I'd pick the "twins" up every single time. Good luck with your decision. -Before you pull that trigger-Have you taken the time to load in your plates and glasses to make sure they actually really fit in the dishwasher?

I can't imagine with a family of 7 when you'd ever NOT need to run a full load, which is the only reason I could see going with FP.

We were not supposed to replace our 1.5 year old DW. We decided to because with just two of us, we thought the FP DD would be the way to go. However, we learned of Miele here and I do believe that my Miele Dimension is my single most favorite thing in my new kitchen. Ok...tied with my cabinets. But seriously, everything looks brand. new. every. time. It's like magic.

Meile for sure, if the level of the remodel makes that an appropriate choice. But if spending 5K on 2 DW's is out of scale with the rest of the project, there's nothing wrong with a good Kitchenaid and save 3K. You don't have to have ''the best'' in every category in order to have a functional and pleasant kitchen. That's how you end up 20K over budget.

Kiwi - did you ever get to try a miele? As I recall the dealer only had a little 18 incher. If not, maybe a shout out to the group to see if anyone is in your area and has a miele that you can test with a few dishes.

I was sure I wanted F&P until I read the repair rates. This was 4-8 years ago but at the time FP had the worst record running 4times the repair rate of the Miele or Bosch.

I had never even heard of Miele when I started looking.
My newer Miele (4 years old) has the pop open door which helps dry the dishes.

That being said, my first Miele did fail but it was the only appliance that I had an extended warranty and I received a check for the full purchase price. In all fairness - I think it was the local repair company that killed it - they lost their contract with Miele so now Miele sends out really nice and knowledgeable factory reps

Bottom line - love my Miele and you will also.

Hi guys!
practigal (love your name) I have time to see one IRL before we order, but honestly it has been decided that we do not want to make the decision based on our dishes. I love them, but the have drawbacks. They are huge and unwieldy- so much so that my younger kids can't help with the dishes very effectively. I just got out my kitchen scale- each dinner plate weighs 2.5 pounds! Try having a 6 year old put a stack of those away :-)
We've decided to choose the appliance we want, and if it means we buy a set of Corelle too, so be it.

cal-quail- the Dimension is what I really wanted, but I decided that with two dishwashers I can sacrifice some of the interior flexibility and go with the Crystal.

holly, good points all around. The Mieles are a good fit for our house, but you are right: it is VERY easy to fall into the death-by-a-thousand-cuts budget trap.

a2gemini- oh, the pop open door! I really would like a model with that feature, but not in the budget. C'est la vie!

Thank you all so much for your input! I keep thinking how different our house would be without the help of this forum.

Just last week there was this post in the laundry forum "Anything we buy must be well supported by common stores (sears/lowes/home depot) as we live in small town an hour away from big city and already got burned once by terrible service on a failed high end (miele) dishwasher."

No one in your area has a miele? Are you going to be able to get it properly installed? And serviced if necessary? If the answer to those last two questions is not "yes yes no issue" then I recommend reconsidering that purchase of a miele or any other high-end brand with little service in your area. Having to pay for a repairman to come from a distant location is just not interesting.

On a personal note I completely agree with hollysprings advice, I'd rather save that the $3K difference...but I don't actually have the $3K "extra"...that is the only problem with advice on this forum, the people giving the advice are not constrained by your living location or your budget and those things really do matter but only you can determine how much.

I think I've been forgetting that my little saga has been sprinkled across different threads, causing some minor confusion. :-) We DO have a local dealer. However they are remodeling their displays and don't have the new floor models in yet. As far as the "extra 3K." That doesn't really make sense to me as the Crystal model costs about the same as a tricked out KA or Bosch. Unless KA is going to give me a free set (which I would gladly take- hint, hint, Kitchenaid!!!), the numbers don't add up the way holly suggests. Now, if we were talking about two Miele Diamonds, that would be a different story!