Bosch Serie 8 SMS88TI01A (Silver Inox)

High expectations......average quality for price – Second call out in three years for a brand new unit....heat pump failure at three year mark. Was in process of changing kitchen to full Bosch suite. I would have expectations of better quality as per the marketing brochure...had less issues with fisher and paykel….multiple failures with Circut board, water pump, heat sensor . For the money I… Read more

paid on this and the so German quality….this will be the last bosch product I will be buying took the service agent…. 6 weeks to repair and is still not working…have now decided to scrap and buy new…and will not be Bosch

A lemon from day one and Bosch take no responsibility – Wash quality poor apart from Super setting. Internal shelves and baskets broke within 18 months, Bosch not interested in replacing want to charge. Wheels always falling off. Final straw was the front panel breaking and falling off. Contacted Bosch Customer Service who are adamant they do not cover any machine damage post 2 years despite the handle just falling off. Terrible customer service. Would never buy Bosch again. Show details

Excellent dishwasher! Great if you have children – Bosch got this one right! All the buttons are located on the top on the machine so that when you close it NO buttons are exposed and there for children can play with them and change / turn off the machine. It makes the dishwasher look very easy on the eye and easy to wipe down. Love the Vario setting. This makes the long cycles a bit shorter. … Read more ·  1

Love that there is a top rack for cutlery and a basket. So you have the two options. Highly recommend.

Good performance, but lacks some features – new this week, and is noticeably quieter than our previous DW. We do not rinse the dishes, and all have come out clean, as do wine glasses and baking dishes. the upper cutlery tray is good and the baskets easy to adjust, however, given the price and the brand, it is disappointing that you have to order small items holders, which would be useful… Read more ·  1

for various items. As a high cost brand and model, there shouldn’t be any extra cost options, which I note are standard in less costly brands, with good reviews. The manual is full of “depending on the features of your dishwasher”.. This is not a basic model or low end cost. Bosch you could have done better.

Disappointing product, so close to being great but has a *major* design flaw – We cross-shopped Series 7 and 8 Bosch machines (both manufactured in Germany) along with the entry level Miele lines, but opted for the Bosch series 8 for the three level basket design, low power consumption and being very quiet. In hindsight we should have purchased one of the other options as the series 8 has been a disappointment and I can not… Read more

recommend.

One *major* issue, it will not take standard Australian dinner plates without fowling the washing arm on the underside of the middle basket even with this set to it's highest level. This is a massive oversight and design flaw. I thought "this can't be right", but after reading others reviews it seems to be the case; and my workplace has also just installed two of these machines with the same issue. I have tried two "standard" dinner plate designs and sizes, they do not fit.

I have managed to remove the two grey spacers on the middle basket which allows the middle basket to be raised higher (to the same as the series 7, which I believe have the same lower and middle basket without these spacers, and without the third upper basket). While this gives ample clearance to the lower basket for dinner plates, the upper basket can no longer be used and needs to be removed; essentially becoming a series 7 layout (which is a disappointment).

This could have been avoided, there is only minor fowling on the back left between the lower and middle baskets (3mm), and there could easily be an adjustment made to the middle basket to stop this fowling, but this should have been considered at the factory not someone like me and other consumers realising it. Alternately the top basket could be more streamlined as an alternate modification (made to be less tall). The inclusion of the grey spacers looks like an absolute afterthought and a hack from Bosch.

I have not contacted Bosch about this, if they do read this review I hope they are aware of this issue and can issue a recall to make amends and I'd be very happy for them to do this. It otherwise has the potential to be a great machine (there is some very clever ways of folding down parts of the baskets for flexibility, and the machine is whisper quiet with an array of washing options).

So I think Bosch should either: - Make it quite clear that you cannot wash standard sized dinner plates while in 3 basket configuration and provide instructions of how to convert to a two-basket layout - Come up with a fix and issue a recall to make sure that this issue is resolved

Regardless of the above; withdraw this product from sale until it is fit-for-purpose

Hopefully Bosch can show some goodwill to faithful customers and make amends for this very expensive, but very flawed product.

Second E19 fault on less than 2 years – I like all the different wash settings, and the cutlery tray is very handy and space saving. I have had a few washes where some dishes weren’t completely clean, or the soap wasn’t completely rinsed off but that isn’t a huge concern for me. I’m giving it 1 star because within 6 months of purchasing I experienced an e19 fault, where the machine… Read more

doesn’t drain properly. This was fixed under warranty. A year later I have experienced the same fault again! I trusted the Bosch name after owning a previous Bosch dishwasher and was not expecting it to fault in the same way twice! Even the cheap brand dishwasher made in Turkey that I owned before this one (at 30% of the cost) is still going strong, and has not had any faults. I will not be purchasing Bosch again - although this model is German made, it’s not to be trusted.

