Requiring a food grinder excludes the European companies.

That leaves the American and Korean companies.

Historically, KitchenAid and other Whirlpool brands were considered the best American style dishwashers. Maytag is now a Whirlpool brand. There have been quite a few reports of problems,attempts at class action suits,and frustrations with Whirlpool that they will not issue a recall.

Frigidaire is part of Sweedish Electrolux but they have designed and manufacutered in North America for so long I consider them domestic.

Frigidaire Pro is a competant workhorse.
Frigidaire Professional Series FPHD2491KF about $550 now.

GE dishwashers are mediocre and not a great value.

Viking is not that great and very expensive.

LG has more experience than Samsung when it comes to dishwashers.

LG LDF6920ST is pretty highly rated and can be had for about $720.

The more expensive dishwashers tend to have filters instead of food grinders and vented dry instead of heated dry. I take it you want heated dry too.?

I wouldn't rule out DW without food grinders
I have a Miele LaPerla and I don't rinse the dishes - just pop in and run and they come out great.
Every couple months - I pop out the filter and clean it - NBD (no big deal)
I looked at every DW and took my dishes to the store and the Miele won - hands down.
I do suggest the Miele DW soap - it does make a difference. I didn't want to spend the $$ but I can see a big difference.
The two major features that I like
1. cutlery tray
2. It pops open at the end to finish the drying cycle

Thanks for the help so far. As far as I am concerned, the [filter] vs food grinder and [vented dry] vs heated dry are fine with me. I've been perfectly happy with the Bosch, and enjoy the quiet operation. The wife, however, is adamant that the grinder and heated dry are ESSENTIAL. Indeed, she wants the new machine to include an inline water heater to boost the incoming water temperature from our current 130 degrees (F) to gawd knows what. She feels that anything less than boiling isn't "sanitary." I don't know if such a "feature" even exits, outside of a commercial unit.

Most likely a KA DW will meet your needs. They all used to have grinders, heated dry, and inline water heater but in order to compete with the European models, some models no longer have them. There are many happy KA owners on this forum.

Well, IF you are willing to spend $2k you can get a AGA PRO Plus Series APRODWSS.

4 blade food grinder
On board heater that gives you a high temp scrub cycle plus an NSF certified rinse. Sensor wash option.

Vented and Heated drying.

Cutlery tray.

50db,which is pretty good for DW with disposer.

Etc Etc Etc

Here is a link that might be useful: LINK

I concur with gemini on the Miele..they are the best DW money can buy, with superior performance and will last far longer than any other product.

If hard disposer is truly a must, then weissman is correct, the Kitchenaid product would be the better of the lot.

I think your wife should make a mental adjustment. She obviously has little understanding of how DW's work.

Any DW you get will boost the heat...even the cheap ones. All of the upscale models will include cycles with extra boosts up into the "sanitary" range. "Boiling", if she's serious, is silly -- and unavailable. Quietest machines will have filters rather than grinders. I have one of each at different locations. Except for the quiet, I regard as non-issue. Both are easy to live with.

Then, again, you have to live with your wife. Don't know how you're going to handle your apparent requirement to provide her a machine with such requirements. Appears to me that deeageaux AGA would come closest.....if you don't mind owning the only one in your state. I would recommend staying with more common brand from local supplier.

We put in a KitchenAid when we bought our current house about eight years ago and it has performed flawlessly. The stainless interior is very nice, as is the built-in disposal. And while I haven't measured the dB level, it's easily quiet enough to run while we're sitting at the kitchen table, eight feet away. Doesn't interfere with conversation at all.

Hawkster - Take DWife to the store with favorite items to see what fits into which DW holds everything the best.
The Miele uses a European drying system but the La perla and the newer models pop open a bit to complete the drying.
What I like best - I can put plastic anywhere in the DW without fear of melting.
Have your wife review the posting - the hard grinder isn't a necessity - and when I started looking - I also wanted one and am a total convert!
Good luck!
PS Be sure to have an authorized installer do the installation and the warranty doubles (at least when we did ours)

Weissman: Are you sure ka has units with both heated dry and inline heaters? I thought it was one or the other, as the exposed element in a traditional american style dw both heats the water and dry's the dish's. If it has inline heater like the euro units, I thought heated dry is sacrificed for the benefit of an inline heater?

Wow, I replaced a dishwasher two years ago and I didn't think about things like dry/inline heaters! I was looking for other features, utensil basket placement, adjustable shelves, where the detergent went, non-corrosive racks and interior, decibels, things like that. I also didn't want to take out a second mortgage to purchase it. I started looking at dishwashers that had 24+ cycle features. Honestly, my old dishwasher had 20 cycle features and I only used three, normal wash, short wash, and sani-cycle (I do not put pots and pans in the dishwasher) so I bought one that had 12 cycle features for half the price of the 24+ feature dishwashers. I figured, why pay for features I would never use?

I ended up with a Whirlpool Quite III dishwasher and I am very pleased with it. Just remember, for ever person who has had no problems with one particular brand, you will hear from 10 who has. So far, my modestly priced Whirlpool has out-preformed the Bosch it replaced in spades and then some.

Oh, I forgot to add. Using the Finish dishwasher made a tremendous difference. Thank good for Costco.

I am new here so my original message was not posted, since I did not confirm it.

We have a 30 series Kitchen Aid and it is a great one. QUiet and cleans dishes with no problem. No pre-rinse anymore. The pro scrub feature is great for pots or pans.

I read up on this 2 months ago when we were looking for one, signed up for CR access, and the Kitchen Aid brand had great reviews and for around $700 seems like a great deal.

hey deeageaux - who's making that DW for AGA ? They aren't in the DW manuf. business any more than they are in the fridge business.

I'm not sure I'd pay a $500+ premium just for an AGA badge. Actually I am sure, I definitely wouldn't pay a premium for it at all.

That AGA has ProScrub jets in the back just like the upper end KitchenAids. Also the racking looks very KitchenAid-ish.

Viking dishwashers have a feature that circulates heated air inside the dishwasher. They call it AirFlo Gentle Drying and it comes on the 450E models.

Alex

Here is a link that might be useful: Viking