We inherited a Bosch when we moved a few years ago, I have never hated a dishwasher more. I just assumed it was because I had previously owned a Miele. Half the glassware had leftover food on it, coming out dirtier than when the glasses went in. We now have a Miele and a Thermador (which we were hesitant about after our Bosch experience, but it was free ;) The Thermador is better, but there is still stuff on some glasses every few washes. Still not impressed.

ETA: Bosch and Thermador are different brands of the same company and dishwashers are similar- my rant does have some relevance :)

Check the installation for the high loop, and check the filter (should actually sort of lock in place). We had food issues with ours, but they were completely solved by improving the installaton and locking in the filter.

I didn't like our new Bosch either until I read this: always run the water in the sink very hot for a few seconds, then run the disposal. Now start the DW. For whatever reason this helped a great deal. Hope it works for you.

Sorry you are having bad luck with your DW. I really loved my Bosch and miss it so much! We always used the Finish tabs that were recommended by the manufacturer, and almost never had food remains. I tried an environmentally friendly brand once early one that didn't really cut it. I used to put really cruddy stuff in to see how it did :)

Thanks for all your help, everyone!

laughable, I'm trying to figure out how I'd know if the top sprayer arm is working. I'm assuming it is because we find water pooled in the bottoms of glasses in the 2nd rack. The crud is actually inside the glasses so that doesn't sound like it would be the fault of a faulty top or 2nd sprayer. Our model has 3 sprayers: one above the silverware tray, one for the glassware tray and one below the bottom tray.

johnsoro, we looked at Miele but capacity, especially for large items, wasn't sufficient for our needs. We took dishes, bowls, glasses, pots, pans, etc with us to the showroom and try as we might, we could not get some things to fit.

alerievay1, I make sure the filter is locked into place before I run it. I talked to our GC ahead of time to make sure they knew to keep the loop
high per the install instructions and I checked it after install. Maybe
it's not high enough? How high is "high"?

beenzmail, I run the water at the sink until it's very hot before starting the DW (been doing that for years, a hint provided by a repairman) but I haven't run the disposal first, too. I'll try that next time, thanks!

I forgot to say that I also check that the rinse aid bucket is full so it's not that.

clueless, I really want to love my Bosch....

You might take a look at your spray arms. Our great Bosch suddenly became a crappy one, and it turned out the dh had racked an iced tea glass without dumping the lemon pits. The pump sucked them up, tried to blow them thru the spray arms, and they got stuck in the water ports. If yours is like mine, the spray arms pop off and come out, and then can be popped open to be cleaned inside.

Also with some Bosch DWs, you have to be sure to seat the top rack hard against the back wall in order to engage the water outlet that feeds the top arms. My old Bosch allowed me to be lazy, and push in the top rack by shutting the door. The water must have gone to the arms via some other route. My new one requires much more care, or it looks like the top arms don't spray. Nasty.

Maybe these tips will help. If not, you can purchase STPP at Amazon, and throw in a teaspoon for your especially dirty loads -- essentially adding back the phosphates the government took, out some years past. (A lot of folks maintain they haven't had clean dishes since.) But honestly, we do need to minimize phosphate use, and you should need to add them for only the rarest of loads.

Your new Bosch should be at least as good as your old DW. It feels like something is wrong. Good luck.

Thanks, MizLizzie, I know we're not making sure the top rack is set hard against the back wall. I just slide it in. I'll also remove the arms and make sure they aren't clogged.

So that's 3 tricks to try to get it to work better. Thanks, everyone! Anything else I should check?

Sorry, I posed just as you did. Here is a video, though he doesn't pop them apart. He uses a toothpick. I am 85% sure my old ones opened up like a clamshell, but it has been a few years . . .

Thanks for the video! I'll show it to DH and we'll figure it out.

I just checked to see what you meant by locking the rack in. Makes sense that it wouldn't work right if it wasn't firmly in place. I think the door makes it lock in place but I will definitely make sure that it is.

Mine has some slop in it. You gotta be careful, which aggravates me a tad. I do love Bosch, but as I've posted on the AP before, my new one is over engineered, IMHO. My old one was better.

I've had four generations of Bosch DWs (different homes/kitchens) and none of them had the problems you report. The only issue I've had is the gunk issue, which was solved with the rinse agent. I think you've had some good suggestions here.... there should not be food particles left.

Fingers crossed that one or all of the solutions suggested solve our problem. If not, I'm contacting service to come take a look at it.

We had a GREAT Bosch for 14 years, then replaced it last year with a mediocre one that sounds like yours (it was an 800 Plus). I absolutely had to use Jet Dry the second it ran out, or we'd get the crud in the glasses. Once or twice a week, we'd discover we'd put away a dirty dish or glass.

I didn't really want to deal with that anymore, so we ordered a Miele in the new house, which will be delivered tomorrow. I'm worried that we won't be able to load it as well, but I wasn't very impressed with loading the Bosch, either. I really, really hope the Miele washes better.

The POC old GE we have now (came with the house) puts rice on all my dishes and glasses, even when we didn't have rice for dinner that day. I don't know how the previous owners lived with this!

I don't have to anything special with the top tray in my Bosch (800).

Pippiep, we bought the 800 Benchmark model because we liked its additional loading flexibility. A friend told me that she never put the tines down and wishes she hadn't spent the money on a higher number model. But we fold our tines down regularly so we can fit large items in more easily so it is a feature we're glad to have. Just wish the damned thing would clean better.

