I have about a half an inch of space on the left and right side of the dishwasher and a full two inches of clearance above. Our Excella is pretty dead sounding. Ironically, one of the "sound isolation" comments I encountered was yours! :) Mando, I won't deny for a second that my machine went from a not-a-quiet machine to a quiet-machine (although by no means dead silent but perhaps at the ambient noise level of our house such as the fridge) the moment we turned the DW legs to reduce the clearance on the top. However, your own experience aside, nominal performance will beg the nominal installation specs and that there are decent odds that your experience won't transport. For instance, the only reason I thought to close the gap was because someone had posted here asking why their new Miele Optima (if I recall right - it was about a year and a half ago) was being noisy. In the course of trouble-shooting clearances were mentioned, pictures requested and supplied and in addition to some small gaps to the side, the 1" gap at the top was labeled the culprit by the friendly folks here diagnosing the trouble. Well, I thought I'd take a look at my DW clearance on top, noticed that ours was even bigger, closed that and voila my problem was solved. The person who had complained about their DW didn't post back at least while I was tracking their thread so I don't know if that resolved their problem. Regardless, the gap was flagged as a problem installation for the posters' (Miele) dishwasher - so clearly there is a correlation between installation and (acoustic) performance - or at least, there used to be said correlation 1.5 years ago. :-) There are other reasons not to assume too much performance invariance to the manufacturer's installation specs but in the interest of brevity I shan't get into it. So, if that is what you are suggesting in the last post, I'll redouble my objection :-) Finally, I hear you on full loads and I even believe it as I have had sub-whisper quiet runs in my DW when it was very full, but in my case, I guess I have to contend myself with knowing I probably can't get there. As it is, I do a load every 4-6 days. (I often have stuff growing on my dishes by the time I do the load!) The DW is not always full by that 4-6 day mark either but I simply can't bring myself to put off doing dishes beyond that window. Perhaps I'll have to reconcile myself to non-whisper quiet operation when it and I are working although at this point I really don't feel especially put upon because it is so soft.

Dont you think that if they had left the machine alone it would still be fine today, other than the plastic squeak? I know as I said before that the old Calypsos had this type hanging system(and possibly GE) and I have heard the Calypso make the squeak and creak noise. As I told you before I hate to have something new with a "flaw" but I have also felt that sometimes I was too picky and would convince myself I needed to get it checked out only to be sicker(& madder)after service. A car for example, have a small rattle, carry in for service, they take half the car apart to fix it, then when you start home you no longer have that rattle, you have three more to go with it where they took things apart--now that is my luck--and I am thinking"Why on earth didnt I live with one small rattle but it is too late to back up then". Just go forward from here and I think I would try another one like you have. It seems like a great washer and you know that the LG made F/L didnt last you very long so maybe this next one will?. OH and about Sears using Electolux now instead of LG for front-loaders, I have always been told it depends on who bid the cheapest to build them. Not sure if that is true but I have heard that. Maybe you need to start looking for the 57 Lady Kenmore!

I am beyond disappointed with my LG 3700 front load wash nachine as well as the customer service through LG Canada. My machine is a year and a half old and I have been having problems since weeks into using it. I have found this post and thread very interesting. I have had various technicians from LG come to my home and have followed their recommendations as best I could with no success. I have small to large leaks of water on my floor. Not on every load so they say it can't be a leak problem. Now I am wondering about the drain filter. We do empty it regularly. There has been little to no debris on the filter. The amount of water from the drain hose ranges from around two and a half cups to several cups. Does anyone know the holding water capacity of the drain filter? It is a very long ongoing story. It has been a very exhausting and frustrating time with my "fancy" LG and their LG customer service. If you know the drain filter amount of water it can hold or any other ideas please let me . Thank you so much.

Thanks @whirlpooltrainee & @nerdyshopper. I made an appointment with a tech from a Bosch-affiliated shop coming by at the end of this week. In the meantime, I had my regular repair guy (who'd cleared the problem last time) and he said it should have been high-looped (which is what the installation manual says as well). So he made that fix and reset the machine so that it works. But he also indicated that there was water collecting at the bottom of the tub and that he thought the control panel was wonky. I'm keeping the Bosch warranty appointment for this week to make sure that I get it fully checked by an expert.