Check them in person and see how you like the layout. A lot of people love Bosch. I think fewer have Asko. My folks hate their Asko because they don't like the arrangment of the racks, but it fit in their space. You might like the current model better.

Post on the Appliance Forum for more responses.

People either love Bosch or hate them. I know two people who have owned them. Both hated and do not own them again. The primary complaints are that the water never got hot enough (despite a very hot water source - no sanitary cycle.) Other complaints are drain clogging. One got rid of a very expensive unit and replaced with a Miele with much happiness. The other went with a Kitchenaid replacement, also with much happiness. Personally, I would not buy appliances made by anyone other than the Whirlpool brands (Kitchenaid, Maytag, Amana, more recently JennAir, and some Kenmore.) Repairs on anything else are more difficult and/or more costly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Bungalow and Kitchen remodel blog

I agree that you should take a plate with you and try out the racks to see which you like better.

I LOVE my new Bosch. It isn't the top of the line one, but one down from that, so it isn't the super duper quiet one, but it's still very quiet.
I don't know about the older ones, but this one has good hot water and a sanitize option. Everything comes up sparkling and I haven't had any trouble with spots or drying (except for a little water on the recessed part of the mugs.)

My friend has had Asko for years and she loves it. Hers is super quiet. I read somewhere that the newer Asko's aren't as good though, so I don't know.

European dishwashers are good for a few things - they are shallower so if you are getting a custom panel it will line up flush with other cabinets.

Aside from new Kitchen Aid model, they are the quietest ones on the market.

They are energy efficient and water efficient which is especially important if you have a septic system.

BUT, you need an installer that is familiar with them and installs them properly, they are pricier, most models don't have a heated dry, they have a filtration system that you need to clean as opposed to the grind up system in the American brands...

Here's what I learned today while at the appliance store - the European models are somewhat smaller, usually don't have food disposers and are more expensive. I'm leaning towards a KitchenAid after looking. The Bosch had three racks which I thought I wanted until I looked. The middle rack is useless but for flat objects; small frying pan etc.

I'll be anxious to hear what you go with. I do have a good friend who had Bosch, just put in a Asko. She liked the Bosch, but says the Asko is quieter.

I'm looking for a new dishwasher too (my first since 1996!). I am WILLING TO PAY just about any price - and would love to impress others with a high-end European dishwasher (I've turned into the type of person I've always despised...I want to be liked and considered a person of good taste - ugh)! ;) That said, I have 4 dirty slobs living w/ me (my husband and our 3 darling boys) and after going so long without a dishwasher I am DETERMINED to get one that will do all the work for me. If I can avoid having to soak dishes ahead of time? It's a no-brainer! Find me the one with the highest CUSTOMER RATINGS, and sign me up.

My long-winded point? It appears the winner is Kitchen Aid. As you can see, I spend lots of time researching and hanging out on online forums, getting all my questions asked. Re. dishwashers I've only spent about an hour or less looking up user-reviews but so far things lean heavily toward Kitchen Aid which I wouldn't have expected. I agree about Bosch - I've read they overflow and circuits gets blown (something like that) if a disposal gets clogged. Can't deal w/ that.

Have you noticed that Consumer Reports now has a customer or user review section, for each item? Consumer Reports themselves are useless cause they only let you know about the features for the most part. They don't give each item enough time to be able to report back how it's doing a year after first using it. But the customer review folks do. What's funny is that C.R. will often have something listed at the very top of their list and it will have TERRIBLE user reviews, while one halfway down will have excellent user reviews (e.g. 40 people out of 45 saying it's a very good product). I trust those types of reviews much more than C.R.

One other thing: my MIL said she read that people don't often enough consider the importance of having a very powerful disposal, these days (to go with the new and improved dishwashers). While I have serious concerns about the damage they do to the environment (they're a big no-no if you consider yourself a true environmentalist), supposedly your dishwasher won't do all it's capable of doing without a very good disposal.

Uhhh...I meant CONSUMER RATINGS but you got the point hopefully! :)

We just put in a mid-range Bosch to replace a sad, sad 6 year old Whirlpool Gold that came with our house (maybe ours was a lemon, dunno, but it hardly cleaned and was LOUD). Although the Bosch is smaller, my DH and I love it. It's very quiet and cleans like a dream. I have run the DW on 1/2 load with a full load in it and everything comes out beautifully (I probably shouldn't do that, but I'm still testing this bad boy ;).).

hsw, did you notice that the half-load uses more water than the full load? I don't know why. The cycle is shorter, but it takes more water!

Have you considered Miele? I have had one for 3+ years and it has been great. Love the utensil upper tray.

