This house has TWO dishwashers, which is fortunate because one of them has already broken.
There kept being a lot of grit on the dishes, so Paul looked up the dishwasher manual online and found out how to remove the filters, and I was halfway through cleaning the disgusting-but-not-as-bad-as-feared filters in the sink when he discovered a crumbling plastic tube toward the back of the dishwasher. Looking into THAT, he found that it’s a part you can order and replace; all you have to do is turn the dishwasher upside down to get at it. Hm. And if you do it wrong, that’s the part that lets water pour all over the kitchen floor, or else lets it leak slowly for years until the floor rots away.
So. It’s a fairly old dishwasher and we haven’t been particularly happy with it (I STILL haven’t figured out how to load it efficiently), so we’re NOT going to test out our dishwasher-flipping abilities or our new homeowner insurance, and instead we’ll use the other dishwasher (a pain since it’s not in the kitchen, but certainly less of a pain than not having a dishwasher) while we look into replacing this one.
Paul did some research and was all set to order the top-recommended Bosch (not the super expensive one but a more mid-range one) from Consumer Reports when he noticed the reviews were basically split between 5s and 1s: some people love it and others just HATE it. The main complaint from the people who hated it seemed to be related to the racks not fitting dishes well. But the racks are adjustable, and so we’re wondering if the difference could be “people who figured out how to adjust the racks” vs. “people who did not”? And there was also one review that said something about the racks being made for “European-style dishes,” whatever that means, and another that said you really have to read the instruction manual because loading is not intuitive.
Well. I am wondering if you would like to tell me what dishwasher you have and whether or not you like it. I will tell you the one thing I want in a dishwasher: filters that are EASILY-ACCESSED and easy to clean. In our old house, the dishwasher drained into a garbage disposal; in this house, I have no idea where it drains but not through the garbage disposal.
Follow-up: the second dishwasher ran one load of dishes perfectly. Then, with the second load of dishes, it broke.
I don’t much love our dishwasher, but my sister in law just straight up took a set of her dishes to the store and tried them in the dishwashers.
And don’t get one that will turn on by someone leaning against it.
This! Bring your dishes! At least your biggest everyday plate and the most-used bowl style.
I have a Bosch. It fits our dishes much better than the Kenmore we had previously, although (it’s always the right time for a spousal rant, yes?) My husband refuses to take advantage of this.
Specifically our cereal bowls fit all neat and nonwobbly in the front on the right if you put them in so they back up to the dark times. But my husband insists on putting them around the edge of the rack, one bowl deep.
Anyway, the Bosch cleans great and is so quiet people needed to learn to check the light to see whether it’s running.
I have a Bosch model 800 something-or-other from about 7 years ago and it is fantastic.
It is quiet–which was very important to us since our kitchen is close to both our living room and our bedroom. We can mostly only tell it’s on by the red indicator light glowing on the floor. It’s possible that we are also prematurely hard of hearing though, I suppose (we are in our early 40s).
It also does a good job getting dishes clean. I don’t even know if it has a filter. If it does, the lifespan on the filter is greater than 7 years. It has three racks (silverware, upper, and lower). The bottom rack is my least favorite because I feel like the dishes are too close together. Mind you, there is no evidence that they are (always perfectly clean, etc.) I just *feel* like they are.
It was shockingly expensive for a dishwasher but I am so glad we bought it. We haven’t had a single issue with it so far.
My BIL and FIL both have the fancy silent Bosch. The filters are super easy to clean, you just pull out a little basket with a handle that collects food bits and rinse. I find it takes a long time to run a whole cycle though. The top rack on the middle my FIL has is a little shorter than some because the silverware rack is above the top rack so you can’t just throw the silverwear in, it has to be put in one at a time. It works really well though. Talker wine glasses don’t fit on the top rack because of the silverware rack.
We have a ten or so year old Kitchen Aid that is great. But the filter is not easy to clean.
One suggestion I have seen is to take a few of your plates to an appliance store and try out how your dishes fit.
I’m a five review on our Bosch! Highly recommended!! The filter (on our model anyway) is very accessible, just in the bottom of the washer itself. The layout of it is a little funky but once we figured out where our glasses fit easily (sides of the top rack) the rest kind of fell into place, and I don’t think we have “European” dishes.
