Hm. It's strange when someone else's objective experience is so different from one's own. The house I'm renting has some cheapo dishwasher, and it does a great job. Only uses as much water as a toilet flush, too.
Ever since I switched to powdered detergent and started throwing a pinch of powder in the bottom of the tub in addition to filling up the main dispenser halfway, I have not had a single dish come out with a piece of food on it.
I also recommend disabling any “auto” features of dishwasher has.
The only caveat to this video: don’t fill up the detergent dispenser all the way with powder, go about halfway. He corrects this mistake in his follow-up video, which I also recommend.
But don't overfill the device or it won't clean as effectively. If you're waiting until you're playing Jenga to maximise the items inside to turn it on, then you're probably obstructing the water flow and reducing cleaning effectiveness.
My Bosch dishwasher has been excellent. It wasn’t cheap but it does a great job and is dead silent (can barely hear it sitting in the open concept living room just a few feet from the kitchen).
The only problem is that for whatever reason the power boxes required to wire them up for hardwired setups are bad and have a tendency to melt, as you’ll find reports of online. I’ve had this happen once already and intend to have an electrician convert my hardwire into an outlet so I can plug it in with a regular cord and not need the box.
I actually have, but with the caveat that you have to know how to place the dishes in the thing such that they don't block the flow of water. Not a burden once you know how to do it, but might initially take some time to figure it out, if just looking at the thing doesn't make it obvious.
