I didn't do what Phil did, and bought a Bosch. It does a nice job cleaning but we run it far more regularly than our old DW . Often it is nearly half empty on the bottom shelf, but the top is full of bowls and glasses. Listen to Phil.

What kind of bowls - cereal bowls or serving bowls?

I took a picture of the top rack of my Bosch with some cereal bowls lined up. These bowls are 6" in diameter and 2-5/8" tall.

Thanks for taking the time to post that pic sjhockeyfan, and to others for your responses.

Yes, cereal bowls. OK, it looks like they fit up top better than they'd fit on the bottom.

OK, I'll go out and have a look in person, but while I'm here, thought I'd ask a follow-up question.

Below is a picture of the bottom rack of the model I want to get. How do you fill the front-right tines? It seems like they would only accommodate saucers...perhaps very flat sandwich plates? Or maybe you just put your pots and serving bowls in that section?

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Or maybe you just put your pots and serving bowls in that section?

That's what I do. Regular plates, salad plates and large pasta bowls (see pic) fit perfectly in the back row. I use the front left for overflow, and the front right I really don't use for items that need tines, I just lay things over the top (and I wash pretty much everything in the DW). The cereal bowls fit in the front left as well as on the upper (middle) rack.

My bosch has the same interior. I was skeptical until I loaded it up. I use the bottom right for salad plates (and plastic kid plates). The deep soup/cereal bowls get mounded up on the bottom left, and the back row is for dinner plates. I read here sometime about how bosch cleans even if things are crammed in there and I can attest to that. All our dishes are ikea 365. 9x13 or 9x9 and pie plates even half sheet pans go around the perimeter. I've got two d/w so often times there are cups and cooking utensils filling both top racks with tableware in one d/w and cooking and serving dishes in the other.

Ellenandco, can you tell me what the dimension are for you cutlery tray. I have found a similar style rack to the photo you posted, and will probably get that to switch out my current rack, but I will also need a new cutlery tray because the one that fits my current rack is nearly square..

I purchased a Bosch yesterday. I hand wash cookware and cutlery, but I don't think my pots and pans could fit in there.

Nevertheless, I am very excited to get my dishwasher.

What kind of pots and pans do you have that you think won't fit? We tend to hand wash frying pants, but all our stainless steel pots go in the Bosch - 5 qt, 3 qt, 2 qt and 1 qt on a regular basis, and sometimes a stockpot.

sjhockeyfan, it is difficult to gauge size from the showroom. It is good to hear that a variety of sizes fit in the dishwasher. I can't wait to test it out!

I would suggest ordering the split silverware basket. In addition I ordered a rack with adjustable tines on the bottom. It was a rack from a benchmark.

My Bosch has tines that lay down to make a flat surface. Some are on the top and some are on the bottom. I fit all sizes of dishes and cookware in mine.

I've got a lot of flat salad plates and they seem to fit well in the small tines area on the bottom right. So I ended up buying the dw as it was on sale for a great price.

In the past, I've handwashed everything big because I didn't want to run my dishwasher so much. But with the excellent energy savings and washing abilities of this Bosch, I'm looking forward to throwing everything in and doing a daily wash.

What is the benefit of the split silverware basket?

kris_zone6, what model do you have? Were the flat tines an option or standard?

sjhockeyfan : question about your pic, do the bowls come clean like that? do you rinse first? what model is it?
i have a whirlpool that absolutely sucks! it doesn't clean silverware so i hand wash all flatware and pots and any dishes with traces if cheese, oatmeal or potatoes. yes i have tried many different recd dw detergent with almost no difference.
i really need a new dishwasher:(

ardcp, yes the bowls come clean. I rarely have an item that doesn't come completely clean, and when I do, it's almost always because we didn't scrape well. We scrape the dishes and only lightly rinse them, except for the oatmeal pot, which we rinse because oatmeal sticks to everything (including your ribs :-) ) like glue.

The model is an 800 series - SHV68T53UC

We have a Bosch 800Plus model, not TOL but right under that, and the bottom rack has a row of tines in the back that are close together and will also fold down. I think Bosch calls it Vario-Flex?

