Is Asko a Good Dishwasher?

Asko might be the best dishwasher brand you never heard of.

In this article, we’ll show you what makes Asko unique, how reliable they are, and what are the 3 available Asko series and their best features.

And if you stick around until the end, we’ll give you one major reason you might want to steer clear of the Asko altogether.

Is Asko a good dishwasher? Let’s find out.

Overview

Why should you consider an Asko dishwasher?

Asko is a European brand that makes a premium dishwasher sitting at the top of the market with other luxury brands like Bosch and Miele.

If you are looking for a Bosch or Miele but can’t find one in stock due to shortages, Asko is becoming a go to choice.

But besides just being available, Asko does have a lot to offer.

For starters, with Asko, quality is paramount. Starting in 2014, Asko partnered with the Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove family of brands to distribute their appliances in the US.

If you’re familiar with Sub-Zero and Wolf, you’ll know they’re some of the most coveted appliances in the world in both cooking and refrigeration.

Sub-Zero and Wolf would not put their reputation behind a brand like Asko if it did not share their same commitment to quality.

Quality is apparent throughout the Asko dishwasher cavity. 8 of the main components are made of high quality steel, including the tub, spray arms, and baskets.

The baskets don’t feel cheap and flimsy like other brands, and have a dark gray coating that looks and feels great.

Quality extends to the exterior as well. In addition to allowing you to install a custom cabinet panel to match your kitchen, Asko also offers their dishwashers in an easy to clean fingerprint proof stainless steel finish, which is a must especially if you have kids that touch everything.

The addition of the Asko brand allowed Sub-Zero and Wolf to offer a complete high end kitchen package, and even offers stainless steel fronts and handles to match the stainless steel and handles of their chef inspired cooking and refrigeration products.

Since incorporating Asko in their linkeup, Sub-Zero and Wolf have developed their own dishwasher brand Cove, but Asko still fits in perfectly as a less expensive alternative to Cove.

So if you want you already have a Sub-Zero/Wolf kitchen or a creating one, and you want all the finishes and handles to match, Asko is a great choice.

At it’s core, Asko is a European dishwasher. European dishwashers tend to be quiet, have great design and well organized baskets, and are extremely water and energy efficient.

Asko checks all of those boxes. However some people do have complaints with European dishwashers. Mainly, they have smaller interior capacity, that they don’t dry well, they take too long.

Luckily Asko has an answer to each of these complaints.

The first thing you’ll notice about Asko dishwashers when you see them is just how much interior space they have.

The baskets are deep and there is a lot of space between the racks to be able to fit big pots and pans on the bottom, and talls glasses up top.

Many of the tines are foldable and can be customized to your particular needs.

Third Rack

Like almost all high end dishwashers nowadays, Asko dishwashers have a 3rd rack cutlery tray for things like forks, knives and spoons, which frees up space in the bottom rack where a cutlery basket would normally go.

They do still come with a cutlery basket if you prefer that.

Asko’s 3rd rack design is where the magic happens though… and it differs from anything else on the market.

Instead of being the full width of the dishwasher, the 3rd rack leaves open space on the left and the right side to allow tall glasses from the top rack to extend past it.

This is a welcome feature. On my dishwasher at home, if I have tall glasses, I need to lower the upper basket so the glasses clear the cutlery tray.

This kills the space in the bottom basket so I can’t wash talls pots and pans.

With the Asko the cutlery tray doesn’t eat up valuable vertical space and still lets you wash tall items at each level.

As we were reviewing these Asko dishwashers, one of my main complaints was that the third rack feels a little flimsier than most, but fortunately we just got word Askoimproved on this design.

The new third rack has a sturdier frame mounted to the dishwasher with a removable cutlery insert.

Overall, if you like being organized and having plenty of space for different types of dishes, Asko is great.

Drying

Next up is drying. Rather than using a heating element like most American brands, European brands rely on the high heat of the final wash cycle to create a condensation effect that pulls moisture from the air, onto the sides of the tub, and down into the drain.

This is much more energy efficient and less likely to melt plastics or bake on debris.

However, at the end of the cycle, moisture in the air can re-deposit itself back onto your dishes, leaving things like tupperware wet, or creating puddles of water on the tops of glasses, which is extremely annoying when unloading the dishwasher.

While Asko does use a condensation dry, their unique TurboFan dry system promises better results. After the wash cycle is complete, the fan turns on to pull moist air out of the dishwasher.

This significantly reduces redepositing of moisture back onto your dishes and gives you much better results.

Cycle Times

Another negative of European brands is their long cycle times. In my new home the normal cycle on our dishwasher can take up to 3 and a half hours for the load to fully wash and dry.

This normally isn’t a problem for my family since we run the dishwasher before we go to bed, but if you are the type of family that runs their dishwasher multiple times per day, shorter times are a must.

Again thanks to their TurboDry fan, Asko is able to complete a normal cycle in only 1:30 – 2 hours, almost 50% faster than most other brands with a condensation dry.

Reliable Service

Reliable service is another hallmark benefit of Asko. If Asko is an unfamiliar brand to you, you may be nervous about what happens if something breaks?

Will I be supported?

Prior to 2014 when Sub-Zero and Wolf took over distribution, getting service or parts for Asko was a nightmare, so if you’ve heard or experienced horror stories prior to 2014 that’s why.

Things have changed dramatically since then however and all Asko appliances now share the same level of concierge service you’d get when buying a Sub-Zero refrigerator or Wolf range.

As appliance retailers, some brands make us look bad when things go wrong, either not having parts available, making customers wait weeks or months for an appointment, or just flat out not caring or empathizing with whatever the situation may be.

The opposite is true of Sub-Zero, Wolf, Cove and Asko.

