19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
My Gold Series Whirlpool is a lemon.
Date of Review: Apr 4, 2002
The Bottom Line: Flawed design and slow slow slow factory service. I cannot recommend any Whirlpool appliance.
When selecting appliances for my new home "Consumer Report's" top reliability/repair rating for Whirlpool products and my good experience with Whirlpool laundry equipment outweighed the very positive experiences I had with other brands. I purchased a Whirlpool GU1200 Gold series model but in the first 18 weeks of use the electronic controls have failed twice, each time in an identical manner. Suddenly only the "fine china" setting is operable, but even that cycle cycles to a halt in two minutes. Sometimes this cycle or a "cancel" operation takes off on it's own - with no one operating the controls !!! Sometimes the led display is all on dimly.
When calling Whirlpool/Kitchenaid for service the automated portion goes well, but when it comes time to talk to a human I've always gotten the "we're experiencing an unusual volume of calls .... your call should be answered in about 5 minutes" message. This happens even when I've called at 2am or 7:30am (EST) !! Too bad Whirlpool hasn't joined the 21st century like so many good service organizations and implemented automated call-back when the wait is long. Instead I wait, often on a cell phone, for someone to answer.
The staff on the phones are helpful, courteous and competant, but when it comes time to schedule a service call there is always a reason why it will take two weeks. (I really *LOVE* washing dishes by hand for two weeks). The first time the excuse was a nationwide recall on microwave ovens that kept the service centers busy. The local service department was able to "work me in" in about 1 week. The second time I was told that it would take 2 weeks to ship the part from their depot to my location. Apparently they ship by pony express. I called the consumer relations number and was able, after complaining, to get them to make a service call in 4 days (tomorrow) which I consider adequate. The first repair person was friendly and competant, but he cannot be expected to fix a design flaw - and I think that is the real problem.
I'm extremely unhappy with this high-end Whirlpool dishwasher because of the repeated breakdowns and the difficulty obtaining timely service. Despite a smaller compartment size my old Maytag 9200 could be packed with as many dishes I think. The lower rack of the Whirlpool is very difficult to roll in/out and the silverware basket is always dropping off it's loose hanging position. There is a sidewall water port which is easily blocked by large dishes & pans and blocking this port prevents the soap from disbursing leaving you with gritty soapy dishes and glasses. I'd mark down this GU1200 Gold series Whirlpool performance compared to my old Maytag 9200 in terms of reliability, ergonomics of loading and quality of the cleaning. When working the Whirlpool is decent, but the Maytag was better. The only respect in which the Whirlpool is better is it's low noise level.
Whirlpool has refused to take this lemon back and failed to offer me even an extended warrantee. What a PITA dealing with this problem ! If unit this was out of warrantee I'd estimate the cost of repair on my 4 and a half month old Whirlpool dishwasher would be approaching $400 (two $84 service calls and twoe lectronisc control boards) - nearly the purchase price. I'm very sorry I bought Whirlpool.
