My two cents:
At this point in the game, I would try very hard to buy a dishwasher with a built-in water softener if you can, particularly if you have hard water piped to the dishwasher. Several brands, including Bosch and F&P sell them. I am not exactly sure how much more a model with a built-in softener costs, but in my area the water hardness varies throughout the year (from nearly 0 to 4 or 6 grains/gallon) depending on where they source the water from, and even at that low water hardness (people often say that is "soft" water) the automatic built-in water softener means I've never experienced any troubles with the "old" formulas that had phosphate, nor did I notice anything when they changed the formulas to the "hobbled" ones to piss off the population and I had no trouble either with the new(er) formulas (the ones where they finally decided that having detergent in the dishwasher detergent was OK). The "new" "16X" or whatever they print on the package formulas have been cleaning even better now than any other formulas, but the fact that the machine always used soft(ened) water never caused problems and has always helped.
In my experience, it's always helpful to get three copies of each dish/tableware you expect to run thru the machine, and bring them to a dealer, try to load them in the dishwasher. I used to have a Bosch dw that I really liked, and I expected to get another one when it came time to shop for a dw, but they had changed the racks such that I'd have to either buy new dishes or not be able to load as much, which was undesirable. I've learned the "bring 3 copies" because I had foolishly brought only one copy with me a few years before, and, while it looked like I could fit say, bowls, in the rack of the particular machine I bought, it was only when I got it home and installed that I learned that, yes, one bowl would fit, but if you wanted to put more than one close together, you wouldn't be able to, you had to leave an empty slot or two between them, which severely lowered the capacity of the machine for whatever the trouble dish(es) was/were.
As for the Fisher&Paykel dw, I find it an intriguing approach, and I know a lot of people who have or had one and like them just fine. I am particularly attracted to the idea of loading delicate/less soiled dishes in one drawer and heavy soiled/pots&pans in the next one. And I also like the idea of loading one machine while the other is working or has the clean dishes.
The problems I've heard some, by far not all people, had, seem to me to be linked to the lid. One would think that if you can put dishes and slide the drawer closed, you wouldn't have any problems with the lid closing the top of the tank and running the cycle. That is a very "engineer-like" mindset, I've found out, and people like that (including me) apparently aren't nearly as creative as people in general, because either the dishes find a way to shift themselves or people are really cramming things there and forcing the stuff inside as they "shut" the drawer, because then something is above the top of the drawer and jamming the lid, which can't close. Even that seems to be easy to fix, if one is OK with the floor getting wet, which should not be a problem in a kitchen, but many people have floors (cork or wood, for example) which deteriorate under a lot of spilled water.
I guess it also depends a lot on mindset -- one of my friends, who dragged me to the store with him and wife to help choose a new machine, brought with them a giant cutting board or cookie sheet, I can't remember now, 20 years later, and was adamant that any machine they bought had to fit that thing, instead of buying a machine which would be best for everything else and wash that one thing by hand. I kind of understand, because I also dislike hand washing stuff, but I am OK with running multiple cycles until everything is clean, and he was not, so, to fit that one giant thing, he picked a machine that could fit fewer dishes because of the rack layout and he ended up doing more dishes by hand. Oh, well. Anyway, if someone wants to fit very large cookie sheets and/or cutting boards, the drawers may or may not be able to fit them, particularly if you are not OK with laying them horizontally on top of the plates or some other arrangement.
In any case, in my experience, many people I know were happy with both Bosch and F&P, provided their dishes fit the racks.
Good luck!
At this point in the game, I would try very hard to buy a dishwasher with a built-in water softener if you can, particularly if you have hard water piped to the dishwasher. Several brands, including Bosch and F&P sell them. I am not exactly sure how much more a model with a built-in softener costs, but in my area the water hardness varies throughout the year (from nearly 0 to 4 or 6 grains/gallon) depending on where they source the water from, and even at that low water hardness (people often say that is "soft" water) the automatic built-in water softener means I've never experienced any troubles with the "old" formulas that had phosphate, nor did I notice anything when they changed the formulas to the "hobbled" ones to piss off the population and I had no trouble either with the new(er) formulas (the ones where they finally decided that having detergent in the dishwasher detergent was OK). The "new" "16X" or whatever they print on the package formulas have been cleaning even better now than any other formulas, but the fact that the machine always used soft(ened) water never caused problems and has always helped.
In my experience, it's always helpful to get three copies of each dish/tableware you expect to run thru the machine, and bring them to a dealer, try to load them in the dishwasher. I used to have a Bosch dw that I really liked, and I expected to get another one when it came time to shop for a dw, but they had changed the racks such that I'd have to either buy new dishes or not be able to load as much, which was undesirable. I've learned the "bring 3 copies" because I had foolishly brought only one copy with me a few years before, and, while it looked like I could fit say, bowls, in the rack of the particular machine I bought, it was only when I got it home and installed that I learned that, yes, one bowl would fit, but if you wanted to put more than one close together, you wouldn't be able to, you had to leave an empty slot or two between them, which severely lowered the capacity of the machine for whatever the trouble dish(es) was/were.
As for the Fisher&Paykel dw, I find it an intriguing approach, and I know a lot of people who have or had one and like them just fine. I am particularly attracted to the idea of loading delicate/less soiled dishes in one drawer and heavy soiled/pots&pans in the next one. And I also like the idea of loading one machine while the other is working or has the clean dishes.
The problems I've heard some, by far not all people, had, seem to me to be linked to the lid. One would think that if you can put dishes and slide the drawer closed, you wouldn't have any problems with the lid closing the top of the tank and running the cycle. That is a very "engineer-like" mindset, I've found out, and people like that (including me) apparently aren't nearly as creative as people in general, because either the dishes find a way to shift themselves or people are really cramming things there and forcing the stuff inside as they "shut" the drawer, because then something is above the top of the drawer and jamming the lid, which can't close. Even that seems to be easy to fix, if one is OK with the floor getting wet, which should not be a problem in a kitchen, but many people have floors (cork or wood, for example) which deteriorate under a lot of spilled water.
I guess it also depends a lot on mindset -- one of my friends, who dragged me to the store with him and wife to help choose a new machine, brought with them a giant cutting board or cookie sheet, I can't remember now, 20 years later, and was adamant that any machine they bought had to fit that thing, instead of buying a machine which would be best for everything else and wash that one thing by hand. I kind of understand, because I also dislike hand washing stuff, but I am OK with running multiple cycles until everything is clean, and he was not, so, to fit that one giant thing, he picked a machine that could fit fewer dishes because of the rack layout and he ended up doing more dishes by hand. Oh, well. Anyway, if someone wants to fit very large cookie sheets and/or cutting boards, the drawers may or may not be able to fit them, particularly if you are not OK with laying them horizontally on top of the plates or some other arrangement.
In any case, in my experience, many people I know were happy with both Bosch and F&P, provided their dishes fit the racks.
Good luck!