Faults after 2.5years, out of warranty – 2.5years old, German made dishwasher was working really well, until it fried the mother board. I’m surprised that a machine costing $1800 has stopped working in such a short period of time. $300 for the replacement board and $165 for labour for a 2.5year old machine. Paint has also started to peel around the places where the metal and plastic meet. I won’t be buying Bosch again. Not recommended.  Show details

Disappointed! – I had an LG prior to this which I had bought for around 900 dollars. Worked really well in cleaning and drying. 7 years later due to our own foolishness the water pump got slushed. To replace the LG, went and bought this Dishwasher. From day 1 it was not great as the previous. We were disappointed. LG had a 50 minutes quick cycle that cleaned… Read more

thoroughly and dried all the utensils including plastics. Bosch I leave overnight and the utensils are not dry and not throughly cleansed. The slight smell from the water staying in is also a problem. The quick cycle never properly cleans. I can put it on other cycles that are from close to 2 hours and up and still cleaning is not great. I think there is something wrong in the interior design that is causing this. I am not sure what exactly. Sucks a lot of energy and uses a lot of water and still results are below average. The touch bar at the top is so poorly designed, it recognises not when you tap it rather when you take away your finger. Also it takes several taps at times to recognise the touch.

Now that I think about it which is the most soily cuisine, German or South Korean? S.Korean of course. No wonder the LG dishwasher was better, I take it that it is designed to be powerful to clean oily, saucy, greasy soiled plates and utensils. I have only used LG prior to this hence referring LG, I have not had a chance on any other S. Korean brands.

How Disappointing – After only 2 days of ownership and four wash cycles I am experiencing a E24 error. On calling customer service I was advised if its a blockage it will not be covered under the warranty. What a Joke Bosch just not good enough. Considering this is my 3rd Bosch dishwasher and the other two were just middle of the range and very reliable. Very disappointed that spending top dollar doesn't mean you get what you pay for. Show details

It’s ok, but my Asko was better – I bought this after reading how amazing it is- but have to say, not very impressed. Consistently leaves items unwashed- even when there is only half a load. Really disappointed as it cost a lot. I should just kept my old Asko. The other problem is everything is constantly wet when the cycle is finished. One good thing, it is quiet. I am going to contact Bosch separately. Show details

Expensive, and somewhat disappointing – (Update/edit follows at the end) Three stars. Our very trusty 18+ year old Whirlpool dishwasher started playing up so it was time to consider a replacement. (I know that with appliances as old as that, it’s usually folly to spend money repairing them, even IF you can get the parts, and in any event we had significant rust in the slide out racks.)… Read more

We didn’t intend spending a fortune but were talked in to a Bosch series 8 for a number of reasons, and thought we would give it a go. Features which particularly attracted my wife and me included low power consumption (usually near the top of my list with new appliances), low water consumption, handy features such as top cutlery slide out and multi adjustable racks. We eagerly anticipated the results from our first wash, and used “Eco cycle”, only to find it was absolutely hopeless, and needed a complete second more intensive cycle to get a reasonable result. The dishes and cutlery were dirty, wet, and had marks like rust on the cutlery after the first wash cycle. Quite honestly in over 40 years of dishwasher ownership, this was the worst result I have ever seen, from by far the most expensive dishwasher we have owned. I queried Bosch about it and their reply included “make sure it is connected to cold water!” What? The instructions which I read thoroughly before installation specifically state “Max 60C” and our hot water comes from a solar hot water system and through a tempering valve, with a maximum temp measured at significantly under 50C. In any event the first two litres or so are at room temp, so for example a four litre fill would probably average more like about 30- 35C. I’m definitely NOT going to spend hundreds more dollars with a plumber to completely redo the kitchen plumbing. Not impressed Mr (or Ms) Bosch! Anyway after a few more experiments with more intense, more water and power hungry cycles, (which use more water and up to nearly 3 times as much electricity), I persevered with the Eco 45C cycle as that is what the attached energy LABEL figures appear to be based on, and are a major reason we bought this machine. (From the manual. : 2hours 50min, 0.64kWh, and 12 litres of water).