I’m sure there’s a newer version now 5 years layer, but we loved our KitchenAid 3-level dishwasher with controls built into the top (ie you can’t turn it on by leaning on it). It was quiet, easy to clean, and i loved using the top rack for silverware and other small things and keeping the whole bottom and middle racks open for dishes and glasses. It was especially good for baby items (nipples, sippy cup parts, etc) but we’re beyond that now.
We just got a Miele Futura Classic Plus 3D ( 6 months now). Super happy with it . Easy to load, efficient, easy to clean, quiet. Should last for a long time. (20 years.) This is from an architect with a German husband (read: high standards). We passed on the Bosch because my equally picky brother is not happy with his Bosch.
My parents have a Miele Slimline that is still going strong after 20 years. Some MIele dishwashers have a “cutlery tray” which is SO much better than the typical utensil basket (great for protecting your rainbow utensils!), but I can say from experience that it is very contentious as far was what constitutes the “correct” way to load it.
We have a Miele with a cutlery tray, which we didn’t think we would be crazy about, but it turns out we LOVE it. No more getting stabbed by pokey-outy cutlery as I reach into the dishwasher! More space for the actual dishes!
It also has fairly adjustable racks in a nice “No matter what weird things we’re washing, I can load the dishwasher” way, rather than a “WHY DOES THIS PLASTIC PIECE KEEP COMING OFF” way, which our last dishwasher had.
Also, and the reason we bought it, it opens a crack after the dishes are finished so if you happen to do a load of dishes as you’re walking out the door for a weekend trip, you don’t come back to funky smelling “clean” dishes.
Wholeheartedly recommend the Miele; every time I have to load a different dishwasher, I fall in love with ours all over again.
We love our Miele (with the cutlery tray) too!! We thought the cutlery tray would be a pain in the neck but it’s the BEST!
We have a Fisher & Paykel dishwasher. We practically had to take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for it, but it is a dream. It’s two dish drawers that can run independently of each other. We have a large family (4 kiddos) and so consequently a lot of dishes. I have one of the drawers running almost all the time. It’s great though because we can load one up after every meal and run it. Both drawers are considered top-rack safe which is a plus for us (so. Many. Glasses!) I definitely think it was worth the money.
I had a frigidaire gallery dishwasher that I really liked, but it died a horrible random death one night (something got caught in something moving and even when I got it out it only worked for 5 minutes before that part kept getting hung up again) It got terrible reviews and at the time I didn’t really want to bother. I was all set to buy another one but ended up with a kitchenaid, which I love! The only thing I miss is the top-rack-only cycle which Im pretty sure was available on the next higher model. But I did look at a Bosch before buying the Frigidaire and I was wholly unimpressed, even despite the fact I figured out how to adjust the racks. I think people just like to love Bosch because they just dumped $1200 on a damn appliance that’s going to last 6 years. But lots of people swear by them and I’m sure they work just fine. I just went middle of the road in black and I’m very happy,… and the filter is super easy to clean and rinse, and it seems like it will catch smaller particles. Also you should be rinsing the filter out at least once a week or when you notice a smell or dishes not coming clean or you see debris on top of the grate.
“I think people just like to love Bosch because they just dumped $1200 on a damn appliance that’s going to last 6 years.”
Nope! I love our Bosch because it works so well.
Nope. I’ve had several dishwashers and our Bosch is still my all-time favorite!
Here’s a good article about the differences between the Bosch models: https://blog.designerappliances.com/bosch-dishwasher-review-ascenta-vs-300-vs-500-vs-800-series/
We have a new KitchenAid and I like it OK but one surprisingly annoying feature is that there’s no indication if a person has started a delay-wash cycle. And if you open the door, it interrupts the delay and it won’t start. This is the cause of a number of annoying “the dishwasher didn’t start” moments when a kid or husband opens it after I’ve started it on delay to run overnight. It really, really, really would not have been that hard to have a “on but on delay” indicator light! There’s an indicator for everything else (washing, drying, done).
I loved the little light on the floor from the Bosch when it was running. I miss my Bosh and feel kind of stupid we didn’t get one for this house (it didn’t match the rest of the appliances, but who cares, what was I thinking???).
Oh, and if you are used to an older dishwasher model ALL of the new models take MUCH LONGER to run a cycle. This is due to being more energy/water efficient. But it means that a regular cycle load is THREE HOURS LONG. There are “quick wash” cycles, which I have occasionally used, but mostly I have tried to get into the rhythm of running the dishwasher after dinner at night.
