I like our Whirlpool. You can use the silverware slot things on the basket, but I just flip those up and throw the silverware in. Also, on mine you can put the long silverware basket on the door or on the side in the bottom row. I find that really opens up space in the bottom, I really like having that open area on the bottom. And the DW was not expensive, looks nice and just works.

European brand dishwashers are smaller than those made by American companies - they aren't as deep because european cabinetry is also less deep.

I think you should buy another KitchenAid, especially if your last one lasted twenty years. Mine is almost thirty... Their newest model has a window (heh) but it seems to clean incredibly well. It might be a good idea to post on the appliances forum as well

I have the least expensive Bosch and it dries the dishes fine - better than my last dishwasher. I do use the rinse aid recommended. It is smaller on the inside then my old dishwasher. I think this may have to do with the soundproofing. It is very quiet. It took me a while to get used to the rack layout. I just throw the silverware in - try not to have spoons stuck together etc. but I don't line anything up neatly. The directions did come with that sort of picture inside - "best way to get clean silverware" type diagram. I doubt anyone follows it:)

I don't recommend another Kitchen Aid DW. They don't make them like they used to. We bought one in 2007/2008 that only lasted 4 or 5 years. It also never got the dishes clean unless we used the "Heavy Duty" cycle - and even then we invariably had one or two dirty dishes.

Bosch - we really like ours. It replaced our Kitchen Aid. With your old Bosch, did you leave the door closed for a couple of hours after it finished? It makes a difference. We run ours overnight and open it in the morning. All but the plastics are dry. No DW that I have ever had did a good job at drying plastics, so no difference.

Silverware - we just throw ours in the baskets as well. We use the top third rack for small items, wooden spoons/pancake flippers, etc.

I bought a new dishwasher about a month ago - a Maytag. I was choosing between it and a whirlpool, and choose Maytag because of its claim of grinding and disposing of food particles. And the salesman said the Whirlpool had some kind of food grinder filter that I would have to manually clean every time I ran it. Ick. Did I investigate any of that for myself? Nope. I'm an easy mark. :)

Anyway, the Maytag is great so far.

Miele replaced our Hobart KitchenAid with greater usable capacity because of the tray. If you post at Appliances Miele or Bosch will be the recommendations.

I absolutely love my new Kitchenaide dishwasher . I have always bought Kitchenaide dishwashers and never been disappointed . Yours lasted 20 years that's a pretty good recommendation in itself . Everything you said about it was positive . So why not stick with what served you so well for 20 years . I have had some of the other "names" , none came close to the Kitchenaides I replaced them with . Every brand will have occasional lemons it's the nature of the industry .

We had a Maytag Performa I really liked ... bought because it has a deeper upper basket on one side that out wine glassed would fit into.

It was the "Tall Tub" version.

I love our Bosch, but it does leave the dishes much wetter than our old GE - but the GE (our second) lasted less than 5 years.

Dishwashers with the 3rd rack for cutlery are wonderful! It might take a few seconds to lay them in the rack (sort of) as instructed, but they are always clean.... not like the basket I had which invariably had pieces of food, etc. left behind. When it comes to unloading, you will find that it is much, much faster (I do not organize my cutlery when loading) and I don't worry about injuries from a fork or knife jabbing me from a basket.

We had a KitchenAid Dishwasher in the 80's and it was a dream. So naturally when it finally died after about 20 years, we just went straight for another one. Trouble is, KitchenAid was bought out by I think Whirlpool. Our newer KitchenAid which is now about 6 years old doesn't perform like the old one. Like someone else posted earlier, dishes aren't always clean. I always use the Finish brand All in One tablets as they seem to do the best job and then use Jet Dry rinse agent as well or cutlery will be a bit spotty. It's OK and I don't use the heavy duty cycle, but don't expect it to measure up to your old one. I do like the spaciousness but find things on the 3rd top rack are not always clean. Ours gets used quite a bit and has had one minor repair so far. Luckily DH could fix whatever broke and the part only cost a few bucks. Sorry, I don't remember what it was.

