KitchenAid KDPM704KPS Dishwasher Review (2026): The 39 dB

Why you should trust this review

I bought and installed this dishwasher in my own home and have run it nightly for months. KitchenAid did not provide it.

My priorities were quiet operation, real cleaning on dried-on food, and whether the third rack was genuinely useful or just a marketing tier. Months of daily loads answered all three.

Everything here is from real use, not a showroom demo.

How we evaluated

I ran the ProWash auto cycle on normal mixed loads without prerinsing to see whether the soil sensor truly adapted, judging results on dried-on and baked-on food.

I measured perceived noise from the next room across cycles and compared it to my memory of a Bosch 800. I loaded the FreeFlex third rack with the items that usually have no home, long utensils, spatulas, and small cups.

I timed the ProWash cycle to be honest about its length and lived with the stock door configuration.

Quiet operation

This is the headline and it holds up. At 39 dB, about 3 dB quieter than a Bosch 800, the dishwasher is effectively inaudible from the next room, and even in the kitchen you have to listen for it.

For an open-plan home or anyone who runs it at night, that silence is transformative. It genuinely disappears into the background, which is exactly what you want from a premium machine.

Cleaning with ProWash

The ProWash soil-sensing auto cycle is the feature I now rely on. It reads how dirty the load is and adjusts, so I stopped prerinsing and it still cleaned dried-on and baked-on food thoroughly.

Across months of mixed loads it rarely left anything behind, which is the real test. Trusting one auto cycle to handle everything made the dishwasher genuinely lower-effort to live with.

The FreeFlex third rack

The third rack earns its keep. It adjusts to fit, and it finally gave a home to long utensils, spatulas, and small items that used to crowd the upper rack or not fit at all.

That extra capacity freed up the lower racks for more plates and bowls, so loads went in more efficiently. It is the rare third rack that changes how you load rather than just adding a token tier.

Cycle length, build, and origin

The honest trade is time. The thorough ProWash cycle runs about two and a half hours, so this is a set-it-at-night machine rather than a quick-turnaround one.

On the plus side, the build quality is excellent, with a stainless tub and a PrintShield finish that resists smudges, and it is made in the USA in Ohio. The stock door is not a pocket-handle style, which is purely cosmetic and easy to overlook.

Who should buy the KitchenAid KDPM704KPS?

Buy it if you want a genuinely whisper-quiet dishwasher that cleans without prerinsing, you value a useful adjustable third rack, and you appreciate premium American-made build quality.

Skip it if you need fast turnaround and the long ProWash cycle would frustrate you, or if a budget dishwasher already meets your needs and the premium is not worth it.

The verdict

After months of nightly use, the KDPM704KPS has been both the quietest and one of the most reliable dishwashers I have owned. The near-silent operation, the trustworthy ProWash cleaning, and the genuinely useful third rack make it a standout.

The long cycle is the only real trade, and for a machine this quiet and capable it is an easy one to accept. It earns its 4.7 rating as a best-in-class American-made dishwasher.