When we gave our kitchen a full-on makeover earlier this year, we also upgraded all of the kitchen appliances like the fridge, oven and induction hob (although that one was more accidental as we smashed the existing hob to pieces. Whoops!).
Even before the makeover, the very first thing we replaced was the dishwasher. I’m really not a fan of washing the dishes (who is?!) and to say it was high up on my wishlist would be a bit of an understatement.
Back when we first bought the dishwasher, we didn’t share many details about it. It was new and we’d not used it enough to be able to judge how well it works or if we think it was worth splurging on.
Well, we’ve had it for over 10 months now and have thoroughly tested it – including a phase where we had it running once a day when my sister and her family visited.
It’s probably not a big surprise that I’m not the kind of person who usually gets excited about home appliances. I could spend hours in the power tool aisle at a DIY store but when it comes to anything kitchen related I’m usually just not that interested.
As always though, I wanted to make sure that we could find the best possible dishwasher for the budget we had so ended up doing so much research that my head nearly burst.
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It honestly felt like we compared every single dishwasher that exists in the world. So, after all of that research, we opted for this Bosch Series 6 ActiveWater Fully integrated dishwasher (SMV69P50EU) which we purchased at AO.com.
Bosch Series 6 Dishwasher Review
First off, let’s start with the most important part – do we actually like our new dishwasher?
We opted for a high-quality (and fairly expensive) dishwasher for two reasons. Firstly, we figured that dishwashers are standard sizes so that we can keep it and refit it in our new kitchen when we get around to buying one!
Secondly, we know that we’re the slowest DIYers on the planet (or at least on the internet) so we already know that it’ll take us years to get around to a full-on kitchen renovation which is why it makes sense to invest in something high quality now.
So – what do we think of our dishwasher and would we recommend it?
Things we love about our Bosch dishwasher:
Time Projection
I have to admit that as soon as I found out that something like this even existed, I had to have it.
There are slightly more basic dishwashers with a dot projected onto the floor showing the dishwasher is on. Is it worth paying extra for the time (and current programme) projection? I love it and in my opinion, it totally is but I guess that’s down to personal preference.
Flexibility
I love how there’s so much in this dishwasher that can be adjusted. It makes it so flexible and really easy to adjust – everything. that’s red can be adjusted – you can lower parts, fold away bits and even tilt the top basket which is great if you’re washing larger items.
We rarely used our large pasta dishes because we were too lazy to wash them by hand but now even they fit in our new dishwasher!
Super Quiet
According to Bosch, it’s a Super Silence Plus dishwasher which will probably mean nothing to you (it doesn’t to us either) but what I can say is that it really is super quiet. So much so, that we weren’t sure it was even on the first time we used it! Definitely a win!
Super Energy Saving
It’s A+++ rated which is currently the highest energy-saving rating that you can get. We definitely all have to do our bit for the environment and saving energy has got to be a good thing!
Drying Function
The part that dries your washed dishes is called Zeolith®. If you’re anything like me you’ll probably be thinking what the heck is Zeolith®?
I’d honestly never heard of it before either. As far as I understand it’s a mineral that binds the moisture and turns it into warm air which is then circulated around the dishwasher to dry everything. I admit that I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact details and all that I’m really bothered about is if it actually works. Luckily it does!
Switches Itself Off Completely
If like us you tend to put the dishwasher on in the evenings or before leaving the house a particularly good feature is that it switches itself off completely when it’s finished.
Cutlery Drawer
I guess that this is kind of controversial but once you’ve had a cutlery drawer you’ll never go back!
It makes sorting cutlery so efficient, everything comes out cleaner and it saves space! It also makes sorting everything much quicker, too! I would never opt for a dishwasher without one now that I know how great they are!
Things that aren’t so good:
This wouldn’t be a very good Bosch series 6 dishwasher review if we didn’t share a few things that we don’t like as much, too.
Most Programmes Take A Long Time
As far as I understand, this has something to do with the energy-saving rating as it uses less water and less electricity but therefore takes longer to clean everything. The shortest programme is 1 hour and 29 minutes (there is a super-fast 29-minute one for glasses, too).
Drying Function
Yes, I know that this was on the list of things we love and yes, the moisture-sucking mineral works but it’s not perfect.
Because there’s always some moisture in the dishwasher, it’s often really warm in there which inevitably makes things smell a bit if you don’t use the dishwasher regularly.
Overall though, I guess the biggest question I guess is does it wash the dishes?
Well, there’s a resounding yes – everything comes out sparkly clean!
