I've had smeg, Bosch, hot point, Miele now back to Bosch but it is a Miele that will be going in our new kitchen. The Bosch will be in the utility as second d/w.

For me Miele is top of all the brands if you can stump to it.

Bosch and Miele are great but euro DW are small.... If capacity is important to you, go with an American DW

I've been very not impressed with my Frigidaire Gallery, so glad it is not on your short list.

You will get very specific info on this at the Appliance Forum (link above) but for me, I am a Bosch fan. Meile was a tad outside my budget, but probably the best.

Seconding the suggestion to check the appliance forum. Of the listed brands, based on my previous research, I would go Miele. But I also suggest considering Bosch, which is what I chose.

LOVE my KA. Super quiet, very sleek looking and dries even my Tupperware. I especially love the 4-hour delay program setting (maybe they all have this, I don't know), so I can load it up after supper and it runs late at night. Energy costs are lower during off-peak hours so this feature, which we use everyday, really saves $$ in the long run.

My 2 top choices based on research on the Appliance forum and elsewhere on the web were Miele and Bosch 500 series, in that order. Budget considerations came in to play so I decided to spend $400 less to buy the Bosch. It's not installed yet so I can't say if I made a good decision but I had a Bosch 500 series in my last kitchen for 6 years and loved it.

I love my low cost Bosch.

I don't think you are off base with KA, but I prefer Bosch or Miele.

PLEASE DONT BUY AN LG. The Korean brands haven't figured out dishwashers yet.

Agreed with Joe, cross LG off the list entirely. Give them a few years though... I bet with time they will eventually come up with a Bosch killer.

I have a "top of the line" KA and wouldn't get one again. Piece of garbage. I'm going with a Miele in my new kitchen. (and not the top of the line either.)

I love my Bosch. My dishes go in so dirty & come out so clean.

I don't recommend GE or KitchenAid - both seen to be very poorly designed.

While the two GEs I've had over the years cleaned dishes well enough, they both needed costly repairs within a couple of years.

I tried KA, and while it didn't need repairs, it rarely cleaned all the dishes in the load. To have any hope of most dishes coming out clean, we had to wash using "Heavy Duty" for all loads - otherwise most dishes did not come out clean.

I have a Bosch now (800 series) and it's been great! Even dried on cheese comes off the dishes. I won't say there's never been a dish that didn't come out still dirty, but it's a very rare occurrence. Also, now that we no longer have a heating element on the floor of the DW, I don't have to worry about what rack to put plastics - all racks are fine - top, bottom, middle! It's only been about 1.5 years, so we I cannot comment on the reliability yet.

BTW...here's the link to the Appliances Forum: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/appl

I've had a Bosch with the 3rd rack for a year now, and I love it. I haven't had any issues with capacity. Dishes extremely clean and very quiet.

Love my Meile!

Ditto the Bosch (ours is also the 800 series). We looked at Miele, but "had to have" paneling and hidden controls and weren't willing to spend the $$ to get the Miele in that configuration. The Bosch has been great.

I got a kitchenaid in May, love it. Took the dishes, cutting boards and pots/pans to store to try miele and bosch, nope, need american size. It is super quiet (open great room) and takes off dried on oatmeal, egg, potato water and cheese, the only things I had to previously wash before loading things. (Just checked and the cheesy spoons and bowls from the chicken tortilla soup last night are sparkly clean and they were thick with cheese when I loaded.) I had to get one with a third row silverware tray and I thought I would hate it but it cleans great and then I took out the bucket in bottom tray and have even more room for dishes. I run at least 10 loads a week.

I had Kitchen Aid for over 30 years and they always loaded easily and cleaned very well. We never used the "dry" cycle. In our new house we bought, we replaced a very bad KA drawer dishwasher with a Bosch 800. I really like it, especially the 3rd rack and it is much quieter than the kitchen aid was, and that was more quiet than most. You can only tell it's running by looking at the little beam of light that shines on the floor!

I believe the KA has a food grinder that makes some noise. It also has a heating element to dry dishes. We've always air dried to save energy. I did find the long narrow utensil basket to get in the way of my loading style and I bought the flexible duo utensil basket which allows me to put he basket just about anywhere. Really like it. It cleans very well and I haven't had any problems in the last year and half.

If you get the Miele, make sure it can be serviced locally once it's out of warranty.