Perplexed

Here's a little story:

A long time ago Mark and Jill got married and moved to Nebraska. They lived in the projects, where there was no dishwasher. For four years Jill washed dishes by hand, and looked forward to the day that Mark was out of dental school and they could live somewhere with a dishwasher.

And then Mark and Jill moved to Oregon. They rented a brand-new apartment with a dishwasher. The dishwasher was noisy. Very, very noisy. It did a fair job of washing dishes, though. But Jill looked forward to the day they would move somewhere with a quieter dishwasher.

And then Mark and Jill moved again. This time they rented a brand-new house with a dishwasher. This dishwasher did not wash dishes very well AND it was unbelievably loud. Like a jet engine. Jill looked forward to the day they would move somewhere with a dishwasher that could wash dishes AND you could talk to someone in the same room while it was running.

Then Mark and Jill moved again--this time to a rental house near the dental office they were opening. This house had a dishwasher, but it was just as terrible and loud as the last one. Mark and Jill decided to buy their own dishwasher and put the piece of crap one in the garage until they moved out. They bought a KitchenAid. It was very quiet. It washed dishes. It dried dishes. Jill was happy with the dishwasher.

And then Mark and Jill decided that since they had been married for 10 years, they should finally buy a house. So they saved their money and designed and built a house. Jill designed a really cool kitchen. But she didn't want the old dishwasher in the new house because it was white, and the new house had stainless steel appliances. Mark's parents's dishwasher died at about this same time, and so Mark and Jill gave the good KitchenAid dishwasher to them. It is still working fine to this day. Jill picked out the best KitchenAid dishwasher at the appliance store for her new kitchen. She liked all of its features. Jill thought she would be happy.

But then Mark and Jill learned that the KitchenAid Superba was a piece of junk. It didn't wash dishes. It was quiet. It could dry dishes. But it could not clean dishes. If Jill put anything with one speck of food on it into the dishwasher, the food would come off of that dish and end up petrified to another dish. Glasses came out dirtier than they started, with bits of crud crustified onto the insides. Mark and Jill stopped using real glasses and opted for paper or plastic ones. Jill called the appliance store 3 times to have a repairman come look at the dishwasher that didn't wash dishes. He told her that she just needed to figure out a way to make it work because they just didn't make dishwashers like the used to now with all the EnergyStar crap.

Over the next 3 years the dishwasher was repaired 5 times. The heating element went out. The fuse went out. The gasket leaked. The control board went out twice. But Jill had spent a lot of money on this dishwasher, so she wasn't ready to buy another one.

Now we'll jump forward to this week:

Our dishwasher died. Officially dead. I'm not too sad about it, because we were spending 30 minutes with the water at the sink pre-washing the dishes before they went into the dishwasher. I was actually excited to buy a new dishwasher. And then I started shopping.

There is not a dishwasher on the market that I can find that washes and dries the dishes. The KitchenAid isn't an option for me for obvious reasons. The Bosch apparently does an excellent job of cleaning, but it does not dry the dishes. And it takes 2 hours to run a normal load. The Electrolux seems to be the next best option, but many reviews say that you still have to clean your dishes first. But it dries them! Yet it also takes 2 hours. Kenmore? I'm not sure. My mom got one that works well, but other reviews say they don't clean very well.

Currently, I'm seriously considering a commercial undercounter dishwasher. It's about twice as much as the Bosch, but it washes dishes (yes, even dirty dishes) in 2-3 minutes. Can you imagine what a happy life it would be to be done with all the dishes--even the pots and pans--in 10 minutes or so?

In the meantime, we're using paper products and washing by hand until I can figure out what to do. I hate to spent $1000 for something that either doesn't work, or only does 1/2 the job. There's got to be something out there that works like it is supposed to. Any suggestions?