Monday, February 13, 2006

Well Yippee; we get to buy a new dishwasher!

Our dishwasher went thumpers up Saturday. It's only a few years old, but I've never liked the thing. It doesn't adequately WASH the dishes, it's only job! I've tried more soap/less soap, more rinsing the dishes/less rinsing the dishes, longer cycles/shorter cycles - i.e., all the machine's tricks have been tried. To no avail. Now the pump sounds more like it's farting than draining, and the machine is picking it's own cycle; I kid you not! I pick 'Potscrubber/Air Dry'. It does not light up those choices, and comes back with 'Light Wash/Heated Dry' and then gives me the finger, to boot. Okay....

Off to the internet I trotted, while the machine did its Light Wash and Air Dry and farted the water into the drain. Found out what Consumer Reports reckons to be the best dishwasher (Not surprising; the Bosch line seems to get their nod) and then decided to go out shopping to our neighboring town to see what the appliance stores had to offer. Shockingly, there are 2 medium to high end appliance shops as well as the Big Box choices all in a few-mile range.

The entire family loads up into the minivan after many trips back in the house for water, sunglasses, cell phone, to turn off lights (I do not see how every light in the house gets turned on in broad daylight, but this happens alot) and for car keys. We arrive at the first store and Meet the Bosch's. There is a mighty array, with dazzling features. Top Rack Only Wash? No Problem! Do lots of wine glasses? Here's the solution! Need different set up? The racks collapse! Who could look at a Whirlpool after seeing The Nirvana of Dishwashers.

The boys have decided to rev it up while we are distracted. This store also features woodstoves and gas fireplaces, and the children are leaping across the flagstone floor, just missing this scorching surface and that sizzling wall of roasty-toasty fireplaces. They decide to play hide n seek while racing at full speed - whose kids are these?! Their cheeks? Rosy as apples. Their eyes? Refusing to make contact with their father's or mine. Their ears? Not working. We make a quick exit after realizing that the children are probably starving - it's 1:30 and they had an early breakfast! What IS IT about weekends?! The schedule goes all to hell. Then we wonder what in the heck is wrong with the kids.

We go out to lunch, which is a treat. Then off to the 2nd appliance store. This one has even more fancy stuff. There is a Dacor dishwasher that is 30" wide! I start to mentally rip up our kitchen to install that baby. Luckily, the husband jerks me back to reality "Don't Even THINK about it!" There are appliances with copper trim, brass trim, mirror finishes. There are appliances that I have to ask "What Is It?" (It was a U-Line Bar sink/refrigerator/wine storage unit. They didn't have the racks in it and I thought it was a sink/refrigerator/dishwasher all in one.)

We get a salesperson who had been working there One Day. She gives us a price on the Bosch model we want. Perfect! Sounds great. Today, 2 days later, I went to the other appliance store to see what price they had it for. $200 more! AHA! I went back to the 1st place and was told "She was new; real price is - $200 more."

Forget Top Rack Only washing, and the rest of the gizmos. The reality is I use 2 cycles; Rinse Only and Wash the Crap out of 'em. Let's get the one with the least gizmos and maybe it'll break down less. Or perhaps not. We'll see. But I definitely see a Bosch in my future.

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