I just purchased an Electrolux and think that it is by far the best dishwasher I have ever owned. My last dishwasher was a Maytag and it didn't clean well at all. Before that I had a KitchenAid and was disappointed too. I have always had to wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Now, I just scrape the dishes and place them inside. They come out sparkling every time. It is also so quiet that I have to open the door just to see if it is running. And, I love the blue light that shines on the floor when the dishwasher has completed its cycle.

I'd also consider Miele. I love mine.
You might check out the appliances forum. Lots of people post about dishwashers. Most are very enthusiastic about Miele.

I hear good things about kitchen aid. We have a kitchen aid dishwasher that came with the house, but I haven't been able to use it, one because its so loud and everytime I turn it on its smells like something is burning. I guess since it is almost 20 years old. We bought Frigidaire Professional. I read alot of good reviews and some bad, but am hoping that the overall rating of this being a "GREAT" dishwasher is true. They say that electrolux makes the frigidaire professionals appliances I purchased, so I hope they are as good as Electrolux! Does anyone have Frigidaire Professional that would like to share their experiences?

I have a mid level Bosch that's a year oldand replaced a high end Kenmore. The Bosch is much quieter and does clean better. The only thing I dislike about the Bosch is the bottom rack, I use lots of very small dishes and they won't all fit in the top rack, and sometimes the open spaces on the botom rack are too large to accomadate my little pieces without them falling to the bottom. My guess is this is wouldn't bother most people.

Theresse: if you're trying to impress, go Miele. KA is so yesterday!

After (too much) research, I ordered my Miele Optima today. Yay - one decision done!

Thanks for all the good advice! My husband and I spent the day yesterday the KD showroom and by the time we left my head was throbbing and my right eye was twitching!! The decisions, the options!! But it was fun! Can't wait to see what amount the quote comes in at!! I just love reading through all the posts on this forum and have learned so much already!!! Thanks again for all your thoughts (we are leaning to the Miele on the dishwasher).. many more decisions to make....

Gina

Jkasch,
I'm looking for a quiet DW. Did you have to install any extra insulation around your Electrolux to deaden the sound? Do the racks fit large bowls and pots well? Any issues? Thanks for any advice.

Miele is so quiet - - you can be right next to it and not know it is on - -You have to check for the color of the glowing light. La Perla model. Love it.

warmfridge ~ The DW came very well insulated. In fact, we had to reconfigure the insulation in order to get it to fit properly into the cutout because it has such a thick insulating blanket covering it. By this I took the insulation blanket off and was able to cut the back out so that it would fit. Still unbelievably quiet. If fact, I have to open the door to see if its running because there is no noise. The top rack is adjustable and the bottom rack can be adjusted to accomodate larger bowls. It cleans extremely well. I am very impressed with the DW. We have a TV in the kitchen and are able to hear it while the dishwasher is running. Could never have done this with our previous Maytag DW. I have no complaints or issues thus far. I highly recommend this DW.

Thanks for the info, Jkasch. I'm one who is unhappy with my Miele. It doesn't clean well, and after the last service visit, it is etching my dishes so badly that I've switched to paper plates. (Lengthy post in the appliances forum, so won't go into details here.) As soon as I can convince Miele to honor their 90-day performance guarantee, I'll have to find another DW. I need something quiet as I have an open concept home. Thank you for your input.

Long time lurker-first time poster here!

I ditto jkasch...we have an Electrolux (the one with the display on the top so I would know how much time was left and not have to open to see if it was running) DW and I love it! We were using cheap powder detergent and everything came out with a film, the dispenser door wasn't emptying all the soap out, and there was a white film on the inside of the door.

Once we switched to the Cascade packs with powder and Dawn no more problems and it cleans like a dream! And quiet...I've never EVER had a dishwasher this silent. The insulation looked almost like recycled blue jeans. The only time I hear it is when it's emptying into the sink. That's it. Well worth the (to me) expensive price!

I have just finished making my dishwasher decision. After lots of research and hand-wringing, I finally ordered a KitchenAid KUDS50FV from Lowes.

I tried to bring myself to buy a Miele but, in the end, could not justify the price in order to get pre-finished fully integrated, cutlery rack and highly adjustable tines. There is something in me that always needs to get a bargain and the Miele "firm price" policy bothers me.

Anyway, Lowes had my dw for $1339 so I found the lowest price I could online ($1018 free ship/no tax) and also found a $75 KA rebate online. Lowes matched it plus 10%. My final price for the dw was something like $917. With the savings I purchased a 5 year extended warranty and installation.

It is not due to be delivered for 10 more days so cannot attest to its functionality. But I was pleased with my buying power and hope I am satisfied.

Btw, my appliance serviceman said that they have a saying amongst them: "Asko? Oh no!" So I never seriously considered the Askos, only Miele, Thermadore, Viking, Bosch, JennAire.

Hope this helps somehow!

