General summary:This is my two-month review. I've now washed 40 loads and can say with confidence that this dishwasher is great! It fits an entire day's worth of dishes from our family of three, including usually having room for a mixing bowl, a pan lid, or some tupperware along with the usual plates, bowls, cups, and cutlery.On dishwasher placement in the kitchen:We have limited counter space, so I originally set the dishwasher up on a wood kitchen cart that we had laying around, but I have since switched over to a metal kitchen prep table with dimensions of 24" W x 20" D x 36" H (also purchased from Amazon) to better approximate the height of our counters. Would definitely recommend this for others who have more floor space than counter space available.On dishes selection:If you are buying this around the same time you're buying your dishes, there are some things to know about what dishes you should buy. This does not fit the XL (10.5") corelle plates in an upright position, so if you want to use them they have to be put in at an angle which takes up more space. We retired our 10.5" plates and switched to all 8.5" corelle dinner plates, which fit beautifully! If you have really thick handled cutlery, you will not be able to use the spacer flap on the cutlery basket. (The spacer part does flip down so that it's an open basket, but you lose the option to keep all of your cutlery upright for maximum cleaning.) The second level lean-in rack on the left of the dishwasher fits teacups (we have the vintage corelle ones) and short mason jars. It probably would fit cappuccino cups, as well. But if you don't have short cups, you can lift it out of the way and put taller dishes underneath. I think you could put spatulas on it, too, but mine are usually very caked with food and so I put them in the main rack with the other dishes to be closer to the sprayer arms.On detergent:We've been using Finish Powerball Quantum dishwasher detergent packs, and all of our dishes have come out immaculately clean. I have not pre-rinsed a single dish, and we've washed may with caked on / dried out pasta sauce, refried beans, and eggs. I have not used rinse aid or anything else-- just a single pod does the job of both as far as I can tell. (I do remove debris from the plates that is larger than a pea, just for the sake of the filter not getting clogged prematurely.) One time I did not pay attention to the spacer flap on the cutlery basket sticking out, and I think it blocked the detergent door from opening all of the way. The contents of the pod were still partially in the detergent slot, but the dishes came out clean so I think enough soap did make it into the load. This has not happened again since I learned to keep the flap all the way up or down on the basket.On general operation:I have only run the machine on the standard settings. Basically you run the hot water at your faucet long enough to clear the cold water sitting in your pipes (you should actually do this with all dishwashers to optimize your pre-clean cycle), then turn the faucet off. Attach the hose to your faucet, turn the hot water back on all of the way, plug the dishwasher in to your outlet, press the power button, and then press the play button. It will run for 1:50 minutes (there is a countdown so you know how much time is left) and it beeps when it's done. If you need to use the faucet while the dishwasher is connected to your faucet, you can press the red bypass button and hot water from the faucet will be released out of the bottom of the quick-connect.Conclusion:10/10 I would buy this dishwasher again. This is life changing as an apartment dweller. Honestly if we ever bought a house with a larger kitchen, I would consider installing one of these permanently behind a cabinet for small loads. The only thing this machine lacks is the ability to wash giant baking sheets or very oversized pots, simply due to the maximum size limits of being a portable dishwasher.