Just over 8 years ago, I wrote a short review on my slimline Zanussi dishwasher. Now, I am sad to say, it has lived out its useful life and is no longer a member of our household.

To give it its due, it lasted well and washed many hundreds of thousands of dirty dishes over the years. However, a few months ago we would open it in the morning to retrieve a breakfast bowl or two, and find everything was still dirty. Then we realised it had stopped part way through its cycle. We'd reset it and leave it to run but it couldn't seem to manage without us helping it on its way. Then my husband broke the dial on the front, making it even more difficult to operate.

Added to its functioning problems, was the fact that we'd also added to our family. The offspring had expanded from a manageable one child to three and a slimline dishwasher just wasn't large enough any more for the volume of dirty dishes we get through in a day.

It was time to investigate a replacement. I never purchase any new electrical item without first consulting my trusty Which? guide and last month they conveniently reviewed dishwashers, tested them and gave their best buy recommendations, of which this Bosch Freestanding dishwasher was one. I chose this particular model for a combination of factors including price, reliability, cleaning results and of course, its size.

According to Which? this was one of their recommended best buys. To make the best buy list, the product must perform consistently well with above average results. The Bosch dishwashers on test also included a similar model which was more expensive but with extra features I didn't feel I particularly needed in a dishwasher. Which? say that this model is "outstanding at washing crockery, cutlery and glassware and Bosch have a good reliability factor."

Dishwashers come in a variety of forms and sizes such as slimline, table top, built-in or full-sized freestanding. As we don't have a fitted kitchen, the freestanding model seemed to be the best option, although our space is very limited.

~~~Specifications~~~

The Bosch SGS45C02GB is a white, freestanding model and measures 85cm x 60cm x 63cm. It has space for 12 place settings.

It has a large cutlery basket with slots for individual cutlery. The upper basket can be removed completely if you're washing very tall items such as baking trays. If you do this, there is an additional nozzle that you can fix to a spray on the back wall of the dishwasher so the dishes are blasted with water from the bottom and the back of the dishwasher. The upper basket has three height settings which is useful if your crockery is on the tall side.

There are five wash cycles which you use according to how dirty your dishes are. A typical wash cycle takes about 2.5 hours and uses 17.5 litres of water. However, there is an eco option which uses 3 litres less water and takes 3 minutes longer.

The intensive wash cycle has a pre-rinse, wash, first rinse, second rinse, third rinse, rinse-aid followed by drying. This is the longest cycle. The shortest option is the 'quick' setting which omits the pre-rinse cycle and heads straight into the wash cycle, then a main rinse then the rinse aid with no drying at the end.
When setting up the dishwasher, it recommends you find out the hardness of the water in your area as this can affect how much salt you need. If you live in a soft water area you don't need the salt.

There is a delay timer that can be set up to 19 hours in advance. This is useful if you want to set it to start at some particular time, say, if you have cheaper electricity at a certain time of day or you're going to be away.

This is a particularly energy efficient model and is given an A rating. Purchasing energy efficient appliances not only saves you money, it's helping the environment as well.

The more energy efficient an appliance is, the more money you can save - and the more you help the environment. By buying a more efficient model, you're not compromising when it comes to performance either.

~~~My Experiences~~~

I ordered our new dishwasher from Curry's who were offering the best price at the time of £239 (via my favourite cash back site of course) and waited for its arrival. Unfortunately it took nearly two weeks. I also paid for our old dishwasher to be removed and for the new one to be fitted by the delivery guys.
It's very sad but on the day the new dishwasher was scheduled to arrive, our little Zanussi actually washed its last set of dishes by itself. By this I mean it did the full cycle without me having to help it on its way. It's almost as if it was saying, "hey, I still work, don't throw me out into the cold, hard world." Actually, I only thought that because my daughter kept saying how sad it was as she'd only ever known this dishwasher. It's the same age as she is.

Anyway, in with the new, out with the old. Our new dishwasher now stands proudly in its new home. The instruction books took some time to go through and I put them aside for the next day. My husband, on the other hand, decided to put a wash on that night without even glancing at an instruction manual. Typical. He told me the next day that it took 30 minutes. Thirty minutes. You must be joking I told him. I'd read in the Which? magazine that it took at least 2.5 hours. This is something I was quite surprised at because our old dishwasher would complete a cycle in just over an hour.

I expected a dishwasher full of dirty dishes but was pleasantly surprised to find everything sparkling clean and dry. This was despite the 'quick' option not having any drying time. So this option is very good if you're in a hurry and all your dishes have been well rinsed beforehand and aren't covered in dried or baked on food.

My first impression was the wonderful amount of space to put everything. I'd become so used to trying to squeeze dishes into every nook and cranny in the old one, that our new dishwasher seemed cavernous in comparison.

Not entirely trusting the 30 minutes wash, after reading the instructions, I put it on for an eco cycle the next day. It took around two and a half hours in all. While it running I was very impressed with its lack of noise. With just a gentle swishing in the background, I hardly noticed it.

One night I'd crammed dishes into every available space and fully expected some crockery to be left dirty. So far, after 3 weeks of use, I've not been disappointed yet. All dishes have been cleaned to perfection. Glasses are sparkling and not a trace of tea left inside cups or any food left on plates.

It's incredibly easy to operate. As we use the 3-in 1 or 4-in-one dishwasher tablets, we don't need to use any rinse aid. There is a little slot inside the door that you slide open, pop in your dishwasher tablet or liquid and slide closed until it clicks into place. When you want to use it, you simply turn the dial on the front to the required setting and press the on button. A red digital display informs you of how long it has left to run.

Another point I'm pleased with is the easy opening door handle and the way it silently and gently glides open. Our old one used to squeak and creek and just drop straight down when we opened it.

It comes with a 2 year parts guarantee but of course there's the option of taking out further guarantees. As Which? mention that Bosch is a particularly reliable brand, hopefully we won't need to worry about repairs in the not too distant future.

The only negative points I'd have to say is that saucepans haven't been dried completely but that's not a big problem. Also, the bottom spikes that you slot plates into, don't fold down flat. This can be useful for larger items such as saucepans. Instead we just have to balance and slot pans in between the spikes which has caused some of them to bend slightly out of shape. The next model up, the slightly more expensive Bosch, does have folding spikes.

Overall, I'd recommend this dishwasher as a great 'budget' buy. It's economical to run, aesthetically pleasing and does the job it's designed to.