Best dishwashers for after the holiday feast

Before your holiday guests are even out the door, you'll be thinking about the looming cleanup. Most dishwashers today can accommodate 12 or more place settings, but with a larger crowd, you'll need to get creative. And if you're buying a dishwasher at the last minute, you'll want a model that offers the latest conveniences and washes without the need for repeated cycles. Here are a few from our list of dishwasher picks that should help you enjoy the get-together, too:

KitchenAid KDTM354DSS, $1,200
Besides stellar washing and drying, this KitchenAid keeps the noise down if you need to run the dishwasher while conversing with guests nearby. How? It has a self-cleaning, ultrafine filter that breaks food particles down throughout the cycle without noisy grinding. The dishwasher overall was pretty quiet. If you need extra flexibility for fitting odd-sized items, you can adjust the upper rack and tines. Like all these dishwashers, it has delayed start. One caveat: Its lack of a time-remaining display makes it hard to time a long cycle if you want to unload the dishwasher before guests show up.

Kenmore Elite 12793, $1,050
Besides top-notch performance, this Kenmore offers an industry first: a motorized spray arm that reverses direction should a utensil fall through the racks, blocking the arm's rotation and interfering with thorough washing. As with the KitchenAid you get an adjustable upper rack and tines, but here you can raise or lower the rack using only one hand. Alas, other models dried better—and there's no time-remaining display.

Bosch Ascenta SHX3AR7[5]UC, $730
This Bosch conventional dishwasher delivers top washing performance, including very good drying, for a very competitive price. It also has an adjustable upper rack and tines. To keep the noise down, there's a manual-clean filter. On the minus side, this model doesn't display remaining cycle time.

Bosch 500 Series SHP65T55UC, $900
Top-notch washing, drying, and quiet operation are chief strengths of this Bosch. In addition to the adjustable rack tines that all these models have, the Bosch has a third rack you can use for large utensils, a grater, and other low-height items you find hard to fit elsewhere. This model also lacks cycle-time display, but it at least projects a red dot on the floor so you know the machine is running.

Dishwasher strategies

Invariably, you'll want to wash and stow as many items as possible before the doorbell even rings. A few other strategies to consider:

Load it up smartly. Even if you usually get away with putting items into the dishwasher any which way, the jig is up—you won't get away with it this time. For a few practice loads before the crowd shows, try loading dishes, glasses, utensils, and other items the way your owner's manual recommends. There are many general rules, but loading differs by where your machine's sprays are situated.

Try out quick-wash cycles. Several of our recommended washers have some form of quick wash. At their shortest, a half-hour quick wash could handle a lightly soiled load—running over a break between dinner and dessert. A few one-hour cycles throw more water and energy at the load to do roughly the same cleaning in a fraction of the time.

Consider some hand-washing. If you hosted a large crowd, you might not be able to fit so many dishes and glasses and a pot you used for sauce or gravy. Why not take a quick break and wash that one by hand?

The perennial worry at this time of year is that appliances, like many other products, tend to fail while they're working the hardest. If your dishwasher seems to be going out with 2014, see our dishwasher Ratings of 190 models we've tested. If it's been years since you last shopped for a dishwasher, check our buying guide first.

—Ed Perratore (@EdPerratore on Twitter)