Congratulations on the new machine.  Great price.

FWIW, Consumer Reports rated your KA as "Excellent" for both washing and drying, while a Maytag in the same line as the one you linked ranked "Very Good" for washing and "Excellent" for drying.

The KA is very quiet while the MT has a self-cleaning filter (soft grinder.)  Really comes down to preference on that.

That's what tough about buying major appliances, you'll live with them for years but can't try them out in advance in any meaningful way.  But these are both great machines, it's not like you can go wrong with either.

Looking forward to your report after you get it.

Chet, I have a Kenmore Elite that's 4 years old.  It's produced by KitchenAid.  It has what KitchenAid refers to as the Clean Water Wash System that's on the KA model you are looking at.  In fact, that was the very first KA model to offer the new self-cleaning filter system.  I believe this model came out Spring 2015.  I have hard water and had to have the whole pump module replaced just under the 2 year mark.  Since then I run Lemi-Shine dishwasher cleaner through it about once every 30 loads and use Lemi-Shine detergent booster in the wash dispenser along with my Cascade Platinum pod.  Overall I've been pleased with its performance.  The Lemi-Shine products I use was suggested by the repairman who replaced the pump module 2 years ago.  

I'd been using Affresh that was useless in my hard water.  

Because I'm dealing with hard water, I'm actually considering one of the Bosch Benchmark models with the integral water softener and CrystalDry feature.  

My personal preference is for a DW that doesn't have an exposed heating element. These can melt plastic items on the lower rack. With a Euro design like Bosch or Miele, the heating element is hidden in the sump area, out of sight. It heats the water instead of melting the items in the lower rack. Yes, without a fan you may find a little water on items. That's what clean dish towels are for. No biggie for me. I'd rather sop up a little water with a clean towel than have hard water mineral deposits.

Just my personal preference.

How does the self-cleaning filter actually work?

Both the KA and MT have similar sized motors and neither has a filter that has to be cleaned, however I still prefer the simpler MT pump as it does not have the silly diverter that alternates water flow to the upper or lower wash arm, I would rather have a DW washing everywhere all the time.

John L.

Interesting, thanks for the link.  So the theory of operation is that strategically placed stationary "blades" or "wings" around the filter keep the debris in suspension, not allowing it to stick to the filter so it gets flushed away.

I wondered if it was some complicated design prone to repair but it doesn't look like it.

This was the very first model offered with the Clean Water Wash system almost 5 years ago.  

 KDTM354DSS vs. KDTM354ESS.  Display and software changes I noticed.  The DSS was announced late 2013 or early 2014.  The ESS was brought out spring/summer 2015.  

I'm beginning to think KA is getting ready to refresh their line of dishwashers again.  It's about time they do.  

Joshua, Maytag had a model MDB8989 on their site that's recently been removed.  It didn't have a tiered upper rack and the 3rd rack was some sort of culinary rack--it had two sections that one of which could be removed to accommodate taller items in that part of the upper rack.  I wish Whirlpool would offer that third rack design more often.  3rd racks get in my way putting in and kind of stacking things in the upper rack.  I just have a feeling Whirlpool is getting ready to refresh/offer new models in KitchenAid and Maytag lines.  They're over 5 years old since clean water wash system was introduced.  Offered new pocket door design a year or so ago.  

This talk of the clean wash water system made me wonder about how the Bosch does.  Seems hubby does a lot of the unloading so I haven't really paid that much attention.  In these pics you can see the food soil on the dishes and in the photo of the clean dishes I did my best to photograph the clear water sitting on top of the mason jar.  It was hard to photograph but I guarantee that water looks crystal clear in person.

That's not too bad considering what they looked like at the start.  I used the Heavy wash option with 1/2 of a Miele Tab in the main wash.  Since I had the sudsing issue with the Cascade pods all my research led me to the Miele tabs and I have to say I am really impressed.  I am cutting them in half because we have mechanically softened water and a full one is just too much soap.   I have to say these Miele tabs clean like crazy.  Even the inside of the dishwasher sparkles like it didn't before.  They cost a little more but are worth it.  Cutting them in half makes them really affordable for me.

Hi Joshua, The chopper in a new WP built MT DW will NEVER clog at all in the life of the DW, if you want to be taken seriously as an appliance professional Please don't put crap like that on the internet.

DWs with alternating wash arms have a diverter valve, these often leak on the floor and cause an expensive repair just to save a little bit of noise, not worth it in my experience. I would rather have everything washing all the time.

The most common repair we are doing today on newer filter style DWs are service calls to remove broken glass which is blocking and jamming either the drain pumps or often in the case of Bosch DWs the main pump.

When the customer lifts the filter out to clean you often do not see little pieces of broken glass and it slips into the inlet for either the drain pump or main pump causing almost immediate problems.

While this could happen on models with a grinder we have not seen it yet because they are much better designed to keep large hard objects out of the pumps.

John L.