A good dishwasher will take the unpleasant task of washing the dishes off your hands (literally), but a bad one can double your load. Not only will you have to pack and unpack it, you’ll also have to re-wash anything your machine failed to clean and then dry the dishes yourself.
Our expert testers take doing the dishes very seriously.
That’s pretty much like washing up manually, just with added steps.
This is why we test dishwashers in our state-of-the-art labs: to show you which is the best so your money doesn’t end up down the drain.
For our latest dishwasher reviews, our experts tested models from Smeg, Fisher & Paykel, Bosch, Beko, Haier, LG, Westinghouse, Miele, AEG and more.
After days of “doing the dishes”, they uncovered some impressive cleaners and some serious under-performers.
We test dishwashers to show you which is the best so your money doesn’t end up down the drain
How do we test them? Well, it’s a dirty job that involves crusty crockery identically stained with foods such as oats, egg yolk, rice starch, spinach, baby cereal and more.
We leave the dishes out overnight, then analyse how well each dishwasher gets them clean. Learn more about how we test dishwashers.
The lowest rated dishwashers from our tests
We don’t want you to end up with a dud, so here are the products that scored lowest in our lab tests.
Consider becoming a CHOICE member to see the best performers.
Omega ODW101W
This pint-sized Omega gives benchtop models a bad name.
CHOICE Expert Rating: 58%
Price: $799
The worst performer in our test overall, this half-size benchtop model does about half the job we’d hoped for.
It performed poorly for both washing and drying, meaning you’ll be reaching for that wash cloth and tea towel once its long cycle has finally finished.
(Hot tip: if your dishwasher isn’t great at drying, try cracking the door open a few centimetres just after the cycle has finished and leave it to settle for half an hour or so – it’ll generally give you dryer dishes than if you left the the door closed or unpacked the machine straight away.)
This half-size benchtop model does about half the job we’d hoped for
On the upside, the Omega is cheap to run (which is good because you might need to run it twice to get the wash you want) and it won’t require any modifications to your cabinetry to install, as you can just plug it in. This also means that you can take it with you if you move out.
But don’t let this model put you off benchtop units altogether: it is possible to find a smaller dishwasher that performs well.
We’ve come across some benchtop models that punch well above their weight and even outscore full-sized dishwashers. Unfortunately this just isn’t one of them.
This freestanding dishwasher achieved a dismal washing performance score of 51%, which was the second-lowest of all the models in our latest testing.
This is the part of the test where we assess how well the dishwasher removes foods like oats, egg yolk and spinach that have been dried on plates overnight.
The washing score makes up the majority of the CHOICE Expert Rating (because if your dishwasher can’t get your plates clean, it’s clearly a waste of space).
If your dishwasher can’t get your plates clean, it’s clearly a waste of space
To add insult to injury, our testers found this model is relatively noisy and very expensive to run, destined to set you back over $1500 in running costs over 10 years.
Not only is this dodgy dishwasher relatively expensive to operate, it bombs out on washing performance with a score of 55%, which means it’s going to be a dreary sight when you open that dishwasher door.
It also has no option for a “light” or “fast” wash, meaning you can’t expect a quick turnaround if you need to reuse your plates and cups quickly, and there’s no “rinse-only” program either, which can be annoying if your dirty plates are starting to smell but your dishwasher’s not full enough to run yet.
This dodgy dishwasher bombs out on washing performance with a score of 55%
It did perform well at drying those poorly washed dishes though, and includes a feature where the dishwasher door opens automatically at the end of the cycle to aid drying performance.
The dishwasher is Wi-Fi connected, which means you can control it remotely, but whether that’s more useful than actually getting clean dishes is debatable.
These models all scored 68%, which is a small step up from the ones above, but they’re still only rated as “OK” by our experts.
While you may not expect amazing performance from some of these models costing less than $500, the Fisher and Paykel model at $1699 is pretty expensive for a single-drawer dishwasher that won’t do an especially good job of cleaning your dishes. And even $949 is pretty pricey for a slimline dishwasher that scored just 43% for drying your dishes.
They might not be the worst of the bunch, but they’re still worth avoiding.
This single-drawer Fisher & Paykel dishwasher costs a huge $1699.
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Find Pru on LinkedIn.
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Find Pru on LinkedIn.
For more than 60 years, CHOICE has been fighting the good fight for Australian consumers.
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