We have the CR recommended Bosch and we love it passionately. In fact, we replaced a broken dishwasher with a Bosch in our previous home, and then when we redid our kitchen in our new place, we purchased the same Bosch. We really do love it. (FWIW, we did not buy the top end Bosch and we still adore it.) The rack adjustment works great for us, the noise level makes us happy, and we have to do less rinsing than with any previous dishwasher we’ve used.
We have a Frigidaire Gallery. I love it. It is my favorite dishwasher we have had. It is not as quiet as it I would like which isn’t a problem for us because of how our house is configured but that might be a deal breaker for someone else. Also, in case it matters, I have 5 kids and we homeschool so I’m feeding 6-7 people 3x/day and I run it at least 2x/day. It is 4 years old and still going strong. I highly recommend it.
Samsung makes terrible dishwashers. We love our whirlpool.
I have a Bosch and I love it so much. So quiet, very easy to clean. The bonus for us is that because it uses condensation drying rather than a heating element, you can put plastic on both racks. The only thing that might take some getting used to with condensation drying is that sometimes when you open the dishwasher things are still slightly damp. We just deal with that by running it after dinner and then opening the door overnight and emptying in the morning.
We bought a Samsung which was absolutely horrible. The dishes came out dirtier than they went in, and when we had a repairman out (twice!) he acknowledged that the dishes were dirty but told us that it was running correctly (????) So then we bought a Bosch which I absolutely love. It has 2 racks, not three, and is so so quiet. Bonus: the dishes come out clean! Highly recommended. And due to our terrible experience with Samsung and their customer service, we will never again buy a Samsung product.
I have the kitchen aid and I can’t explain why, but I HATE it. I actually hate the buttons being on the top. I never know if it’s on, or what cycle it’s on. If I want to check to see if the kids chose the right cycle I have to open it. It gets dirty often. It takes forever to try. It guzzles the jet dry thst I add into it. Seriously a large bottle every single month. The whole thing just…bugs me. I loved my old LG. When we moved my mom raved about her kitchenaid and bought me one. It’s been wrong from day one, but I didn’t know how to return it without offending her so I’ve suffered through the last four years with this thing. Not being able to see the buttons bothers me probably more than it should. But I want to seeeeee. Is it on power wash, did they load it to full capacity and then select “quick rinse”. Did they remember to push the dry cycle? I need to see the buttons.
Me too! I want to see
I have the same problem with our KitchenAid. I’d kill for just a “on but on delay” indicator light.
Hm I can totally see what you mean , but I think it depends on your counters. My house is older and the dishwasher is almost too big for the space, and they cut the counter crooked so half of the top is exposed and I can easily see the little lights. But I don’t like that they are kinda iffy if my hands are wet or if I wipe it off while it’s on. The kids never do dishes so that’s not an issue here. But I did get a chuckle out of keeping it so as to not offend her, because I have lots of things my mom raved about and bought for me that I kinda secretly hate!
We’ve had a Bosch for several years and I love it. It doesn’t get heavy use but we’ve never had a problem with it. Full size plates fit in both top and bottom racks. Quiet and the only filter in ours is a basket you pull out from the “floor.” I think it just covers the drain. Ours is not high-end and does not have a food disposer or whatever they call it in a dishwasher.
I would like to NOT recommend our GE Profile dishwasher. It is only 2.5 years old. I already disliked it (too shallow/doesn’t fit my dishes as well) and that was before I spent many hundreds of dollars over the course of several months to get it working again. Food particles made it through the filter and destroyed the pump resulting in water pouring all over the floor and me hand washing dishes for 6 weeks while we waited on a replacement part. Boo. Hiss. Good luck on your search.
I had a GE Profile washer and dryer. They absolutely sucked. The brand is Never Again for me.
I just replaced a GE dishwasher because somehow food particles made their way through the filter and wound up gumming up and burning out the motor? I don’t fully understand, but I had only had it for 3 years and it would have cost as much to repair it as it had cost in the first place.
We had a top-of-the-line Kitchenaid that I loved but died. I replaced it with a similar model that all of the salespeople assured me was “the best” and it is absolutely terrible. Doesn’t clean dishes well at all, the racks are wobbly/breaking, etc. I like seeing these reviews because maybe next time we will go with a Bosch!
