JamesBeam, I admire your willingness to learn and understand your interest in avoiding cost. But I don't see where this is going. Some things can be explained by correspondence, but other things can only be taught in person. I mean no offense to you, but have you ever rebuilt an engine of any kind? If not it's going to be very difficult for you to understand advice given to you by written correspondence. Once you get the head off do you have access to a torque wrench to put the head back on? Once you get the head off and discover it is a bad valve seat, do you have the tools to compress the valve spring so you can have a new seat pressed in? If the valves are not the problem and it is the rings, do you have the tools needed to compress the new rings so that you can get the piston back in? If you don't you are not going to be able to repair the engine. BUT this is an oportunity to disassemble an engine that is worthless to you and learn how it is put together and what parts are involved--learn by doing. Figure out how to remove a valve and figure out what is involved in putting it back in and the next time you'll have some hands on experience. What is there to lose and there is knowledge to be had. If you have an identicle model engine that is running you could certainly try to swap engines. You'll need to trace all wires and mark them so you know what to hook up to what. If the mounting holes do not line up or they have different shaft lengths you've got problems (but then they wouldn't be identical would they?) and you are going to need to know what a keeper key is and how to remove and instal one so you can remove and replace the pulley--but that will be easier than a rebuild.

I was supposed to have airplane sex today (aerial refueling practice) but the KC-130 fell out. So I went home. Saw that Chemlawn came today, and left their little "keep off the grass" sign sticking in the lawn. Then it poured. They always seem to spray the lawn when there are severe thunderstorms forecast. I wonder how much actually washes away, and how much just goes straight through the sand during those torrential downpours (the ones that come down in sheets). Funny I don't remember agreeing to a contract, but they've sprayed four times this summer. Seems like I'm paying as much for my lawn as I'm paying for cable.

Gary, If CR really did what you say, and just poke the pretensions of something that costs more because it's prettier or something, without added function, or if a lower price model actually works better, I would have no trouble with it. If you read what they say about their own principles, however, they'll say the same thing I did, only perhaps in sweeter terms. The number one criterion they have is money. The lowest price for baseline functionality, and lowest repair/maintenance cost (which usually means the lowest need for same). It's useful! But it doesn't tell the whole story. Most people I've met who are making major purchases are looking for more than just lowest price. They also want the item that fulfills their desires. They go to CR looking to make sure the item they're looking at isn't a lemon, and end up disappointed because either it wasn't included at all, or it gets a low ranking just because it cost a little more for the features that the consumer in question found most appealing but CR determined to be unnecessary for their baseline. I think it's as important to educate people in the limits of CR as it is to teach them about the limited utility of some of those extra features. Meantime, apologies, My3dogs, I didn't realize that it wasn't public. I haven't had to tech weenie my way in, but I seem to be able to view CR. CTYDDM, another thing to keep in mind if you haven't used a newer dishwasher is that they run very differently. They're designed to save water and energy, so they take a couple of hours to run. If you do want a heated dry, it's an optional cycle on an American machine. It's not available on European machines. The standard drying method requires the mass of a steel interior and the mass of your pans and crockery (they promote putting the pots in the DW not just to show off their power, but because you need the mass), to retain the heat from the wash/rinse. That heat, combined with the cooling air, creates convection (air movement) and evaporation. There may also be a fan to help move the evaporating moisture out of the machine. Rinse aid (Jet Dry) is required to make this work well. The "sheeting action" is a surfactant (aka soap) which is designed to coat the dishes and break the surface tension of the rinse water, making it fall off instead of clinging. This method actually does work well, especially if you have a lot of big dishes, metal flatware and pots. If you have mostly small dishes, thin glasses, and plastics, it doesn't work nearly as well. The detergents are different, too, and what worked, even of the new detergents, in your old DW, might not be as good in the new. The most popular and best rated seems to be Finish Quantum with Powerball tabs. I don't have such dirty dishes, and prefer Method Smarty Dish tabs, which have less oomph, but are probably better for the environment, and adequate for my loads.

Armjim, I have three Mieles that accept laundry loads from 5kg to 6.5kg, similar to the current W3038. The W1 and T1 are larger than my current machine. I wash on a weekly basis three king sized sheets with pillow cases in my unit. My king sized flat sheets are 110"x120" on average (I don't use fitted sheets). These are mainly cotton sheets. I wash my linen sheets separately but I put two in the machine at one time and there is tons of room to spare. Spinning at 1200rpms has never been a problem. My older machines go up to 1400rpms. For towels, I wash my large towels in my machines. I usually have two body sheets which are 900gsm turkish cotton and they are 36"x72" wide and about 25 face towels in one load. I wash my kitchen towels separately from body towels. I have never had an issue with the machine not balancing or not cleaning my clothes. There is still space left in the towel load but each family member does their own load of towels in their time. I use two towels a week and wash them in this frequency. Some others in the household wash weekly and stuff the machines to the gills. I have washed 9 pairs of denim jeans in one load with no problem. I wash weekly and sort by function and color. Because of this, my normal weekly loads are smaller. I don't use bath rugs but do you a towel based bath mat and these are washed with the towels or separately depending on me remembering to grab them from the bathroom when I sweep for dirty items. I don't use comforters but use Duvets and Duvet covers instead. The Duvet covers are in sent to the cleaners twice a year because they are down and it is not easy to clean them correctly at home. I wash my duvet covers every week like a load of sheets. They act like two sheets in the washer. I also used cotton blankets and wash king sized cotton blankets in the washer on a monthly basis. Good luck!