New dishwasher - Bosch Series 6

[henene4]

So, on the weekend, our flatshare dishwasher just quit.
Filled, drained, all the relays activated as needed, wash pump just died. No warning, nothing. Cap was fine, wireing as well.

Though I didn't know which terminals on the motor I had to check against which I figured by plain logic that there was at least one infinite reading to much.

As with the washer my landlord gave me the job to work something out while he was talking to his electrician if repair made sense.

First plan was to get a used Miele G4940 SCU in white.
Was only 2 years and 4 months old and for 250€ or less after some haggleing that would have been a good deal.

But my landlord insisted that it had to be an A+++ rated machine.

So, after explaining some stuff to him he obviously didn't care about at all he gave me the go ahead to get a Bosch Series 6 with Perfect Dry (Zeolith).

Model ist the SMU67MS01E/51 (which is the most recent itteration of that model).
Made in early september 2018 (one metal part had a visible marking of the 4th of september 2018).

Installation was not to hard. Hardest thing was getting it reasonably well fixed in place while staying somewhat level as both the floor and countertop are uneven in both directions in different relations to each other.

Before picking it up today I wanted to check our water hardness online at our local water company.
Turns out that the part of the city I live in is on a different sub-system which means the test results were not online.
Luckily, Bosch supplied a water hardness test strip which surprisingly put our waterhardness at no greater then 8° dh, while the rest of the city is about 10-11° dh.

Programmed it (hardness level 1, rinse aid level 4, quickest auto off time, basic sensor setting, no hot water connection, no cycle end signal, lowest button volume, last cycle memory on, extra dry off).
Fun side note: You can enter the setup menu while a cycle is running.

First ran a rinse only cycle. The first water softner regeneration cycle took up almost 10min of that.
But everything was water tight, everything worked.

Currently running the obligatory self clean cycle on the self clean setting - big surprise.
Opened it right after the detergent tablet released and was surprised to find that the drying fan continued to run while the door is open. Quite decent airflow I'd say.
As far as I undestand it is supposed to run during the first few minutes of heating as during that stage the Zeolith mineral is dried by the heater in the mineral container and the heat and steam are supposed to return the heat used for that to the wash cycle to save energy.

Am pleasantly surprised at how quiet that thing is even while empty. Especially the drain pump is basicly inaudible.

Racking is the typical Bosch affair, but it "only" has the basic cuttlery drawer.
I'll update you on how we will adapt to that, but it should mean that we will get at least one meal more in between cycles or at least fit some more per cycle.

Cycle selection is quite common.
Intensive 70 at 2:15h, Auto at 2:30, Eco at 3:15, Silence at 3:55, glass at 90min or so, a 60C 1:29h cycle and a prerinse.

Some notes to that:
The Silence cycle drops the 44dB rating down to 42dB supposedly while only using half a liter of water more then the Eco cycle with the same energy usage which is impressive as many Silence cycles use far more water or energy in many cases.
The 60° C 1:29h cycle is the slightly longer but more efficent cousin of the 1h 65° C cycle. Both have about the same water usage (12l vs 11l) but the longer version is somewhat more efficent (1.2kWh vs. 1.4kWh) and allows for any option to be selected.

The EasyClean self clean cycle is a long 70° C mainwash followed by a quick interim rinse and a hot final rinse and 10min dry at the end.

Options avaible on this machine are the well known VarioSpeed+ (quicker but less efficent cycles without sacrificing cleaning), IntensiveZone (higher spray pressure in the lower rack), ExtraDry and Hygiene+.

Personaly I like having the ExtraDry option over the half load option even though any BSH machine has the ExtraDry option as a menu programmable option.

I'll post pictures from my phone in a couple of minutes and of course will keep you updated during the first weeks of using the machine.

Any questions and responses appreciated!

 

[henene4]

Pictures

Some general shots.

 

[appnut]

Congratulations Henrik!!  Look forward to seeing some BobLoads in the new machine.  

 

[logixx]

I'm curious to hear what you think about the drying result. We only have Bosch/Siemens dishwashers in all of our offices (with a few Mieles here and there) ranging from low to high end. The upper end models have the Zeolite Drying but most people run the machines with varioSpeed on, so I guess the Zeolite drying is shortened or skipped altogether.

 

[johnb300m]

Very handsome new Maschine.

 

[henene4]

First cycle

Funny you asked, just started the first load.

It's a medium-ish full load.
Lots of larger plastic pieces, everything with light to moderate soil, nothing dried or burned on.

Only thing I added just after the cycle started was the crumb tray from the toaster.
I placed that beneath the 2 pans as it is a rather long but not verry broad piece.

