Dishwasher -cutlery drawer or not?

[QuirkInTheMatrix]

Need a new slimline freestanding dishwasher. Really don’t want a white one either so options seem to be limited to £250 ones like Sharp/Hotpoint/hoover. Or I’ve seen a £550 Bosch one which has a cutlery drawer rather than a basket. Have read mixed reviews about whether a cutlery drawer causes issues with there then not been enough vertical space for plates? Any thoughts?

My bosch dishwasher you can change the height of the middle shelf to accomodate big items on the bottom shelf.
I love the cutlery drawer! So easy to unpack. And really small items are held nicely instead of getting lost.

I love ours as it is easy to load and unpack DH prefers the basket as he thinks it’s cleaner. As long as you take care loading the drawer I have not found a problem.

Thanks both. I did wonder if the people complaining about not being able to fit plates in hadn’t realised that the middle shelf could be adjusted.

Wouldn’t go back to a basket, a drawer is so much better

Cutlery drawer is a total gamechanger! We have a Miele and as an earlier poster said, the drawers are height adjustable . It’s soooo much better than the basket

I have one with a cutlery rack. We bought plates that fit in when the middle drawer is at a level to fit in large glasses.

I like it, but DP is seemingly unable to comprehend the concept of stacking cutlery neatly in it and just chucks it all in, so I've lost the extra bit of space and reliably clean cutlery.

Don't think I'll bother next time.

My last one had a cutlery draw at the top and I loved it, plenty of room for plates too. It wasn't slimline though.

I fucking hate our cutlery drawer. It makes it such a faff to empty and load - with a basket, you just pull out the bottom rack, load plates and lob cutlery in the basket. With the drawer it’s like the Hokey Cokey - you have to do all the cutlery at once otherwise you’re forever opening and closing the drawers to get access to the drawers below.

I can cope with doing all the cutlery at once. We don’t drink wine so don’t tend to have tall glasses….very occasionally a pint glass but that’s like once a month so I think we could have the middle drawer quite high and leave enough room for plates.

one review said something about you could use a basket if you wanted to as long as you save your old basket from the previous dishwasher so I’ll probably hang onto that just incase….or even just to keep dirty cutlery in on the worktop before stacking the dishwasher.

I'd swap DP before I lost the cutlery drawer!!

This is pretty much what I think of my Bosch too!

Avoid Hoover like the plague-I had one that lasted 18 months and no one would touch it to repair it! Back to Bosch for me

I took the cutlery drawer out of our new dishwasher and reverted to the old cutlery basket, much prefer having the extra height in the upper rack.

I like it, cutlery is cleaner I think, but its not for the slovenly, you cant just bung it all in has to be done with a small amount of care. Also agree on Bosch, I had a Miele originally, started leaking after 18 months and no one could fix it. Back to Bosch and its much better, quieter and cleaner.

Do be honest dh annoys me with his cutlery basket stacking skills. He leaves some slots empty, then puts like 8 teaspoons in one slot, all perfectly tightly stacked together so they don’t get clean. I keep telling him to mix it up, put knife, fork, spoon in each slot! Maybe he will be better with a tray!

I bought a Hotpoint fridge once which broke and I've never bought anything Hotpoint again.

I had a Bosch slimline with a drawer and didn't have any problems stacking plates. As a pp said, you can adjust the drawers.

In fairness my fridge and freezer are both hotpoint and are 23 years old each! Still going strong. Dishwasher which has just died is a Hoover and is at least 6 years old if not older.

i got a cutlery drawer by mistake. Took me a week or so to get used to it. Wouldn’t go back to a basket!

It seems a lot extra for drawer, I think I’d stick to basket

Yes, I wouldn’t pay that much more just for a drawer, but it’s more that Bosch is also a better brand.

I am looking for a slimline freestanding dishwasher and would live a cutlery drawer - my friends have a Miele with one and I am so envious! What model is the one you've seen (or in which shop)?

It’s this one. https://www.johnlewis.com/bosch-series-4-sps4hmi49g-freestanding-slimline-dishwasher-silver-inox/p111920723?s_ppc=2dx_mixed_technology_BAU&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2el1xagLfY6gtjfXB4vgarmRrn4&gclid=CjwKCAjwktO_BhBrEiwAV70jXusEcHmkjbcctQ8efgtHCzacWXjTJNAg_tPxjULKMWEh9rG6N7ma4xoCk5AQAvD_BwE

Thank you - that ticks all the boxes for me apart from energy efficiency and you can't seem to get that without spending twice the price. Now I just need to get someone to plumb the fittings in.

We’ve had both types and I’d say a cutlery drawer every time. The baskets take up so much room.

Cutlery drawers are a waste of space and time. And whoever said Hokey Cokey nailed it. Not to mention finagling individual items into neat rows. Chuck in and out of the basket is the easier option.