Sandy

Elecrolux has the same "firm price" policy. The salesman I ordered from said if they find out their products sold for less than list price, they (Elecrolux) will come and yank all of their products out of that store and they can't sell them anymore.

Don't know if it's true, but that's what he told me. So no sales, discounts, or price-match on Electrolux :(

weedmeister - but that's my whole point: that while I'd love to impress others for once in my life (haha) I'd still rather have the dishwasher that has more positive reviews than the others, based on performance (that can scrub well enough that we only need to scrape of the large pieces of food, or that will clean off dishes that have - gasp - sat around over night!).

Even the sound isn't too big an issue for me, much as I'm sure it would be nice to watch TV in the kitchen at the same time. It's been so long since I've had a dishwasher - always living in old houses that haven't had much work done to them - that I kinda miss the sound of the dishwasher that was on in the kitchen...heard from the other room! It always meant my mom - who was a busy entrepreneur and never home enough - was home. :)

Sandy - good for you! I always love the feeling of finding the best deal out there. I'm not even great with money but when it comes to items that cost more than a few hundred dollars I go deep into bargain-hunting and always feel so satisfied afterwards. :)

littlefarmerboys (love the name, btw!) - do you happen to know if the kinds of detergent you switched to are considered okay for the environment? I seem to recall years ago that they said powdered detergents for washing machines were better on the environment than other kinds, but then I also see the liquid kinds with an Earth on the front so now I don't remember what I read. I just want to make sure I'm not going to end up w/ a machine that only supports detergent that is more harmful in that way. Your dishwasher sounds wonderful.

So what are the best review sites these days? Of course there's Consumer Reports...where else? I just google usually until I happen upon sites that seem to be heavy on user-reviews but if anyone can recommend ones they've liked, I'm sure we'd all benefit!

Thanks!

Theresse- Thanks! We live on a farm and have three little boys so littlefarmerboys seemed appropriate!

As for the dish detergent--what I use are the Cascade ActionPacks with powder and Dawn in them. I've always heard that using liquid detergent will "gum up" your dishwasher and ruin it over time. I have never used liquid because of that and have no idea if it is even true. They still sell liquid, so maybe not?

I have no idea how good it is for the environment (shame on me) but we needed to switch because the Great Value WalMart brand soap was not cutting it. I was getting very upset because we just spent a lot of money on this DW and it was cleaning just as good as the 20 some-odd-year-old GE that I wanted to get rid of. I went with Cascade because I saw that brand as the best. I thought the Dawn would help cut the greasiness of the dishes.

I don't know if this means anything, but this is what it says on the package:

Phosphorus Content: This Cascade formula averages no more than 8.0% phosphorus, in the form of phosphates, which is equivalent to 1.1 gram per tablespoon. Septic Safe.

It works, so I use it! Regarding the best review sites--I go to Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot--any store I know that sells the particular brand I want reviews on and look there. I trust user reviews over a Consumer Reports type review. Oh, and Amazon too. I might not buy from these stores, but the reviews have been helpful. Sorry this got so long!

littlefarmboys - thanks for the cute visual of your boys on the farm. I have 3 boys myself, but too bad I don't have all that space for them to play on! I wasn't sure if your name meant something like that, or if it meant a hip gay couple of guys with overalls and straw hats - hee hee - but the visual was fun either way. :)

That's right - Amazon's got great reviews too. I always forget to check them on appliances. I'm sure I can do a quick google search on dishwasher cleaning detergents and the environment. Thanks!

Hahaha!! Definitely not a gay couple! That made me laugh, though! Just a mom of three boys (5, 3, and 9 mon.) that live on a farm. We actually bought the farm that my DH grew up on end of last year ('09). I'm a city girl myself so I'm getting used to the farm life! My boys love it and there is a ton of room to run.

The house was built in 1980 and just about everything is original. I've been coming to GW for months now and LOVE this site! So much info you can't find anywhere else. I google a question, and almost always a thread from GW pops up! I'm getting so many great ideas on updating our "new" home!

Jkasch and farmer, what model is your Electrolux? Did you buy at Sears?

The model we have is EIDW6305GB1 in black. I think it's the mid-range one. There is one cheaper (or I should say 'less expensive')and at least one more expensive that has the blue light that shines on the floor when done. Ours has the display on the front because the reviews I'd read said it was SO quiet that people were opining it mid-cycle to see if it was still running. The display was worth the extra $ for me.

We bought ours from a local appliance store in my town. Their warehouse is literally just up the street from us, so my DH took our skid steer up there and loaded it up! He also installed it himself.

I will say the tines are fairly close together so if a dish is really dirty or dried on I will skip a spot and put the dish in the next one. Seems to work. We use Pfaltzgraff dishes and took them to the store to see if they would fit (DH didn't think so because the tines were so close) and they did! I felt a little stupid carrying a dinner plate in my purse, but I wanted to make sure our dishes fit :)