I'm not sure my current dishwasher would be happy if I wanted a new one ;-D

I'm not going to offer any advice because I seem to be dishwasher challenged! Have always had GE Profiles, which have done the job and operated quietly.

One issue I have noticed is that there is some gunk/mold build-up around the door and in some other spots. Not sure if it's a problem or just requires normal cleaning.

Sue

I had done voluminous research and I was saving for the Fisher Paykel Dish Drawers. Well, the dishwasher died before I could save up for the Dish Drawers. So in an emergency (yes, no dishwasher is an emergency for me) I went to our favorite appliance store and found a floor model Asko for half price. I have been VERY happy with it. I know you said you didn't want to spend a fortune, perhaps you could look at scratch and dent places. I have been lucky doing that.

Review: Manufactured in Sweden, Asko dishwashers are sold in few stores that carry only high-end appliances. These "boutique" dishwashers considered by some to be the quietest and best built dishwashers available today. The water usage is minimum, the filter can be cleaned less regularly compare with other brands. Hidden controls, up to ten cycles, wide range of washing temperatures, several finishes and many available accessories. The prices are around $1,400.

My neighbor has what she says was a bottom of the line Bosch and it has a really neat feature on it called "quick wash". It can wash dishes in 25 minutes and they come out really clean. It was great at Thanksgiving when we had about 40 people and tons of dishes. I have a more expensive Bosch and it does not have that feature. I have two dishwashers in my kitchen, but still cannot wash as many dishes in the same amount of time as she can. If I had to do over again, I would get that feature, even if I had to pay more for it. I think with that feature I would be more likely to unload my dishes right away because they would be done by the time I finished cleaning the rest of the kitchen.

I had hoped my Maytag of 22 birthdays would go on forever.....alas, it died!
I knew certain features that I wanted....took that list to a couple of big box stores and figured out which ones had what I wanted....and of course nothing did! AND price was an issue.
_Pretty well Whirlpool offered what I had to have as did kitchen aid....for about $400 more!
Mulling over what to do, dishwasher limping ( it did dry!!)
Went to the local hardware store which used to sell appliances but were getting out of that business in favor of using the space for lawn tractors and show blowers as they moved faster....and had deep discounted their appliances and moved them to a store room. They had a Jenn Aire with all the features I wanted...AND a third shelf! which is fabulous for flat things like cookie sheets casserole dishes etc. But the price was easily twice what I wanted to pay...even discounted. So I made him an offer.....and he took it!
It hink the utensil basket iss trange....you can move it all around and it's never good anywhere......but it's stainless, 3 adjustable shelves, a bazillion cycles, hidden controls and stainless. Says it will hold 12 dinner plates, 12 salad plates, 12 cups, 12 saucers 12 stemmed glasses and the silverware to go with it...but I haven't figured out how to do that yet! LOL!
Linda C

dlynn, I have that feature on my Asko. It is helpful especially when you are entertaining and just want to wash the light items like plates and glasses during the get together.

I'd say look for a Bosch. In all fairness to Linda, JennAir makes a well designed product, but the reliability of their appliances is pretty dismal.
Bosch should come in at a lower pricepoint than the Asko or my Miele, but still offer a lot of features and be widely available (and serviced).
I love my cutlery tray on my Miele, goodbye to those baskets where the cutlery is jumbled together and taking up space that I could use for dishes etc. I don't know if other brands have a cutlery tray, but I suspect they may have copied Miele by now.
Check out the appliance forum for more comments and specific models! They were certainly my gurus!

This is a timely thread for us. We've been having lots of appliance problems over the past month. First, we had to replace our upright freezer of 16 years, then just before Christmas my oven went kaput followed soon by my Bosch dishwasher.

We purchased the F&P Dishdrawers. I took my large stock pot, our dinner plates, & a couple of my favorite baking dishes to the appliance store to make sure everything will fit. They do. I can't really say much about them yet since they were just installed two days ago. I've ran both drawers once.

What I can say though is we are very disappointed in Bosch. The Bosch that we just replaced was our third. The first two were wonderful appliances that served us well. This last one though was only 5-1/2 years old & shouldn't have needed replacement. It was poorly designed & I didn't catch it when we made the purchase. All of the entire racking system was plastic. I use a lot of LC, stoneware dishes, & other heavy cooking stuff. The weight broke those plastic parts & the entire racking system fell apart. Then, the soap dispenser stopped working. That was the last straw. Parts & labor to replace the racking system & the dispenser were just over $400 (DH probably could have done the repairs himself so no installation charges). We decided not to put any money in the Bosch though because the design is just bad & it'll break again & again & again. The F&P Dishdrawers don't have any little plastic parts that can break. In fact, the entire rack comes out just for heavy, large pieces.

We purchased our appliances at Sears spring of '03 & have had trouble with all three (Kenmore Elite range, Bosch D/W, & Kenmore Elite tri-door fridge). I'm convinced Sears is like Lowes, Home Depot, & Wal-mart. Those discounters push their vendors hard on price. In order to meet lower price points they lower the quality on their products. I've experienced it many times with other types of products. Example, we purchased a kitchen faucet from HD (Kohler). Got it home & it was junk...insides were all plastic. Returned it & bought a Kohler faucet at our local plumbing store. No plastic. Same thing happened with a garbage disposal purchased at HD...junk. Had to go to the plumbing supply store & buy a quality one. Anyway, I think it's the same with Sears. They sell Bosch but it's not the same machine as if you'd purchased a Bosch at your local appliance store. That's why there's a price difference. It's also the reason that you can't compare exact model to model when trying to price shop Sears' products. They're made just for Sears (cheaply!). I'll never buy another appliance from Sears.

