Let us speak of dishwasher design, my friends.

[BoffinMum]

So about the humble dishwasher. It fits neither pan, nor big plate, nor large wine glass, nor weird cooking utensil, nor cereal bowls, without a struggle. We all know this.

For the dishwasher designers, no doubt all male, think we are little wifies in the 1950s who serve 6 people meals on straight plates with 6 tea plates and 6 flattish soup plates, all neatly in a row, with six cups and saucers and six of each piece of cutlery, in an easily manageable format for dishwasher loading. They have no understanding of the anarchy that is the average household's dishwasher use in this post 1950s era.

Let us redesign the dishwasher for the modern age, oh great minds of Mumsnet. How would you change it so there was a flexible interior for the things we actually use as opposed to the ones we don't?

For said current dishwasher shortcomings get right on my tits.

Mine fits all of those on your list OP, which is lucky since I didn't do any research before buying it, just completely trusted the man in the (very good) shop. It's a workhorse and very simple in design inside, perhaps that's why I can get so much in?

I do only buy a certain shape cereal bowl though...

If we are going to redesign the dishwasher let's concentrate on making one that gets the dishes clean rather than just welds wheatabix crumbs onto the outside of the mugs.

I don't have any of those problems OP, either at home (middle age Zanussi) or work (new Bosch).

We've got a brand new dishwasher at work with the slide-out cutlery tray/shelf thing. I thought I liked it, but I really like the old fashioned cutlery basket we have at vine, because I can take it out and take it to the cutlery drawer.

Maybe I just buy crap dishwashers then.
I relate to the Weetabix problem though.

My dishwasher has none of these problems.

Adjustable height top tray - check
Movable plate rack thingies - check
Movable cutlery holder - check

I think it's more a problem of dishwasher unfriendly dishes.
Glasses with heavy round bases flip over, pasta bowls in a "coupe" shape can't be washed vertically and anything with a hollow base is asking for trouble.

Once that's clear dishwashing is pretty straightforward. Mine is a basic Bosch model and has been going strong for 8 yrs. One I used on holiday had a grid across the cutlery basket, meaning you couldn't drop a fistful in at the same time, but anything is preferable to washing dishes by hand!

In 'dishwasher of the future', I would like a slightly angled way to arrange mugs. Water pools on the bottom of them; too much of it to evaporate in the drying phase. I blot off the water with a bit of kitchen roll, which feels ridiculous.

I like some of the features of our dishwasher but it can only fit large dinner plates at the back of the bottom rack. Put them at the front and the arms can't turn. It has a moveable rack about 1/3 the size of the top basket which long utensils, etc can go on. I like a cutlery basket as it's much easier to chuck stuff into instead of carefully arranging on a pull out cutlery shelf.

We used to have a Bosch freestanding dishwasher. It was excellent. Everything fit, the racks were adjustable to fit in all or small items, the cutlery basket fit pretty much anywhere in the bottom rack so you could fill it up with plates and pans then put the basket in where ever it fit.

When we moved into our current house which is an old Georgian rectory that we pretty much overhauled, in the interest of matching our appliances, we left the Bosch behind and got a Miele. BIG MISTAKE.

Whilst my Miele washer & dryer are pretty much faultless, the dishwasher (whilst good) is a big disapointment by comparison. It washes fine, but it's not as easy to stack and doesn't hold as much. It also has less cycle options.

I'm honestly considering sticking it on ebay and getting another Bosch.

No way, mine is fab! Bosch. All the bits flip down and change angle so you can fit everything in it and I especially love that instead of that stupid pull out cutlery thing it has a cutlery rail right at the top. I think they've made a great design in terms of space and it has great functions like an intensive zone cycle.

Mine is a bog standard, very basic Bosch and it has none of the issues you describe! I love it more than anything.

I'm with you, OP. Hardly anything we own fits neatly into our dishwasher, our cereal bowls are too rounded, our pasta bowls have sides that are too vertical.

I have a Siemens and it deals with everything in the op.

Many parts are adjustable, including rack height, spokes that can ve folded flat etc

Op your dishwasher is a piece of crap. I hope for your sake it breaks down soon and you can replace with a decent one!

My main complaint is that our dishwasher assumes people drink their tea out of dainty dollies' teacups. We use big/wide mugs, which only fit on one side - and then only about 5. Hmmm.

Ours (newish) is Siemens and it's a pile of shite. I'd love to have my (late) Bosch workhorse back.

Have you not seen the dishwasher that is drawers? Usually in stacks of 2 but I don't see what you couldn't add more?
Total redesign of the standard design.

They are a bit more pricey though:

markselectrical.co.uk/89472_Fisher-%2526-Paykel-Built-In-Dish-Drawer.html?referrer=GoogleShopping&gclid=CNHo5eOX3MkCFUYTwwodAvUFew

Our newish Beko is fab, all of the stuff you mentioned OP fits in ours.
And its the first dishwasher we've had that actually gets dishes remotely dry!
I love it

I like my Miele - it fits everything in but the most enormous casserole dish.

I love the cutlery drawer in our Miele. Genius idea.

But it still doesn't comfortably fit large wine glasses, and has lately started some sort of Germanic work-to-rule which involves washing everything beautifully except whatever is in the bottom right hand corner, which remains entirely unwashed

Would I look like a twat if I took a plate dishwasher shopping, to see if it fits, or would I get a look from the shop assistant?

Sorry to hijack OP

steal check the wands underneath - DH cleans them every now and then as the holes can block up a bit. Not sure that would really sort it out, mind

Our Bosch dishwasher (inherited from previous owners) is absolutely fine in terms of configuration, however it will not get the blasted stuff clean I seriously have to wash all of the dishes to nigh on spotless condition before it even deigns to clean it and then it comes out dripping wet anyway, so what is the bloody point?

I presume it's pretty old and failing, because the one we had before (also Bosch) was fantastic. Also, this one literally has 3 equally shit cycles and takes an incredibly long time to run. I've done everything I can think of bar getting a Bosch engineer to look at it and it's still awful. There's no point getting an engineer in because it will probably cost me more than actually buying a new one. I want it gone.

Bosch, though generally excellent, have a slight tendency to get gunked up in the u bend at the back so assuming you've cleaned all the filters and packed it to the gunnels with salt and rinse aid and unblocked any nozzles on the spinny thing, the last recourse is to take it all the way out and check the pipe work at the back for disgusting blockages. (Flexible coat hangers or similar may be required)