Check the Appliances Forum.

When we remodeled, I let my DH pick the DW since he does most of the dishes. He picked a KitchenAid Architect series mostly b/c it was less expensive (and on sale). It never cleaned well - we had to wash everything on "Heavy Duty" (and the silverware still came out dirty). It also died in less than 6 years.

This time, he let me pick it and after a lot of research, we settled on a Bosch. Bosch gets a lot of good reviews and costs less than a Miele (the brand I really wanted!) Check the Bosch DWs, they have several price points. We got an 800 series and are very happy with it (we've had it a little over a year now).

My thread definitely backs up what buehl says about Bosch. It definitely appears to be the clear winner in DW's and the 300 series would fall just under your top price.

I had a Bosch that lasted over 10 years and really cleaned the dishes. I then bought a GE simply to match my fridge. Looks good, but I hate it!! It doesn't clean the dishes. I have to run it with the steam and sanitize option and still find bits of food on silverware and inside bowls. We are building a new home and I am going back to a Bosch dishwasher.

My Bosch 300 series is several months old now, I can't tell you how much I love it. No issues whatsoever and the dishes comes out super clean.

Just use their recommended dishwasher tablet.

I have a Bosch 800 (not sure anymore what the differences are among the levels) - we weren't willing to spend the price of a Miele (paneled, with the controls on the top) so Bosch it was. It works very well - my dishes are cleaner than they've been in years!

I looked at the difference between the 300 and 800 and I think I might pay the extra $180 for the 800. Hope I get a good one! Thanks again!

"Hope I get a good one!"

Me too!

What are the differences between the two? I think if you want the third tier (the silverware rack) you need to go to the higher level - I love it -- I always thought the silverware baskets took up too much room in the bottom rack.

It was the silverware rack and I think there's another cycle or two. But mostly it was the third tier I thought was pretty cool. I compared them on Lowe's web site. The 800's insides were a tad bigger too.

And, did I see that the tines fold down on one and not the other? I might have hallucinated that.

I love the basket with the individual slots for the silverware.

I replaced my 15 yr old kitchenaid DW with Bosch silence plus 44. It has a third rack for utensils which frees up a lot of space in the racks below. Super quiet. Can't even tell if it is running. Cleans and dries well. Has many different wash options (express= 30 mins, half load= uses less water, etc). Bought it at Lowes for about $850 with free install and delivery. Very happy with the purchase.

Love my Bosch 800 series. I was recently out of town for a few weeks & DH had to run the dishwasher. I gave him instructions to scrape - no pre-rinsing. He was truly impressed that the dishes were so clean.

My panel ready Bosch dishwasher is now 4 years old and works great. Our previous dishwasher was also a Bosch. It was 8 years old and never had a serice call. Since it was working fine when we remodeled we gave it to a friend, it is now 12 years old and still going strong. Had a Bosch in our previous home too for 10 years. Needless to say, I am a Bosch fan.

We've had our Bosch 800 series for a year now and love it (3rd rack and 2 utensil baskets that we don't keep in dishwasher, but are nice to have when we need them).

Super quiet and ultra clean!