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quick Q re: cycle length on Bosch dw

16 years ago

How long are your normal cycles? Mine is running 150+ minutes. My dad (who also has a Bosch) is convinced this is waayyyy too long and indicates a problem.

Thanks.

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Comments (9)

antiquesilver
16 years ago
Have you checked your manual? Mine has a chart for the length of the different cycles.
weissman
16 years ago
I don't have a Bosch, but it's probably normal. These days to conserve water and energy, cycle times are MUCH longer than they used to be. It also depends on what options you select. On my KA, selecting Sani-Rinse adds a lot of time to the cycle. Mine has a count-down timer but when I use the Sani-Rinse option, when the DW hits 46 minutes left, it sits there for about 1/2 hour before proceeding. Does your owner's manual give you any indication of how long the various cycles should take?
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This may be slightly off-topic, since I do not have one of the most current Bosch models (bought mine a year ago). But I'll offer some thoughts about the seemingly disparate reports of cleaning and drying results. (This is not intended to explain everything for everybody and not to suggest that the Bosch factories --- or anybody else's factories, --- do not produce some lemons. Nor do I mean to hint at contradicting Cavimum's good suggestions.) First, to expand on what jakvis said about condensation drying and cooler tub walls, there is another piece to this. The Bosch DWs (and the Miele DWs, too, I assume) use very hot water. That makes the dishes and etc. hot and the heat drives off the water to condense on the cooler SS walls and door as jakvis explained. The "saniitize" cycle increases the heat or its duration. On my DW, it is automatic, but some Bosch models make it optional. If you have one of those models, read the manual and check your unit to make sure it has not been turned off. (The higher model number versions can be pretty complicated, and it is possible to have something on or off without knowing it.) Second, the dishware will affect how well the condensation drying works. My dinnerware is old-style, heavy, commercial Buffalo China. Lots of mass, so it get gets plenty hot in the DW and then holds heat for quite some time. My glassware also tends to be kind of thick and heavy. These dry well in my Bosch. Very thin and light dishware --- something like Corelle, say --- with a lot less mass is not going retain the heat as well or for as long.. So, folks with thin and light or delicate items might not see the same drying I do. Third, there may be some differing practices and expectations, here. If your expectation is that the end-of-cycle light or signal means everything is completely dry and everything must be be put away at that very instant, then it seems to me that numbers of people are going to be disappointed. My own expectation is that the end-of-cycle light or signal just tells me that the dishwasher has finished running. I usually run the wash overnight and find everything dry when I clear the DW in the morning. But, if I need to get the dishes out right away, I know from experience that the dishes are going to be too hot for me to want to handle them at that moment the countdown timer hits zero (or the end-of-cycle light comes on.) Some of you have asbestos fingers, but not me. I pop the door open to let things cool and vent for around ten minutes. I've been doing this for decades, even back when I had GE DWs with heated dry. If I'm not needing to immediately clear the load ASAP --- as is usually the case for me but YMMV --- then I don't even need to think about popping the door. Now, I realize that there will be some railing, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over this. "Any #$@^&*XX DW that isn't absolutely finished when the signal comes on is a XXXXing fraud and nobody should every buy it!" Right? Well, the way I look at it is this. When I went DW shopping last summer, most every DW with a heated dry cycle (at least that I saw) was rated to run for 125 to 150 minutes, depending on the model. I fully expected that I would have to do the end-of-cycle-ten-minute-wait on them to have the dishes cool enough for me to want to handle. My new Bosch typically takes between 95 and 105 minutes to reach zero on the "Auto" cycle count-down timer. (Time varies with the condition of the load). Waiting another ten minutes at the end of a Bosch cycle is less time than if I'd had gotten a DW with the faster heated dry cycles (for which I would probably have to do the ten-minute wait, too.) So, no big deal to me but grossly offensive to some. This post was edited by JWVideo on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 13:11
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pp5150
16 years ago
Just bought a Bosch, check the manual on yours, on mine regular wash 120 min, pots and pans 140 min.
mindstorm
16 years ago
This is going to be variable and it depends on the temperature of the incoming water. I *know* this for a fact. When my Bosch DW was (re)installed after the remodel, I got a few facts confused and I asked the plumber to connect the DW to the cold water tap. The cycle lengths turned out to be about 150 or 160mins which was far longer than it used to be pre-remodel. So, I had him switch it back to the hot. Well, it dropped to about 107 minutes or so thereupon.

Recently, I was testing something at one of our taps and I realized that the hot water at our taps was about 130deg or 140deg and who know *what* at the hot water heater! That was far far too high and I lowered it so that it is now 118degrees at the hot water heater. The DW cycles are back up now and I think we are about 120minutes at this point for a normal wash.

Note that the DW keeps a running average of past cycle lengths and as a result the only times I am reporting are those gleaned from the displays the DW countdown timer shows when I select a mode. I do not know the actual times that the runs last as I've never really kept track of the unit once I get it going. As a result, I do not know if when I say 120minutes or so that the DW running average computation has converged on the right running time or if it is still computing up and therefore if my actual running times are even longer.
Also, that the DW cleans excellently - it does not seem have impacted cleaning performance whether the DW was connected to the stone cold, the terribly hot or the now intermediate.

So, my advice would be to check your incoming temperature as that could be a primary driver. If you are indeed connected to the hot water line, and you are *otherwise* comfortable with that temperature, I wouldn't necessarily raise the hot water temperature. Alternatively, you may have a hot water line but have a tankless HW heater which to all intents and purposes to the DW may well be just a cold water connection! I'd just live with it - this is the flavour of energy conserving DWs these days.

Hope this helped - a lot of anecdotal information but I just wanted to show that longer cycle times (> 100mins) is de rigueur now and that depending on the water temperature there can be a lot of variability in the wash durations.
jakvis
16 years ago
In the Bosch Service training classes I've attended they point out that the Bosch does not count down like 99, 98,97,etc. The Bosch has a computer that is checking water temp and water clarity and will adjust the time as needed. I think the Use manual has this info also.
They tell us that the computer remembers the last 5 washes and if the water is going in cold all the time the d/w will adjust to longer times and if the water is going in very hot all the time it will adjust for shorter times.
So you might see the read out with 126 and look at it a minute later and it may read 110. This is because the computer made an adjustment based on all the sensors.
lascatx
16 years ago
My Bosch runs about 110 min on a regular cycle, but we use the light cycle most of the time -- about 80 min.

When you turn the machine on, you get an estimated time or the cycle selected -- based on presets if new or previous cycles if not. It then does countdown, and may make adjustments after it starts. I don't think that part was clear inthe above reply. It does hava countdown, just not a fixed countdown.
eal51
16 years ago
My Bosch runs about 114 minutes on a normal cycle. Ours is three years old and has been very consistent with the time.

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT
meldew
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow - thanks for all the great information! Now I have NO idea whether this is connected to hot or cold water... the installer was *supposed* to come this morning to straighten the crooked installation (see other post) but he didn't show. So, I'm looking at early next week and I'll check the hot/cold connection before he shows up.

I'm not clear on one thing: I'm assuming if it's connected to cold, I should ask him to connect to hot? (I don't have a tankless; it's a tank set at about 120 or so).
Thanks,
Mel
meldew
Original Author
16 years ago
OK - my Bosch is connected to the hot water... so either I can leave it alone, turn my water temp up, or maybe my dishes are just real dirty lol!

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