Vis a vis dishwashers, although possibly not other appliances, Whirlpool now makes Maytag and Kitchenaid. Maytag is supposed to be a lower order of dishwasher whereas Kitchenaid is supposed to be co-equal to Whirlpool. I think that Whirlpool also makes Amana now. GE makes Hotpoint which is considered a lower priced line, although my repairman claims they need fewer repairs than other brands, possibly because they have fewer features to malfunction. It seems that Sears uses different manufacturers for different appliances, so I don't think they are all made by Bosch, although some are. I would like a dishwasher that I don't have to manually clean out the filter on because of both the ick factor and the bad back factor (Bosch seems to require this.). However, many of the better, or at least more expensive ones do not have an automatic disposer in them, thus requiring manual clean-out. This is counter intuitive, but there it is. The GE Profile, which is very highly rated by Consumer Reports, has practically all the features I would like, but GE has recently recalled many of these models and the Consumer Affairs website (which I like to check along with Consumer Reports) is replete with reports of the GE Profile dishwashers spontaneously catching on fire when the machine is not on, and frequently in the middle of the night. It is claimed that water condensation dripping on the electronic control board results in an over heated connector. Although one would hope that GE has rectified this glitch, they recalled as of a week ago, 174,000 dishwashers sold between July 2003 and December 2006. My human dishwasher of 30 years tells me that he refuses to buy a mechanical dishwasher with even a remote chance of burning down the house, regardless of other endearing features. One thing that you can deduce from the Consumer Affairs complaint bureau is that there is no misery greater than an appliance that is a lemon from the day you get it, and that if you are unlucky enough to get one of these, you will be shunned by the manufacturer and lied to by repairmen who tell you you have misused the appliance by having your water too hot. too cold, or too hard, the wrong kind of detergent, or dishes that are not sufficiently dirty. All repairs will cost as much as a new dishwasher. Meanwhile, other people will be deliriously happy with the same appliance. I am paralyzed with indecision. Devon
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