A lot of people have their favorites. I have a top-of-the-line Whirlpool, and I am more than satisfied. It's quiet, and the dishes sparkle.

We bought our Bosch second hand several years ago (the owner was switching from white to ss appliances). It's done a great job for 7 years. The cycle is crazy long, but it's so quiet I forget it's on.

I have the lowest priced Miele, and it's wonderful. Third Miele (in different houses) and all have been great. Have never ever had problems like in another thread here. I have never used anything but standard wash cycle.

Have had Miele in 2 houses and been happy with them. I recommend you use their tabs and salt, for best long term performance. I have the model below the top model, so don't know about their entry level models. I do recommend the feature that opens the door at the end of the cycle to let steam out and have the dishes come out perfectly dry. I also really like their top cutlery tray.

Bosch - I've had 3 different levels of Bosch dishwashers over the last dozen years (in different homes) and they've all been great - excellent cleaning, and quiet.

I'm happy with my Bosch, but many people have commented that it is difficult to load their dishes because of the layout.

I brought my dishes to the appliance store before I ordered the DW to ensure that my dishes would fit.

I use the 60 minute cycle for all washes. Everything gets clean. I see no reason to use their regular cycles that take 2 hrs. It's easy to clean the filter and everything but thin plastic containers are thoroughly dry. I leave the machine closed for about 1 hour after the cycle have stopped. It's really hot in there, even without "heated drying".

I love my bosch, it is not the top end but it does have the 3rd rack, and the top/middle rack is adjustable on height. I took out the basket completely and only do flatware on the top rack. It is quiet and clearns perfectly.

I have two 2 year old Bosch dishwashers now (one is an 18 inch) and also had a Bosch purchased in 2011, replaced during a renovation. All were/are excellent, impressively quiet and do a great job, without any issues. I routinely use the 60 minute cycle and see no reason to use the longer cycle.

Miele. One with the door that opens at the end of the cycle. Best racks. Fits so much and everything comes out clean. On my third house with a Miele DW.

Miele. Today I'd choose a lower end model with the utensil rack.

Bosch—our first was still going strong at 16 years when we remodeled and current is 4 years old. Super quiet!!

We've had a Whirpool Gold model for 11 years now, and it's been solid. Cleans well, very quiet. There are a few things I don't like about the layout--narrow silverware holder that crowds the utensils, upper rack doesn't hold wine glasses well. If the layout worked better for my dishes, I would buy the same again.

LG, 3rd rack, quiet, great configuration

Bosch - I have a lower priced one at my lake place that is still going after 20 years. A more expensive 800 model at home that is also great - it has the top silverware rack. It gets things clean and it's very quiet - that's really all I require. I bought a very expensive Miele when we remodeled the kitchen in our last house that was completely underwhelming. My more expensive Bosch was half the price of the Miele and performs better.

Bosch. I've had 2 GE Potscrubbers and two Kenmore Elite (KitchenAid) and the Bosch runs circles around all the others. Yes, racking takes a bit to get used to.

My low end Bosch, because it has far surpassed any expectations I had for a dishwasher. Bought and installed it only for resale, never planned to use it. Now, is my favorite kitchen appliance. I don't pre-rinse, sometimes dirty dishes get forgotten in dishwasher for days, is so quiet I don't hear it working, cleans dishes better than this human.

^^^Same as MDLN. Low end Bosch Ascenta here. It cost similar to the mid-line Whirlpool it replaced. It's a trooper. We are 2 1/2 years in, so can't speak to long term performance just yet. The racks do drive me bats though, but the cleaning ability overides this. Not every household will have trouble with the racks vs bowls, pitchers, etc...Plates fit well, no issues there; we have Corelle dishes. I would buy it again even though the racks keep me current on my swear words.

We choose the Ascenta because we lost faith in appliances overall having had to prematurely replace each appliance in this house, some more than a couple times. I figured spending more $ on a higher end model was $ out the window at this point, and I don't have a fancy kitchen anyways. I got the black front panel one as that goes best in my space.

What difficulties have you had with the racks on the Bosch?

On the Whirlpool I want to replace, the only problem I have is fitting in the long-stemmed wine/champaigne glasses. But I probably only use those glasses about twice a year, so I can just buckle down and do those by hand.

