weedmeister; Good advice! We are planning on taking 3 place settings, including cutlery, just to get a feel for how it loads and also my pet peeve from the Bosch - the cutlery tray. In our Bosch, our heavy cutlery always feels like it will fall out. I was tempted to ask Bosch if they would sell me a tall cutlery tray. I popped into Sears Home today and had a look at some dishwashers, including Bosch (strictly for comparison sake), Samsung, LG, Kitchenaid and Kenmore Elite, which the sales guy said were built by Kitchenaid. Not all models, just the ones they have in that store. I felt the same way about the Bosch, after looking at their new models. Not too keen on the Korean brands as I love my Samsung TV and washer/dryer, but I don't hear great things about LG or Samsung dishwashers. I really liked the feel of the Kitchenaid, but the sales guy told me that I would get better bang for my buck with Kenmore Elite. He said that they had a model that was $2k last year and is now at a lowered price, with a sale on it, which drops it to $1399. Everything is equivalent to the top Kitchenaid, except no third rack for an upper cutlery rack. I don't know whether to believe him or not, but it seems to be the same as the Kitchenaid KUDE 40, which should be that price...... I guess I will have to get my wife to see how she likes the loading : ) That is the most important point! Here is the Kenmore Elite DW that I was mentioning: http://tinyurl.com/7sdsse2 I would also like to know the difference between the Kitchenaid KUDE40FXSP and Kitchenaid KUDE40FXSS They are $100 different in price and I can't figure out the difference according to the Sears 'Compare' chart. My head is starting to hurt ; )

I understand your skepticism regarding my recommendation after all the hassles I experienced. I can only say that having invested all this effort to have my problems fixed, I feel a high level of allegiance to this quality stove/range. At the same time, I believe that the Dacor engineering people are now fully aware of the issues and hopefully will prepare the correct trim pieces for this combination of appliances. I trust that they will also redesign the C-clip (on the vent armature) to prevent the pop-up vent failure. In time, with product revisions, I believe they will fix the switch and indicator light shortcomings. Nevertheless, I posted the issues so that potential buyers of this stove can impress upon their vendor/supplier what problems to anticipate and avoid. With the underfloor Fan, together with a tall 15" pop-up Vent, we found the downdraft extraction system worked exceptionally well. Our prior research indicated that OTHER premium brands of stove with Downdraft Vents (such as Jen-Air) were only partially effective, as you noted in your reply. So we opted for this newer venting system because a hood extractor was not feasible over and island cooking counter. For the sake of brevity, I omitted to advise that the "splashing" of grease onto the Vent pop-up was more of an occasional issue. Depending on how you cook with skillets, the "splashing" could be reduced most of the time. Therefore, this problem has not been a deal-breaker, but highlights a design shortcoming. I too am able to lift pots to observe the gas flame size. The reason for bending down is because of the variety of base-sizes of our pots and pans. When placed on differing sizes of gas-rings, the height of the gas-flame affected how much of the flame heated the base of pots. In some cases, the flame would begin lapping the outer sides of pots, which was more clearly visible when viewed underneath. I hope these responses clarify why I rated the product as deserving recommendation.

Arthurm, You are absolutely correct. The choice is up to each of us. I gave up showing orchids many years ago, and even gave up owning them for many years, but just could not get them out of my system, so about 10 years ago obtained a few (4) that had special appeal to me, and started growing again. (I now have 7) The point I am actually trying to get across to people is that there really are few hardfast "chiseled in stone" rules in orchid culture. When new growers finally realize that knowing the basic climate where their orchids would grow in nature, and trying to duplicate that climate as best they can, with lots of just plain old common sense, the culture really becomes fairly simple. I have seen people who are struggling to keep a few Phalaenopsis (Philippine jungles) alive, one day see a plant that would naturally grow high in the Andes Mountains (cool wet), and just have to bring the cool grower into their collection. Common sense would tell me that I probably will not make but one of these happy until I have lots of experience at growing orchids, and can supply two different growing environments. A bit of research into the climate where the plants originated might have helped here. Check my profile.....When I first started growing orchids I was moving all over. (SC, KS, FL, VA,) I hauled my collection and tiny greenhouse with me, and over the years probably broke more "rules" than anyone engaged in the hobby ever thought of. I had a very mixed bag of plants, and absolutely could not make all of them completely happy in any of the locations where I set up shop, (I did stay away from plants that required culture that was extremely different from what I knew I could supply), but I did keep them alive, and blooming, and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, and that really was why I did it. To new growers I say do some basic research on your plant of choice, Where did it (or its ancestors) grow? What is the basic climate there? Can you come fairly close to duplicating that climate where you intend to grow the plant? With that knowledge you should be able to pick a plant you can successfully grow. If you have a problem, or question, research it yourself, or ask questions on a forum like this. (I would have paid handsomely for a forum like this many times). But common sense must tell you that suggestions made here are not "chiseled in stone" rules. (you will get many conflicting suggestions, none of which are wrong, or necessarily correct - they are what that person experienced in their situation) Choices must be made based on the growers desires and abilities, and the plants needs. That takes common sense, and trial and error, and that is where the challenge and (I believe) the fun comes from. You win a few, Loose a few, and a few get "rained out", but the knowledge gained is oh so valuable. And it really needs to be fun, unless you are running a business. Bill

I bought a 17/64" Milwaukee Thunderbolt Black Oxide drill bit from Home Depot yesterday for $1.98. I then drilled new holes or expanded the holes in my aluminum storm door today. These were the holes where the old storm door panel clip screws had either broken off, while still inside the storm door, or where the previous owner of my condo had simply drilled new sheet metal screws instead of using real panel clip screws (no offense to Randy427. While the sheet metal screws are definitely a solution, panel clip screws look better). All I can say is that the blind nut inserts went in and fit snugly like a glove! I can now use new panel clips, and the screws that go with them, and therefore give my door a neat, uniform appearance. Before I had panel clips that were held together with a mixture of real panel clip screws and sheet metal screws. I'm including two photos below. One of them is of the section of my local hardware store where I found the blind nut inserts (keep in mind that I found these myself. The store clerk did not know that they had them). The other photo is of the storm door panel clips, in case you don't know how they look like. Home Depot has them in plain aluminum and white. Since I painted my storm door white I bought the white panel clips.