We have a Maytag that we bought like 5 years ago and that I still love. It’s not. silent, but we can run it in the kitchen and watch t in the dining room and it’s fine. It has a garbage disposal built in ((I didn’t realize that and thought it was broken when I first heard it). My friend used to work in an appliance store, and her recommendation was to get one with a metal interior because it gets hotter inside than the plastic ones. i’ve always been happy with how ours cleans, as long as we get decent (not generic) soap packets.
I liked the cheap-ish Maytag I bought for our last house before we put it on the market. The appliance guy at Home Depot recommended it & said it worked like a much more expensive model. We did not have any features like a 3rd rack, but it was a good dishwasher (we didn’t have it for long, though, but I liked it for those couple of months).
So our local appliance store people say hands down kitchen aid or Bosch in terms of lasting a long time, or at least a reasonable length of time. We bought a kitchen aid for our last house and also a kitchen aid for this house and have been happy. My mom has a Bosch that has been good. At the store, they told me that the average dishwasher only lasts 7 years which is insane to me. I’d much rather pay more and hope to get more years out of it than that. Fingers crossed we will!! If you have any local appliance stores, I think that is the place to go…support local business plus generally deal with knowledgeable folks!
We have the Bosch SBE46MX00G model which is as quiet and efficient as others have said. I love the third, top rack for cutlery as it frees up more space on the bottom rack. It also has a useful light that it shines on the floor to show that it’s operating and is easy to clean. The main reason that I chose this one though is that it has an extra 5cm or so of interior height which allows for the washing of taller plates/platters/trays etc – it doesn’t sound much, but it can make all the difference.
Super happy with our Bosch. It the smallest standard sized model and can still fit an entire dinner party’s worth of dishes/glasses no problem.
Ugh…we were talked into a Bosch and I HATE it. TBH my primary complaint is that ours has no disposal…HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!!?!?…guess which spouse talked to the salesperson, and which spouse loads 90% of the dishes?! I have spent a lot of time arranging the tines and things and the bottom rack just does not handle our Crate and Barrel bowls and plates well. I will say it is a VERY quiet dishwasher. But I will not be buying another Bosch. My family won’t treat the one we have correctly, and it’s harder and slower to get a tech to repair it when needed, as compared to our old Maytag…which was also quiet.
Very few dishwashers have disposals anymore. We looked for that feature and there was only one model between 5 stores and every brand possible (and that one got horrible reviews). The sales guys all said it’s because people value quiet dishwashers and disposals make them loud.
Well crud. I do not know anything about our dishwasher’s filters. I will tell you about it anyway, just in case.
We were supposed to get a Bosch, and, in fact, bought one. But the people who owned our house prior to us installed the dishwasher and THEN the tile, so we did not have as much height as we thought we did. So we had to exchange the Bosch for the Kitchenaid.
It is a Kitchenaid, this model: KDTE-254-ESS1
Things I like: It is VERY quiet. We have an open floor plan and you can be in the living room part and not notice it’s going. I know Bosch are supposed to be the quietest but ours is really very quiet. The top rack is adjustable. There is a top-most rack for flatware, which I was wary of but actually turn out to like quite a lot. It has lots of fun settings, like “rinse only” and “tough” and “high temp rinse” and “sani wash.” We have only ever used two — normal and “express wash” — but it’s nice to know I could use the others if I needed them. And I like the express wash — it’s an eco friendly washer, so it takes forever… but you can do the express wash and your dishes are clean in about 30 minutes. You can do a delay, so it will wash the dishes overnight. It has an “add dish” feature, so you can open it mid cycle and put in that glass you forgot about. I think it does its job well — I have never had to rewash something or complained about streaky glasses. It was much less expensive than the Bosch. It’s easy to load and you can fit a wide variety of things in it. I put in stemmed wine glasses, vases, cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc. all without problem. It gives a gentle beep when it’s done washing, but doesn’t bother you. OH! And all the controls are hidden on the top, so you see a smooth exterior, which I kind of like. There is a little light on the exterior that is red when the dishwasher is going and white when it’s clean, so you can tell what’s happening. But there’s no control panel on the front, which is aesthetically pleasing to me.
