Bosch Home Appliances SMS63M28AU

Hate hate hate it – After having an asko dishwasher I cannot believe that a machine with the same dimensions can be smaller inside. It doesn't hold half what the asko could, it doesn't dry plastics and I keep stubbing my toe on the foot plate. Wish I had just paid the extra and bought an asko again. Think I'll try selling it and buy what I should have in the first place

29 minute program washes my dishes clean (though I wish I had the Extra Drying option) – Bosch Dishwasher SMS63M28AU I gave up on my previous dishwasher, a Fisher and Paykel Nautilus, when it took to gushing all over the kitchen floor and I bought the Bosch in the stocktaking sales at Harvey Norman. It was reduced from about $1500 to $998. I had a list, written out from Choice, of possibilities but as always happens, a year in dishwasher land means everything has changed and been rebranded and renumbered. Anyway, this was fairly close in number to one I had on the list but you never know until you get it home whether it is what you want.

Although I asked and was assured that it was the same size as the previous one ("a standard size", they assured me) it actually comes out 4 cm further, which is quite a lot in a narrow galley kitchen like mine. I should've taken the measuring tape, but apparently the problem is with the pipes at the back so it may be something to do with my setup.

Also, though I have a practical view of white goods, or silver goods in this case, I still can't help noticing now that the aesthetics of my kitchen were based on a flat look to both the dishwasher and the oven and the Bosch has a profile which doesn't fit. It's not something you think about until the dishwasher actually sits in its built-in and you go, "oh".

So how does it perform? Well it's my usual practice to try out every single program until I see what it can do and then I usually settle on one or two which suit my lifestyle. However, when I read how long some of the programs were I was shocked. For normally soiled dishes, 2 1/2 hours! OMG you have to be joking! I expect my appliances to have some sort of equivalence to human activity. My breadmaker makes bread in about the same time as it would take me. My washing machine, well I'm old enough to remember helping my mother struggle with heavy wet sheets through a mangle so I have no guilt about occasionally using a 2 hour program for soiled clothes because I know that back in the day it literally took all day to get them clean! But washing dishes. Well even if I'm doing them slowly because there’s something interesting on Radio National, the longest a load of dishes would take me would be half an hour.

The Nautilus took 73 minutes on its eco-program and I didn't think that was particularly good value, especially because the dishes didn't always come out clean and never dry.

However, I decided I would try the shortest programs on the Bosch to see how they performed. The Instruction Booklet that comes with it is annoying I have to say. Firstly the diagram inside the front cover is numbered but the explanation doesn't happen until 9 pages later. Secondly there's a whole lot of programs and possibilities that you waste your time reading and then discover you don't have them on your particular model. I decided to try the Lightly Soiled program first which takes only 29 minutes. The dishes and cutlery I put in I would describe as normally soiled. I made no effort to scrub them or anything.

I filled up the rinse aid dispenser with vinegar. I tried to put a tablet flat in the detergent container as instructed by the booklet but had to settle for putting it on an angle as it wouldn't fit in flat. I pressed the button and away it went. It's very quiet.

Half an hour later. Well the dishes are perfect. Much cleaner than the Nautilus. Still wet though. I'm very happy. I've tried 3 more loads, each slightly dirtier, on the same setting and they all come out just fine. So that is the only setting I will be using.

I would probably go from happy up to ecstatic if I had the Extra Drying program which the booklet advises is a possible option, but I presume it is available only with a more expensive machine. I would recommend, if you’ve got the spare cash, that this would make the machine almost perfect.