I got a frididaire gallery with orbit clean from sears last fall in stainless for under $500 after discounts. I can't recall the model number now but you should be able to find that model in black white and stainless. It has cleaned well for me and is very reasonable priced as well as not too noisy you can hear it run if you are in the room but its quiet enough you can talk on the phone directly next to it and they will not know your DW is running on the other end of the phone at all.

That particular KA has a lot of negative feedback, see link below.

It is $675 at AJ Madison right now, so just over $500 from Sears Outlet does not seem like a super bargain. Particularly if out of box or scratch n dent.

SHE3AR55UC is entry level Bosch with SS door and black trim. It gets good reviews and is about $550 at Best Buy.

I would get the Frigidaire Gallery over the other bisque models available from Whirlpool, GE and their corporate twins.

Here is a link that might be useful: LINK

Thanks so much, deeagaux and Mike. I am glad to learn of your experiences, Mike, and those reviews seem frightening (even for on-line reviews).

My sister put the kibosh on a $500 DW, so I guess I am looking at a low-end model anyway....

Frigidaire FFBD2411NQ is in bisque and about $300.

I don't think this is a very good dishwasher but the best in the super low price range.

Finding a beige/biscuit/bisque colored DW is getting difficult as I discovered last summer when I set out to replace one.

As your budget is apparently in the $300 range, I suggest you also look at the Whirlpool WDF300 (or it might be WDF310; I don't specifically recall right now.). A friend bought one from Lowe's or Costco recently and says it has been fine even with her very hard well water. IIRC, it's normal cycle time is around 2.5 hours but I believe it has a "1 hour wash" cycle.

Consumer Reports does annual membership surveys on th the reliability of appliances. The recent results show Whirlpool branded DWs as tied with Bosch and Miele for most reliable (about an 8% defect rate). Curiously, Whirlpool's other brands (including Kitchenaid, Maytag and Amana) run about double that defect rate. Note the current thread here on KA hose-clamps breaking.

Frigidaire runs about a15% defect rate. LG apparently has the worst rate, 20%. GE seems to be mid-pack at around 12%.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Wed, May 29, 13 at 20:09

Thank you, Deeagaux and JWV. You are both very kind.

I decided on the Frigidaire model deeagaux advised, and tracked one down at a Sears Outlet. It was pretty damaged, however, so I took the bisque, low-end Kenmore next to it, instead. From the model number, it is a rebadged Whirlpool, but the exact model (665.15114k211) does not come up in any google search!

Anyway, thank you all for your help. I will install it tomorrow and haul the old one away.

Good to hear you've got this resolved. Please post back to let us know how it works for you. As you doubtless discovered in searching here, there are a lot of discussions about pricier models here and not much about this end of the market. Others will find your report useful.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, May 31, 13 at 13:31

Yes do share not everyone can afford the pricey stuff that is often talked about here. We need more reviews on mid to low end items

I recently returned from a week at my mother's house. I am following up with a report on the low-end Kenmore/Whirlpool that I installed previously, as requested.

I think it is a solid machine that does a fine job of cleaning. It is not quiet, of course. It does not have a lot of bells and whistles, of course. However, the cleaning performance seems adequate; in fact, it seems better than my GE Profile (in which I am a bit disappointed).

Thanks again for your earlier help.