Things I don’t like: When you adjust the top rack down, so it fits larger things, the bottom rack no longer fits a dinner plate. (The spinner hits the plates.) That annoys me. The top silverware rack is FINE, but the prongs that keep the silverware apart from one another aren’t very tall. The Bosch one had taller prongs. So you can’t easily put something with a flat handle — like a measuring spoon — in there; it falls over and inevitably with the bowl up so then it is full of water at the end of the cycle. Not the end of the world but it annoys me.
Other things: The inside is stainless steel instead of plastic, which I think speaks to durability but I wasn’t paying THAT much attention.
Result: Would definitely recommend. I am still irritated that we didn’t get our tall-prong Bosch, but honestly, that’s my biggest complaint about this dishwasher. The rest of the time, I quite like it.
This is more words than I ever thought I’d write about a dishwasher. Good luck finding yours!
We have had two Bosch dishwashers over the past twenty years and we have loved them. We only had to buy the second one because we moved and had to buy a new one for our new house. I think it is worth it to buy the top of the line model too.
Our Frigidaire dishwasher just died 3 days ago and we’ve ordered a Miele classic. I was very happy with the Frigidaire and it cleaned really well but was a bit loud. It was in the house when we bought it so I don’t know how old it was but I think it lasted really well.
The Miele comes highly recommended. I don’t want a third tray, I wanted the cutlery basket (one reason: we like to remove it and let the kids put the silverware away) so we are getting a basic model. Apparently Bosch parts are now made in various parts of the world and standards have fallen a bit whereas Miele is still 100% German made (so I was told). Also, it helped that it was $400 off right now. We shall see how I actually like it when it gets installed this week.
Good luck!
FWIW, I’ve had a Miele vacuum cleaner around 10 years and it is amazing. Miele wasn’t carried by our local dealers, otherwise I would’ve looked into a Miele dishwasher. I am as obsessed with our vacuum as one can possibly be!
I recently (a year ago) bought the lower-mid end Bosh dishwasher. Like $7-$800 one. Not the one with the third rack. And I see what people say about the racks not being the best for dishes, but I don’t really care. I like it a lot. And it has a 30 minute wash option, so I don’t feel bad about running it more often. It fits plenty of my dishes to be reasonably full.
I got a Bosch SHXM63WS5N a few months ago and love it like a third child. My favorite has been the 3rd rack for utensils on the top – SO much better than the typical baskets.
We have a mid-range Bosch and are really happy with it.
It did take a little getting used to loading (with the third rack) but ours has the third rack AND an optional silverware basket – so we use the basket for flatware and the top rack for weird things like spatulas and sippy cup lids and toddler utensils.
The only thing I don’t love about it is that it seems to use A TON of rinse aid. I feel like I’m always refilling it! But it’s quiet, fits a lot of stuff, everything is super clean and the filter basket is easy to access.
Bosch 800 series is awesome – zero complaints and we are about to buy our second (following a move) even though current dishwasher is theoretically fine. We miss the cutlery tray, quiet, and excellent performance.
I love my mid range Bosch, bought it twice -at old house and new house. We did have to buy new bowls when we got it the first time. The old ones just DID NOT FIT, no matter what we tried. They were heavy Pfaltzgraff ceramic bowls. It was fine – $30 in bowls was worth it. Everything else is amazing.
We have a newish KitchenAid dishwasher and I hate it. Dishes don’t fit in it well, and it doesn’t dry unless you hit the Pro Dry button – but if you do you can’t put anything prone to melting (like baby bottle nipples) in the top little tray. We learned this the hard way several times. In our old house we had a much less fancy Maytag, which I loved.
Ha. The pro dry doesn’t work either. Not even with a gallon of jet dry.
We bought the 800-series Bosch almost five years ago and if it broke tomorrow I’d have a new one installed before sundown. It is the single best appliance I have ever owned. It’s ridiculously quiet. It has no heating element so you can put even cheap plastic on the bottom rack and it won’t warp or melt. I’ve never had to run a single dish through a second cycle because everything comes out flawlessly clean. And I am not a religious pre-rinser. I can fit all the dishes required to prep, cook, and eat a meal for my family of five in a single load without breaking a sweat (our model has the third rack). I read reviews that say the dishes come out damp but I’ve always used the rinse aid and leave the door closed until the cycle ends and I’ve never seen anything more than maybe a little puddle left on the recessed top of a drinking glass. I give it all the stars.
