If you are not moving, then Miele or Bosch stand head and shoulders above every other mfg in DWs. I have a TOL KitchenAid and it's a piece of plastic compared to M. However, I have odd-shaped dishware and really huge cookware, which simply did not fit well in European DWs (M at the time did not have the flexible tine system). If you are moving, stay away from GE DWs. They are THE WORST performing DW of all. Even if you move in 2 yrs, you will spend that time cursing them as you manually re-wash half the dishes you just ran through the DW cycle. Can you tell what brand I used to have, LOL? Stick with Whirlpool or Kenmore, purchased on sale.

I didn't like the idea of drinking all the chemicals that the water filter/softer required You do realize that "all the chemicals" is just regular household salt. Your hard water has calcium and magnesium, and the softener replaces these mineral ions with sodium ions (kitchen salt is just sodium ions and chloride ions). Instead of hard water, you now end up with slightly salty water. If you are on a sodium restricted diet, this could be a problem. Otherwise, it is completely harmless. It's as if you sprinkled a small amount of salt into your drinking water. And yes, technically you are correct, salt is in fact a chemical. But so is everything else. If you in fact are on a sodium restricted diet, then you could either use bottled water for drinking and softened water for everything else. The softened water would still protect your appliances and faucets from being damaged. Or you could spend more and buy what is sometimes referred to as low-sodium salt. Instead of sodium, it uses potassium. That's another common mineral salt and entirely harmless in the quantities that you'll be exposed to. Of course, just like regular kitchen salt. If you do consume it by the teaspoon, you'll have health problems. But again, that's true for pretty much every food ingredient. Now, an entirely different and valid argument is the overall resource waste associated with a water softener. All softeners not only consume salt, but also pretty huge amounts of water and (depending on how they are powered) noticeable amounts of electricity. So, you safe on not damaging your appliances, but you do pay on regular consumable costs.

BKT. It may have water stagnent from testing at th factory which MAY give a smell brand new out of the box, but a single cycle should clear Venting or draining - that is NOT a DW problem. You need to obviously make sure it's tied to the waste tee (preferably with a high loop), but if you have poor drainage or vent issues in your PLUMBING system for that kitchen sink waste tee or however you are tying in the DW drain line, than that must be addressed However, said 2 issues are not a dishwasher issue per se, but a plumbing DWV design flaw/issue.

We have had the BSHX878ZD5N dishwasher for 2 years. It mostly dries the dishes all of the way. Sometimes, water remains on the tops of coffee mugs. I learned a trick to open the dishwasher, after the heating cycle has completed, and put a terry cloth dish towel on the top rack and close the washer with it hanging part way out. This collects any remaining moisture. It works!!! We have been pleased enough with the dishwasher, although I think it could do a better job of cleaning. I rinse dishes before putting them in the washer, and my DH scrubs dishes. They can still come out with some spots that are not cleaned. Especially some dried-on food! It may be that our water is not hot enough during the start cycle. Takes a while for hot water to get to our kitchen. My favorite thing about the dishwasher is the silverware rack. Love lining up the forks, spoons, and knives. After cleaning, I can gather a whole row of like silverware and put directly into the drawer. No sorting!!!