Bosch - 300 Series 24" Front Control Built-In Stainless Steel Tub Dishwasher with Stainless Steel Tub with 3rd Rack, 44 dBA - Stainless Steel

Old DW was a noisy old thing so decided to look for those with good quiet noise ratings and read Bosch were very quiet in general. We had a KA in a previous house and found it did a great job of cleaning and drying but was not quiet enough for the new house due to proximity of kitchen to the family room and bedrooms. Our son has a Kenmore Elite at the house they recently bought and it is very quiet - so we looked at Kenmores, KAs and the Bosch. After a good deal of research, we decided on this model for several reasons - the sloped silverware tray aids in washing and drying, the height adjustable middle tray is helpful for different height items, the adjustable supports in the trays help to add flexibility in supporting different types of dishes, bowls, etc, stainless liner for long life and durability, no exposed handle to stick out from face of cabinet, front facing control panel allows for seeing progress at a glance, large removable utensil bin and it was within our price limit and best buy offered free delivery within 3 days. Honestly, Kenmore and KA both have very comparable machines. Lowes has the same basic model at same price but theirs is a specially modified version that takes swaps out the 60 min cycle with a 30 min cycle. Frankly, we did not feel a 30 min cycle would be useful where this one with 60 min cycle seems much more realistically useful for small loads. Only thing I needed for installation was the water inlet fitting and a section of flexible supply line. The old drain and power cord were re-usable. The height and level adjustments were easy, all done from the front. It fit perfectly into the old space and the under counter tabs fit pretty close to the previous. So far it has performed well. I agree with others who complained of the odor - definitely a musty odor from water used for testing before shipping and/or certain plastic parts. After several uses now, the odor seems to have dissipated. I'd say the extra dry cycle is pretty regularly used - it seems energy conservation may limt the heating power of newer machines - our old KA seemed to heat up much more. But then its not a big deal and probably safer in the long run for plastic utensils. Our old machine did ruin a plastic burger press that said it was dishwasher safe but apparently not safe from those that put out more heat. We have not tried all cycles - the 60 min and auto seem to be working fine for our needs. In general with only the two of us, we run it once a week. Since dishes tend to sit for a while, I tend to rinse them well in the sink first to avoid having stuff dry on and be difficult to wash off. Of course there are times we crank out more dishes and are less fussy about rinsing when we know we will be running it that night. In all occasions so far, it has performed well.

Purchased this dishwasher to replace our loud dishwasher that came with our home (62db GE). I requested only delivery and did my own installation. I did purchase the installation kit but really didn't need anything other than a new water line which I could've bought from a hardware store. Once installed I ran a test rinse run and at first I didn't think it was powered on, that is until I heard the water draining through the air gap to the sink. The 3rd rack utensil tray is perfect for our larger utensils and have plenty of capacity for our dishes. One thing of note, I did not receive the free junction box that was supposed to be included with the washer but ultimately didn't need it because didn't have a hardwired connection and the supplied power cable was all we needed.

This dishwasher is quiet, lots of wash options, lots of room and most importantly cleans well. The only negative is dishes don't dry fully even when using the rinse aid and selecting extra dry.