I have finally got to the point where we get reasonably consistent results on Eco cycle, but only if the following is adhered to very strictly: Scrape off and/or cold rinse plates and cutlery. We tend to do both, as the dishwasher is typically only used every second or sometimes even third night. Stack plates and cutlery very, VERY carefully. Cutlery in the upper slide out MUST be very neat, with nothing touching, and everything standing on edge. Use only a top quality dishwashing detergent tablet and rinse aid. If you want dry dishes, set the dishwasher to run with time delay so that you’ll be able to open it almost immediately when the cycle finishes. I’m typically up at 6:30am, so set it to run with time delay such that it finishes at about 6:30am. I open it as soon as it finishes, and slide the top drawers out so they’re still hot, and can then successfully air dry. (You can set the cycle for better drying, but will then use more power.) If you don’t do that, expect everything to be absolutely sopping wet.

Summary is as follows: LIKES Neat appearance, good front display screen, selection buttons hidden on top of the door so inaccessible to children and toddlers. Good time delay function, showing exact finish time, with memory, so not lost if there is a blackout. Good range of adjustable racks including height adjustment, (though height is VERY limited for tall glasses if the top cutlery drawer is used.) Good range of cycles (though complex) and the instruction manual includes explanation of time, and power and water usage, which appears to be quite accurate. (I checked the power use with a power meter.) Separate conventional bottom shelf cutlery basket to use if that option is preferred. I’m very tempted to use that, though you then lose some capacity on the bottom slide out. Good total overall capacity. Excellent noise levels, nice and quiet. Good bottom filter, quite easy to remove and clean.

If it is chock full with dirty dishes and cutlery, I use a more intense (more power and water hungry) cycle.

DISLIKES Very expensive. : I likely wouldn’t spend this much money next time, especially if this dishwasher proves even slightly unreliable over many years. (Our previous dishwasher was much cheaper, always did a great job and lasted nearly twenty years with zero service calls.) Very poor washing and drying on Eco cycle unless extreme care is taken when stacking, and door is opened immediately for drying immediately when the wash is finished. There is very poor height in the middle shelf for tall glasses if the top cutlery drawer is used. However: The top cutlery shelf can easily be removed, which is probably wise if you don’t need the extra space on the bottom taken by the supplied traditional cutlery basket.

It’s safe to say I’m rather disappointed with this machine after six months of ownership, (and will be beyond disgusted should it actually also prove unreliable.) It was more than twice the price of many others, and for that reason I had high expectations which were in many respects not fulfilled.

EDIT: March 2022, (26 months since purchase). I guess it’s fair to say that our Bosch dishwasher has grown on me slightly. Again I’ve given it only around 3 stars as it’s very expensive, and fails to deliver as promised, especially on the power and water efficient “eco” cycle. Anything other than perfect stacking of plates, cutlery and glasses will produce an epic fail on that cycle! I’m used to it’s weak points, and do enjoy some of it’s good points, but there is really nothing much in my earlier summation which I’d change very much. I usually have reasonably good success IF I stack it very, very carefully, and can then usually get acceptable results on “Eco cycle”, but if other people load the dishwasher or if it’s a very big load- just forget Eco cycle and use a much more intense cycle (and thus obviously use more power and water), unless you are prepared to have a fail and have to rewash a significant number of items. Even my wife mostly leaves dishes for me to stack so that we can get reliable results!

It does have a quality feel about it, and is nice and quiet, but of course only time will tell if it proves reliable.

Proud owner of 2 of these, this is how we do it! – I bought both second hand, one for $1000 which was supposed to be A1 condition but after several months use has "Communication Error, please switch appliance off/then on. Otherwise call service" Well in New Zealand, the bosch service agent in Auckland ABEL APPLIANCES are a tad expensive. So I have another one, same model I got for $25 of TradeMe… Read more

as it was causing old owner no end of issues with no water fault. That was resolved with a new water sensor on RH side of tank. HOWEVER I also own 2x SMS68M08AU's my Mother bought a brand new SMUxxx top of line and have a SMS63xxx. THE PROBLEM WITH BOSCH is they have two boards, the power board and the logic board, and the service agents never know which one to replace half the time. THE OTHER PROBLEM WITH BOSCH is that the power modules must be under rated and not protected electronically very well...they are always blowing out and causing mayhem. The odd thing is you pay a good deal and it they could well afford to build the boards better....it's pissing EVERYONE off and BOSCH just do not get it.

If they could just upgrade thier damned boards to cope with spikes and irregularities in power they would be NEARLY as good as Maytag or Meile in longevity.

ONE OTHER PROBLEM with Bosch is the water sensor on the left side commonly stuffs out....can they not just redesign it....EVERY Bosch I have opened up has the same part....it is a reed switch which goes faulty and causes the water faults half the time.

THE FINAL PROBLEM WITH BOSCH is finishes after about 2 years, if you have a freestanding model with finished top and sides it will have a matt silver painted control panel....this ALWAYS looks nasty after 2-4 years and costs $250 to replace, all easily solved if they clearcoated it after screenprinting the writing, like they used to.

