It's time to replace our worn out Kenmore dishwasher at the house. It seems like the prices vary from $200 to $1000+. Really not looking to go over $500, so with that in mind, is there a certain brand to choose or avoid?

My wife loves our 500 series Bosch. We replaced a Jenn-air at our last house with the Bosch and last fall at our new home we replaced a fairly new GE with another 500 series Bosch. I want to say we paid around $650 (on sale) with a free installation voucher from Bosch. The first we bought from Sears, the second we bought from Best Buy or Sara appliances. I know it's a little more than what you want to pay (more than I wanted to pay also), but it's made the wife very happy. Also if you go with the black, I believe it's around $50 cheaper.

I'm sure you did your own research prior to buying, so what does the Bosch do that you think makes it better?

Honestly, it was my first choice as well, but wasn't quite sure about the price tag it carried.

First, it's very quiet. Sometimes you can't even tell that it's on. This was important since we had young children that seemed to wake at the slightest noise. Also the amount of dishes you can put in one load seems to be significantly more than the others that we had. It seemed like if you tried to really load up the previous dishwashers, it wouldn't clean very well. The Bosch always gets them cleaned due to the way the racks are designed to hold the dishes. It also has a third rack at the top that is made for utensils, so that frees up space in the main section for more dishes. Overall it just does a really good job of cleaning dishes, has nice capacity and is very quiet. I hope that helps!

I forgot to mention that the Bosch does not have a heated drying cycle or a grinder for food particles. There is a manual food particle filter that is easy to access and clean. The non heated dry works for us, the only thing that sometimes comes out damp is plastic dishes. The plus is that you don't have to worry about melting plastic in the dishwasher!

My parents got a Bosch from the local Lowes and really like it. The thing puts up with hill country hard water too.

I've had GE and Bosch, and will forever stay with Bosch from here on out.

2 houses...2 Bosch dishwashers!

We have a Bosch and my wife hates it. Apparently, it leaves a haze on the glasses. Any tips to deal with this? Also, x2 on the quiet part. I pretty much have to open the door to see if it is running.

Anything with a noise rating under 54 or so is going to be a lot quieter than anything 10+ years old.

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We have a Bosch and my wife hates it. Apparently, it leaves a haze on the glasses. Any tips to deal with this? Also, x2 on the quiet part. I pretty much have to open the door to see if it is running.

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Do you use Jet Dry?

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We have a Bosch and my wife hates it. Apparently, it leaves a haze on the glasses. Any tips to deal with this? Also, x2 on the quiet part. I pretty much have to open the door to see if it is running.

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Probably using too much detergent and/or not using Jet Dry.

We have a Bosch and love it. Bought it at lowes (I think) when they were running a sale, got it for around 450 or 500.

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We have a Bosch and my wife hates it. Apparently, it leaves a haze on the glasses. Any tips to deal with this? Also, x2 on the quiet part. I pretty much have to open the door to see if it is running.

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LemiShine. It works wonders. Use their rinse agent. I also use their detergent/booster to wash my dishwasher (run empty load occasionally)

I highly recommend the KitchenAid 354 series. You'll see a little unassuming rectangular display near the handle.

It has a self-cleaning food trap that i think uses ultra high frequency vibrations to keep it working well. It is 39-42db...i forget which. My glasses come out spotless with a rinse aid, and i also live in one of the hardest water areas I've ever dealt with.

The bosch, in the past, have been known to leave dishes very wet. The kitchenAids have a really heavy stainless steel that appears to retain heat quite well. Of course, crevasses in tupperware will be wet.

Another vote for Bosch, just bought it about 4months ago

Another vote here for Bosch. I replaced my DW a couple of months ago with a Bosch and have been very happy with it. It had tons of great reviews. I started here.

Thanks for everyone's opinion. We have decided to go with the KitchenAid 354. Mainly for the heated drying option. Honestly, other than that, I think both this and the Bosch are fairly close on reviews.

For the record, I changed my vote to Bosch! Just kidding. I really do like the KA354. I hope it works well for you.

I typically don't do extended appliance warranties, but for the $2100 Samsung fridge (7 yrs ago..) and the KA I decided to do it. They reduced it to like $110 for 5 additional years or something instead of $140.

Actually, the Samsung was $200 (10%) for a 5 year extension on top of the existing 5 year compressor extension.

I don't think you could go wrong with either brand really. The heating element is really what sold us. I like options I guess haha. We paid $890 so it ended up being $209 off the original price.

Now I guess it's time for a new sink and faucet also.

If that is the architect series II my wife and I decided that one was also the one for us as well.

It was neck and neck with the Bosch, but I liked the heated dry and the reviews it got. It was one of the top rated last year by consumers... I imagine there are always some lemons, but I'm hoping it is a good purchase.

We are getting riding of a worn out kenmore through our home warranty.

That's a very good dishwasher. We went back and forth between that and the Bosch. We ended up going with the Bosch because of the free installation voucher. Like you said, you really can't go wrong with either system.

Love my Bosch, but I would recommenced getting the one with the recessed handle if its in a corner, otherwise you might not be able to open an adjacent drawer....

You'll love the KitchenAid. We have a lesser model we bought last year to upgrade from a 6 year old builder grade unit and I was shocked how clean a dishwasher can actually make your dishes.

We currently have a Kenmore I think it is, and there is no telling how old that unit is. I think the house was built in 80 or so, and it looks like this is from the early 90's. Other than the door latch spring breaking, we probably wouldn't have looked for another one quite yet.

Go with a Bosch. We will have two new ones in our new house with the rest of the appliances being wolf.

This KitchenAid is pretty amazing. Cannot believe how quiet it is compared to the old unit we had. Haven't had a chance to figure out what all the buttons are for yet. Thanks for the recommendation on this unit.

evan_aggie said:

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I highly recommend the KitchenAid 354 series. You'll see a little unassuming rectangular display near the handle.

It has a self-cleaning food trap that i think uses ultra high frequency vibrations to keep it working well. It is 39-42db...i forget which. My glasses come out spotless with a rinse aid, and i also live in one of the hardest water areas I've ever dealt with.

The bosch, in the past, have been known to leave dishes very wet. The kitchenAids have a really heavy stainless steel that appears to retain heat quite well. Of course, crevasses in tupperware will be wet.

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Does the 354 have a third rack?

I'm looking at the 354 vs the 254... the 254 has 3rd rack for sure, but the 354 has the filter and 'pro dry'.

Vernada said:

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evan_aggie said:

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I highly recommend the KitchenAid 354 series. You'll see a little unassuming rectangular display near the handle.

It has a self-cleaning food trap that i think uses ultra high frequency vibrations to keep it working well. It is 39-42db...i forget which. My glasses come out spotless with a rinse aid, and i also live in one of the hardest water areas I've ever dealt with.

The bosch, in the past, have been known to leave dishes very wet. The kitchenAids have a really heavy stainless steel that appears to retain heat quite well. Of course, crevasses in tupperware will be wet.

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Does the 354 have a third rack?

I'm looking at the 354 vs the 254... the 254 has 3rd rack for sure, but the 354 has the filter and 'pro dry'.

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According to the specs, the 354 does not have a third rack...

you'd think that'd be relatively easy info to find... but using the compare feature on multiple websites (inc kitchenaid) didn't tell me.

We just got the 254 and it's been pretty amazing. Quiet, cleans well, and we love the third rack. I seriously didn't know it was running when I was washing dishes in the sink 3 feet away. The only complaint I have is that a cycle takes quite awhile, but the manual said it does that to increase efficiency so I guess it's a fair trade.