Hi, Derek. Water hardness We've always thought our well water was hard, since installing even cheapo descalers on each of our shower heads made a noticeable difference. But the Bosch test strip only colored at the very end (unfortunately, I don't remember the precise reading). For now, we've opted not to use salt until we get an independent water test (which we need to do anyway just as a precaution because of the well). I can report back once we know for sure. Cleaning Ability In comparison with our previous 14 year old Bosch, this one does a fabulous job. For example, we'd made a lasagne-like dish last week that we re-heated over the weekend. The pan with the baked-on, blackened sauce came out of the DW "clean as a whistle." In the previous DW I would have still had to clean off the blackened bits by hand. I don't rinse plates -- though one of our Beagles seems to think that's his job! -- so we are not babying the DW. I had wondered how flatware in the third tray would clean. Stuck on cheese sauce and egg from breakfast, however, clean right off the fork tines. My only complaint is that glasses and mugs don't fit as well in the bottom rack as they did with our previous Bosch. Something about the tine angle and spacing, it seems. Since it's just the two of us, we end up with more dirty glasses and mugs than plates. But I'm learning how to get more and more in the DW over time, For example, to get our wine glasses to fit, I had to lower the middle rack to the lowest position. But that still left plenty of room in the lower rack: our 12 x 17 cooling racks fit on the outside edges and the KitchenAid bowl fits in with no trouble. The only weird event is that the Express wash used to take 30 minutes. Now it takes an hour. Gremlins?!

Well, I finally took the plunge and bought a Bosch 500 Plus Washer/Dryer today!!!!! I think I got a great!! I first want to let people know that now through the end of the year there are up to $125 rebate on all Bosch Washers. Mine has a $100 rebate. The 800 series has the $125 rebate. I bought them at Pacific Sales and I almost think the sales person might have made a mistake because out the door I paid under $2300 (including tax and free delivery, $2200 if you count the rebate. And that was for the ones in silver, it included the pedestals and the extended service plan (for four more years at $64 each). I verified the model numbers so she did order the right ones. I was going to wait to see them but once she told me the price I didnt hesitate. Ive done a lot of research, and it seems that there are no perfect brands anymore. I just hope I fall in the majority of Bosch owners and become very satisfied with my purchase decision. (At least I wont feel that they were over priced.)

Ok, I'm another dissatisfied Bosch owner. We have a Bosch gas oven, microwave and 800 series Evolution dishwasher. We've had all three appliances for 18 months. The dishwasher had an odd smell inside for just about a year. I thought it would never go away. After we discovered the smell (kind of sweet chemical smell), a quick search for Bosch smell came up with a number of hits. The other problem we have is the end of cycle beep. Even though I have found instructions online how to turn it off or down, it does not work on my top of the line 800 model. I wrote to Bosch a while back asking for help. I've received three replies telling me it can be done and then they send me instructions for another model even though I have been very specific about our exact model number. I wrote them once again a couple weeks ago begging for help and still no reply. I'm pretty fed up. Because of this problem we cannot do dishes before we head to bed or lie down on the sofa to watch TV (read "sleep" :-) because the blasted beep will wake us up and it will keep on beeping every few minute or so until you either open the door or turn the DW off. I wrote to Bosch asking them why they bothered making such a quiet DW if the beep is going to set your nerves on end anyhow. I also do not like the top rack organization. We can get only about 2/3 of what we used to be able to get in our 20 year old GE. The microwave beep is just as irritating and though you can turn it off, it also turns your timer beep off at the same time. Discovered that after the kitchen filled with smoke one night. I love the way the Bosch looks with its clean European lines but that doesn't buy much when there are so many other issues for me. Jodi-

