I don't have a panel ready 500, but my stainless 500 says 46db

Umm, do you think maybe you've been been spending too much time trying to pick a dishwasher?

A bit more research will tell you that Bosch specs the 500 series dishwashers at 46 dbA and that some of the 300 series are rated at 48 dbA and others at 50 dbA.

If that seems reassuring, you may be afflicted by spec fatigue. These differences are measurable but minor. Maybe if you were planning to have them in a bedroom next to your bed and wanting them to run while you slept next to them, then sound levels might be noticceable. But really, for most folks, the noise is not a disruptive kind of sound and not very noticceable when you are not down ot the floor with your ears next to the door trying to suss out differences. Also, except for the short final draining, Bosch dw noise is all pretty much unobtrusive white noise. I can tell that my new 46 dbA 500 series dw is a bit quiter than the 15 year-old 52 dbA Bosch that was replaced. But the old onw was hardly obtrusively noisy. I did not replace the old one because of noise but because the timer/controller died and I could not readily find a replacement part.

That was a month ago, What I remember from that shopping episode was that the significant difference between the 500 series and 300 series came down this one thing for me: the tubs for the 500 series are entirely stainless steel while the 300 series tubs have polypropylene plastic bottoms with the rest being stainless steel.

As I recall, there were three other differencees that I can recall: the 500 series dishwashers have a small electronic display window (countdown of minutes left in the run), they have a delay start function, and their outside dimensions are, maybe, 7/8-inch less deep. Some folks might find these important. For me, these three were trivial.

If those differences are not important to you, and if you are okay with a polypro tub bottom, save yourself $90 and get a 300 series with a panel door.

A month ago, when I bought my new dishwasher, the 500 series were only about $90 more than their analogues in the 300 series line.

Thank you for pointing out the other differences.
Some of the differences do not really matter to me but yes I would prefer the stainless tub. When doing a large scale renovation every little bit of money saved helps. I you save or spend $100 extra dollars everywhere it adds up to thousands quickly!

I was just confused because they showed different db ratings for the same dishwasher in two places. I would think the Bosch website would be correct so that means the 500 is now 48db for the panel ready version. Some of the other 500 models are 46db. I guess I was just wondering.

Thanks again!

It might be that sound testing requirements required that the dishwashers have to be tested as delivered from the factory. Since the panel ready d/w has no panel to act as additional sound proofing it's a little louder than the units with the factory installed finished panel. Not sure if this is the case but it makes sense.

I went with the 500 because it had the "half load" option and the rackomatic rack system which I liked better than the 300. Those options, along with the stainless tub, we worth paying the extra $80.

Are the Bosch dishwasher racks generally a tad smaller than the comps or am I imagining things?

That's what it seems like when I am @ the B&M looking @ things side by side.

Have you tried a search? Sometimes it is hard to figure out what terms to search on. See the links below for starters. Maybe this will help you find the terms needed to get the kinds of info your want.

Here is a link that might be useful: Images of Bosch DW