We’ve been asked to run a BEKO DW663 Review – we’re a large family, and our dishwasher has to work hard to keep up. Here’s what we honestly thought of it…
We know from bitter personal experience that not all dishwashers are created equal. We’ve had the cheapest of the cheap, and we’ve had the less modestly-priced versions (I’ll admit we’ve never tried the properly top-end ones, our budgets have never quite stretched that far). And being a family of six, with most of us home all day every day, our dishwashers really do have to pull their weight. When we’re without one (which has happened over the last year far more times than I would like) I am constantly astonished at how flippin’ endless the washing up stream is. I thought the laundry was bad!
So we agreed to try out the new BEKO DW663 with some trepidation. And warnings that we were pretty demanding dishwasher-testers. This particular model retails for under £300; it’s not the cheapest bottom end of the full size dishwasher market – but not even reaching the middle of the market in terms of costs, either. So how will the reasonable value stack up under family stress?
The first thing you notice once the dishwasher is installed (it’s an integrated model, and fits seamlessly into our kitchen*) is how sturdy it is.
For me there are two issues with cheap dishwashers: the lower quality drawers simply don’t fit their rails, and they jump off and leap about, causing huge amounts of peril to your china, and irritation to your temper.
The Beko DW663, however, stays on track smoothly and happily. No matter how loaded the trays are, they never skip or jump, and simply move in and out with ease. No irritation caused. perfect.
The second issue is that of space. It never ceases to amaze me how some dishwashers, though the same dimensions on the outside, can be so much smaller on the inside, making stakcing them a total pain and really awkward. there’s no getting around it, you simply have to accept that some larger pans, dishes or colanders are an outright dishwasher-free zone. they just won’t fit.
And yet others, with a little more cleverness in their design, manage to make the same space work so brilliantly.
The Beko DW663, I’m happy to report, is one of the clever ones. It really is. And it;’s all down to the attention to the design.
The baskets are deep in themselves – but then every single part of the basket is moveable and flexible in the layout.
Don’t need the plate racks standing? Just lay them flat.
Need them at a different angle? No problem.
Need an extra shelf for some small items? Of course.
Need those small shelves out of the way for a big dish? Easy as that.
Want to move the cutlery basket to the other side? Sure thing.
Have a few cutlery items, but want to take out the basket? Easy – just use the tray right at the top.
Top tray not deep enough for your past bowls? Just drop it down.
Top tray not clearing the big roasting pans on the bottom? Raise it back up again.
There’s just so much flexibility in the layout, there will always be the solution for this particular set of dishes.
On top of which it’s quiet to run, efficient with your energy (A+ rating), and top of the tops it emits a very subtle quiet peep when it’s done. And it won’t keep shouting that it’s done until you actually get up off the sofa to go and thank it for it’s hard work. A few peeps, then it settles down to snooze and wait for you to come and empty it (sadly, yes, you still need to do that bit).
There’s an Auto Sense programme that adjusts the washing parameters to suit the level of dirtiness, running on the optimum energy and water levels, resulting in a more efficient performance. There’s a red light that shines on the floor while it’s running (which finally puts and end to the open-the-door-to-a-cloud-of-steam dance that happened three times a week), the drawers extend much farther than normal to make loading them al the way to the back a breeze, and the cutlery tray hidden away at the top is sized to be genuinely useful rather than an annoying time-waster.
Honestly – it’s weird how much you can love a household appliance that really works. That actually helps make your like easier.
And I’m happy to shout that the Beko DW663 does that. It makes cleaning a busy families endless dishes easy.
Am pretty sure there’s no better recommendation than that.
You can by the BEKO DW663 Integrated dishwasher from Currys for £299.
*extra note to say that Currys Knowhow team of fitters were properly brilliant – fast, friendly, tidy and incredibly efficient. For us, they’d be worth the £90 that fitting an integrated machine costs – particularly as they take the old machine away with them too.
