Excellent Features, but a tad too noisy
So unsurprisingly our Samsung died almost on que, ten years after buying, much like the Washing machine that was a few months older, the Samsung Dishwasher had been having issues for a while with the door mechanism, then finally flashed the dreaded code for failed water heater. Given the time of year and limited funds these days, the nice fancy Bosch wasn't an option, and considering we not long ago got a Haier Washer that is perfectly ok, we figured either we get another Samsung, or we try out this brand and see how we go. It did take nearly two weeks to come, which I was quite disappointed about, looking at your Farmers.co.nz, you should carry stock... but I digress.
From the outset you can see this dishwasher is cheaper, the sliding drawers are a bit clunky and are far from smooth, the height adjust for the top shelf is really weird and is not even close to the quality of the same thing on a samsung or better, rather you sort of have to pull it right out then wedge it back onto the runners on different wheels, very odd, a drawer with some brackets on the side would be so much easier Haier and it can't cost so much more surely. There is no water leak guard device built into the inlet hose so you're connect direct from the tap to the machine which lets hope isn't a problem is this town with very high water pressure.
The overall design however if fine, its a nice colour, Satina, which is basically a plastic version of grey stainless steel, kinda. The buttons are all touch, and the controls are simple and make sense, you cycle through by way of a small orange LED above each option, Auto, Heavy, Medium, Glass etc etc, and below those you have the 'modifier' options which include extra dry (Awesome), Sanitise and a couple of others. It has six cycles, plus the four modifiers, so you do get plenty of options. Internally the baskets are average sized, the top one has a few tilted spaces for glass and cups etc, plus racks for plates, bowls so long as they aren't too big, none of the tines on the top rack are able to be moved so you're stuck with what Haier think a top rack should be. The bottom rack has two rows, the back row is adjustable and each set of tines can be lowered completely, but the front row which takes up half the width cannot be. The dishwasher cleaner dispenser is on the right side of the door and has a slide up, not a pop open, option, so you can I guess stack a tallish plate in there and it will still open and pop out your cleaner of choice. The left side is a blank space where the basket for cuttlery sits, its adequate, though lacks much space for utensils, and the little squares designed to hold cuttlery are small, so if you have knives or forks etc with wide handles you may also encounter a challenge wedging them in there. You do have to jiggly the utensils and cuttlery about abit as you load the machine to prevent taller items and the middle spray arm having a wee accident.
On the topic of spray arms there are three, one at the bottom pointing up, one in the middle which appears to direct water both up and down, and at the very top of the machine is another smallish arm that appears to direct more water down onto items in the top basket primarily. The additional third/upper spray arm is a nice to have, normal on higher end machines I think, so an unexpected item here.
In terms of cleaning performance, I cannot fault it so far. For day to day dinner ware, cups, glasses and all the usual things this machine has performed very well. We use those blue and yellow tabs with the red spot, so not the posh ones, but also not just plain powder. I add rinse aid though in theory shouldn't need to, and the machine enables you to adjust the dose of rinse aid and the instructions are clearly shown in the user manual. I haven't yet had a single item come out not sparkly clean, I cannot fault the quality of the clean so far, and have mostly used either the medium or 60 min cycle, with the extra dry option. I haven't put anything too challenging in there, maybe the baskets from the airfryer are the worst, but i do hand wash these first, it will be interesting to see what its performance is like over the coming christmas rush, anything is possible.
This Haier allows a number of other features from higher end machines, including the door that opens (quite a lot) at the almost end of the cycle, it seems to rely primarily on that to dry dishes, but you can turn this opening off so it would be interesting to see how well it dries if the door stays shut. It also has WIFI control by way of the SmartHQ app which I believe is the one Haier uses, it enables you to remotely turn on the machine, select the cycle and the add-ons and then start it, you can also use the timer via the app or on the machine to schedule the start time to take advantage of free or cheaper power.
My only real criticism of this machine is that it is in my view too loud. Where we have it installed one side as well as the front are open/exposed, so it is not fully enclosed in an under bench space, we had to remove the top section which I guess isn't all that unusual, but there isn't a lot of padding in there to dampen sound, and you can certainly hear it when it is running, the configuration of dishes within seems to make no odds, nor does the load size generally, its just not a quiet machine in my situation. Maybe if it were built in on all sides the noise would be dampened more by cupboards as others do say it is very quiet. That is however my only critique of it, its cleaning performance has been excellent, the choice of cycles is good and more than meets our every day needs.
Personally I have no hesitation in recommending a Haier product, both of the ones we now have, plus a dryer actually, have all been purchased in 2025, so it will be interesting to see if they make it to 2035.
