000 BTU unit was doing a fairly decent job of cooling my entire home, as in almost there.  I think that's the way it works, the closer the cooling to the need, the more and more well it does, perhaps even more than linearly reaching optimal levels.

The rest of the day, it's more and more tolerable, but not almost there.

The bedroom for example was a very dry 85F most of the afternoon (as compared with an equally dry 87F yesterday) at peak.  The peaks were 87/90F respectively, around 8PM.

So it seems this would be a workable emergency solution, which is good, because anything more would require much greater expense (like mini-splits), expensive carpentry (new openings for window units) or extensive lifestyle changes.

It's been reaching 105F peaks recently outside at mid day.  Now, theoretically it could be up to 10F hotter still on the hottest day of the hottest year.  But this unit is providing well more than 10F margin from the near deadly, for elderly, 30C wet bulb temperature with current temperatures, so it should still be adequate in the extreme case (or, I could focus it just on one room until that need went away).

This larger unit is slightly larger and significantly heavier than the smaller capacity unit, but it has wheels making it actually easier to move around.  It has the same super quiet dual inverter compressor system which never kicks on and off but establishes an even keel just at the proper point.  I'm glad I returned the LG 1021BSSM I bought at Home Depot (who handled the return graciously) because it has the other kind of compressor, always kicking on and off, and louder to begin with.

THOUGH, it did occur to me that there might be downsides to the dual inverter system.  It *is* more complex, so just by that principle might be less reliable.  But that also depends on how good the engineering is, the the Dual Compressor system is LG's flagship, which they must have put considerable effort into getting right.  The regular compressor model is a market driven thing, might even be made by someone else.  I've seen reports about the regular compressor model failing (and didn't look for those in my model generally...though it gets much higher reviews overall).

The other issue was that possible the old style compressor would actually produce a lower temperature.  Therefore, it would change the temperature more than just do dehumidification, as the steady state units do.  That might be more desireable.  But I tend to think it all comes down to the BTU rating if you are talking about the units from one company in the same basic form factor.  And actually, LG claims 500 sq  ft cooling for the dual inverter model, and only 450 for the cheaper regular (well, it's still a scroll compressor, which is quieter than the piston type) compressor.

Now, yes, I've started to think again about getting an emergency compressor too, though, as I've explained, the failure of one's central AC is probably much higher probability than a lengthy grid failure.

This episode has been an opportunity to learn and think about wet bulb temperatures, which reflect both temperature and humidity and how much water evaporative cooling (like our bodies use) is possible.

It's clear that the survival value of some kind of air conditioner, and especially one that is nominally too small, is in humidity reduction as much as temperature reduction.

Outdoors, as it heats up, the relative humidity drops rapidly as the temperature increases.  So outside it very rarely exceeds the fatal-to-vigorous-humans wet bulb of 35C (95F), or even the fatal-to-other-humans 30C) because the relative humidity at that temperature is far lower.  

So for example, yesterday it reached a peak of 102F where I live in San Antonio (the coolest day in a week BTW).  But meanwhile the humidity had fallen to 21%.  That means the wet bulb temperature outside was only 72F (22.3C) leaving a 7.7C margin from the more stringent 30C wet bulb.

But, indoor spaces trap outdoor heat (because they heat up in the sunlight) and humidity from earlier times and other sources.  So indoor spaces that are not monitored for both temperature and humidity (or just wet bulb safety) CAN exceed safe wet bulb temperatures even when the outdoors does not.

So it might actually make sense to go to an outdoor shaded area and turn on a fan there during intense heat rather than stay inside under such conditions.

Sometime after yesterday's peak, or around 9PM to be precise, the wet bulb temperature peaked inside the house.  At that time, with the new air conditioner having been run for almost 24 hours, the temperature in the kitchen (which has a sliding glass door facing the west, and the refrigerator, so it becomes the warmest room in the house) was 90F, with a relative humidity of 31%.  It had only just become a bit uncomfortable.  That means the wet bulb temperature was 68.5F (20.2C),  giving a 9.8C margin from the 30C wet bulb.  Without air conditioning, I'm sure the wet bulb would be worse than outside, probably half as much safety margin than with the air conditioning...and much less comfort as well.

Outside this morning it was 82F both inside the bedroom and outside.  But inside the bedroom, the humidity at that time was a mere 40%, whereas outside it was 72%.  So the undersized AC had both normalized the temperature to the lowest outside and reduced the humidity.  If instead of running undersized AC, I had opened up all the windows and had big fans bring in as much air as possible all night to cool everything down, and then closed windows at sunrise, I would have been stuck with those 30 extra points of humidity all day, combined with the structure absorbed heat during the day, I think it would have been bad.

So I don't think the obvious no-air-conditioning strategy of opening the windows at night works well for the present conditions (though perhaps with vastly better insulation and thermal mass) but might if the outside temperatures only reached into the lower 90's.  Instead, running the small air conditioning all the time and especially at night to drive out the humidity.

Meanwhile, an indoors space may capture the outdoor heat, but combine that with trapped humidity, to produce a deadly situation.