Hopefully you never need service, but if you do, they truly are the best at service in the industry. And all Asko dishwashers have a 2 year parts and labor warrant which is twice the industry average.

Series Breakdown

Now that you have a better understanding of what makes Asko dishwashers unique, let’s break down the 3 different series available, the 30 series, 40 series, and 50 series.

All of the series are available in 4 different styles, fully integrated which allows you to install a custom cabinetry panel to match your cabinets, integrated which has a fingerprint proof stainless steel front with a sleek pocket handle, stainless steel with a modern tubular handle to match Sub-Zero and Wolf tubular handles, and stainless steel with chef inspired professional handle again to match the same from Sub and Wolf.

All Asko dishwashers have their controls hidden into the top lip of the dishwasher, so you always have a de-cluttered, sleek look.

30 Series Overview

First up is Asko’s entry level 30 series dishwashers, which are the most popular Asko models.

The 30 series starts at $899 and comes in all the different styles we just discussed. With the 30 series you get all the features that make Asko great.

For starters, TurboDry is standard, giving you great drying results in less time compared to other similar brands.

While already quiet at 44dB, Asko is making a running change to their 30 series in mid 2021 by adding extra insulation which will make this dishwasher very quiet at 42 decibels, but if you have an open floor plan and your kitchen is next to other living spaces, we still recommend upgrading to the next model for even quieter performance.

With the 30 series, cleaning is stellar. All Asko dishwashers have stainless steel wash arms including a full width wash arm for the upper cutlery tray as opposed to a smaller spray nozzle on some competing brands.

And for really caked on messes, Asko has these individual high pressure nozzles.

Unlike other brands that only include basic wash cycles on their entry level models, all Asko dishwashers come with the same 11 wash programs, including your normal cycle and a quick cycle which will do most of the work, but you also get a crystal setting for delicate glasses, and sanitize cycle which is designed to remove bacteria and odors from things like baby bottles and cutting boards.

Loading capacity is great on the 30 series. The bottom and upper racks give you a ton of flexibility and as we mentioned before, the narrow width 3rd rack takes the place of a traditional cutlery basket without blocking your ability to load tall glasses.

The 30 series has a standard height version, and an extra extra large version which is indicated by XXL in the part number.

The only change with XXL is an extra 1” ½” of height, which gives you about another 1” ½” of clearance on the bottom rack to fit even larger pots and pans.

For comparison sake, you can fit items up to 14” (13 ⅞”) tall on the standard version, and almost 15 ½” tall (15 ⅜”) on the XXL.

Standard should be fine for most people but measure your plates and favorite pots.

The extra height is a huge plus if you wanna occasionally wash dishwasher safe cutting boards or that extra giant pot you use for sunday gravy.

Also, the standard version can be adjusted to a total height as low as 32 ¾” which makes it one of the most versatile dishwashers on the market and able to fit into just about any cabinetry opening.

Most standard base cabinets offer 34 ½” of clearance to the bottom of the countertop, but if you have shorter custom cabinets, or an older sagging countertop, you might not have the space to fit a standard height dishwasher.

We especially find this helpful with tricky flooring situations, especially if your home has a new floor installed on top of an old floor.

40 Series Overview

Next we have the 40 series dishwashers The 40 series starts at about $1300 and has all the same great features as the 30 series with a few nice luxury additions.

At 2 decibels quieter than the 30 series, we think this option is perfect if your home has an open floor plan and your the type of person that gets bothered by any type of noise coming from your kitchen.

And since it’s so quiet, you may not even know when the dishwasher is finished, so the 40 series shines a status light on the floor to tell you when the load has completed.

The 40 series adds 2 interior led lights that illuminate the instead of the dishwasher and give you instant satisfaction that you have a perfect shiny clean when you open the dishwasher to unload it.

50 Series Overview

And finally we have the 50 series dishwashers, Asko’s top of the line series

The 50 series starts at $1600 and again gets quieter and drops an 2 dB over 40 series, and you’ll get 4 interior led lights instead of 2 for even better illumination.

But the real difference is the 3rd rack design… which I personally am not a huge fan of… but you may be.

Instead of the 3rd rack being at the very top of the dishwasher, the 50 series has a 3rd rack sandwiched between the upper and lower rack.

With the 50 series, the middle rack eats up a lot of space from the bottom rack, and you’ll only have 11 ½” of clearance. For me I have larger dinner plates that are about 11 ¾ wide, and they won’t fit in this dishwasher.

We also frequently wash our large stock pot that’s 12” tall that also wouldn’t fit in this dishwasher. I feel like my usage is representative of most people, however, if you don’t have larger plates, and you don’t wash large pots and pans in the dishwasher, the middle rack is actually pretty convenient.

It’s full width and has one section for items like small bowls, measuring cups, large ladles and spatulas, and the other section is a cutlery tray for things like forks, knives and spoons.

Cons of Asko

That covers the entire Asko lineup. When we recommend a product, we want you to have the full picture before making your decision.

So what’s the one reason why an Asko dishwasher might not be the right fit for your home?

With Asko there are a few drawbacks.

Asko IS completely missing WiFi, so you won’t be able to start, stop and monitor your dishwasher from your smartphone like on other newer dishwashers… but on a dishwasher it’s not that big of a deal, so don’t get hung up on that even if you are a techie.

We find most people don’t really utilize the smart features on dishwashers as much as on other appliances like washers and dryers.

For me though, my biggest complaint is design related, and I realize I’m probably in the minority here, I like dishwashers that have front facing controls.

Unfortunately Asko dishwashers are only available with controls hidden in the top lip of the dishwasher. This means you have to open the dishwasher just to start the load or see how much time is left.

While sleeker looking, I like being able to see how much time and I like having the controls all visible and easily accessible.