KitchenAid vs Maytag dishwashers: an incident-report comparison

What this KitchenAid vs Maytag comparison is based on#

The interesting row on this page is the one that does not move. KitchenAid and Maytag [dishwasher](/blog/repair-or-replace-dishwasher) reports differ by 37 points on the control board and by 19 on the heating element — two of the wider gaps in this comparison set — and then land within 2 points of each other on wiring or the power cord, which is a substantial component in both records.

The evidence is 360 CPSC SaferProducts filings naming a component on a KitchenAid dishwasher and 228 doing the same for a Maytag, both made between 2011 and 2026. Both columns are deep enough to be read row by row.

The two disagreements#

KitchenAid's record is dominated by the control board at 62% — 223 filings. Maytag's names it in 25%, or 57 filings, where it leads a much flatter column.

The heating element runs the other way: 23% of the Maytag filings, which is 52 reports, against 4% of the KitchenAid ones, which is 16. So each record's second-largest subject is a component the other treats as minor or nearly absent.

Both of those gaps rest on real counts on both sides — the smallest number involved is 16 filings — so neither is an artefact of a thin row.

The agreement in the middle#

Wiring or the power cord takes 15% of the KitchenAid record, which is 55 filings, and 13% of the Maytag record, which is 29. Two points apart, both firmly evidenced, and in both columns it is the third-largest row.

That agreement is worth more than a null row at the bottom of a table. It is a component with dozens of filings behind it on each side, and the two records place it at almost the same weight — which suggests the large gaps above it are about how each record distributes its remaining attention rather than about which components these tables are able to see.

Below the third row, and the limit that applies to all of it#

The motor is 4% for KitchenAid against 3% for Maytag, thirteen filings against six. The thermostat or sensor is 1% in both, which the table records as no measured difference. Neither record has anything of substance further down.

What none of this establishes is a ranking. Both columns count filings, neither counts machines, and no public source states how many dishwashers of either brand are in service. The database also over-represents incidents with a safety dimension, which affects the heating-element row in both columns by the same mechanism — a point worth holding on a page where that row is one of the two disagreements.

The usable output is a pair of priors and one shared expectation. On a KitchenAid the filed record points overwhelmingly at the board; on a Maytag it points at the board and at heat in nearly equal measure; and on either, a wiring or cord complaint is a realistic third at a similar rate of appearance in the record.

KitchenAid vs Maytag dishwashers: what the reports mention#

Both columns are shares of their own corpus, and the corpora differ in size. KitchenAid: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for KitchenAid dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=360. Maytag: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Maytag dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=228. A difference no larger than one report on either side is marked "within one-report noise".

About the corpus: these are CPSC SaferProducts reports — incidents someone chose to report, not units sold — so the shares on this page are shares of the reports and never a failure rate. The corpus is weighted toward safety events: 12,007 of its 20,581 records (58%) are fire, smoke, burn or melt reports, which over-represents the components that burn and under-represents the ones that merely stop working.

KitchenAid dishwashers: the reported component split#

KitchenAid dishwashers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for KitchenAid dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=360.

Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.

Maytag dishwashers: the reported component split#

Maytag dishwashers — every share in this table is a share of: CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for Maytag dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=228.

Shares of reports, not failure rates — see the corpus note above.

How to use these numbers#

What this comparison can settle: which components the reported incidents of each brand actually concentrate on, for this appliance. What it cannot settle: which brand fails more often. That would need units sold, and no public source states it. Use the component split to plan for the repair each brand is most reported for, not to rank the two.