Hello- We appreciate your purchase and your feedback and want you to know it is valuable to us. We are happy to help! In regard to the long cycle time, the U.S. Department of Energy, the EPA Energy Star program, and consumer demand has driven dishwasher manufacturers to make dishwashers much more energy and water efficient over the last several years. But there are always tradeoffs to using less energy and water. Longer wash cycles will actually lower the energy consumption. It’s a little counter-intuitive, most people experiencing a long cycle will imagine the power meter spinning out of control. However, the truth is that it’s much more efficient to take less water from the water heater and run the dishwasher longer. The bottom line is that the price of high efficiency is longer wash cycles. The Dry Boost Technology outperforms standard heated-dry dishwashers by getting hard-to-dry items like plastics up to 3 times drier when compared to heated dry. We hope this helps. If you have any questions in the future, please let us know. Thank you!