When we were looking for new kitchen flooring materials we looked at the box stores. Their tile was considerably cheaper than our local Mystic flooring store. But, the tile at the box stores was also much thinner. We ended up installing Wiccanders 1000 Cork so it didn't matter 'cause the box stores don't sell cork. It's really Buyer Beware at those places!

So, after all of that rant...I would recommend Bosch but not one from Sears or the box stores. I'm just positive they're not the same quality.

/tricia

Good point about bringing your dishes/pans to the appliance store. I did that when we bought our fisher paykels. Long story short they are banished out of my kitchen (trouble prone) and I have my beloved Kitchenaid back - but I think I heard kitchenaid is no longer top dog. I'd call service stores first to find out which models they work on, see if you can find out opinions. Sushipup used to be VERY informed - you still out there and on top of it, Helene?

Service is another reason to buy local! My local appliance store services plus they offer an additional warranty above & beyond the manufacturer (similar to what you have to pay for at Sears!).

Jessy, the Kitchenaid dishdrawers are made by F&P in New Zealand.

/tricia

I have a Bosch and love it. It is so quiet and I love the "sheeting action" mathod for drying.

It has a couple of things I'd change, but none are more than a minor nuisance. The wash cycle is long. The interior capacity is a little small to make room for the sound insulation.

Mine is basic and doesn't have a quick wash feature, which I would like for small light-duty loads.

I like the cutlery tray idea, which my Bosch doesn't have. It's not an issue for me, but I it's a nice feature.

One thing on my Bosch that is a PITA is the way you add the rinse solution. It's a mess. I gave up on using it and buy the Jet-Dri baskets.

Still, it has been entirely reliable for six years and I am pleased with it. I bought it at a local appliance store. I entirely agree that anything that comes from HD or Lowe's is inferior. My electrician says their lighting fixtures have much more plastic than fixtures purchased elsewhere.

Just to be fair, I got my fridge from Sears and have not had a problem.

Wish I could help you Stacy, but I don't even have a dishwasher. This is the first house in 30 years that I haven't had a dishwasher. Moe is now the official dishwasher. LOL! He wants to have one installed, but I'm not prepared to give up my limited cupboard space for a dishwasher. Yet!

Ann

(tricia - I didn't buy Kitchenaid dishdrawers. I bought a regular Kitchenaid DW to replace fisher paykel dishdrawers)

I hae a GE Profile that I bought for less than $400 about 10 or 15 years ago and it's still going strong. It's just a basic dishwasher but it works really well. I just wish I had more room on the top shelf but other than that it's worked well the entire time I've owned it.

I did buy it locally because they would deliver, all the "big" places were more than 50 miles away and charged for delivery. I hooked it up myself so that wasn't an issue but it could be for others.

The first dishwasher came with the house and was a KitchenAid, as was the stove. Each of them lasted about 15 years before they respectively died, but both of them were trouble free and did everything I needed them to do. I replaced them with other models, not because they weren't good machines but because other replacement models were much cheaper.

Annie

I have a lower end Bosch and I love mine, too. It's stainless and has the quick cycle, but for some reason the long cycle is more quiet. The quick cycle is definitely more quiet than our old dishwasher. The dishes come out far cleaner than our old one. Super shiny and look brand new. It could be the detergent we use now.

Our old one was a GE profile. It came with our house that we had built in 2001. It broke on us because we used to use a dish brush to scrub the dishes. We would also put the dish brush in the d-washer. Some bristles came loose and kept clogging up the system. My DH kept taking the thing apart to get them out, then it would happen again a few weeks later. Even though we stopped using the dish brush immediately, the little bristles somehow kept circulating around and causing problems.

As a little side note, our electric bill dropped $50.00 per month after we got the new one. Our last bill was $90.00 cheaper than the same time period last year. Winter costs us more here for some reason. You'd think it would be the other way around as we're practically a desert.

Also, when you're shopping, bring two cell phones with you. Put one in the dish washer, close the door (don't turn it on), and call that phone. You can really tell the difference in the sound proofing that way - if that's a concern.

Good luck and try to have fun shopping. yuk :)
Tammy

Tammy, you were starting to scare me with that cell phone trick--But I can see how that would be a good test.

I thought it was a good idea too. Out of all the sales people I talked to while shopping, only one suggested that. I used that trick at the rest of the stores. It doesn't have to be a cell phone. It could be anything that makes noise.

Thanks for all the great comments. I tried to keep all in mind when I went shopping. The first store was a local appliance store, and the roof was leaking andd no one to help us, and we didn't see anything that really jumped out. And they don't install...when we finally talked to someone, he mentioned the guy that they recommend for installation and the name stuck a chord with me. He had messed up when hooking up our water line to our refrig. - and hooked it to the hot water...I really didn't want him installing my dw.

So in this town, there is no other choice but the big box Home Depot...and the weather was too nasty to drive anywyere further.

We got an LG - they have pretty mixed reviews online - but for several reasons, this was the one that stood out...the first being that the front is entirely flat and our dw is in a position where we have to consider a drawer pulling out and whether it would hit the handle of the dw...

So it will be here Tuesday - in the meantime, my hands are beyond chapped, and we are using paper plates! It does have the quick cycle - I didn't opt for steam - that one had the handle...and I didn't get the cutlery tray for the same reason. It's stainless inside - I guess whatever it's like, it'll be an imporvement over the 15 year old lower end GE that we've had!

I'll let ya know if I like it!

Thanks again.