On our first viewing in our new house I have fallen in love with the size of the kitchen the spare utility room and the fact that it had an integrated dishwasher. When I was growing up my Mum never saw the need in having a dishwasher despite the fact that we where a large 6 headed family. She always said I have 4 children with 8 healthy hands to help me wash the dishes I don’t need a machine. When I moved out of the house as a young adult all my flats I rented where too small to even fit a dishwasher in and it was the same when I came to the UK. So to my delight just over 11 months ago we purchased our first family house with an integrated dishwasher and still now, when anybody asked me about my favourite thing about the house I answer with my dishwasher. It just makes life so much easier and keeps my kitchen clean!
Two weeks ago just after a busy weekend of family celebrations at ours I came downstairs late at night (wanting to hang up some washing) to a dark kitchen realising we had no electricity. Thankfully Mr. C. is an Electrician so I called him at work and he told me to turn off every appliance to see where the fault lies. The culprit was found very quickly and to my despair it was my beloved dishwasher. After finding the instructions we realised that the dishwasher had quite some years on his back and there is no more hope!
It was back to good old-fashioned cleaning the dishes by hand again and I started to look online for a shiny new replacement. When I got in contact with AO.com they kindly offered to help me out of my despair and let me review the silver Candy CDI1LS38S Fully Integrated Standard Dishwasher for them!
Delivery was arranged for the following Monday and the evening before the arranged delivery I received a text from AO.com telling me my 4 hour delivery slot, my driver’s name as well as his phone number to call and a link to track my delivery. The next morning I checked the delivery tracking link and due to it falling right into the school run I decided to give my driver a quick call to let him know I had to pop out for 15 minutes. He informed me that he just started on his first job and not to worry he will be arriving after I am back from the school run!
Upon arrival of the new dishwasher my friendly delivery driver Ryan and his college Shemal installed the new machine for me in my kitchen and he also took away my old dishwasher for me. (They were both very professional and did the installation very thorough and explained a few important things about my new dishwasher for me too which was very useful!) In preparation for their arrival I asked my husband to take out the old dishwasher and move it into the Utility Room. Turns out that the guys from AO.com would have happily disconnected and removed the dishwasher for me too so I guess I saved them a job! AO.com offer a this as a Premium Installation Service and Recycling Service. Delivery of any Appliances at AO.com is FREE and they even offer weekend delivery and pre booking a 4hr time slot to suit you (from £5) and next day delivery (from £10). There is even a free AO.com App where you can check the route of your driver, the amount of deliveries he still has to make before he arrives with you and live updates on your time slot which I found very handy:
The silver Candy CDI1LS38S Fully Integrated Standard Dishwasher has got 13 place settings which is just the right amount for our medium sized household. It has a memory function which saves your most used programmes saving you time in the evenings when it comes to the rushed after dinner clean up before bedtime starts! You can even monitor and add new wash cycles from your smart phone on your dishwasher! The dimensions of the standard sized integrated dishwasher are H82 x W59.8 x D55 and it is A+ rated. It would say it falls into the reasonable price range for integrated dishwashers with a price of 239£. It comes with a 1 year Manufacture Warranty but AO.com also offers Aftercare Protection Plans from £3.99 per month. The 12 month warranty is a call put, parts and labour guarantee but if you register your appliance directly with Candy via phone, online or with the provided leaflet you get an additional 4 years parts guarantee absolutely free!
I have had the dishwasher for just over a week now and have thoroughly tested it. After having no dishwasher for nearly 5 days (and the dishes might have started to get stacked up a day or so before the new dishwasher moved in) I tried out various programs from Intensive which is 75C to Universal 60C and Eco which washes the dishes on 45C. Over the last couple of days I have stuck with the Eco Program which washes the dishes just as good as the other higher temperature settings. Because I always rinse the more dirty dishes I feel this is the perfect and also most effective program for our household. The Rapid 29 minutes quick wash is a brilliant feature if you have a dinner party and lots of dishes to wash up after preparing the food so your kitchen can be spotless and clean and the dishwasher ready for another load after the party is finished! I can see myself using it when I am baking a few things at once and I need my dishes and baking utensils clean again for another bake.
I thought I also share a picture of the fully loaded dishwasher so you can see how much it takes, I would say it is the perfect size for a 4 person household:
The Candy Dishwasher also comes equipped with Smart Touch technology that allows you to interact, via the App, with smartphones (Android only with NFC technology). But you can use your Apple iPhone or iPad to download the Candy Simply-Fi App for FREE where you can read some FAQ’s, the User Manual (which is handy so you don’t have to get the paper version out of the folder) as well as a Booklet full of Tips & Tricks for the care of your dishes:
I like the fact that the Candy Dishwasher has a salt empty indicator which is very handy to reload the salt because honestly how often do we actually remember to refill it? I am pretty good with keeping on top of cleaning the inside door of the dishwasher ever so often and refill the rinse aid but that’s because its right on show! You just have to push the reset button once you refill the salt so it can be reset. In the rinse aid container there is a regulator (which is recommended to be used on level 4) and next to it is the detergent container which can easily be closed with the door sliding to the left:
One thing I noticed was that whenever I added the kids plastic medicine syringes inside the cutlery holder some of them are found on the bottom of the dishwasher after the wash cycle is finished. I guess that just indicates how strong the water blast inside the dishwasher is which can only be a good thing! I then realised that this matter can be easily resolved with adding one of the removable grids on top of the cutlery holder so there don’t escape (its hard to photograph but the plastic syringe is on the bottom right underneath the grid):
I really like the small blue racks on the side of the upper rack which can be folded up when not in use and have just got the perfect shape to hold my wine glasses:
Another thing I want to mention is that the lower rack can be easily taken out of its hinges which is very helpful when you need to fill up the salt container I remember with my old dishwasher it was a pain getting to it because the rack couldn’t be taken out! The only tiny little niggle I found was that the cutlery rack is in the back of the lower rack but its more of a personal issue because I am so use to my old machine having it in the front which was easier to just open the door and quickly pop a spoon in but I guess its just a getting use to a different layout for me!
Overall I am very happy with my dishwasher and the service I received from AO.com online and with the Delivery Drivers & Installation of the appliance in my kitchen!