ALSO the finsgerprint resistant stainless looks great until the bottom of the door wears against the silencer strip on the kick panel and then rusts...again takes about 2 years.

ALL OF THESE ISSUES ARE RESOLVABLE BUT BOSCH DO NOTHING....so you get 2 good years and the rest is good luck!

Other than that they are very efficient and quiet and leave a lovely result if you add chlorine powder for commercial use (used to be what we could get - so designed for purpose).

Then again you need all the efficiency savings to make up for PART of the repair bills. As people have said $500 power module die to $40 or transistors blowing because of inadequate design.

Just out of warranty .. power supply – We purchased this dishwasher two years ago when our previous Bosch dishwasher (white with a dial and much cheaper) ceased working after 20+ years without incident. This new dishwasher just exceeded its 2 year warranty and the power supply died. Having spent $1400 on this machine we expected it, too, to last at least a few years (estimated 5 or 6)… Read more

without incident, but to our dismay we were wrong. The service person arrived last week and fixed it at a cost of $450 which is the price of some new dishwashers (different brand and poorer water consumption). However, we will certainly not be fixing this dishwasher again should it have another fault.

Great dishwasher but could be better – I do really like our Bosch Serie 8 dishwasher, had it for almost 3 years now and 99.5% of the time, dishes are sparkling clean. It's ultra quiet and dries the dishes really well too. Only flaws are despite being mindful of how we stack the bottom basket, we still see rub marks on some of our plates from where the rotating arm hits them. This is… Read more ·  1

even after ensuring there is ample gap. Some of the basket parts are also starting to split and rub off the plastic covering and rust on the hinge points although to be fair we use it everyday at least, so this is after 1000+ cycles. Besides that, it's a solid dishwasher and our 2nd Bosch, the quality in general is very good.

Quiet and cleans well. Large compartments for big pots and pans. Wish it dried better – Bought this due to great reviews and upgrading from our 3 year old Westinghouse as it was not cleaning as well or drying as well as our old little Omega we had in the granny flat. Turns out I am never going to find a dishwasher that dries as well as that cheap little slimline Omega! To be fair, this dishwasher is super quiet, has great options… Read more

and is very easy to use. If I open the lid immediately after a cycle and leave it for an hour or two, it will dry but if I put it on over night and select the extra dry function - plastic won't dry but I suppose that's prob asking a little much?

I was looking at an LG model which had an auto door opener when the cycle ended - I do wish I had looked at that option more as I hate hand drying the loads of plastic kids ware that comes out of our dishwasher!

Still, if you are looking for a quality dishwasher that's super easy to use, it's an excellent option and non-plastic does dry perfectly fine on the extra dry option.

Dishes Smell. Eco Mode Unusable – We bought this dishwasher a few months ago after our wonderful Miele finally died after 10 years. I specifically bought it as it had an energy efficient eco mode. After a few washes we noticed that the dishes smelled terrible. We had the technician out from appliances Online who checked it and said it was ok. The dishes continued to smell awful… Read more

(despite cleaning out the filter regularly). We had a Bosch technician then come out who told us that the eco mode was not suitable for everyday washing of dishes! It is only suitable for lightly soiled dishes. I don't see that advertised on their website. So basically we bought a dishwasher with an unusable eco mode. We are forced to run it on the hottest setting and even then the dishes have an odour. I deeply regret buying this dishwasher and I have requested to return it so that I can buy another Miele instead (which appliances online have refused). I consider the fact that the eco mode is unusable to be false advertising so I am lodging a dispute with NSW Fair trading.

Update, August 2020. Have identified that the dishwasher has a design flaw whereby the filter sits in a pool of water thereby causing a thick layer of mould to form. As the dishwasher heats up to dry the dishes the smell of the mouldy filter makes the dishes smell like sewage. Filter needs to be taken out and cleaned every day to prevent smells. Bought this dishwasher to save me time not waste my time!

One month out of warranty and this is how it now cleans dishes – Two months out of warranty and this is how our promised 'amazing performance' dishwasher now cleans...it's like our pots never went through a wash. Incredibly frustrated and previously loyal Bosch customer. Show details

Nice until 1 month after warranty then died, manufacturer no help – We bought the top model possible from the good guys on the basis of reliability. 1 month after manufacturer warranty finished it died. A dangerously faulty power cord was the cause, the likes of which 2 electricians with 60 yrs combined experience have never seen. Rang the manufacturer, whose 1st response was "not our problem, it's out of warranty". It has been a nice dishwasher, but this response to my problem from the company shocked me. Show details