Amazing what you can find on the internet. I have the SAME exact problem with my dishwasher. Only, it is isn't Bosch it is GE. Handle has plastic endcaps, which of course after owning it only a few months, first started to crack and then just crumbled. GE came to replace it under warranty. It was not so easy to replace, he had to take the door apart. I said there is no way it will last. He said it will, he has never heard of this problem. How can you make a piece like that out of plastic? Well, it has been a few months, I took a look and sure enough, it has started to develop a crack again. I got an extended warranty on it because of this. I am sure I will be using it plenty of times. Who designs these things???

Here is the info from the owners manual. I copy and pasted from a previous thread of mine. One thing I recommend is reading the manual thoroughly. I apparently do not need to add salt, as my water isn't hard enough (according to the test strip supplied with the unit). Also, most of the variables (water softener, jet dry, intensive drying) are factory set to "OFF". One important one is "INTENSIVE DRYING". This helps with drying, and I had turned it on last night for the second load and it definitely helped. Here are the instructions if anyone needs them: Intensive drying The final rinse uses a higher temperature which improves the drying result. The running time may increase slightly. (Caution if utensils are delicate!) 1. Open the door. (for hidden controls only). Turn unit on using the ON/OFF button. Hold down "A" button and press START the digital display shows "H:00". 2. Release both buttons. 3. Press button "A" until the display indicates "d:00" To change the setting, 4. Press button "C" (see page 4) to turn intensive drying ON = d:01 or OFF = d:00 5. Press START button. The set value is saved. 6. Close the door (for hidden controls only).

Hi Sal, I have not tried to dry a load without the dryer balls yet. I have received my 500 plus dryer last Tuesday and haven't really done that many loads yet. The dryer balls are little rubber balls. You can get them at appliance stores, at Bed Bath & Beyond, at Amazon, etc. They are supposed to soften the clothes without the need for fabric softener and to decrease the drying time. There have been a few good comments about them on this forum, so I bought a set of two for $9.99 at Frye's. I have to do a few loads without them before I can really tell if they are effective. The load that included jeans and other clothes came out very soft and wrinke free. I did not use any fabric softener or dryer sheets. On a small load you can hear a slight thumping sound from the balls hitting the drum, but it is not very loud. The balls are fairly soft, so they don't damage the drum or the clothes. They have a pretty strong rubbery smell, so I ran them through the dishwasher before the first use. The smell is still there, but the clothes don't adopt that smell. They smell fresh and clean. I'll post an update after doing some scientific research...;-) Here is a link that might be useful: dryer balls

While I don't disagree that a tech should check the machine there are many things that due to a poor install can cause extremely long wash or dry times. If the installers don't flush the water pipes before installing the new washer you can get all kinds of debris in the water valve screens. This will slow down the fill rate of the washer. If the washer has a very slow fill time this will lenghten the total time of the wash cycle. If the drain hose is pushed way down in the drain pipe this will slow the rate of outflow from the washer again increasing the total time of the wash. If the clothes can't spin out completely due to the water not being able to be pumped out this will not only increase the total wash time but also increase the dry time. On the dryer. If the installer wasn't carefull about the dryer exhaust pipe it can become pinched or crushed during the install which wll reduce the air flow and increase the drying times. If the installer did not check the house dryer exhaust pipe which many times is clogged with years of lint this will slow down the drying time. As you may have noticed none of the mentioned items have anything to do with the product being bad but just the conditions that they were expected to run in was bad. I have seen many times where a customer has returned a washer/dryer for another one and found the new one was just as terrible as the 1st one. Ive seen a couple customers do this 3+ times each time with a different brands, each time blaming the lousy appliance before realizing it was the house not the appliance. In reality there are a lot more bad installs than bad appliances out there. Sorry I didn't start out meaning to rant on like this.