A new dishwasher should be one of those purchases you make and then forget about for a decade. Load it up, press a button, walk away. But some brands have turned what should be a boring appliance into a recurring nightmare — one that leaks on your floor, leaves food stuck to your plates, and costs hundreds of dollars to fix every couple of years. The worst part? The price tag doesn’t always tell you what you’re getting. Some of the most expensive dishwashers on the market are among the least reliable, while a few budget-friendly options quietly do their jobs without drama.
I dug into repair data, reliability surveys, and expert opinions to rank the dishwasher brands most likely to ruin your day — starting with the absolute worst and working toward the ones actually worth your money.
Viking — Luxury Price, Dumpster Fire Performance
Viking has some of the lowest brand reliability and owner satisfaction scores in major reliability surveys, and expert testing shows these dishwashers can’t even dry dishes properly. The upper wash performance is mediocre at best. For a brand that charges premium prices, that’s inexcusable.
The real-world complaints are brutal. One person on Reddit said they went through two Viking dishwashers in seven years — both died. Another said theirs lasted only three years, and the repair quote was higher than just buying a completely different brand. Someone else called Viking “an absolute dumpster fire of a company with terrible products.” That’s not a one-off bad review. That’s a pattern. Viking might look fancy sitting in your kitchen, but it’s going to spend more time broken than running.
Cove — $2,600 and Still Unreliable
Cove is the dishwasher arm of the Sub-Zero Group, which should theoretically mean quality. These machines start around $2,600. For that kind of money, you’d expect the thing to wash your dishes, fold your laundry, and tuck you in at night. Instead, Cove landed in the lowest reliability category alongside brands that cost a fraction of the price, like Samsung and Electrolux.
It gets worse. Cove has had major recalls, including one for heating elements that posed an actual fire hazard. Owners have also reported failures in drain pumps and control boards — two of the most expensive components to replace. If your warranty has expired (and it probably has, since most standard warranties only last a year), you’re looking at massive repair bills. Spending luxury money should at least buy you peace of mind. With Cove, it buys you anxiety.
Samsung — The Brand Repair Technicians Refuse To Touch
Samsung makes great phones and great TVs. Their dishwashers? Not so much. Over the past four years, Samsung has consistently ranked around 20th in reliability — solidly in the “why bother” range. Five out of 15 appliance repair professionals surveyed said to flat-out avoid Samsung. Not a single one of the 15 had anything positive to say about the brand.
The biggest issue isn’t just that Samsung dishwashers break. It’s that when they do, good luck getting them fixed. Parts are difficult to find, and many repair companies won’t even service them. One major appliance retailer and service center — Yale Appliance — doesn’t sell or service Samsung dishwashers at all. One Reddit user said their Samsung’s bottom spray bar died in year three, parts were unavailable everywhere, and a local repair guy told them to just buy a new one from a different brand. Another Redditor summed it up: “Samsung does not make a single good appliance.”
Electrolux — The Brand That Tops Every “Avoid” List
Electrolux owners are consistently among the most dissatisfied dishwasher owners out there. The brand shows up at the bottom of reliability rankings with alarming regularity. And here’s what makes it extra frustrating: the warranty is managed by a third party, which turns what should be a simple repair call into a bureaucratic mess.
Thinking about fixing it yourself? Replacement parts are expensive. Thinking about calling someone? You’ll still be dealing with a company that makes the repair process harder than it needs to be. Electrolux dishwashers break down more often than most, cost more to repair, and come with a customer service experience that nobody enjoys.
Haier — Cheap Up Front, Expensive In Every Other Way
Haier is a Chinese company founded in 1984 that now owns GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, and several other brands. But Haier-branded dishwashers themselves? They’re widely considered only acceptable as a temporary fix or a spare unit in a basement apartment you’re trying to rent out. The build quality is suspect — buyers have reported breakdowns within the first few months of ownership.
Customer service is another sore spot. Haier has a reputation for slow responses, unhelpful suggestions, and general unresponsiveness. One customer wrote on TrustPilot that their Haier broke twice in its second year, parts were hard to find, there was no customer service, and they called it “such a waste.” Even when these dishwashers work, their performance ceiling seems to be “average at washing and drying.” For a machine whose only job is to wash and dry, average is a failing grade.
Amana — Budget Means Budget
Amana has been around since 1934 and was once a respected name in American appliances. These days, their dishwashers are made for people who want to spend as little as possible, and you get exactly what you pay for. They lack basic features that come standard in most modern dishwashers. They’re loud. They’re not energy efficient. And their drying capabilities are weak.
If you barely use a dishwasher — maybe you live alone and run it twice a week — an Amana might get the job done. But for a family running it daily, these machines wear out fast. They’re not the worst dishwashers ever made, but they’re the kind of purchase you’ll regret in about 18 months when everything starts falling apart.
LG — Complicated and Getting Worse
LG is a tricky one. A few years ago, their dishwashers had service rates below 4% — making them among the most reliable on the market. But that number has ballooned to 11.6% according to real service call data from Yale Appliance. Much of that spike came from one high-volume model with recurring top-rack repair issues, but the trend is still concerning.
The bigger problem with LG is serviceability. Three out of 15 repair pros called LG unreliable and hard to service. Replacement parts are hard to find. In many parts of the country, getting an LG dishwasher repaired can take significant time and effort because qualified technicians are scarce. LG packs their dishwashers with tech features like smart home integration and their QuadWash system with four multi-motion spray arms, which sounds great until the control board fries and nobody in your area knows how to fix it.
What Repairs Actually Cost When Things Go Wrong
Here’s the financial reality of owning an unreliable dishwasher. The average repair runs between $175 and $325, with most people paying around $225. But that’s for standard brands with widely available parts. High-end brands can push repair costs to $750 or more because they require proprietary parts and specialized technicians.
Labor alone runs $75 to $125 per hour, and many technicians charge a $50 to $80 diagnostic fee just to show up and tell you what’s wrong. Parts can range from $10 for a simple seal to $300 for a major component like a motor or control board. And here’s the kicker: dishwashers are low on the service priority list. When you call for a repair, your fridge and your washer get serviced first. Your dishwasher comes last. So you’re not just paying for the repair — you’re hand-washing dishes for a week while you wait.
The Brands That Actually Work
If you want to avoid all this pain, the data is clear. Bosch, Miele, and Thermador consistently top every reliability list. Miele posted a 5.6% service rate based on over 33,000 real service calls — the best in the industry. Bosch came in at 7.7%, and 11 out of 15 repair professionals named it the most reliable brand. Bosch dishwashers go through 465 quality checks before they leave the factory.
But you don’t have to spend over $1,000. Whirlpool and KitchenAid both offer strong reliability at more reasonable prices. Whirlpool’s service rate has stayed below 4.4% since 2018, and they back their machines with a five-year limited warranty. KitchenAid runs at 39 dBA — quieter than a normal conversation — and carries Energy Star certification. Beko and Midea also showed up in the top tier of reliability surveys, proving that solid performance doesn’t always require a luxury price tag.
About 21% of dishwashers will break down or stop working properly at some point. The most common problem — affecting 9% of machines — is simply not cleaning dishes anymore. Seven percent stop drying properly, and another 7% stop draining. Those aren’t rare edge cases. Those are odds that should make you think twice about which brand you bring home. Buy smart now, or pay for it later — in repair bills, wasted time, and crusty dishes you have to rewash by hand.
