Recommendations for a dishwasher costing $500 or less

[Winston001]

Good on you Chill.

Personally I'd avoid a secondhand dishwasher unless there's a very convincing reason. Dishwashers get installed and usually stay in place until they fail.

I bought a new dishwasher recently - an Asko which is recommended by Consumer. It was on sale in an appliance shop which was closing but still cost a lot more than $500. I honestly do not believe you will find a quality machine for anywhere near that price.

I note Consumer have just updated their tests.

The closest would be a Simpson EZISet 52C850WK which occasionally sells for $800.

[Winston001]

As for cost of installation, you are correct that it can be significant. From memory carpenter $200, electrician $150, and plumber $400. However once the jobs done you've improved your home and a dishwasher is darned handy.

[Trev]

Cheapest on the Consumer site is a Haier DW12-TFE4WH for $790.

[Billy T]

I think a new dishwasher would be better than a second hand one because the quality is guaranteed under the Consumer Guarantees Act?

The quality isn't guaranteed at all. The only guarantee that the CGA offers is that your rights are protected for the warranty period and some years afterwards, i.e. you are entitled to expect the machine to function properly for a good proportion of its normal service life, and you still have some recourse if it fails prematurely but outside the warranty period.

And you don't need to buy 'extended warrantees' to cover it beyond the the manufacturer's warrany period (typically 12 months).

If everybody exercised their rights under the CGA, the $2 shops and their ilk, plus the importers/sellers of faked or cloned copies of genuine products would be out of business inside of 12 months, and businesses like The Warehouse might get a bloody good shake-up too, though the latter's replacement policies are pretty good! There's an awful lot of "one use" tools at some hardware shops and their ilk too.

Cheers

Billy 8-{)

[PPp]

"I am after a good quality dishwasher costing $500 or less". Sorry good quality and cheap tend to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Value for money fits in there as well. The Simpson 52C850WK is OK rated from a certain .org website, reasonable performance for the price, but still above your max. Best bet, save a bit more, or even quite a bit more. The more you save the wider the choice. Buying cheap appliances is like drinking cheap wine. Stopping now this is sounding preachy.(drinking too much cheap wine).