Are you looking at an older model or something? KitchenAid ditched grinders early last year. That allowed them to be quieter and use less energy. I never prerinse dishes, but do scrape the big stuff and have used filter based dishwashers for years now (currently have a Miele). The filters take care of themselves for the most part and only need cleaning occasionally. Plus if someone puts in something hard by mistake, it will break a grinder but simply get caught in a filter.

hvtech is correct - all current kitchenaid units (KDFE or KDTE primarily) are now a filtered unit. They no longer have a food grinder. Pre Rinsing is not required for dishwashers and actually we recommend against it. Scrape food off the plate, then put it in the dishwasher. On the KA or the Bosch you may once in a while need to clean the filter. On my Bosch I do it twice a month out of habit. Most of the time its empty!

OK, thank you. I had read that they updated the KA to be quieter, I didn't see that they eliminated the grinder. I've never seen a dishwasher with filter before, so am a bit clueless, but your explanations help.

Nice!

We own a Bosch 300 and I hate the filtering system. The filter is a basket about 3” deep in the base of the tub. If a sticky label comes off something and gets down in the basket, it’s basically impossible to get out. We’ve owned the Bosch six months, and I’ve already purchased two replacement filters, because I couldn’t get junk out of the old ones. I also dislike getting on my hands and knees to remove and reinstall the filter..

The filter works ok to remove some food particles, but it doesn’t catch oil and grease in the water. If I wash a pan used to cook bacon with the drippings still in it, all of the dishes end up oily at the end. It doesn’t do enough water cycles with fresh water.

Software Phil,

Filters don't catch grease and oil. Grease and oil should be melted by the hot wash water, dissolved/sequestered by the detergent and flushed away. Are you perhaps not using enough detergent? Too short/cool of a wash cycle?

Grinders make dishwashers louder. I've had a Miele and a Bosch without a grinder and with a filter basket. I check the basket and never find anything in it and I don't have to get on my hands and knees to remove it. I do wipe or rinse gross debris off my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher, in part because I don't run it every day and don't want food rotting and stinking in the DW.

Are these dishwasher pumps vertically or horizontally mounted?