IMHO, filter vs. disposal non-issue. Quietest machines in any line are always filter. You may expect to be living with this machine for a long time. I would pay for quiet. Filter doesn't require much attention and, when it does, it's quick and easy. I've never dealt with "gross wet food" when cleaning it....which I do about every four weeks, at which time there's very little in it....and which involves simply rinsing it off at the sink....quick/easy.

People have different sensitivities to noise. I regard 49db as acceptably quiet (my own Whirlpool is 51db...filter model that replaced disposer model) but I believe KA also has offerings in the low 40's.

Asolo - do you rinse your dishes before you put them in? Salespeople were leading me to believe that I would be pulling pieces of food out of the filter after every use, kind of like a sink strainer with no garbage disposal.

I agree quieter is better, and the price difference isn't even that much.

We have a KA non-filter, and don't consider it noisy at all. I guess noisy is relative. It the quietest dishwasher we ever had. As far as the noise level, if we are sitting in the kitchen with the DW running, we can hear the DW. Not in a loud or intrusive way, but we know that it's running. If we are in an adjacent room, we can't hear it at all.

When we were selecting our DW, one friend told us that she was getting rid of her relatively new Miele because she hated dealing with the filter. Another friend told us that we'd regret not getting the quietest dishwasher out there and that the filter was a non-issue. It's all so subjective.

I rinse off the big chunks because its easier than scraping. That's it.

"Every use".....well, no. I think the salesperson you were talking to doesn't have much experience. Weeks between cleanings...and then I don't find much in there. Basically do it when I feel like it....no particular schedule. I assume it would depend to some degree on the habits of the user. Just describing my own experience.

In any event, removing, cleaning, replacing the filter is quite simple and quick. Can't imagine why your friend resents it to the degree described. The one in the KA you're considering would be exactly like the one in my Whirlpool. Repeating: non-issue, IMHO.

>Salespeople were leading me to believe that I would be pulling pieces of food out of the filter after every use, kind of like a sink strainer with no garbage disposal.

Unfortunately there are many sales personnel that have no clue what they are talking about.

The cleaning of the filter thing is one of those persistent untrue rumours that float around here on GW and elsewhere as well.

I too was a bit suspicious of the not so glorious task of cleaning a filter before I purchased my first euro machine. I had many clients with euro machines that swore to me that the filter is a non issue and would even show me but I still wondered.

Now after having euro machines for at almost 10 years, I can tell you with 100% certainty that you WILL NOT be cleaning the filter after every use. It has actually come to a point that I don't even check the filter anymore, or if I do it may be two or three times a year because every time I do there is nothing at all in it. I have not rinsed a single dish in 10 years, but I do scrape. My wife however seems to think the machines are garbage disposers and has a bad habit of not even scraping sometimes(depending on what it is) and even then if there are a few chunk of food lefty in the filter, I have just left it in the machine and by the end of the next cycle it is completely gone.

Go for quiet!

We have the KUDC10FX with a 52dB rating and a hard food disposer. I was also worried about how loud it would be especially since we have an open floorplan. My backup option was the Samsung 800 series dishwasher with a 49dB rating if the KA was too loud as it would fall in the same price range. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised--the KA really isn't loud at all. As SAS95 mentioned above, I can barely hear it--just enough to know it's running. It does not interfere with conversation or hearing the TV--haven't had to turn it up because of the DW yet. The one you're looking at has an even lower dB rating, so I wouldn't worry about it being loud at all.

I am also in the camp of liking the hard food disposer vs. a filter. I don't want to ever have to worry about it and with the disposer, I don't have to.

49 dB isn't loud. At all. Even the $200 63 dB entry level no sound insulation dishwasher will be quieter than most 15 year old dishwashers that many people are used to. 63 dB is normal human voice conversational level. A sensitive ear can only sense changes for 3 dB differences, while it takes the average ear 5 dB before they can tell the difference in sound levels.

Once or twice a year on the filter. Maybe.

I had a KA for 8 years and I had to replace the chopper 3 times before the second control board finally tried to catch on fire and the whole unit died. I have a Bosch now with a filter and I clean it every few week, whenever I have to refill the rinse-aid dispenser. It is never really dirty but that seemed like a good interval and it only takes maybe 3 minutes, tops!

I've had a KA with filter since Thanksgiving. When first researching dishwashers, no way did I want one that had a filter that needed to be cleaned. The idea grossed me out! That said, somehow I ended up with one and it hasn't been an issue at all. I think I've pulled it out four times since purchasing it, thinking surely there must be something in there to clean, but nothing! However, I grew up rinsing dishes before putting them in the DW and it's a hard habit to break. Sometimes they are rinsed, sometimes they are scraped. One time I put a casserole dish with caked on melted cheese and pasta (baked ziti) and it came out completely clean. Dh didn't believe me - swore I must have rinsed first, but then I showed him in order to convince him to stop rinsing dishes first. Trust me, old soggy food really really skeeves me for some reason, and I have been totally pleased with my KA (I believe it's a KUDE20) . It is SO quiet that I can't even tell it's on unless I'm standing next to it. A huge difference compared to our old DW that we had to run after we went to bed and even then, I could still hear it upstairs.

If you can get yourself trained to scrape your dishes, you will not have to worry about the filter.

I just replaced my 7 year old Kitchen aid that had a food grinder with the one with the filter. 7 years ago I thought that the food grinder was better than the filter. I was wrong. The food grinder is not a garbage disposal. Food gets stuck in it and access to it is not easy. The kids didn't always scrap their plates and we found pasta and stuff in it. The filter is easy access.

I have the KA without the filter, and the food particals come back on the dishes. I would not get it again. I would get the one with the filter, you will have much better washing results.