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Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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The G 5266 blows most other dishwashers out of the water. If your budget can accommodate its premium price, it's one of the best models you can buy. Read More
This Bosch is one of the best dishwashers we've ever tested. It gets dishes clean and dry, quickly, and is ADA-compliant. Read More
This high-end Bosch dishwasher can remove tough stains and get all of your dishes (including plasticware) completely dry. Read More
This feature-filled, high-performing dishwasher comes in a Tuscan stainless steel finish that is sure to elicit jealously from your neighbors. Read More
This feature-filled Bosch dishwasher offers a quiet cleaning experience with a lot of adjustabilities to ensure dishes of all sizes can get clean. Read More
The best third-rack dishwashers vastly improve the cleaning experience by better using the limited real estate inside dishwashers.
These sliding trays are mainly for silverware and larger utensils, such as ladles and spatulas, but some third racks can also fit smaller bowls and ramekins. Using a third rack also frees up space on the bottom rack by reducing or eliminating the need for a bulky cutlery basket.
In the nearly 15 years we’ve been testing dishwashers here at Reviewed, we’ve found that one of the most important factors in the best dishwashers is usability, something that a third rack adds.
After testing the best third-rack dishwashers on the market, the Miele G 5266 SCVi SFP (available at Abt for $1,749.00) was our favorite because it can fit both utensils and larger items on its top rack, which also can be minimized so you can wash taller items on the second rack.
While the G 5266 is expensive, our list also has third-rack dishwashers that will fit most other budgets. Here are our the best third-rack dishwashers we tested.
Excellent cleaning power
Gets dishes dry
Tons of features
Minor issues with redeposit
Dries plastics
Stellar stain removal
Quiet operation
Nothing significant that we could find
Short cycles
Third rack
Fingerprint-resistant stainless steel finish
None that we could find
Quiet
Great cleaning ability
Gets dishes dry
None that we could find
Great cleaning performance
Drying feature that works
Third rack
Drying option extends cycle times
Attractive exterior
Powerful Normal cycle
Well-designed top rack
Slow cycles
High-end aesthetics
Third rack, bottle jets, and smart features
Inconsistent cleaning
Not the best value at its current price
We test a dishwasher's Quick, Heavy, and Normal cycles by challenging them to clean dishes with baked-on food stains—milk, spinach, egg, oatmeal, meat, and more.
There are three major parts of the dishwasher experience—performance, features, and usability. During our testing, we focus on those factors to find which dishwashers offer good value and which should be avoided.
Performance factors include stain removal, redeposit, cycle length, and drying. To assess stain removal powers, we test each dishwasher on three cycles—Normal, Quick, and Heavy—to see how they clean dishes with food baked on. When testing, we don’t pre-rinse dishes, either.
Dishwashers need to be able to wash and dry dishes, which is why penalize models when any dish comes out wet. We also take note of redeposit, when food debris from one dish gets stuck on another, and how long wash cycles take.
Features and usability go hand-in-hand. A third rack offers you the advantage of having somewhere to stow serving spoons, long knives, skewers, and other kitchen utensils that don’t fit in a dishwasher’s cutlery basket or can potentially fall out of the upper rack—no one wants a chef’s knife impaling their foot. It should slide smoothly and allow for an optimum wash.
Third racks allow people to more efficiently use the vertical space in their dishwashers by fitting items above the upper rack, including silverware and oversized utensils.
Most third racks also can accommodate smaller bowls and ramekins. By washing utensils in the third rack, you can create more usable space on the bottom rack for dishwasher-safe pots and pans, as the third rack often reduces the need for a cutlery basket.
In general, third racks are not best for heavily soiled dishes, as they typically don't have spray jets and rely on water from the washing arms at the bottom of the appliance.
Most of the dishwashers with third racks that we reviewed have dedicated spots for silverware that prevent “nesting.”
When loading your dishwasher, oversized utensils, such as mixing spoons, spatulas, and ladles, can be placed in a single layer on flat portions of a third rack.
If your third rack has tines for cups and small bowls, be sure to not overload the tray.
Until recently, a third rack was a premium feature only available on high-end dishwashers. Now, they’re more frequently seen in less expensive models. Third racks make good use of a dishwasher’s space.
Although third racks are more common, you may have to pay more money for a dishwasher that has one.
Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.
Jonathan Chan currently serves as the Lab Manager at Reviewed. If you clean with it, it's likely that Jon oversees its testing. Since joining the Reviewed in 2012, Jon has helped launch the company's efforts in reviewing laptops, vacuums, and outdoor gear. He thinks he's a pretty big deal. In the pursuit of data, he's plunged his hands into freezing cold water, consented to be literally dragged through the mud, and watched paint dry. Jon demands you have a nice day.
Julia is the Senior Scientist at Reviewed, which means that she oversees (and continually updates) the testing of products in Reviewed's core categories such as televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, and more. She also determines the testing methods and standards for Reviewed's "The Best Right Now" articles.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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