Talk to a real estate agent, and they’ll tell you the most important room in a house from a resale standpoint is the kitchen. I disagree. A kitchen is the most important room in the house, period. It’s the room that allows you to become an artist, perfecting culinary masterpieces that have been passed down for generations while experimenting with new, never before used flavor combinations. It’s the first room you drag yourself each and every morning in search of the perfectly brewed cup of coffee. It’s the last room you sneak into to grab a bedtime snack. And if you have kids, it is the promise land, housing a seemingly endless supply of waffles, ice cream and other assorted treasures. There is no room in a home that brings you more joy on a daily basis than the kitchen, for in it lies the key to happiness: food.
Unfortunately, when my wife and I purchased a new house about a year ago (new for us, but built in the ’60’s), the home’s original architect didn’t exactly share our love of the kitchen. We adored the house, but the kitchen… let’s just say it left much to be desired. It’s small, outdated, and from a technological standpoint, it was still groovin’ in the ’60’s. An old stove, a refrigerator, and a dishwasher, none of which worked exceptionally well, and all of which were sucking up energy like a runaway freight train. And so it began: the quest to create the perfect kitchen.
While some start a kitchen remodel focusing on its appearance – cabinets, countertop, etc. – we took a markedly different approach, focusing on its function. We decided we wanted to first make the kitchen do what we wanted to do, and from there, replacing cabinets and countertops would focus on complimenting this function. Having a gorgeous kitchen is great, but if it doesn’t work the way you need it to, the beauty will wear off very, very quickly.
In assessing our own kitchen’s functionality, there was one very specific area that our kitchen was absolutely horrendous at. Dish washing. More specifically, our dishwasher didn’t wash; it looked terrible; and its worst trait: the sounds emanating from it likely could give the sounds emanating from Niagara Falls a run for their money. Best of all, a key living space is located directly off our kitchen, so when the dishwasher was running, this living area was rendered virtually obsolete due to an inability to hear pretty much anything outside of a two-foot range. In our kitchen, the dishwasher immediately became public enemy no. 1.
In seeking out a new dishwasher, we knew exactly what we wanted. It needed to clean dishes efficiently; it needed to look good; and most importantly, it needed to be quiet. Very, very quiet. Never again did we want to hear the glorious sounds of a raging waterfall pouring out of our kitchen. This required feature set eventually led us to the Electrolux Icon dishwasher (more specifically, the Electrolux Icon Built-In Professional Series dishwasher). I can’t tell you how many dishwashers we looked at, because in all honesty, I lost count. All I know is when we found the Electrolux Icon, my wife and I both knew it was the one. It hit absolutely every mark on our criteria list, and then some.
Electrolux Icon Dishwasher Sound
First and foremost, it’s quiet. And I don’t mean a little quiet, I mean the Electrolux Icon dishwasher is whisper quiet. It’s so quiet, you can quite literally be standing directly in front of it while it’s running and you won’t hear it. It’s so quiet, in fact, there’s actually a light on the bottom corner of the dishwasher that lights up to signal when the load is finished. We’ve had the Electrolux Icon in our home for about three months now, and there’s still occasions when I’ll forget to check for the light and open the door during the middle of a cleaning cycle. I’d say it’s great, but that wouldn’t do the Electrolux justice. Revolutionary is much more fitting. Simply put, the Electrolux Icon’s quietness alone is a compelling enough reason to purchase the dishwasher. It’s absolutely incredible.
Electrolux Icon Dishwasher Cleaning
In terms of cleaning performance, the Electrolux Icon is brilliant. There’s a total of five wash levels – auto, cookware, normal, stemware, and eco – each of which lets you adjust the cleaning cycle based on the specific load you’re cleaning. For stemware and eco modes, less water and shorter wash times are used to conserve energy, whereas on the cookware setting (for pots, pans, etc.), more water and a longer wash cycle is used. As for the auto setting, it’s an ingenious technology implemented by Electrolux that utilizes what they call the SmartSensor – a system that automatically senses which cleaning cycles need to be performed, and does so accordingly. For instance, in the event a smaller load of lightly soiled dishes is in place, the SmartSensor detects which cleaning cycles need to be performed and exactly how much water is needed, and then uses only those resources. By doing so, both energy and water are conserved as the wash cycle precisely fits the specific load. The same is true for large loads. The SmartSensor detects what cycles to use and the amount of water necessary, thus using the perfect amount of resources each and every wash.
In the real world, the Electrolux Icon cleans beautifully. During initial use, we tended to stick to the more conventional cleaning modes more out of habit, all of which work exceptionally, but we’ve since shifted to use the auto function on a daily basis. Magically, the dishes come out beautifully every time, and because we know only the necessary resources are being used, it’s easy to run a partial load through without feeling like we’re wasting water and energy. As for large, heavily soiled loads, we tend to select the cookware option with the optional sanitize feature turned on, and tough baked-on dirt comes off with incredible success. Sanitize is an extra function that can be added to the normal, cookware and auto modes, and it bumps the water temperature to 157 degrees Fahrenheit and maintains it for seven minutes. For tough, heavily soiled loads, it works wonders.
Electrolux Icon Dishwasher Design
The final element of the Electrolux Icon dishwasher that we absolutely adore is its design. Originally, one of the key traits we sought from a dishwasher was a great design, and the Icon fit the bill perfectly. It features a gorgeous modern stainless steel design that looks like a single hunk of steel. And because the control panel and all buttons are located on the top of the door, the Icon’s exterior is completely uncluttered, making it perfectly at home in any style of kitchen. Equally important, however, was the interior design, and after delving into the world of dishwashers, it’s clear the Icon’s engineers are masters at understanding the needs of users, as they’ve created a layout that makes it easy to load a seemingly endless assortment of dishes, cookware and utensils.
The racking system of the Electrolux Icon is without question the best I’ve witnessed. Both the upper and lower rack feature a range of customizable dividers to load plates, bowls, cups, etc. To make loading larger or odd shaped cookware easier, however, all the dividers can be folded flat, allowing simple positioning of awkward items, and the top rack’s height is adjustable, making it possible to load exceptionally tall items that typically wouldn’t fit in a dishwasher. For stemware or small cups, multiple fold down options have been implemented, allowing you to clean a large load of cups and/or stemware quickly and easily – perfect after a night of entertaining. For utensils, large enclosed baskets with fold-up tops on the lower rack make cleaning silverware a breeze, and because they’re completely enclosed, smaller items can be cleaned without fear they’ll fall through to the bottom of the dishwasher. Up top, a second, removal tray in in place for larger utensils (spatulas, serving spoons, etc.), again eliminating the possibility of your utensils relocating themselves during the wash cycle. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The point is this: you won’t find a more intelligently designed dishwasher anywhere. The Electrolux Icon is completely customizable, it allows you to load significantly more than seems possible, and it looks fantastic doing it.
Conclusion
For those of you in search of a new dishwasher wondering whether I would I recommend the Electrolux Icon, the answer is unequivocally yes. In the areas of quietness, cleaning and design, the Electrolux has met and exceeded my expectations on every level, and I can say wholeheartedly it’s done everything I’ve asked of it with incredible ease. It’s truly a marvel of engineering, and it’s single handedly brought my kitchen’s dishwashing capabilities to the 21st century. I love it.
The Electrolux Icon dishwasher comes in two variants (professional and designer series), each of which features a slightly different handle design, with pricing set at approximately $1,399. To learn more about the Electrolux Icon dishwasher, you read about its full list of features at the official Electrolux Icon website.