I figure I don't need a fancy model of a DW - longevity is important to me.

A two-hour quiet cycle is fine here - although as has been noted here, there's a one hour setting that could work after any large parties or such.

The racks on the Bosch are tilted. So, large or not not tiny items flop around or fall over. Most of us new to Bosch are used to racks where the tines are straight up and down with some space between them. These lean instead of being straight and are tight together. Ex: we use and wash a lot of glass pitchers. I can only get them in with the bottom rack that is able to be laid down, laid down. Mugs and such on the bottom racks will flop around and then fall off. We've broken several things because of this. Bowls don't fit well unless they are very shallow--almost a plate. I have to take up otherwise usable real estate for bowls to fit properly instead of them lining up along the sides of racks in a sideways manner--hope that makes sense.

I don't consider our items to be unduly large or otherwise of an abstract shape, so, yea, it's something I had to overcome and get my tetris puzzle part of mind working at an upper level.

We use the Auto cycle with Santitize enabled with Finish Quantum pods for best results. Everything comes out sparkling clean; even baked on, stuck on crud. It's pretty amazing. My former Whirlpool (when it was not in need of repair) was a good cleaner too, but this Bosch outcleans by a noticable margin.

I don't find it a problem loading the Bosch and I've never broken anything. I do find myself just loading things wherever they fit vs. lining everything up in perfect order. Lining things up in perfect order is kind of my personality but I've gotten used to the mish-mash.

" . I do find myself just loading things wherever they fit vs. lining everything up in perfect order. "

Yes, the tilted tines make loading less space efficient, but I also haven't had anything fall over and break. The excellent cleaning job and quiet operation make the less efficient loading not such a big deal.

I also recommend Bosch. We have the mid-priced Bosch with the controls on the horizontal top (so hidden from sight). Ours is older (maybe 10 years old?), but I recall the difference was it came with the 3rd rack (love it!) and the tines were "double dipped" so extra sturdy, which was important to me, as we get a lot of use from ours and had bent the tines in the previous lower-end Bosch.

I know a lot of people love their Miele, but friends have Miele and you have to use Miele repair service, which makes them wait sometimes for 3 weeks. In our household, I could not do more than a few days without a dishwasher, nor more than one day without a washer/dryer, so I would not do Miele for that reason.

UPDATE: My six year old Bosch 800 just died. Repair man is coming out today. I sure hope it's repairable as new ones are hard to come by - made more difficult by my desire for black, front of panel controls and third rack. Of all the dishwashers I've had in my life, this is the first time I've ever had to get one repaired. I've replaced some but they were all still working at the time. As the saying goes - they don't make 'em like they used to.

ETA: needs a new main control board for $450 which I will be getting in 5-7 days. Just glad it can be repaired as I can't get another one at all similar to this one. Repair person said it's unusual for this to go bad but it does happen occasionally - lucky me.

Thank you everyone for replying and especially thank 3katz4me for letting me know they do not make appliances like they used to. My 13.25 year old top Kitchen Aid appliance with the third rack, sanitation and heated dry is dying on me. I need a new dishwasher and I have been following this thread. I am learning towards either Bosch with a third rack or a Frigidaire Gallery (since in December 2020 I bought a new stainless steel 4 door Frigidaire Gallery Refrigerator that is counter depth since I did not have too many choices during the Pandemic and now I love my refrigerator) with a third rack both in stainless steel. My only fear is the bad rating my consumers and so many complaints about the control board dying. I think I will just go into the stores with dishes, silverware and mugs to try out the dishwashers and then make a decision. LG refrigerators had bad reliability and reviews and had a class action law suit years OK and mine starting smoking but now they have improved and are rated the best for refrigerators.

My dishwasher is 19 years. I've DIYed the repairs that have occurred and will continue to do for as long as it's doable and any needed parts are available, perhaps even if resorting to used parts via eBay if that's the only choice for some items. Why? Because I can.

My mother's current (GE) dishwasher is 20 years with no repairs, although to be fair it doesn't get heavy use. Her previous unit (KitchenAid) went for 27 years (with one or two minor repairs that my dad DIYed).