Dishwashers with cutlery trays

[crazydiamond222]

Does anyone have one of these instead of the basket ones. If so do you think it works better or does it mean you can't fit much on the top shelf.

Also is the cutlery tray removable/how do you feel it would work if your cutlery drawer is not near the dishwasher?

My husband is keen on one of these but I am not sure for the reasons above.

@arseit Yep that's the one! So quiet too

I have a Bosch with a cutlery tray. Cutlery comes out so much cleaner and I can fit loads more in the bottom tray

We have a cutlery drawer in our Bosch dishwasher I love it. It gives you more space in the main dishwasher for all your plates and stuff.

@Mrsladybirdface - yep, really quiet and I love the automatic door opening function. Very impressed for the price.

Ours is a Siemens, bought it for about 500 about five years ago. Wouldn't want to have to go back to a basket, everything crammed in together and less space in the bottom layer which we always manage to fill. We also tend to put cutlery of one type together, then can put bundles of clean items back together.

The one at work has a tray, I much prefer it to mine at home which has a basket. My next home dishwasher I will make sure has a tray.

I have a 10 yr old Miele with a cutlery tray and I haven't found height to be a problem at all. When I designed the kitchen I put a three drawer unit next to the dishwasher, plates at the bottom, cups and glasses in the middle and cutlery at the top so I just transfer most things straight across. If this one goes kaput then I will probably replace it with the same type of Miele as I haven't had any problems with it at all and it's very quiet.

I have a share in a holiday house and that has a Bosch with a cutlery drawer. We have some very tall, slender glasses that only fit on one section of the middle drawer, which is a pain. If I was starting again from scratch I would just buy different glasses as they are taller than average.

I have two cutlery drawers
One for the day-to-day set and one for the random stuff- all the odd teaspoons, butter knives, sharps knives,latte spoons, jam spoons, big serving spoons, sporks and pastry forks ( I have a thing for cutlery)

I love my cutlery drawer, it really swayed my decision . Got a Neff .

Only advantage of the basket was that I had two . One in use and the other being filled .

I love my Miele with a cutlery tray. I think the cutlery comes out a million times cleaner too. We got our Miele second hand for free (best find EVER!!) and it’s been in almost 5 years now and still like brand new. It must be nearly 10 years old and it gets run every single day without fail. I’d probably replace that faster than I replaced my husband if I ever needed to 😂

We've got a Maytag with a cutlery tray - it's easily removable and it comes with a basket you can use instead. I thought it would be a pain to use but it's fine. Don't think there is any added performance over the basket though.

I have a Bosch one and originally I didn’t like it as there isn’t much room on the top shelf, so I phoned Bosch and bought a cutlery basket from them (£15ish). The cutlery tray is removable.

I’m now used to the tray, but it’s handy having the basket if i need to switch things around.

I have an LG one with a tray. The middle shelf is adjustable as well so I can drop it down for wine glasses or move it up for big pans or dishes in the bottom.

We bought a Grundig recently, mainly because it had a 5 year guarantee as standard, but also the build quality. For me Grundig surpassed Bosch in terms of drawer design and quality of them. Ours came with a cutlery tray as well as basket, as well as glass holder. So far I'm v impressed due to the flexibility of being able to take out the cutlery tray and also adjust the upper drawer.

Bosch Exxcel. It has a cutlery tray, and it’s so much better than the basket. I don’t know if you can remove it, and I’m not willing to try in case I can’t get it back in again.

We have an integrated one by Neff that has a cutlery tray at the top. Bought it precisely for that reason.

I've just got that Hisense one too! Just a PSA (and I think this applies to many other brands too) you can adjust the height of the upper rack (not the cutlery tray) by pulling it or and wiggling it up. There are 3 height settings. I wouldn't have known without reading the manual - leaves more height on the bottom level for big plates.

Should've tagged @Arseit and @Mrsladybirdface in my last post

I have a Bosch with a tray and hate it. Doesn't get cutlery properly clean, stirring spoons and fish slices take up so much space and the clearance on the top rack is shit - can't get wine glasses in or even a jug. If you drop it to the lower setting the washer arm doesn't clear the tops of the plates.

The only thing it's good for is the lids off wee Tupperware pots.

I'd go back to a basket in a heartbeat.

I too have a Miele and I’m happy with the cutlery shelf. It does clean better with this layout. It’s also very quiet. Very quiet so you hardly know it’s on. That was a major concern for me. It also opens the door when it’s finished and a light comes on. Cannot fault it. I wouldn’t have another make. If you can afford one, buy a Miele.

I never put my wine glasses in the DW. I put my fish slices and bigger utensils in the cup racks in the next drawer down. Works well.

We have the tray version now after previously having the basket and I don’t like it. You can’t wash any slightly taller glasses as they will not fit and you can forget about washing even small wine glasses , you do get a small amount more space for plates, I guess it depends on your use. I would prefer being able to put tall Glasses And not needing to hand was them every time.

I always wash wine glasses by hand. They make such a mess when they break.

I have a Miele with a tray, just pick the cutlery up and put it in the draw,no faff.

I was dead against a tray but decided to give it a shot and now I wouldn't be without it. I always thought it would be a lot of hassle but I'm so used to it that I can load it just as fast, if not faster, than a basket. When I load the cutlery I put them on their side, facing the same direction and with the same sort (spoons all together etc), when I'm unloading I can grab all the spoons in one go etc so there is no sorting.

My upper level moves up and down but even without that function I dont think the tray really affects the space below it much.

Also, I was a ton of tiny, delicate things in the tray that I wouldn't have been able to was otherwise or would have easily gotten lost. My knives have also completely stopped chipping and being worn down since I swapped. I used to have to sharpen them every few months with a basket, now they are still as good as new after 2 years.

So I would whole heatedly recommend giving it a try in your own home. My mother in law had it and I always hated stacking it there but for some reason it's completely different in my own home. I guess everyone has a very personal dishwasher stacking persona 😁

And judging from other people's experiences, I would really look for a dishwasher with an upper level that moves up and down easily. It eliminate s space issues for both the tray and the lower level when you want to wash something tall like an oven rack etc.