The Dishwasher is dead. Long live the Dishwasher.
Each big appliance
Treats you with defiance,
Until it finally falls apart.
-- Here's To The Crabgrass by Alan Sherman
When we moved into this house we bought several new appliances. In the first few years we replaced a couple more. The one thing that has lasted, perhaps beyond all reason, was the dishwasher that came with the place. It was the odd black appliance in a kitchen of white-painted cabinetry. Some considerable time ago it started making 'bearing is going' noises, and the advice was to be ready to replace it, but run it into the ground and get every wash cycle we could out of the thing. We did. Yesterday morning we were going let it run while we went out for breakfast, but it didn't run. It didn't make the sound(s) we've come to expect, nor did it operate. It made some sound, sure, but it was clearly no longer working.
As I had the night off, we went out to look at new dishwashers despite the late (for me) time of noon. The advice we were given regarding this was to look for a stainless steel interior, and pay the installation fee so others could deal with transport and install hassles - including the removal and disposal of the old machine. There is, really, only one appliance dealer in town we really consider (there is a micro-Sears in our mall-oid, and maybe something else, but not really worth bothering with) and so we started - and ended - there.
We looked over the lineup and settled on what seems to be a, and perhaps the, top of the line Maytag. It's still not as expensive as others (such as Whirlpool) and has all the features we wanted and likely more. We could get it in white to match the kitchen, it has a stainless steel interior, the controls are on the front (rather than the top of the door, where they're hidden - which might look nice, but means a lack of indicators and ready control accessibility), the top rack is height adjustable, and various rack bits can fold out of the way for things. There's even a near autoclave-like option for sterilization - something I doubt we'll be using much, if indeed at all, but it's there.
I have next Wednesday night off, too, which is good as the soonest they can deliver and install is Wednesday afternoon. That also gives us some time to clean up the kitchen so we can move the table out to give the installers room to move things out and in. In the meantime, it's back to hand washing everything. There have been some things that I've always hand washed, but it was so nice to let a machine deal with most things. Naturally, I am looking forward to Wednesday night when I can again let a machine deal with most things.