Our Miele Excella has Sensor Wash and Economy cycles that save water & stop washing when clean. There's a separate Plastics cycle but I've had good luck with the others.

Some DW's have a single rack setting, but I think it's usually for the bottom rack, and partly, at least, because sometimes people take out the top rack to fit extra tall items. Some models have a plastics setting, however. I don't know if you could combine that with the single rack setting and use the bottom?

Though the least expensive and most energy efficient fix might be to buy an extra set of plastics so that you can run the DW when it's full.

plllong,

I don't think the OPs problem is having enough plastics but having too many and since most plastics advise "top rack only" there is not enough bottom rack safe items to fill the dishwasher.

Now, this will take some testing but most newish DW have sanitize and dry cycles that can be disabled. If you disable both of these, I suspect your plastics will survive on the bottom rack. Most recent quality plastics can withstand boiling so there shouldn't be a problem during wash cycle even if they are a bit closer to the heating element. The higher heat of the sanitize or dry heat of the dry cycle might be a bit too much however. Give it a try.. the worst is that you warp a couple of items but that's a lot cheaper to replace than your dishwasher.

BTW, one thing to watch for is loose items top or bottom. I once had a plastic lid work it's way to the bottom of the DW coming in direct contact with the heating element. Needless to say I'm now one lid short.

Well, we have to get a new dishwasher one way or the other since this one is on it's last leg.

I suppose I could get one of the ones that doesn't have a heating element if it wouldn't flip my plastics over on the bottom rack. I know on my traditional old style dishwasher the bottom rack would make the plastic fly up even if the heating element didn't melt the plastic.

Does the Miele have too powerful a jet stream that the plastics would get knocked around on the bottom?

Well, if you need a new dw anyways, look for one with recessed/hidden heating elements. Then get one of these:
http://www.dishwashernet.com/

I usually place my large Rubbermaid Servin' Saver plastic containers in the bottom rack of our Miele Optima--they take up too much room in the upper rack.

There's no heating element in the Mieles, so no worries about melting plastic. I do have to dry some plastic items with a towel (or I just shake them out over the sink) when I unload the DW, but I don't mind that. I like having a DW that cleans everything so well, and I like having the flexibility to place plastics wherever I need to in any given load.

What kinds of problems do dish drawers have? I kinda like them.

Fori,

What brand of dish drawer do you have. They do seem ideal for my situation but they are expensive, some people have had maintenance issues (not finding repairmen, lots of breakdowns, etc) and I seem to recall problems with how they vent (ruining cabinets, flooring, etc).

Thanks for the link Amcook--I didn't see where they had a picture of it. I'll have to research that some more.

Bosch emphasise the same thing as Miele: no need to limit plastics to the top drawer. They can be positioned anywhere, and I do, regularly!

> Thanks for the link Amcook--I didn't see where they had a picture of it. I'll have to research that some more.

Scroll all the way to the bottom and you'll see some very small thumbnails. They are clickable for larger view.

I'm on my second set of FPs. (Different house--not a replacement!)

But many of the European models are good for plastics because of the low heat drying, so you do have a lot of good choices for plastics.

Get a Miele, any model. One, it dries without a heater, so it doesn't melt plastic, so you can use the lower rack, and two, its very efficient, so you can run a half load without worries.

I have a Bosch and always put plastics in the bottom rack without any problems. I even have the "extra heat" with dry option activated for better drying and no problems with the plastics. It also has a "half-wash" setting you could use as well for partial loads.

I second getting a Miele. You can wash any type of item in either the upper or lower rack with no problems.

I have two Miele DWs. One is almost 15 yrs old and still going strong. The other is a 2 yr old Optima.

We use both to wash those thin rubbermaid plastic containers and place them wherever there is space. Nothing has ever even been distorted, certainly never melted.

LG has a half load cycle and you can put your plastics top or bottom. It's also the quietest DW that you can purchase under 1K that has internal grinding blades for food particals. LG used to have complaints because they didn't have a lot of local service people on board in some areas. They have recently made huge efforts in that department. In many markets, they hired a dedicated LG tech whose only job is to respond to LG customers. They also still have the usual appliance repair center authorized guys that work on all brands, so getting repair is a lot easier---IF you need repair. The majority people who have purchased LG don't have any issues at all and come back for other LG appliances.

Well, I finally found a place that sells all the different brands so I could see them in person. I really like the quality of the Miele. I had thought maybe I could get away with the Kitchenaid with the 3 racks and use the utensil rack for plastics but it's way too shallow.

Next question, what's the most inexpensive Miele I should look at that would do well with my plastics--should it have the extra drying feature, stainless steel tub, etc??? They have so many models it's very confusing.

Thank you all for your suggestions. It's been very helpful as I try to narrow this down.