We bought a whirlpool a few years ago. It is pretty quiet and usually get the dishes all clean. On a rare occasion I have to hand wash some silverware but that is probably due to me overloading the silverware basket. The one complaint is that a piece broke on the sliding mechanism on the top tray that we have to now replace.

lakeerieamber-we have a KA (who is now owned by Whirlpool) and we had a part break on the top rack arm also. It was under warranty and they replaced the whole sliding mechanism to something more durable (metal vs. plastic) free of charge. I think it was a common issue and they took care of it. Just an FYI in case it is the same thing you are having.

My first KA lasted 17 years. We just replaced it in 2015 with another KA and I love the new one just as much as the first one. Cleans great and very quiet. In fact, other than the dishwasher at 17 years needing to be replaced, all my KA appliances are going strong.

we just bought a kitchenaid for our new kitchen, i haven't tried it out yet but my research showed great reviews and i had talked to alot of people. where i work we sell appliances and we get alot of complaints on ge, lg, but nothing on kitchenaid so thats why i went that route.

Don't buy another KA. I had their top of the line model in my last condo and I hated it. It was cheaply made and we had several small plastic pieces break. It also took forever and even though we supposedly didn't have to rinse, we did because if we didn't, crud was still on.

I grew up with KA dishwashers and every other house I had, had old KA dishwashers that wouldn't give up the ghost, which is why when I redid our condo 6 years ago, I chose the KA. Well they are not the same as the older models.

In our new build, I'm going with Miele.

Before last year, if someone had asked me if I would pay > 1K for a dishwasher I would have said "No way!" Now, a year in with a Miele - I would never go back. So - I would vote Miele from personal experience.

I did have an older KA in a prior house that I loved. It was HOT and washed great. They stopped making that kind though...so sad...

The Whirlpool I have now is a piece of carp. Never again. My old dishwasher washed dishes. They were clean when the less than 1 hour cycle ended. I never had to clean the filter. They just don't make them like they used to. I thought I would dump it and get a different brand but after researching, none were worry free so I'm living with this one until it dies. It's almost 2 years old so it shouldn't be long now.

OMG there is a dishwasher with a window in it!!???????

My first Hobart-made KA lasted more than 30 years. In fact, it was still working when I replace it. I bought another KA 13 years ago. It has worked perfectly and I did not replace it when I redid my kitchen.

I did discover that when phosphates were removed from dishwasher detg that one had to first, clean out all the gunk left by the dishwasher gel (there are products for this and it may take more than one time to get it all clean, depending on how often you've run your dishwasher). Then switch to Finish PowerTab. I do rinse my dishes before putting them in the DW but that's only because I live alone and only run mine once a week - food would be dried and smelly if I didn't.

I understand that the newer "water conserving" dishwashers take forever to run just the way washing machines now do. Progress? I like KA as I find it very easy to load in an organized manner. Yes, I DO put all the dinner plates together, and the salad plates, and the cereal bowls! Anal? Probably, but it works for me - can't stand a jumble in the DW.

Thank you all so much for your comments! We have given all of your advice some serious thought. We went to our local appliance store this morning, and we made a decision. There were so many dishwashers that appealed to us, but what it really came down to was which one best fit our dishes. We took our dinner plates as well as bowls that we use very frequently. The bowls have never fit all that well in our current dishwasher. We tried them in the Miele, Bosch, Maytag, Kitchenaid, and Whirlpool. We found that, hands down, the Bosch dishwasher fit our plates, cups, and most importantly bowls, the best. We are also excited about the 3rd rack. We have hard water where we live, so we decided to get the Benchmark series which will use salt to soften the water. Again, thank you for all the help!

I know it's already a done deal, but for anyone else using this thread for reference I'd like to add my 2¢. We just got a new Samsung DW with the 3rd rack. We love it. I run it most days, even when it's not quite full. I scrape but don't rinse. It has a 1 hr express wash (add around 15 minutes for the storm wash or hi-temp) that works on most dishes most of the time. It was especially useful over the holidays. I was able to run 3 loads back to back and have them all unloaded and put away before we went to bed after Christmas and Boxing Day and NYE parties. No pile of dishes left in the morning. It's incredibly quiet. And the door pops open a few inches at the end with a fan blowing to get the dishes dry. Even plastic comes out dry (except where water pools in the lip of course) I love it. Regular price was $849 but we got it on Black Friday so picked it up for $575.

It replaced a whirlpool that did a serviceable job cleaning without rinsing. But didn't like potatoes or beans. And didn't dry particularly well.

Ali