Our last dishwasher finally gave up the ghost and ended up on that great dishwasher rest home in the sky. Looking around for a new one, I came across this one on eBay that was apparently only one year old at the time. The story goes that the owner was having a new fitted kitchen and hence did not need this anymore, and I ended up winning it for £100. A good point of note is that it is surprising what 'nearly new' bargains you can pick up on eBay (no I don't get commission from them for saying that!!!). So it is worth checking.

Ok, so what did we get? Well looking at it, it is quite stylish. At 85 cm high by 60 cm square, it is a standard dishwasher size. On the front panel all you have is an LCD window which is what they call the Programme Sequence Indicator, with black writing set against a pale yellow lit background. It basically displays the time remaining, but also where the programme is in terms of operation (eg. rinse, wash, dry etc) on a sort of running line. In use, this panel lights up to indicate that it is in the process of washing.

All the controls are mounted on the inside of the top of the door, so they are all hidden away when the door is closed. Here you have the controls for 6 different washes, with a range of temperatures from 75 degrees down to 35 degrees covering an intensive wash through an eco wash and down to a quick wash or pre-rinse. Of note, only the top 4 washes have a drying feature, but the quick wash and pre-rinse features are very useful. Between the buttons, you also have an additional LED screen indicating time etc and if anything like salt or rinse aid needs refilling.

Additionally, you also have the main power button on this top panel and there is also a very useful time delay feature where you can delay the start for up to 19 hours, which is useful if you want to take advantage of the cheaper electricity rates in the early hours. Additional eco features that are controlled from this panel are a half load feature for smaller washes, and something called a Variospeed button which can reduce the running time of a programme by between 20 - 50%. Both of these will reduce water usage and energy consumption, so could save you money. Every little helps I suppose, but the machine also has an A rated energy efficiency. So from a controls point of view, this machine is packed full of features.

Inside the machine, there are a multitude of variable features and fixtures to accommodate all sorts of things and items. Generally, it will take up to 12 place settings. You can also vary the height of the top basket to accommodate taller things, and you can also remove it altogether and fit a spray head to the back wall so that you can clean entire baking trays, grills and bins etc within the dishwasher itself.

Each of the baskets also has a number of what I would call fold out dividers so that you could fold upwards to take extra plates or dishes in, or hold glasses in position, or fold flat to take larger items. There are also a few extra trays on the upper basket to take additional cutlery (carving knifes etc) as well. So the internal storage space overall is very versatile.

At this point it is probably worth mentioning one of the issues I have had with it. All of these fold out dividers are attached to the main baskets with little clips etc which I have found over time wear out and start to become loose. The issue there is that you have a half full tray that you are loading, and all of a sudden the divider comes loose and you have to try and clip it back on, which isn't always easy. In my experience, this is a common problem with many dishwashers I have had in the past and is not unique to this machine, but it can be frustrating.

A little tip that I managed to work here was to buy a load of small ty wraps. For those of you who don't know, these are the little plastic grips that hold cables etc in place. It's a sort of plastic strip that you past through a small lock to close it up around something. The small ones I got were about 4 inches long by a couple of mm wide. They are normally a one-use item, where you fasten them up to whatever size and then cut off the excess. You can buy them very cheaply in any DIY or Auto shop. With a bit of ingenuity, I managed to fit a series of these ty wraps to each of the clip blocks holding the dividers to the baskets, and after many washes and use, the ty wraps are still holding everything perfectly in place.

So how is this machine in use? Well one very noticeable thing we found was that it is very quiet, quoted at 44 dB. That probably doesn't mean much to many, but that is about the noise level in a living room or quiet office. We can sit there in the kitchen with it running and easily have a quiet conversation or watch the TV with no problems. Cleaning wise, it is excellent and we have loaded it right up with just about every sort of baked on grime and food we can find and it has never faltered.

One of the things I used to have a problem with in the past on other machines was that the little holes on the spray bars used to get blocked with food etc and then you would end up with some of your items not being washed properly. I've never had that problem with this machine. Maybe the filters are better, I don't know. But this machine doesn't seem to suffer from that problem.

In summary, this is an excellent dishwasher that in its' day was top of the range for Bosch. I don't think you can buy them new anymore, but you will be able to get them second hand, as I did off of eBay. If you do come across one, I highly recommend it to you as an ideal dishwasher.

Review also on Ciao under Randal1.