If you’re looking for a new dishwasher, we’d definitely recommend the Bosch Series 6 dishwasher that we have. (We have the older model but have linked to the newer one). It’s not the cheapest of dishwashers but it’s super flexible, cleans well and is so quiet that you almost wouldn’t know it’s on!
Now, here’s for the bit you’re probably interested in – our little hiccup!
I guess even the best DIYers (which we’re not!) have the odd “ups” moments and installing the dishwasher definitely wasn’t one of our finest moments.
Under our sink, it looks like this. (Just be warned – it’s not pretty!)
Yep, it really isn’t pretty, but the bit I’m referring to is this little plastic pipe connecting both the dishwasher and the washing machine to the waste.
We installed it when we fitted the new sink and washing machine. All pretty straightforward – or so we thought!
Well, it turns out that our new piece of y-shaped pipe wasn’t quite as it seemed…
It worked fine to connect our washing machine to the waste but every time we tried to use the dishwasher we got an error message saying that it couldn’t pump out the water.
To say that it sent us into a bit of panic is an understatement, especially considering that’s the exact problem we were having with the previous dishwasher (that the people who lived here left behind)!
After about 5 attempts of trying to get the new dishwasher to work and really not knowing where we’d gone wrong, we eventually ended up taking the pipe to pieces to check that nothing was blocking it.
Well, it turned out that the y-shaped connector only had one opening – the other one was completely sealed with a piece of plastic (it was made like that).
We managed to poke a hole in it with a screwdriver and then everything worked fine but it was a super annoying situation, especially considering that it probably also meant that the dishwasher that was there before would have worked. Ugh.
Although it was annoying spending money we may not have needed to, I do admit that I’m really happy that we did as I love our new dishwasher!
We ordered our dishwasher at AO.com which I’d totally recommend. We were so happy with the service, the delivery was super straightforward and the guys were super friendly. We ordered our fridge there, too.
Yay, if you made it to the end of this post! I know that it’s super long but if you’re planning on spending a lot of money on an appliance it only makes sense that you know what you’re letting yourself in for!
Do you research as much as we do when you make a big purchase? Is there an appliance you couldn’t live without (ours is obviously a dishwasher!)? Do you have a favourite kitchen gadget?
Xushi says
Very informative!
What I’d like to know is how much rinse aid it uses. Ours – can’t remember which series it is – uses SO much rinse aid.. we have to refill it so often, and it’s been doing that since day 1.
Christine says
Glad you found it helpful, Xushi. We didn’t use a lot of rinse aid but you can adjust the settings on the dishwasher so that it uses more or less of it. Maybe it’s worth checking your manual to see if you can adjust the amount your machine uses, too.
Cx
Matt Gillett says
I found this very informative, thank you.
Can I please ask, what size plates do you have and is there room to have 30cm plates AND wine glasses on the top shelf?
Hope you can help.
Cheers
Matt
Christine says
Glad to hear you found it helpful, Matt! Our plates have a 26cm diameter and our wine glasses are 21cm high. Both went in without a problem at the same time. Our pasta plates are 30cm in diameter and also went into the dishwasher without a problem (we couldn’t get them in our previous dishwasher at all) but I’m not sure if wine glasses went in at the same time, I would say that they probably did but I’m not 100& certain. I’d test for you but we’ve moved and I’m pretty sure the people living there would find it weird if I turned up with a plate and glass for their dishwasher ;)
Hope that helps a bit!
Cx
SU says
I too did a lot of research before purchasing the very same dishwasher, I am waiting for it to be delivered and will definitely be looking at the drainage pipe before we connect it so thanks for that. I never realised that the programs were so long; I have an older bosche dishwasher which has lasted me 17 years & the shortest program was only 20mins & the longest 1hour 20 & then you can even halve that if you use the eco button, however the circuit board has now given up & to replace the circuit board + the call out charge it would be cheaper to purchase a new dishwasher so hence the research. Have you tried out all of the programmes yet & how does it clean the pans which can be challenging especially if my husband cooks.
Christine says
The shortest programme on ours is around half an hour, so it’s not too bad. We mainly use the eco-washing setting which is well over 2 hours, though! There’s a specific pan cleaning programme (which is fairly quick though) an for us has worked really well. We are really happy with our dishwasher but I guess there are always going to be limits if you have a messy cook ;)
Hope your new dishwasher works well!
Cx
Haley says
I love that all of your cabinets and appliances are blue. They look grey.
Christine says
The colour is great. It’s sometimes bluer and sometimes a bit more grey.
Cx