Kenwood KDW12ST3A

by Ashley
(UK)

It's not often you come across a product as disappointing as this one. We bought ours from Currys in 2009, paying just under £300. It is a really beautiful looking machine: sleek stainless steel with only an LCD showing as all the control are neatly hidden on the top inside edge of the door. We fell in love with the looks, which it turns out was a big mistake.

The Kenwood is a fullsize, freestanding dishwasher and it has a good layout inside, although it struggles with long-stemmed glasses, as many dishwashers do. Overall though, we found the cleaning quality to be fairly poor, and often had to put loads through twice to get them clean. It is average in terms of noise, and the standard eco cycle takes 1 hour 38 minutes, which is fine. The LCD display is a nice touch, as it tells you how long is left on the cycle. The cutlery basket is great, and when the Kenwood broke we kept the basket to use in our new machine.

However, we had only had the machine for 13 months (just out of warranty) when it broke completely. We tried replacing various parts, including the thermostat, but nothing worked and the more we looked into it, the more we realised that these Kenwoods are renowned for breaking down. I was surprised at this, as I had always thought of the Kenwood brand as being very good, but perhaps they are better sticking to small kitchen appliances. It was going to cost far too much to fix, so we decided to cut our losses and get rid of it.

We've swapped it for a much cheaper Beko with a 5 year warranty, which is much better at actually cleaning dishes, so I can't say I miss the Kenwood's sleek beauty at all. This Kenwood really is a triumph of style over substance, but I certainly won't be falling for that one again. Avoid the KDW12ST3A at all costs.