Thinking of returning my new Bosch 500 series, am I doing something wrong?

The learning curve switching from a classic Whirlpool to a Bosch is massive because the drying tech is fundamentally diffrent. Your old machine used a heating coil to bake the moisture off, whereas Bosch uses a stainless steel tub and residual heat. You basicly bought a machine that requires **rinse aid** to function. If you aren't filling that reservoir every few weeks, your plastic Tupperware will never come out dry. Plastic doesn't retain heat well enough for condensation drying to work on its own, so the water just clings to it.

You also need to make sure the AutoAir function is acutally turned on so the door pops open at the end of the cycle. If that steam stays trapped inside while the tub cools down, it just rains back down on your dishes. And even then, you ussually have to wait about 30 to 60 minutes after the cycle ends for the moisture to fully evaporate. It's a slower process than the old-school "heated dry" blast you're used to.

As for the rack layout, you're right that these are designed for European-style dinnerware. They expect thin, flat porcelain plates, not the chunky stoneware or thick plastic kids' plates we use over here. The tines are spaced tight to hit those high place-setting counts on the spec sheet. You can sometimes find a sweet spot by loading thicker plates every other tine, but then you lose half your capacity. It's a trade-off for the quietness and efficiency that some people just can't stand.

If the tipping glasses are driving you nuts, check if the middle rack is clicked into the right height. Bosch uses a system called **RackMatic** where you can drop or raise the sides independently. Sometimes having it at the wrong level makes the stems unstable when you're sliding the drawer. But if you're allready at the point of wanting to rip it out, you might just be a "heating element" person. Costco has a great return policy, so you might be better off swapping it for a high-end KitchenAid or Maytag that still uses a traditional heating coil.

Wait, I'm looking at the same Bosch model and I'm totally confused about the 'Extra Dry' setting. Does that actually use a heater, or is it just more hot water at the end? I'm coming from a basic Amana and I honestly didn't know dishwashers coud be this complicated.

Also, for the tines, has anyone tried those silicone 'tether' things for the wine glasses? I saw them online but I'm not sure if they actually work. My big fear is getting a fancy machine and then having to hand-dry everything anyway because of the plastic cups.

The 'Extra Dry' setting isn't a heating coil; it just boosts the final rinse temp to help evaporation. If you realy want those plastics dry, hit the 'Sanitize' button too. That extra heat spike is a game changer for condensation drying. As for the tipping glasses, see if your model has the fold-down plastic 'shelves' on the sides of the middle rack. They’re meant to stabilize stemware or small items. But Bosch racks are notoriously 'fiddly'—if you can't find a groove for your specific mugs after a week, just swap it for a KitchenAid. Life is too short to fight your dishwasher every night.