Consumer Reports' best dishwashers of 2014

By this point in the year, with holiday entertaining behind you, you're either thrilled with your dishwasher's ability to keep up with you or ready to disconnect it and wheel it to the curb in the hope it will take the hint. Still, you don't want to start washing by hand again. Here are some of the best from Consumer Reports' dishwasher tests, in a variety of price ranges:

$1,000 or more

Our top-Rated dishwasher, the KitchenAid KDTM354DSS, $1,200, delivered stellar washing and drying and has a self-cleaning, ultrafine filter that breaks food particles down without the noisy grinding of the usual self-cleaning filters. The product overall runs pretty quietly. If you need extra flexibility for fitting odd-sized items, you can adjust the upper rack and tines. One caveat: There's no time-remaining display to say how long until it's finished. In our tests, a normal cycle took 125 minutes and used only about 4 gallons of water.

$800 to $1,000

Top-notch washing, drying, and quiet operation are chief strengths of the Bosch 500 Series SHP65T55UC, $900. Besides an adjustable rack and tines, it 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 projects a red dot onto the floor while the machine is running.

$600 to $800

The Bosch Ascenta SHX3AR7[5]UC, $730 delivers top-notch 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.

$400 to $600

Top-notch washing, drying, and efficiency come at a bargain price with the $450 Kenmore 13202, so long as you're okay with a little more noise and a plodding cycle time. You get a soil sensor, no guarantee with a low-cost dishwasher, and a time-remaining display. Flexibility options include delayed start, ample flatware slots, and an adjustable upper rack and tines. Controls are all visible, the tub is plastic, and you'll need to clean the filter manually, which you might prefer over the noise of a self-cleaning filter. A normal cycle took 155 minutes and used about 5 gallons of water in our tests.

$400 and less

The well-priced GE GDF510PGD, $350, similar to the tested GE GDF520PSD[SS], $500, did very well, though you can get even better overall performance for the same money or a little more—and a faster normal cycle than 2 ½ hours. It was impressive in our wash test, which uses a full load of very dirty items, and was energy-efficient. It did especially well at drying plastic items and was fairly quiet, too. A normal cycle used about 5 gallons of water in our tests.

Whichever you choose, you don't want to arrive at the store unprepared—particularly if it's been years since you bought a dishwasher. Take a look at our dishwasher buying guide before plunging into our Ratings of 190 models.

—Ed Perratore (@EdPerratore on Twitter)