LG LDNTH862 24 Inch Smart Top Control Dishwasher Review

Introduction

Using a dishwasher is often a balancing act, with a choice between placing tall items at the top or the bottom. The LG LDNTH862 counters that, with a neat sliding cutlery rack that makes for more space at the top.

Combined with its smart app and powerful performance, this dishwasher is great for everyday use and for heavily soiled dishes.

Design and features

• Lots of internal space
• Clever sliding cutlery rack
• Works with LG ThinQ

The LG LDNTH862 is one of LG’s FlushFit dishwashers. That means that it will sit flush with your kitchen cabinets, giving a smoother, neater finish. This doesn’t mean that you lose flexibility inside. Far from it.

At the bottom is the main rack, with evenly spaced tines that can hold everything from small plates to big dishes. And, the tines can be folded to fit in larger bits of cookware or pans.

Running the full depth of the dishwasher is a silverware holder. This is useful for extra bits of cutlery, but you can remove it if you don’t need it (there’s a cutlery rack at the top, so on a daily basis, you may prefer to have extra room in the bottom).

The middle rack is similarly flexible and offers three height-adjustment positions, wine glass holders (which fold out of the way when not needed), and additional folding tines.

Even so, this kind of rack can often create a dilemma: do you want space for tall glasses but not enough for large plates below, or the opposite? Here, you don’t have to make that choice thanks to the clever design of the cutlery rack above.

The right-hand side of this rack has a clever height-adjustment slider, so you can lower this section to fit taller implements and even small dishes. In addition, this part of the rack can be dropped and slid out of the way, giving extra height below for tall glasses.

It’s nice to be able to load all kinds of glasses and dishes at the same time, and few dishwashers are as flexible as this.

The main controls are on the top of the door, with the main wash cycles covered: Auto, Normal, Heavy and 1Hour. There’s also a Downloaded option that gives you an extra cycle that you can add from the LG ThinQ app – it’s well worth connecting this dishwasher, as the app also lets you know when the dishwasher is done.

Cycle options are available with extras, including Steam (which loosens food at the start and helps avoid water stains at the end); Dry Boost (two settings), which uses heated air to help dry dishes; and High Temp, which boosts the washing temperature for a deeper clean.

There’s also LG’s QuadWash Pro system, using high-pressure jets of water to give a deeper clean.

Performance

• Good running costs
• Heavy cycle deals well with heavily soiled dishes

I used the main wash cycles on the LG LDNTH862, recording water and electricity use, and testing cleaning performance with a variety of soiled dishes. With the Normal wash cycle, the running cost was an excellent 14c.

On this cycle, most regular dishes cleaned up well, such as my tea and coffee mugs.

My mac and cheese bowl also came up well.

The Normal cycle did struggle to deal with my bowl that had been used to make microwaved scrambled eggs.

Moving to Auto, the cycle cost increased to 27c, although the cleaning was slightly better. However, my egg bowl still had quite a bit of residue in it.

I then tried the Heavy wash cycle out, which increased the cycle cost to 48c. That’s quite a bit more, due to steam use, but the overall results were brilliant, with everything cleaning up well, including the egg bowl.

I then finished off with the 1Hour cycle, which cost 21c. That’s more expensive than the Normal cycle, but handy if you do need regularly soiled dishes to be turned around quickly. This cycle dealt with used tea and coffee mugs well, but you’ll need a longer cycle for more heavily soiled items.

Should you buy it?

FAQs