I Hate My Dishwasher

We bought a new dishwasher a couple years ago when our Whirlpool one bit the dust. This is the third new dishwasher we've purchased in 30 years (our first two were very second hand ones). Up until now they've all been pretty decent until the water pump failed or some such thing happened. This one has been a clunker from the beginning. Oh it runs just fine (at least the water goes through it just fine -I'm not sure what anyone else's definition of runs is), it simply doesn't live up to the promises made for it.

This was supposed to be the dishwasher that you didn't need to pre-rinse the dishes beforehand. It has turned out to be the dishwasher that really wants you to wash the dishes before you put them in it. It was supposed to handle pots and particles of food. It doesn't, or at least not consistantly.

Yet again this morning I opened the dishwasher and discovered that all the glasses had crud on them. We aren't talking water spots here, folks, we are talking crusted on food. Ditto for the mugs. I can't even figure out what was in the dishwasher that caused the crud. I had pre-soaked the one pot that went in and there were only a few plates and bowls, most of which had been pre-rinsed. Someone may have put a crud laden serving spoon in when I wasn't looking. I just don't know.

Now the big problem here is that my family has grown accustomed to dishwashers that do the job they are supposed to, not to finicky prima donnas like this one. So they DON'T rinse their dishes and they DO occasionally take food to their bedrooms and then let the resultant dishes sit around for a couple of days before putting them in the dishwasher. This behavior was never a problem for the three Kenmores, and the Whirlpool. Somehow this Bosch finds this behavior unacceptable. Of course it also finds it unacceptable to put unwashed dishes in its racks as well.

We've tried everything we can think of. We've switched dishwasher detergents (we're now using the newest Cascade, with no better results than the Electrosol we'd used for years), we've used Jet Dry regularly, we've cleaned out the screen regularly, I always make sure the water is hot before I turn the dishwasher on. I just don't know what else to do. It wouldn't be so maddening if this one hadn't been sold to us as the highest rated machine on the market and one that didn't require pre-rinsing. The only good thing I can say about it is that it is quiet. I'd settle for more noise and cleaner dishes, however.

I suppose I should be grateful to have a dishwasher at all. I could just use it as a dirty dishes container to keep the dishes off the counter until I wash them (since I seem to end up needing to do that frequently). The frustrating thing here is the inconsistant reward system this prima donna seems to be using. Sometimes the dishes will all come out sparkling (even when they haven't been pre-rinsed) other times there will be cruddy glasses (even when I've soaked stuff beforehand).

So if you are looking at a Bosch, beware, you may be hiring a chamber maid to do scullery work. Since chamber maids don't have to spend much time getting their hands really dirty and scullery maids need to not be allergic to dirty water, you might want to hire someone different, like a Whirlpool or a Kenmore. We seem to have a long term contract here, like until milady finally comes down with the plague i.e. breaks her water pump). In the meantime I guess I continue to pre-soak and my family had better learn to as well.