There's not a lot of info on these dishwashers in the states so I wanted to add my experience. We are a couple, not a family, so our usage may differ from most of the other reviews here.
First off, I absolutely love this dishwasher(s). When remodeling our home I wanted to try and do some things a little different from the standard American setup that I thought might improve our lives. I've seen these dishwashers in the past and have always been fascinated with them so I finally had the opportunity to pull the trigger.
You need to remember that you have probably gone your entire life using essentially the exact same dishwasher setup with minor variations. This dishwasher is not a minor variation, it's almost entirely different. That means there's a bit of a learning curve, and you definitely need to read the manual to understand all the different racking options. Just about any time I do something radically different I get anxiety that I've made a massive mistake, this dishwasher was no exception. You will probably spend the first few days trying to figure out how to shove your largest items into the drawers while still leaving room for other things and trying various strategies to get the same amount of stuff in there lamenting that it's impossible. Let me tell you, you get used to it. You figure it out. You get really good and really efficient with this machine just like you used to be with your previous unit. My wife doesn't do well with change, but I showed a few tricks and she's gotten really good with it as well. You will learn that there are pros and cons to both dishwasher styles and which is better likely really depends on how you like to do your dishes and the amount of dishes you regularly do.
Ok that's my summary, now let me put my personal pros/cons in a nice list for you
PRO - The dishwasher is actually good at washing dishes. Both drawers, even with awkward loads, clean just as well as any other dishwasher I've used. I believe there is some kind of fan to dry the dishes after washing, they are always plenty dry. My previous unit was a Bosch which are always highly rated.
PRO - We always have clean dishes waiting. Sometimes they are actually put away, more often they are left in one of the drawers to be unloaded while loading the other. The great thing is the amount of dishes you have to load/unload is now cut it half. It's so much less of a chore when you are loading, unloading, or doing both alternating between the drawers. If you anticipate filling both drawers every single time all the time, this is not the dishwasher for you.
PRO - You ever have a small load, too small to warrant running the dishwasher? Never again. You ever use the same things over and over again making dinner and get frustrated because they weren't washed the previous day due to my previously mentioned problem? Never again. Using either the big or small drawer I never feel wasteful tossing a couple things in to avoid them sitting out or not being ready for the next day.
PRO - You've got two dishwashers. They are mostly, possibly entirely independent. If something happens to one, the other still works. I had my top unit stop washing and flashing a code. I just moved everything to the bottom unit while I researched the code. The code was from low water pressure, which was from air in the lines from me changing my whole house water filter. Code reset 30 minutes later and dishes almost already done in the other drawer.
PRO - If you are the DIY type, I can tell you this dishwasher is going to be MUCH easier to work on. During installation you may need to remove the drawers to access certain mounting holes, I did, and the way this thing comes apart is amazing. You just pull the entire drawer out and everything is there, nice and easy. No worries of having to pull and disconnect the entire unit so that you can tilt it on it's back or side to get to that leaking hose.
PRO/CON - Plastic tubs. I see others complaining about this here. The logic supposedly is that plastic is quieter from water splashing than SS. I will say, the washing cycle of this thing IS quiet and there is no sound insulation that I saw unlike the Bosch units. Honestly, who cares about SS? Do you like seeing your reflection when loading dishes? Is it a status symbol? Plastic is so durable even the ocean has trouble destroying it. It may sound cheap, but not all plastic is equal and this plastic feels plenty durable.
PRO/CON - Larger drawer is on the top. To me I feel like it should be one the bottom although I admit this didn't turn out to be an annoyance like I had initially anticipated.
CON - Detergent options! Yes you can use tabs, but that's really wasteful and expensive because you need to use a full tab for a half load. Also, you place the tab on a tray where the silverware goes, or simply just throw it into the tub I guess. The tray doesn't even fit right IMO. You could put liquid detergent in, but the manual discourages that for some reason. That leaves you with powder. Powder is dirt cheap, and certainly effective, but it's actually pretty hard to find these days in stores. Since you don't need much per load, it seems to last forever, but your choices are simply extremely limited compared to a normal dishwasher.
CON - The drain pump is loud. I don't understand it, the dishwasher is very quiet but this pump is unusually loud. In my previous house which was much larger this would be a complete non-issue, but we are in a small house now and the kitchen can be heard from the master bedroom so I am always aware when this pump is working. It's only a few minutes of the cycle at least.
CON - HUGE items simply cannot be washed in the drawers. You'd be surprised how tall of things you can fit in the larger drawer, but ultimately we have a couple things we wash by hand.
CON - The price. Enough said.
CON - It's different. Like I said before there's a learning curve. Everybody who uses it will need to change their habits. This could be difficult for families.
CON - It's slightly more work to use the entire dishwasher at once vs a standard dishwasher. This happens when we have guests.
Overall the PROs certainly outweigh the CONs for us. For small families or couples I think it would be great. If you are a larger family, I'm not sure how well this would work for you. I could see the larger drawer being used daily and then having the smaller drawer for spot cleaning. It's hard to say though. Hopefully this review was helpful if you are on the fence.
mary wheeler
Dwayne Lairmore