Interesting thread. Our 20 year old Kitchen Aid DW smoked badly 2 weeks ago and probably was a couple minutes from flaming. Had we not been there to turn the breaker switch off out in the garage the acrid smoke from the smoldering PC board with lots of plastic parts would have ruined every bit of carpet, drapes, and upholstery in the entire house. But lucky for us, no house fire, just a small amount of smoke damage. Others not so lucky (search "Whirlpool dishwasher fires" if you want to understand how unsafe their different brands of dishwashers are (includes Kitchen Aid, Maytag, and some Kenmores)). Bought a Bosch 300 replacement. Old installation was hardwired (meaning a 4 foot section of 12 gauge Romex cable was attached to the old Kitchen Aid with wire nuts. The cause of the near fire was the fact that most manufacturer's PC boards that handle 10-15 amps of current cannot reliably OVER TIME handle that high of a current safely-eventually their relatively cheap boards will wear out and start to fail-generally with a small amount of arcing at first. Kind of like a small hole in a dam that leads to a huge flood. I had a circuit board failure on a GE oven-luckily the circuit trace open circuited and did not smoke or flame. Another case of a cheap circuit board being asked to handle large currents. I too added a wall mounted receptacle in a convenient spot under the kitchen sink very close to the Bosch's power cord outlet. Still with me? Sorry, I'm an engineer and don't know how to keep things short-here's the important part: I installed a 20 amp dual function AFCI/GFCI receptacle (Leviton brand, $32 at HD) in hopes of avoiding damage should the Bosch fail sooner or later. AFCI is critical (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter); it detects very low level arcing that you will never hear-especially if you go to bed and run the dishwasher-and quickly remove power from the failing appliance. This is (as Leviton's lawyers probably demand) to "help" reduce the risk of fire. GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor-aka "GFI") performs its age old task of removing power in the event it detects 0.005 Amps of leakage current; it is designed to "help" reduce the risk of shock or electrocution from that leakage current going through you and me. My guess: AFCI was invented to cover a new type of hazard coming from appliances now having electronic control boards that are inadequately designed to handle large currents needed to run heaters in dishwashers and clothes dryers as well as most any appliance having a larger motor. A secondary concern is the small power relays that are mounted on the control boards-they have very little safety margin (the Kitchen Aid used a 10 amp relay to operate a heater that required at least 10 amps)-over time that is a failure guaranteed to happen. Bosch's junction box was a $30 option at HD and I wanted nothing to do with it-and that was before I learned anything at all about all the JB's failures. Good engineering practice told me to do the job right with the best parts I could find. When the Bosch fails-not if, but when-my hope is the Leviton receptacle will do its job. Oh yes, as found at other sites that delve into the Whirlpool/Kitchen Aid control board fires, neither the fusible link on the my control board nor the house circuit breaker tripped to remove power and lessen the damage. My best guess is that the current draw while the board was smoldering was below the trip current for those two devices. Bottom line for me: most "modern" home appliances have a high risk of failure over time. I will make sure that every circuit that powers an appliance in my house has an AFCI/GFCI for protection to life and home. I installed a second one for the garbage disposal and will do the kitchen appliance circuit next. The house is 20 years old and for whatever reason only has GFIs for the bathroom circuits. At $32 bucks a pop that is pretty cheap insurance. Note: dual function AFCI/GFCI circuit breakers are also available and may be a better choice for your house. I did not go that route because our breaker panel is in the garage which gets quite hot in the summer and I don't want to have failures due to the heat (my understanding is there are electronic devices in both types of AFCI/GFCI units). If the breaker panel were inside the house I would put the upgrade in the breaker panel, as that adds extra protection for the wiring from the panel to the appliance-something the receptacle version does not do. The dual function breaker unit typically runs around $70-$80. Back to the Bosch junction box-none of the pictures of damaged boxes shown here surprise me-thanks for showing them. In a way, those poor things are being asked to do a tough job and if anything is wrong-either with their design or their installation-then problems are likely. Kind of like trying to run a marathon every month in 125 degree weather-sooner or later even the best athletes will fail. I designed and built high end factory automation hardware for a company that never took short cuts-I don't think I could live with myself working for an appliance manufacturer, especially after seeing how they try to avoid any responsibility for their unsafe products. Suggestion: never leave any heat generating appliance running with no one at home or with the family asleep. Good luck!