The front row of tines are a standard width, so that's where I put bowls & casserole dishes. It doesn't look like any of the racks shown here so far, so I've uploaded a photo.
I'm amazed over how many dishes we can get into this machine. Last summer, I had ten adults over and probably had dessert plates as well. I was shocked that I got ALL the dishes loaded. There were a few items that did not fit, and that was okay with me. Any of our previous DWs would have required two full loads.

Actually, thanks to this thread, I found another rack that would fit my Bosch, and am now much happier. When you look at replacement diagrams and part numbers, it seems that Bosch has a few different racks that fit a number of dishwashers. In general, the more expensive models come with tines that fold down to give more potions. Your rack does not seem to have a cutlery basket that sits in that rack, I am guessing you have a dedicated rack for cutlery. The rack that came with my machine had a space in the front center of the rack for a square shaped cutlery basket. In doing some research, I see that Bosch later offered a rack that was the same size, but changed the spacing and layout of the tines, and in the new layout there is space along the right hand side for a rectangular cutlery basket, see the photo that Hydragea posted. IMHO, it is a huge upgrade over the rack that originally came with my Bosch because I can now put bowls on the bottom rack.

The lower rack shown above is used with the ingenious cutlery basket that slides over the tines, thus not requiring an "empty" area with no tines for the basket to go (as shown in this video at 1:20). This design has two advantages: (a) you can place the basket almost anywhere on the lower racks, sliding it left and right over either the front or rear set of tines, and (b) you can remove the basket and use only the top 3rd rack for utensils, and be left with useful extra space with tines that can hold about 6 dinner plates rather than an empty section without tines that's less usable. Some of these baskets also can be split in half and reattached lengthwise (i.e. 1x8 rather than 2x4), or to use only half of the utensil basket to leave extra space for plates or cookware.

Many racks that Bosch uses are interchangable, but be careful as there are three sizes in use for the top rack (or center if 3 racks) that differ in front-to-back dimensions. Older machines can fit only a shorter top rack with a straight front. Newer machines have a redesigned, thinner inner door panel with a detergent/rinse aid dispenser that is centrally located and much smaller, allowing for a top rack that is longer front-to-back and has an indentation in the center (sometimes with a detergent tab holder or handle) to clear the dispenser in the door. Recent US-built machines have a similarly shaped rack but are 1-1/2" longer front-to-back. So there are three basic sizes of Bosch top racks. For the lower rack, there are two sizes: large US depth and shorter European depth, the former again about 1-1/2" longer front-to-back. About two years ago, most of Bosch's US market dishwashers switched to the deeper US length, but the low-end Ascentia models and very high-end German-built machines both still use the shorter racks. Most Thermador and all Gaggenau dishwashers also are sized to fit flush in shallower European cabinetry. BTW, the 3rd rack used in higher-end machines are all only the shorter Euro size, even though a longer rack would fit in the US-dimension machines. Here too though, there are different layouts available, with higher-end models having sections that pivot downward on the left and right, and tines in the center where every other tine can be folded down.

Lee, thanks, I had seen baskets with slots in the bottom, and was not sure why they made them like that, the video does make clear that it can be placed anywhere. On the current rack I have, there is a long rectangular area with no tines, so that is where I put the rack, but good to know there are other options. I have only an upper and lower rack, I don't have the separate cutlery rack, so the cutlery basket is a must.

Our DW came with the flatware basket with slots, that sits on the bottom rack. I use the third rack for flatware instead, thus opening up that valuable space on the bottom for pots, bowls, etc.

Lee, thank you for that informative post - I'll have a look to see if there's something even better than what I have now!

So timely! I got a $ gift for Christmas and want to use it for a new dishwasher, wanted Bosch, and am glad to get great up-to-date info, esp on the racks!

I'll have a look to see if there's something even better than what I have now!

The best racks are the VarioFlex Pro racks - but these are, for now, only available on the German machines that have just started to roll out over here. The Siemens racks are on telescopic rails, otherwise Bosch's racks are the same.

Siemens IQ 700