Living in Germany myself, I really do wonder what European-style dishes are supposed to be. I haven‘t really noticed any differences so far…
I think plates are smaller – probably bowls too.
I have had 2 family members by Bosch dishwashers (mid-range probably) and both broke spectacularly to the point they said never again for the brand. I have a mid-range Whirlpool and I like the adjustability of the racks and other pieces (easy), the upper and lower sprayers, the wash options, the button placement (on top), and the fact that it is QUIET (my kitchen is open to my family room).
I have a Frigidaire Gallery that works great. I can hear it if I’m standing in the kitchen, but otherwise can’t. I don’t clean the filter often, but I have done it and it was easy. I also had a problem with spotty dishes after teaching my 8 year old to run it, but we realized she was using too much soap. A quick clean of the residue and showing her how much to use and it was fine again.
Swistle, I have a Miele and not only does it have an easily-removable filter for cleaning, but it also has a reminder system to alert you to do so. It also reminds you to fill that rinse aid thing, which is a thing I would never remember to do otherwise. It has a cutlery rack and since having one, I can never go back to the basket type. It is just fabulous. I would highly recommend it. We installed it when we last reno-ed our kitchen in 2012, and never have had an issue *knock on all the wood*
We replaced our dishwasher in our previous house with a Bosch and missed it TERRIBLY when we moved. When we redid the kitchen in the new house, you know we got a new one and we love it.
We bought a dishwasher in haste last year because the one that came with the house broke the day we moved in. The one that was there was fairly new, but the previous owners had no water treatment system in place and the well water was corrosive. (We tested it and knew that going in, but didn’t expect the dishwasher to die on Day 1. Or the clothes washer to die two weeks later. It was an expensive month for large appliances.)
Our dishwasher is a Bosch Ascenta. It’s mostly good. Sometimes it doesn’t start despite all the buttons being pushed, but it’ll start on redo. I still can’t tell if the problem is user error or if it’s actually a problem with the dishwasher. It does a good job of cleaning the dishes, though, and the filter is pretty accessible. We have standard America-purchased Corelle dishes, and it never occurred to me to think about their size—everything fits just fine. The racks have a ton of adjusting options, but we arrived at our everyday setup pretty quickly and don’t mess with it.
One odd “avoiding a daily annoyance” thing we did factor into the purchase was the size of the holes in the silverware rack—some brands have holes that are too small to fit the bases of our silverware. I don’t think our silverware is unusually big, but it’s one of those things that would have made me crazy, so I’m glad I checked it. I don’t love our silverware, but I also don’t want to have to replace it.
We’ve been in our house for 8.5 years and had to replace our fridge and our dishwasher. My husband is very good about the researching and we chose LG. Very happy both times.
Dishwashers have filters? S**t. And here I thought I’d finally gotten the hang of being an adult.
Oh, I love this topic. I have a Bosch silence plus dBA. Since II have had my fair share of dishwashers, I can tell you without a doubt that this is the best dishwasher EVER. I have either had terrible luck, or crappy brands. This one is a total winner! I was hesitant about the top rack for silverware, but I do like it. It is quiet, it cleans great, and it has a filter that can be removed and cleaned super easily. (Like Rachel above, I did not know that a dishwasher had a filter and it recently gave us a code and it was beacuse the filter was totally gross. Oops. Rachel’s ‘gotten the hang of being an adult’ comment made me chuckle!)
Because we have a large family, when we added on to our kitchen we installed two dishwashers side by side. My other dishwasher is a Thermador. I don’t think it is as high end as my Bosch. Thermador makes Bosch, so to me it is like having 2 awesome dishwashers. The Thermador came with the appliance package so it is mid-range and has a removable silverware basket. Because I like a challenge, I try to get by with only loading/running one dishwasher a night- the Bosch – unless we have a party or I have done a ton of cooking/baking.
My dishwasher loading obsessiveness makes Coach crazy. I just know that there is a way to fit more, so why not load more? In fact, I think I will blog about that on my blog right now because Coach got ticked at me the other night for rearranging the already loaded dishwasher. Anyone else struggle with rearranging a poorly loaded dishwasher? Or is it just me?
No, it’s not just you – it makes me irrationally and legitimately furious when people don’t load correctly. The nesting of bowls and the not arranging like with like sends me nuts. First world problem and all that, but still!