Jakvis on the appliance forum told me to check how much water was left in the bottom of the sump. He said it shouldn't be more than 1/4 - 1/2 cup. It's over 1 cup. Not sure what that means but maybe that points to an install issue. Hopefully, he'll provide more info now that I've told him how much water is left in the machine.

Jakvis also suggested we check that the machine is filling with enough water. I've asked how I check this since I've no idea.

I'd forgotten that we switched back to Cascade after we ran out of the complementary Finish tabs but we didn't start having dirty dishes/glasses for weeks after the switch so I'm not sure that's what's going on. But maybe we'll switch back and see if that helps.

The machine was installed 7/1 and gets nearly daily use. Our water hardness is 5-9 ppm of calcium carbonate; as I wrote above, it's very soft. I make sure the rinse aid bucket is not empty. We don't rinse before loading and we select Auto cycle + Sanitize.

Pippiep, rice? That's just weird. Are you sure it's rice? We had little white pellets come out of our shower head when the water heater's dip tube started to disintegrate. Maybe that's what's going on for you. If it is, it's a relatively easy fix if you're at all handy (my DH and dad did it). Sorry, I don't remember how we pinpointed that as the problem. It was too many years ago now.

Hope you figure it out-- keep us posted! We love our 18 month old Bosch 500, but wouldn't love it at all if it didn't get the dishes clean! Our GC didn't install it with the high loop, but we plan to go back and do that before we live there full time. I can't even recall what the purpose of it is. We use Finish tabs and Jet Dry we get at Costco. Hope it is a simple install fix.

Definitely switch back to the Finish tabs and the Jet Dry -- Costco is our source. There seem to be reports of problems when using the Cascade.

I thought I had read everything but guess not because I missed the reports of problems with Cascade, gooster. Will make a Costco run to pick up Finish tabs.

I hope it's a simple fix, too, lori!

PS. where in the NW are you? I'm in the Portland metro area.

We have had the same problem for years. Finish tablets for sure and periodic cleaning of spray arms, top and bottom. Jet Dry too but that doesn't solve it.

Any update, Lisa?

Weird. We have a 500 series. Glasses are definitely shiny when they come out, which is *amazing* after not having a DW for 4+ years! I've actually never tried using the rinse aid because I'm kind of lazy (just set what ever the setting is for this to 0). I am rather non plussed by it's ability to clean stuff that is super dried on or tea/coffee stains on glasses. A quick rinse with an abrasive sponge takes care of it so not the end of the world, but in apartments past older dishwashers that presumably used a lot more water took care of these sorts of things. Not sure if there is anything to fix that. Good luck getting the glasses clean though - that's a real bummer!

We left on Thursday for a weekend at the Oregon coast. We enjoyed glorious weather, couldn't have asked for better (well, maybe a wee bit less windy) and some well needed R&R for DH. Just got home so it will be tomorrow before I get a chance to report back. Thanks for asking, tmy_jax!

Yeah, it is a bummer, lharpie. Sure hope it's a short term issue.

Sharing a pic from our weekend just because I want to and because it's a nicer thing to focus on than my underwhelming Bosch DW. =)

My beloved Bosch was a 500 series as well.

That's a gorgeous photo lisa_a!

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Bosch dishwasher. I have had Bosch dishwashers in 3 different kitchens in the past 25 years and never had a single problem or service call. I know you don't want really want to hear that about people that have not had problems but I do think there are more happy Bosch owner than unhappy ones.

I am not sure if you have contacted Bosch or an authorized Bosch service rep. yet but if you haven't I think you should. They might be especially responsive if they know that you have posted about the problems with your Bosch dishwasher on this forum. Perhaps this link will help: Bosch Service

As an aside, I see that several posters have suggested that using Cascade instead of Finish Tabs may be the problem. I just want to add that I currently (and in the past) almost exclusively use Cascade along with whatever brand rinse agent I happen to have bought and have not found either to be a cause of any problems.

Good luck in finding a solution.

Good idea to contact Bosch service, badgergal. I'll call them tomorrow.

Thanks, clueless! I took that pic with my cell phone, rather pleased with how well it turned out. I was in the right place at the right time.

A have a Bosch made for Lowe's Canada. It's an Ascenta, I believe. I've had it about 16 months now and I've had no issues with it. I find it cleans very well. I do use the Finish tabs/rinse aid that was recommended and I buy those on sale at Costco.

Lisa a, I saw that the link I previously posted for Bosch Service was not active so I corrected it in that post. Hope they can help you out.

Sorry for my delay in responding. We went to the coast for a few days and then I was busy getting ready to host Thanksgiving.

We switched to Finish tabs, ran the first load last night. We'll see if that makes a difference.

Jakvis over on the appliances forum told me how to check that the DW is filling correctly. I'll check that next time we run the DW.

Homepro is looking at a pic of my DW hook-up to make sure it was done correctly.

Bit by bit, I think I'm on the right path to getting answers. If I need to, I'll definitely contact Bosch service but I'd rather make sure I checked all the usual suspects before I contact them.

Thanx for updating, Lisa. Interested to see how this turns out.

Both my SIL and niece have a Bosch (my SIL's is new) -- both disklike it. My SIL says the top rack is tiny and doesn't hold a lot and both say their DW's do not dry the dishes!

I'll stick with KA.