I had a Miele Novotronic for 8 years and it worked great when we replaced it purely based on looks (dh wanted stainless). Now we have the Miele Crystal and it is even more wonderful (and looks awesome too). I ADORE how quiet our Mieles have been and that is very very important to me as we have an open concept kitchen and my "office" is the dining table near the dishwasher. Programming - read the manual...it is not rocket science, just takes a little fiddling. You do it once then it's done. Salt - find out whether you even need it. We don't due to soft domestic water supply and we have programmed our dishwasher accordingly. Rinse Aid - dishwasher works fine without it, but dishes don't dry as well. With our new dishwasher I have the rinse aid setting programmed to the lowest setting and will work up until I am satisfied with the drying. You can disable the rinse aid indicator/setting if your tabs include rinse aid - mine don't. I think having separate rinse aid makes sense so you can calibrate it. Tabs - Method Smarty tabs are easy to cut in half, but require a little pressure. Some of the "eco" tabs available to me in supermarkets and specialty food stores seem like they have less soap to begin with so they probably don't need to be cut in half. None of these have rinse aid built in. All of these tabs are cheap and readily available to me. Rinsing/scraping - I doubt rinsing will cause damage to normal dishes, but I never rinse, only scrape. The Miele manual specifically says that rinsing is not necessary. Stuff I put in the dishwasher - EVERYTHING! Even the worst pots and baking pans go in the dishwasher. Occasionally something doesn't come off 100%, in which case a 10 second scrub with a brush finishes the job. 3rd tray - LOVE Express - mine is 35 min

Larsi, I think as a typical German, you over analyzed what Livebetter said :) There is in some products the "buy into" German made/engineered, just think about some car ads that emphasize on the fact that the suspension is German tuned, or that the car was heavily tested on the Nurburgring! I would also ad this, and please take it without any offence, sometimes German engineered is over-engineered, just think about the W140 S class Benz made during the 90's, it was high tech but a lot of stuff broke down, making an amazingly engineered car undesirable after the warranty expired. If you looked @ Livebetter's posts you probably saw that she is really undecided between the Miele's which she knows and acknowledges are built to last and run well, and the LGs which have some extra features, but she also knows they will never outlast the Mieles. My personal opinion is the following: I prefer buying when possible a product with a good design and good quality materials. The problem when parts are outsourced to China for example is that they very often cheat on the materials. The stuff looks good and feels good at the beginning but not long after problems appear. All in all, too bad the Full size Bosch are kicked out of the market, because they filled the spot for some people who wanted good design and quality control but just couldn't afford or justify the expense of Mieles. South Korea has been known to do dumping in order to grab market shares and I think China does some of it also, what will happen when competition does what Bosch just did and bails out? Just my 0.02$

"So what do you all think about putting some plywood down under the washer and dryer?" I'd definately give that a try - especially since the appliances are hidden in a closet anyway. I think Miele manuals contain recommendations on the thickness and installation of plywood. Also, you can buy a "Fixing kit" from Bosch (24.90 USD). It basically locks the washer's feet to the floor. Here are the instuctions from page 44 of the Miele W4080 manual: "Installation site For best performance front loading washers should be installed on the ground floor or basement of the building. A concrete or reinforced floor is the most suitable surface for the washer. These floors are less prone to vibration during the spin cycle. If the installation must be on a wooden joist floor: the corner of a room where the stability of the floor is at its greatest is the best place to install the washer.  the machine must be leveled and securely positioned.  to avoid vibration while spinning, the machine should not be installed on soft floor coverings. Install the unit on a 1 1/4" (32 mm) thick, 28" x 31" (71x78 cm) wide plywood base. Ideally the base should be large enough to span several joists and should be anchored to the joists and not just the floor boards. If the machine is installed on a raised platform it must be secured with retaining clips available from your dealer or Miele. If installed on a masonry or concrete base, the base should have a ½" (13 mm) to ¾" (19 mm) high rim. This must be done to prevent the washer from vibrating off the stand during the spin cycle." HTH, Alex

Spray and Wash, or any pretreatment is fine. There is a definite difference between xtrasanitary and heavy duty. X-san fills the washer at hottest, washes at 150 (or 155 in older models) then brings temp up to 174 for 3-5 minutes to kill bacteria. Heavy duty causes any cycle to fill with cold, then heat up to cycle temp. This is good for heavily soiled items and protein based stains that could be set by an initial shot of hot water. Dryer sheets will eventually coat the sensors and the filter. Periodically (weekly?) cleaning sensor bars and washing the filter with hot, soapy water will alleviate the problem. You might also try cutting the dryer sheets into 8 pieces to use only a very small amount in each load.