Definitely not you. The only thing that bothers me more than a badly loaded dishwasher is when everything gets stacked up for ME to load.
It especially bothers me when the top rack is loaded poorly, because we go through a lot of cups, glasses, and mugs on a daily basis. Poor loading means either a reorg or hand-washing what didn’t make it in. And the whole point of the dishwasher is to minimize the hand-washing.
I love my Bosche. It’s quiet, has lasted forever (8 years) with no problems. The cutlery rack makes it so easy to unload the silverware. And I love love love the 30 minute cycle…if we have a dinner party we load it before dessert…unload it and run another load after dessert. We have no problem with our dishes fitting…racks are versatile.
We have a Siemens dishwasher – I can’t remember the model, but it has a stainless steel finish (if that helps at all). It is a great dishwasher – filters are easy to reach and clean and I find it can easily pack and handle pretty much anything I need to wash. The top rack is for cutlery only with sides sections that can drop down slightly for things that require more depth than a knife or for (like serving spoons etc.). The middle rack is perfect for glasses, cups, mugs, smaller bowls etc. The bottom rack deals effortlessly with dishes, bowls and even my biggest pot. The machine itself also has a couple of extra settings which help tailor the cycles to the temperature and duration that I want. Love this machine.
One vote for how wonderful it is to have the very top shelf for silverware… frees up space below and I love not having the silverware basket. We have a Bosch and it fits all different type of dishes.
My whirlpool has a filter that’s easy to reach, on the “floor” of the washer. It has struggled with our mineral-rich city water. I feel like everybody hates their dishwasher because they’re hard to engineer!
We have had a Bosch for the last 3ish years, and I love it. It has taken me a little while to learn how to load it well, and I do think that if you have thicker, heavier dishes (like Pfaltzgraff stoneware), it might be annoying. The tines for the plates are pretty close together. We recently bought new dishes, and they are thinner–kind of like Corelle, but not Corelle–and they fit the dishwasher much better. The dishwasher works like a charm, and I love the 3rd rack at the top for silverware or cooking utensils or sippy cup lids. My mom also just purchased a Bosch, and she loves the quietness of it and how well it cleans.
I recommend buying a costco dishwasher because they’re so easy to return for a full cash refund if you hate it.
I have a terrible GE dishwasher that is 15 years old, that still works somewhat acceptably. Every few months, we need to use the wet vac to suck the crud out of the middle of it (have yet to figure out how to access the underside of the filter, so this works for us- dump hot soapy water into it, let it soak and then suck it out). I dump half a bottle of lime away into it every 6 months or so, and run it through a super hot cycle. I did have to replace the bottom rack when all of the wheels fell off, and replacement wheels are awful.
We bought the more expensive Bosch for straight-up looks when we remodeled our kitchen last year. Best decision ever. It is so quiet you have to check for the light to make sure it is running and your dishes get cleaner if you rinse them less. Yay! I love it.
This is an interesting point – I always notice when watching US-based films and programmes that people in kitchen scenes practically wash-up by hand before putting them in the dishwasher. It drives me mad as an example of a waste of time and water and it’s always made me wonder whether your dishwashers or plumbing are so much more delicate/temperamental than usual that they can’t cope with normal soiling!
I think a lot of people learned to do that back in the day when dishwashers didn’t actually wash that well (like, the 60s and 70s), and they passed the habit on to their children.
It’s a particular problem when people don’t read the effing manual, which effing tells you to scrape but not rinse.
It is possible that I have quizzed my husband on the topic: “This is a dishwasher. CAN YOU GUESS WHAT IT DOES?”
I mean, the guy loves the 60-minute cycle, which uses more water (which is why I object). If you’re going to waste water on the cycle, could you at least not waste water before the cycle starts.
Alternative explanation: Movies and TV do it because it’s a homey scene for dialogue, and real people don’t actually do it. Sort of like real people actually eat entire meals, put their dishes in the dishwasher, and then go do whatever.
I’m on my second Bosch in just a few years (we moved, first Bosch is still going).
Feature I LOVE is the third rack. Great for travel mug lids, big knives, or put your silverware up top and make more room on bottom rack. I can’t live without this.
We also do not rinse dished with the Bosch. Comes out super clean anyway so saves water and time.
Lastly all dishwashers these days are really quiet. Don’t let small decibel differences drive buying decisions.