I’ve been meaning to write about our Bosch dishwasher since we managed to get it installed on December 18th. Every day since then “a great rejoicing” has resounded through our house.
We ran through our usual installation squabbles. The fact that we chose to raise the cabinets 2 inches above standard height caused problems with the dishwasher which is in the middle of the run of cabinets. We had to raise it up on wooden supports after all. AJM drilled the two holes for the pipes through the wood of our new IKEA cabinets without problem. Getting the dishwasher level and in place was maddening but at last we were both satisfied. We lay together on the floor, me hooking up the electricity and AJM hooking up the plumbing. This was one of the best moments of the entire kitchen remodel experience in terms of our working together as a “finely oiled team” (as we used to call DSL Development). AJM had the much more difficult job and it takes several tests to get it to work without leaking.
At 8:45 that evening we turned the dishwasher on for the first time and…it worked! We were wordlessly happy. When I was a teenager, some relative gave me a teenage romance where the protaganist is disappointed that an older couple she likes celebrates their wedding anniversary by getting a dishwasher. She didn’t think it was very romantic. The couple in that book and I will tell you that a dishwasher is one of the loveliest presents you can imagine as a married couple, especially if you have lived your entire adult life without one. I concur heartily.
Having a dishwasher was one of the main goals of the kitchen remodel project. It is the main reason we had to have the plumbing and electricity updated. It was also one of the first items I purchased; I bought it last March, nine months before we’d be ready to install it.
Dishwashers have certainly changed since I was a teenager. I did a lot of research before settling on the Bosch SHY56A. My reasons? First, it is advertised to be one of the quietest dishwashers on the market. And it is. We can barely hear a gentle swishing of water from the living room. Second, it does not require a garbage disposals. I don’t like garbage disposals. I put most of our scraps in the compost. But I was worried that if we followed the dishwasher rules about not rinsing that we’d be forced to install one. Our plumber said that a garbage disposal would be difficult to fit into our current plumbing configuration. This model doesn’t require a garbage disposal; it has a trap basket for large particles. So far very little has been left from after the super food dissolving powers of Cascade are invoked.
I’m amazed at some of the other features. There is a water sprayer for both the top and bottom rack which means that you don’t have to worry about large pans on the bottom blocking the water and preventing dishes in the top rack from getting clean. Growing up we always saved electricity by not running the dry cycle. This dishwasher dries via condensation anyway. There is no heating element at the bottom to melt plastics. And it has its own water heater to heat the water up to 160F degrees.
We love the fact that dirty dishes go in and clean dishes come out. No dirty dishes pile up on the counters. We love it! We love it! We love it! It’s like magic–but it’s science. Thrilling, amazing, wonderful science that we take too much for granted.
Today the men installing the granite countertops were cutting the hole for the sink. Their circular saw cut right through the top of the dishwasher door.
Ooops!
Ah, dishwasher. We hardly knew you.
Yes. They are going to replace it. I dread installing it again, though. No I don’t trust anyone else to do it.
Aaaargh! My husband would have had five heart attacks by now. What types of sources did you turn to for research? Consumer Reports? epinions?
AJM did squeal “What!?!” when I called to tell him, even though I prefaced my news with, “Don’t panic, but…”
To research dishwashers I read several article on the internet about what features to look for and which ones are just showy without adding much value. Then I looked at the specs themselves. I don’t really trust epinions because it seems that competitors can fake really good reviews of their own products as well as bad reviews of others. Finally I went shopping. I prefer to see and touch things in person before buying them. It helped that Bosch was having a rebate at the time, too. — mss
Your story was humming along so beautifully, and I was vicariously thrilled for you (still remember our joy at getting our first dishwasher) when SLAM, you hit us with that sentence full of destruction. I could hear the circular saw whine as it hit.
MSS, this post should have come with a warning label – it produced an adrenaline rush in one reader, anyway.
I’ll be waiting for the next installment in the kitchen saga, hoping it is less thrilling.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I felt bad for the mason. He was quite calm. He didn’t even curse. I would have cursed and then burst into tears. But as he came into the living room with the solution first (“We owe you a new dishwasher.”), I was able to remain calm. I’m wondering what will happen next. That dishwasher cost more than half the granite countertop job. Waste always makes me depressed. — mss
AAAaauugh!
Yeah, the “don’t panic” thing doesn’t work well. So … can you keep the old one?
Yes. It works. As it turns out, only the control panel was damaged and the masonry company is getting the replacement part and will have it installed by a licensed Bosch guy. They have been very good about making this right. — mss
I agree with Annie. This post has a real twist to the ending.
BTW, we had a Whirlpool at our old house that worked well without a garbage disposer and was also really quiet. I think it was called the “gold’ series or something.