Not Bosch: These Two Brands Top JD Power's 2026 Appliance Satisfaction Study For Dishwashers

When Consumer Reports unveiled its best dishwashers for 2026, it was Bosch that topped the brand rankings overall. Three of its dishwasher models received particularly high praise, beating their competition on factors like operating volume and reliability. Not everyone agrees that Bosch is best though, with the German brand only scoring third highest in J.D. Power's latest ratings. In the 2026 edition of its Appliance Satisfaction Study, both KitchenAid and Samsung beat Bosch in the dishwasher category, achieving a two-way tie at the top.

Behind Bosch in J.D. Power's rankings was Whirlpool, which was just above the segment average for overall buyer satisfaction. Behind Whirlpool, and therefore just below average, was LG, followed by GE. In seventh and last place in the table was Frigidaire, which is one of several appliance brands owned by Electrolux.

The study found that the average price for appliances overall had risen over the course of the previous year, but despite those rises, customer satisfaction with both the shopping and ownership experience had gone up. The latest appliances have also proved to be more reliable than previous years, which was a key factor in increasing overall owner satisfaction.

As well as ranking how satisfied customers were with the appliances themselves, J.D. Power also calculates scores for the retailers that sell them. The latest rankings place Best Buy at the top of the table, followed by Costco. Rounding out the podium places, Home Depot was the third most satisfactory retailer. At the other end of the table, P.C. Richard & Son received the lowest score.

While KitchenAid took the top spot for dishwasher satisfaction, J.D. Power found that the brand's other appliances weren't as consistently highly rated. Its cooktops, wall ovens, and over-the-range microwaves all ranked below the segment average for owner satisfaction, with its ovens scoring particularly poorly. Out of the seven major brands in the wall oven segment, KitchenAid received the lowest overall score. Dishwashers were actually the only segment where KitchenAid ranked above average.

Meanwhile, Samsung had a much stronger showing across other appliance categories. As well as winning the top spot for its dishwashers, it also scored highest in the over-the-range microwave, clothes dryer, and top-mount freezer categories. Somewhat surprisingly, it also triumphed in the side-by-side refrigerator and French door refrigerator categories. That's despite the company receiving significant backlash when it introduced ads on its smart refrigerators in late 2025 and having a generally less-than-stellar reputation for its refrigerator models in previous years.