Cycle I chose was the Eco 50C (122F) cycle with no options to give this a whirl.
Detergent is a Finish Quantum tablet that shipped with the machine.
Rinseaid is a mix of the Finish that came with the machine topped up with store brand DM stuff.

Cycle time given is 3:15h.

This cycle is supposed to run a prewash, a main wash at 50C main wash, an interim rinse and a final rinse at just 35C (95F).

Water usage is rated at 9.5l (2.5gal) and energy usage at 0.8-0.83kWh according to the manual.

The machine starts of with the typical drain.
Then the wash pump ramps up through 3 speeds to calibrate.
Then it fills.

Pre-wash is about 10min at what appears to be a pretty low pump speed.
Noisest thing here is some of the plastic items in the top rack nocking about.

The prewash ends with a partial drain.
From what I am guessing is that how long it drains depends on soil sensing.
This time, it might have been 3sec if even.
It briefly refilled, started the pump again, released the tablet, the heater relay clicked in, then the drying fan started up.

As I am writing this we are 15min into the mainwash.
At some point that plastic item that knocked about stopped knocking.
Pump speed up until now has not changed though main wash pressure appears to be either the same or slightly higher, but if barely.
Spray arms alternate periodicly and if I am not completly mistaken one spray arm runs at a different motor speed then the other.

The most notable sound is actually the Zeolith fan.
You do hear the water sloshing against the door, but overall that is barely louder then the continous hum of the fan.
That noise is somewhat like a microwave, just much more muted.
Or like somenbody using an electric lawnmower with your windows closed 1 or 2 houses over.
Over all impressivley quiet, much quieter then the old Bosch, even though I belive it isn't rated much quieter actually.

On that note, now, at 2:41 on the timer, so pretty much spot on 20min after it started, the fan shut off.

I'll keep you posted as the cycle progresses/ends!

 

[henene4]

20min to go

So it appears the Eco cycle has a 2 stage heating pattern.

First it does its 20min Zeolith drying stage to prewarm the water.
Then it heats to temp.
While heating the switching of sprayarms is less often.

Once heated, the spray arms switch what appears to be every minute over the remainder of the main wash.
The entire main wash is about 2 hours total.

Then complete drain, complete refill via the overfill bypass.
The overfill bypass means that instead of using the water prewarmed via the heat exchanger over the last 10 or so minutes of the main wash it fills cold water into the heat exchanger that is already full.
This means the cold water flows over the overfill channel into the tank while only reducing the water temperature in the heat exchanger minimaly.

There was no apparent filter purge at any point of the cycle.
Either this model just dosen't do them in any cycle, or just not in this specific cycle.

The iterim rinse is about 5min or so, then full drain.

Now the progress display switches to final rinse, the heat exchanger valve opens.
Once filled pump starts up, operates for a minute on each spray arm, then the rinse aid is dispensed.
Each puls is 1ml, so 4 pulses.
That "clonk" each time the actuator actuates is actually the most jaring sound of the entire operation. Am surprised they haven't introduced a dampened version of that mechanism yet.

Wouldn't be surprised if the final rinse water dosen't have to be heated at all and even if not much.
The entire final rinse is done after 9min total.

At 41min left the final drain happens.
This drain is surprisingly long and includes several alternations of drain and wash pump operating, though these only start after the inicial full drain.

From 38min to 33min it just sits idle, probably to drip dry the dishes and to saturate the air with moisture.

Then the fan starts up.
To be honest, not a huge fan of the noise of the ventalation system.
Not bad, just meh. Weired, not high pitched, not loud, just weired.
You do hear airflow, but you do hear the fan as well.

At 2min left the heat exchanger is filled a final time with the fan still running.
Once the fill finished, the fan shut off, the drain pump runs for just a few seconds, cycle ends.
After a minute the machine auto poweres off.

I'll be back with results in a couple of minutes!

 

[henene4]

Results

I am confused but in a pleasantly surprised way.
Like, I knew that the system would work at least ok, but my hopes were tempered with it being the Eco cycle.

First, there was no steam plume when opening the door.
There wasn't even a rush of hot air.
Nothing.

Next I noticed everything was dry.
There was a plastic collander right in front which in the past of course always was wet.
No this time.
My plastic pitchers always had to be towel dried.
Not this time.

So I pulled the rack out and first unloaded the 2 pans right above the hot air exhaust at the right back side of the lower rack.
I supposed them to be hot to the touch.
But nope. Hand warm, like tiles in a bathroom you cranked the heat up in.

The dry wasn't bone dry.
Where items weren't perfectly angled, where there were little ridges or slits or so there was water left.
But like verry minute amounts, half of what I was used to.
Flat surfaces OF EVERYTHING, even the plastic utensils and black pieces of the Senseo coffee maker that are notoriously hard to dry were dry.

