LG LDTH7972S Dishwasher Review

About the LG LDTH7972S dishwasher

• Dimensions: 33.63" x 23.75" x 24.63" (H x W x D)
• Capacity: 15 place settings
• Finishes: PrintProof stainless steel, black PrintProof stainless steel ($50 extra)
• Cycles: Auto, Normal, Heavy, Delicate, 1 Hour Wash & Dry
• Cycle options: Refresh, Flex zone settings (off, top rack only, bottom rack only, and top delicate/bottom heavy spray), High Temp, Sanitize (NSF certified), Dry Boost, Night Dry
• Special features: QuadWash Pro, TrueSteam, Dynamic Heat Dry
• Control panel: Top-control
• ADA compliant: No
• Energy Star rated: Yes
• User manual: LG LDTH7972S dishwasher manual

The LG LDTH7972S dishwasher has a minimal facade broken only by its robust handle. Cracking the door open reveals its top-facing control panel, which centers an LED display amidst a series of touch buttons.

Opening the door fully reveals the dishwasher's three racks. The bottom and middle racks have foldable tines, the middle rack can be adjusted vertically, and the third rack allows plenty of space for those ladles you couldn't fit in the utensil basket.

What we like

Its Heavy cycle offers incredible, effective cleaning

The LG LDTH7972S performed admirably on our cleaning tests. Though some cycles performed better than others, overall it does a great job scrubbing surfaces spotless.

Its Normal cycle has the most trouble scrubbing out stains, but even so it still clears away 90% of stains on average with very little redeposit and takes a slightly-longer-than-average hour and 45 minutes to do so.

The 1 Hour Wash & Dry cycle actually does a better job cleaning off food than the Normal cycle. The 1-hour cycle is 45 minutes faster than the normal, but it scrubs out 3% more stains.

Unsurprisingly, the best cycle for particularly persistent food stains is Heavy Duty, especially with the dishwasher's steam features enabled. (The steam features help soften up caked- or baked-on food soil, making it easier to clean off.)

With steam enabled, the Heavy cycle cleans away more than 99% of stains across all plates. In our experience testing hundreds of dishwashers, this is impressive.

The trade-off is a 3-hour and 22-minute run cycle, which is 40 minutes longer than average. However, it's hard to argue with such spotless results.

No dishwasher is capable of cleaning 100% of all stains all of the time, so this LG dishwasher’s Heavy Duty cycle is about as close to perfect as you can realistically get.

Drying isn’t a challenge for this dishwasher

Just about every dishwasher has trouble with getting plastic containers dry, and the LG LDTH7972S is no exception—when it comes to the rest of your tableware, expect bone dry results.

On every cycle—even the Quick Cycle—the LDTH7972S's Dynamic Heat Dry proved effective, resulting in not even a single bead of water left behind on dishes.

What's interesting is that, while the LDTH7972S has several modes designed to deliver dry dishes, like Dry Boost and Night Dry, it honestly doesn't need them: We found dishes came out dry even when those modes weren't enabled.

We recommend only using these extra heating modes if you have a lot of plastics. Not using them will save energy and a few dollars on your electricity bill.

If you're really concerned about everything getting completely dry—even plastics—there are some dishwashers out there that dry even better than the LG LDTH7972S, but they also cost significantly more.

In general, if you're looking for a dishwasher that dries your dishes without also costing an arm and a leg, the LDTH7972S is an excellent choice.

Its racks provide extra room with flexible storage

Providing a place to stow your spatulas was a perennial problem for dishwashers—until the advent of the third rack.

We like third racks in general, but we especially like setups showcased by the LG LDTH7972S, which couple the feature with a middle rack with adjustable height. The ability to raise and lower the middle rack can help accommodate taller items like wine glasses or Pyrex stored either on that rack or below it.

The middle and bottom racks also feature folding tines, which is perfect for those with heavy earthenware pieces, ceramics, or awkwardly bulky pots and pans.

What we don’t like

Items stored towards the center of the bottom rack get less clean

As mentioned above, the LG LDTH7972S cleans away most food stains with most of its cycles. The one exception we experienced is with its Normal cycle: Dishes towards the center of the bottom rack aren't getting cleaned as thoroughly.

When we do our food stain testing for dishwashers in our lab, we use a ground beef residue among other things. Ground beef is typically one of the easier stains to clean, because it's just bits of beef stuck to a plate—nothing is burned on, no sugars have been caramelized, and no cheese has been baked into a glue.

Bowls covered in beef positioned along the outer edges of the lower rack saw 99.9% of the stain cleaned away, but those nearer the center were only 80% cleaned, with one area only getting 30% clean. We saw this on both passes of the Normal cycle, though the problem was much worse during the first pass.

To put this another way, dishes in this one under-cleaned area may have up to 70% of their stain remaining.

This is especially disappointing, because otherwise the Normal cycle was excellent at scouring stains. Most dishes placed on the periphery of the bottom rack were typically over 95% cleaned after a cycle, which is above average cleaning power.

Because this "blind spot" only seemed present on the Normal cycle and not other cycles, we don't think it's an issue with the QuadWash Pro system itself. Fortunately, that makes this issue easy to avoid: simply rely on the excellent 1 Hour Wash & Dry or Heavy cycles instead.

What owners are saying

The LG LDTH7972S is brand new to the market. As such, there currently aren't enough user reviews available to draw any meaningful conclusions. We’ll update this section in a few months once more reviews are live.

Warranty

The LG LDTH7972S is backed by LG's excellent warranty program. This program covers the industry standard one year for parts and labor, with several important components covered for up to five years (racks), parts for its direct drive motor are covered for up to a decade, and its stainless steel door liner and tub have a lifetime guarantee.

LG is one of just a few companies that offer a warranty program this extensive. You can be sure your LG products are a safe, long-term investment in your home.

Should you buy the LG LDTH7972S?

Yes—It provides excellent cleaning and features for its price

Overall, we really like the LG LDTH7972S. Its 1 Hour Wash & Dry cycle delivers as promised, its Heavy cycle with steam manages to clean over 99% of the most difficult stains in our battery of tests, and dishes uniformly come out dry.

We also love this dishwasher's adjustable racks and foldable tines. It's incredibly easy to use and does its job well.

In terms of downsides, the Normal cycle cleans better than average overall, outside of that one missed spot towards the middle of the lower rack.

The only other complaint we have is that, despite drying dishes better than most, the LDTH7972S does still have issues drying plasticware—even with the various dry booster modes enabled.

The LG LDTH7972S offers excellent value even with its imperfections. If you're interested in the LDTH7972S and don't mind taking a small hit to cleaning power for a lower overall price, the Beko DUT25401X is almost as good.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.