Wallycat: I was in your spot this spring/summer and ended up with the 800 instead of the 500. It was a decision based on reading comments on GW from folks who said they liked having the controls on the stainless strip instead of on the glass surface. I've come to understand why. If you have one of those smart phones with a touch screen, you'll understand. If your fingers are wet - or, it seems to me, too dry (if that makes sense) -- there isn't enough spark to communicate with the touch pad on the ceramic surface. Finger condition, though, makes no difference to selections made on the stainless strip. (With the 800, you still use the touch screen to select the burners you'll use.) Maybe I'm just rationalizing my decision, but I think that for something I use every day, it was worth the extra price for the selections on the strip. As to the boost issue, I just tried this experiment, I have a 36", so the two 7" burners on the left share power. I put one of the 7" burners on boost and then turned on the other 7" one. Turning on the second burner resulted in the cooktop automatically moving the first burner's cook level from boost to "9." I was able to put both burners on "9." In day-to-day cooking, though, I've not found the boost situation to be a problem. Probably because I haven't needed to use boost on two "shared" burners at the same time. Usually if I need boost on two, it's the large center burner + one of the side burners. So there's not been a sharing issue. Oh, yes, keep your eyes out for Bosch promos. The company seems to cycle at $300 off promo on cooktops with regularity.

We have had a KA DW for 8 years now. Model KUDSQ1KKSS0 (Superba model, not top of the line, but up there). We were never super happy with it. Early on it didn't clean well and I noticed that several of the holes in the sprayer arm were clogged with food particles. Turned out the grinder motor had died. Extended warranty covered it. A while back the pump also died. I was able to replace that myself at least. The top shelf also seems flimsy on the slides. It often would lean forward and roll out by itself when the door was open. It always wobbled on its slides. We also have problems with glasses coming out with grit quite often. And the four corners we don't load, since we always have issues there. Heavy wash cycle usually does a better job, and I try to use the sanitize cycle at least once a week. Been using the Finish tabs for the last four or five years. I generally use the energy saving dry cycle, which doesn't leave the dishes that dry, but I just let them air dry and it doesn't bother me. I'm surprised that drying is a big issue for many people. Last time when it stopped working, maybe eighteen months ago, had a repairman out to replace the circuit board. He said he does a lot of repairs on kitchenaid dishwashers. It is always the grinder motor, the pump, and then the door springs (which he replaced while he was here). I was suprised to hear that--even though I had experienced issues with mine, I had mostly read good experiences from others. (But I do have a 2002 model). A couple of months ago, the plastic parts on the top rack broke. These are the pieces that hold the rack up and adjust it from the lower height to the upper height. So I'm in the market for a new DW--I'm holding my upper rack together with tie wraps for now. I'm looking at the Bosch or Miele for now. I guess 8 1/2 years is pretty good for this dishwasher. New ones will be more efficient. Just want to get one that works well.

KitchenAide like many brands are part of a conglomerate that offers relatively similar products with feature differences at significantly different price points. The conglomerates can sell the brand equity out for a 'fast buck' which unfortunately is common today with everything being so short sighted on the next Wall Street quarterly report with executive bonuses paid based on stock price. KitchenAide mixers are one of the prominent victims of this short sightedness. My old 5qt 300 Watt mixer is ~35 years old and is much better than the newer cheaply constructed ~600Watt ~6qt models of today with their plastic gears and other trade offs. With these conglomerate companies and brands, there are still some "sweet spots" for both price and quality. One particular good stand out was my KA Oven that exceeded all my expectations for cooking quality. It never had a problem the entire time I owned it so, what else is there to say?

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.