ebean, I think your machine defaults to the recommended cycle for everyday dishwashing. That is why when you touch the power button, Autowash is preselected. Rinse aid is required to obtain decently dried dishes with Bosch as well as just about any energy efficient dishwasher nowadays. I'm sure a bottle was included in the machine along with the instruction manual. Also, you should see labels on the machine door and dispenser calling attention to this important information. The drop of rinse aid dispensed in the final rinse; harmlessly conditions the hot, clean rinse water to drain off the items in the machine, leaving just a thin film of water to evaporate during the unheated dry cycle, resulting in much drier dishes. In hard water areas it reduces spots & film on the dishes and the machine interior. Take a few minutes to check your owners manual. It is all in there.

I think there are a few mistaken ideas above. 1) The idea that you're going to use a mechanical device more or less often, or stress it with a greater or lesser load doesn't exactly tell you whether you need a certain size machine. If you buy a mixer with modest power output and overload it, you begin to damage it regardless of whether this is once a week, once a month, or ten times a day. This is because overloading an electric motor creates more heat in the motor windings than the design is built to handle. The heat begins to melt the insulation in the motor windings (a mass of copper wire wound in a 'pile' and separated only by a coating of varnish on each strand of wire). Melting this insulation completely between any adjacent wires creates a short circuit in the windings. Unlike a short circuit in your house wiring, this usually won't make the unit fail all at once, but it will reduce the power, however slightly, causing it to overheat more on the next use, causing yet more overheating, and on and on. So the real question is, how much of an overload can a particular machine take before this happens, and no one is going to give out that info. Some commercial machines of all kinds are rated for a certain constant load, with the extra advice that they can take a certain occasional or transient overload. They may say something like "approved for occasional use at 112% rated power not exceeding xxx minutes". Smoke from the mixer is a definite sign of the insulation melting as mentioned above. You get to decide (gamble) how much of this you're going to do. 2) readinglady says: "Ignore the wattage. Most companies list the watts a mixer pulls from the outlet. Wattage is not a reliable indicator of power" This is incorrect. No, don't ignore the wattage because power is what wattage tells you; it is is precisely a measure of power. 3) The Hobart (commercial) mixers differ from others in that they use a geared transmission. This is a set of gears just like the ones in your car. For a heavy load, like going uphill in your car, you shift to the low gear to avoid over-stressing or overheating the motor. Lower gear settings give lower mixing speeds. The consumer mixers don't have gears. Rather, they produce different speeds via an electrical switch similar to a lighting dimmer. The different speeds here aren't to allow for load size, but for different mixing options - slow for cake batter, high for egg whites, etc. This arrangement does nothing to protect you against overheating the motor. If your motor is overheating, that's a sign saying you have too much stuff in the bowl. A mixer with a 5 qt bowl or 6 qt bowl doesn't mean you can load it with 5 or 6 quarts of anything. A mixer could have a ten gallon bowl, but if it has a toy motor it might only mix a handful of bread dough. The difficult thing here is, sad to say, that you can get some hints at a forum such as this one, but in the end you will buy something based on a best guess. If you plan to make large batches of heavy dough, regardless of how often, you may be well advised to go for the highest power machine you can get. Also, mentioning the Hobart mixers is academic for most of us. Hobart is now commecial only and mighty expensive; Hobart no longer makes the Kitchen Aid machines. A Hobart mixer would be great, but you're talking about $2,000 plus.

Just have to chime in here, as a (former) KitchenAid Pro 600 owner. We bought ours in 2004, a "luxury" upgrade from our older (also "professional" grade) Kitchenaid. Right away we noticed the lighter weight of the bowl and attachments ... that was okay, we attributed it to "improved" materials. Next we noticed the annoyingly high-pitched whine on higher speeds. Again, tolerable if annoying. It did whip things nicely. However, it cost quite a lot, and now ... not quite 4 years later, it has suddenly died. Stripped gears courtesy of Julia Child's classic croissant dough recipe (which my old KitchenAid handled with no sweat!). Horrible sound and then dead. I will not touch another "new and improved KitchenAid mixer again -- it's a lot of money for something that will only last a few years (apparently, the problem -- well known to KA -- is the gear COVER -- the gears themselves are metal, but the cover is, oddly, plastic). So this is one FORMER KitchenAid fan who will look elsewhere for a replacement. IMO, the quality just isn't what it used to be. I will be astonished if the newer machines are still running in 5 years ... much less 30!

To bzamp58 Hi, I make and decorate cakes. I have NO trouble at all with my recipes for doing cakes. I always use the roller. Just make sure you do the wet ingredients first. The add the dry. My cakes are light, moist, fluffy. (As with all recipes and the DLX the wet should go in first dry last). Thanksgiving...Whip Cream! My granddaughter is not too familiar with my DLX...was using white bowl and beaters, she said I can do the whip cream Gram. Huh well we had chunky almost butter whip cream! The look on her face was priceless. How we laughed! Just added a tablespoon of cream to the 2 cups whipped and consistency was fine for the pumpkin pie! And I am thrilled this year to have my DLX for all my Christmas cookie orders! So much easier! Last year I used my 1980 Kitchen Aid and did 3000 cookies in three weeks. I had been so booked with wedding cookies so got a late start! Still got a late start this year cause we did a total "kitchen make-over"! But now my wonderful DLX and new kitchen...I am so blessed! Time to get Pecan Tassies out of oven. May all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!