Hi Brisnat,
Cleaning is excellent, not just good. I still have the original cutlery baskets, but had to get the fine mesh filter inserts replaced. I used to pull them out for cleaning, which caused the plastic tops to separate. When I remove them now, I just take out the large filter plates and push the smaller fine mesh filters out.
The filters get checked every couple of months. There has never been anything lodged in the spray arms and the filter plates are usually clean. Whatever finds its way in there usually dissolves in hot water, gets pulverized by the impellers and flushed out. A couple of times a piece of plastic or glass had found its way to one of the impellers and caused a racket, but that wasn't anything to worry about. All I had to do was take out the impeller unit, remove the offending item and put it all back into place.
Every six months I run a cycle with vinegar and baking soda. I do find that if I frequently wash at lower temperatures, using the eco option, a film of muck will accumulate around the micro mesh, but that's it.
Hygiene/housekeeping in commercial environments and workplace lunchrooms is a different kettle of fish. I bet you were the only person who knew how to load and use those dishdrawers correctly. Coffee stained mugs are endemic in many workplace environments even where machines do the work. Those stains can become permanent and require more than just putting them through a pots and pans cycle. At one of my workplaces they used to soak cups in bleach solution overnight before putting them through a commercial machine, to get rid of tea and coffee stains.
When the time comes to replace my current dishwasher I may consider buying another set of dishdrawers. So far I've been very satisfied with F&P. Ideally I would love to have a dishwasher with built-in food grinder and completely self-cleaning filter that requires absolutely no attention from me. That's what I used to have and miss very much.
