From: John Joseph Bachir
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 11:43 PM
To: Danby Customer support
Subject: differences between countertop dishwashers
Hello. I have a question: what is the difference between the DDW396W and the DDW496W? The difference between energy and water usage is huge, but it seems like the capabilities and features are exactly the same.
Thanks,
John
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your e-mail. The only difference, is they are manufactured by different companies, and the size from front to back is larger on the DDW496W. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you.
Aimee
Customer Service Representative
Danby Products Inc.
Web:WWW.Danby.com
I’m about to purchase a DDW496W. Is energy + water usage better or worse than 396??
The 496 is the newer model and is more efficient.
396
496
I purchased a brand new Danby 496.. anyways I load washer turn on cold water tap and turn on.. you can see water going in then when it starts, it goes SLOW!
it spins slow and very little pressure.. then I shut it off for 3 seconds and turn back on and its going good.. flowing FAST and strong.
I thought I had a defective unit, so I returneed it and got another.. well wouldnt u know same thing!
Whats the problem>?
Sorry, Aimee,
but are you correct? According to your company’s specs, the 496 is SMALLER not larger than the 396… Also, what is the company which manufactures the 496, if not Danby??
Chris, I just bought a brand new 496W and noticed the same behavior: slow movement of the sprayer arm and pressure so low that the tops of the silverware weren’t even being reached by the spray. I tried turning it off and then back on mid-cycle, as you did, and my results were mixed: the first time, it was nearly at the end of the normal cycle, with only about 2 minutes to go. The sprayer arm speed increased dramatically as did the pressure but only for the initial 5 seconds after I turned it back on, then it went back to slow. I watched it for a minute, and turned it off and back on again, and it maintained the faster speed and higher pressure. When the 2nd cycle started, it went back to low pressure and slow sprayer movement again. I turned the power off and then back on again 5 seconds later and, once again, the pressure and speed increased by at least twice as much. I hope this isn’t the normal behavior, as I don’t want to have to turn the dishwasher off and on mid-cycle every time I use it. I will post again after I’ve done another load or two, and will post the detailed notes I’ll take on the next wash.
I ran another load of dishes through, and had to turn the power off/on to increase the water pressure and sprayer arm speed 5 (yes 5) times for one of dishes. This isn’t acceptable to me, so I’m returning it. In addition, for those considering this dishwasher model (DDW496W): 1) it doesn’t have a removable rack so that you can do just a load of glassware; 2) it doesn’t have a detergent door, it only has an indent on the door which dumps the detergent into the bottom of the dishwasher, meaning that if you want to use the Normal cycle, you would have to stop it and put in more detergent at the beginning of the 2nd half of the cycle (i.e. the start of the Short cycle), which basically means that the entire “Short” cycle part of the “Normal” cycle is merely a set of 3 rinse cycles. For me, the removal of the rack to allow for glassware and the 2 cleaning cycles were decision-makers, so the lack of them ticked me off. Having to power it off and back on 5 times per load is clearly indicative of a design flaw or poor quality control. Apparently the customer service rep. mentioned above did not know the real differences between the 2 models. Personally, I’m going to check out other options.