As an example pic I posted a picture of the silicone spatula.

Cleaning was almost perfect.

Only gripe was that the cup in the middle basket back right corner had a tiny amount of some gritty residue in the small puddle on its top site.

Now, that was really good detergent and light soil, but still this cycle seems to be pretty usable for day to day low demand loads.

The filters were surprisingly clean.

Now I am really looking forward to using the Auto cycle. Its final rinse is 30C hotter (35C vs 65C, 95F vs 149F) so drying must be amazing.

And the Silence cycle. If it performs equal to the Eco cycle and is noticeably quieter that would be great.

 

[henene4]

The Auto cycle

Well, the TL;DR is: Nice. Works as it should.

The more in depth analysis:

Load was more soiled and more stacked this time.
Not BobLoad stuffed and soiled, but a pretty decent load.
Nothing dried on, just the days worth of dishes.

Detergent was the DM store brand stuff.
Cycle was Auto 45C to 65C that uses anywhere from 7l to 16l and from 0.8kWh to 1.3kWh.

Cycle time estimated was 2:30h and we ended up at right around 2h.

I should prefice this by saying that we have a simmilar gen, slim line machine without Zeolith back home, so I have some parallels to draw for the Auto cycle.

Cycle starts with the same drain and calibration.

The fill as usual.
Now, on normal machines, heating would start right away.
On this one, the Zeolith fan (and thus heater for that) comes on after the initial minute of washing.
Now, a machine without Zeolith would prewash for 10min and then release the tablet or fill the heat exchanger and then wash 5 more minutes until drain if the sensor calls for it.
Here, the fan stayed on for 15min until it shut off, then the heat exchanger filled, it washed 5 min and then drained.
So the prewash was about 5min longer.

Now after a minute of the mainwash (of course a full drain and refill with the water from the heat exchanger happened beforehand) tablet released and the fan came on for another 10 min.
Then heating proceded for maybe 10 or 15min before you could hear the wash pump ramp up spray pressure.
It certanly was more then the Eco cycle, but I suppose more of a medium pressure.

Now somewhere around the 1:30h remaining mark it suddenly droppen a good 20min.
With 1:12h left the spray pressure ramped down some and the heat exchanger filled somewhere around there.
It ran until 1:01 before - interestingly - ramping down the wash pump to what has to be minimal speed for 15sec or so and then stopping.
Here the time display jumped to 1:04.

This drain (and the one after the interim rinse for that matter) drained for maybe 5sec before starting the wash pump back up for 10sec or so on the lower arm with really low pressure and then completly draining.

Now back at 1:01 it jumped dowm to 46min, filled via the bypass for an interim rinse that was 5min round about after fill finished.
(Keep in mind all fills on this machine independent of cycle are sensed and monitored fills via wash motor and flow meter.)
That rinse was at wash pressure.

Then it drained, jumped to final rinse at 39ish min left.
Filled, washed a couple of minutes, dispensed rinse aid.

At 24min left it stopped and drained.
That final true drain is a full drain, then the wash pump comes on, then the drain pump, then the wash pump, then lastly the drain pump again.

Now at 21min it sat for 5min, then the drying fan started up.
At 2min left the heat exchanger filled again, then the fan stopped, then it drained one final time.

Again, opening it right after AutoOff, there was no steam plume.
The dishes were noticeably warmer.

I didn't unload it as a flatmate was sleeping next door, but everything I could see looked clean and dry.

I would guess it ran a medium cycle profile, probably at around 50C ish, about 1kWh, maybe 12 or so liters as it was 4 full fills.

I'll try to get a true BobLoad going some time over the next week, but work and some travel will keep me busy, so don't expect an ETA from me!

 

[henene4]

So, I quite like it still.

The Auto cycle is still a verry versatile yet efficent day to day workhorse.

Ran a load on Auto with all options except VarioPerfect+ a few days ago.
That ment lower rack spray pinned to max pressure for everything except the final rinse, final rinse at 70C for 5min and extended drying.

And boy was that load dry.
Once you crank that final rinse up the results are from another dimension.

VarioPerfect does use the Zeolith still, but differently. Haven't studied it yet but I did hear the fan running!

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Zeolith

I wish my dishwasher had this. Drying is decent, but not as good as using a fan or Zeolith would be. We love our Bosch too! You are going to really like this machine! The Eco cycle is interesting for you. That long cycle should do great! But that rinse is just too cold for my liking! Enjoy!

 

[gelaundry4ever]

bosch dishwasher

Do you still have this dishwasher? What other observations have you noted?

 

[henene4]

That DW stayed there when I moved out of that flat share in Feb 2020.

So I can't vouch for anything.