Verdict

Beko’s DEN59420DX AutoDose is a sophisticated, cutting-edge dishwasher bristling with smart features, including a powerful app that lets you set and control the machine. The AutoDose feature is neat, automatically using the right amount of detergent to get your dishes clean. Yet, for all of its smarts, the cleaning performance isn't as good as we'd have expected, and the upper rack is cluttered and hard to load, which let it down.

Pros

• Good tough wash results with tablets
• Comprehensive HomeWhiz App
• Clever Steam Gloss drying
• Very low running costs
• Stylish looks
• Nicely quiet

Cons

• So-so wash daily results
• Awkward top rack loading
• App takes some navigating
• Alexa control is clunky
• Old fashioned cutlery basket
• Liquid detergent is scarce

The Beko DEN59420DX AutoDose Dishwasher is a good-looking, full-sized, 60cm-width machine. It’s available as an integrated appliance or freestanding model, as we have on test here. It offers 14 place capacity setting, nine programmes, and can be controlled via the HomeWhiz App and Alexa voice. Its efficient A++ energy rating means frugal running costs, and it can automatically dispense the correct amount of liquid detergent and rinse aid for your load, lasting up to one month without refills.

High-tech features, automatic dosing and a complex and comprehensive app make this stylish Beko a truly cutting-edge appliance. However, many of the basics are a little off the mark. The top rack is rather awkward to load, our long-term daily AutoDose wash results were below par, and the basic connectivity can be hit and miss.

Beko DEN59420DX AutoDose – What you need to know

• General dishwashing performance: Rather disappointing with longer-term testing showing teacup rings, remaining and crockery stains that didn’t shift. Some bowls had food stains remaining.
• Tough, heavy soil performance: The initial tough scrambled-egg test stain fared well, and greasy pans were cleaned with ease. Tough cleaning was better with tablet detergent than auto-dosing.
• Drying results: As typical with A++ energy-rated machines, drying was fair but not great. Even shallow mug bases pooled water that spilt when you unloaded the top basket.
• Running costs: No complaints here with very low A++ electricity running expenses and exceptionally thrifty water use.

Related: Best dishwasher

Sporting swanky looks, app control and automatic features, the Beko DEN59420DX AutoDose is a cutting-edge dishwasher

The freestanding Beko AutoDose instantly looks like a high-end machine despite its mid-market £400 asking price. It looks great with its brush stainless-steel finish and glossy black handle area that doubles as an exterior timer display. Open the door and you have equally glossy controls along the top edge, although the panel shows fingermarks with consummate ease.

The AutoDose is complete with nine programmes and five different functions: AquaIntense, Fast+, SteamGloss, Super Rinse and Half Load. Impressively, you can download more cycles via the HomeWhiz app, set up a wash wizard to pick a wash for your load and operate the machine remotely. Well, that’s the theory.

The app is a complex monster, and getting our account registered and the sample dishwasher connected and set up in the HomeWiz app was a faff of prize-winning proportion. Our perseverance definitely paid off, though.

The app is detailed, easy to use once you learn its ways, and extremely comprehensive. It also shows a raft of information, including detergent and rinse aid levels, and allows them to be automatically ordered from Amazon or Finish direct in advance of running out.

We did try integrating Alexa commands, but without a great deal of success. Your mileage may vary, as by the time you read this Beko may have updated the app. No question, HomeWiz is the most detailed dishwasher app we’ve tested to date, but it’s tricky to set up and lengthy to learn.

Thankfully, all the basic machine controls are replicated as touch buttons on the top of the door, so no app required.

The Beko DEN59420DX AutoDose Dishwasher has lots of space, but it’s cluttered inside

Capacity is quoted as 14 place settings over two basket racks, with a traditional cutlery basket that slots into the lower basket. That area feels spacious with two runs of fold-down plate tines allowing for larger pots and pans. Flip-out tray supports sit on the sides, but we struggled to find anything that their shape and location would actually help to hold in place.

The upper rack is busy with tines, angled racks and flip-down trays. Too busy in fact. The tangled wires on the base of the rack are too close together for large mugs or pint glasses, and the tines always seemed to be in the wrong place. In addition, the flat fold-down tray simply blocks anything that isn’t microscopically small from being placed beneath.

The whole basket is height adjustable, but the lower position limits you to smaller dinner plates in the lower basket and the upper position foregoes anything much taller than a mug.

The upper basket is definitely awkward to load effectively. That isn’t aided by its rather stiff rollers and stiff rear water seal that tend to judder the rack as you push it in or out, often making items fall over.

Clever Beko AutoDose technology automatically dispenses the correct amount of detergent and rinse aid

AutoDose is a relatively new tech on domestic dishwashers, but we suspect it might become the norm in the long-term. By using liquid detergent in a reservoir, the machine senses how dirty the load is and uses the correct amount of detergent to get a good clean. It saves you having to load the detergent slot every wash and avoids under or overdosing.

Our first problem was that no sample of liquid detergent is supplied, and none of our local supermarkets stocked it. We resorted to buying 5l of Finish Professional dishwasher liquid from a trade supplier. Beko is currently offering a free six-month supply of detergent by the redemption of a voucher, and there’s an ability in the app to auto-purchase from Finish direct. Yet neither will help the first day you install the machine. Thankfully, this Beko also takes tablets, placed unusually in a tray-slot in the top basket.

Liquid detergent fills a reservoir behind the rinse aid compartment, both of which have little sight-glasses to show level. A grey cover cap pulls off easily to reveal the clear reservoirs, making it much easier to see levels than the tiny sight glasses. Mind you, with the app telling you how much of each fluid you have left, seeing these levels manually is arguably a moot point.

Headlining the nine-strong programme count is the standard Auto Cycle, which took just under three hours. That isn’t unusually lengthy for a modern energy-saving machine. The Eco programme takes a while longer still, but its resource use – or rather lack of – certainly lives up to its A++ billing.

Also thrown in the mix is AquaFlex for mixed items, Intensive for those heavily soiled dishes, Glass Care for delicate glasses and Quick&Shine for a super-fast clean. The Mini cycle is great for lightly stained dishes, taking just 30 minutes, and the Prewash option is handy for removing food remnants on soiled dishes kept in the washer for a few days.

Our first test with heavily dried-on scrambled egg was a resounding success using a triple-action tablet for detergent. The bowl was almost completely clean, with just a small area of egg remaining.

Yet a few weeks later, longer-term testing of day-to-day dishwashing using the AutoDose feature produced rather sketchy results. While basic food solids were cleaned well, stains and dried-on sauces proved too much of a challenge for the Beko on its basic Auto and Eco programmes. Teacups were left with very visible rings, and subsequent egg bowls had smears of egg remaining.

Switching to the Intensive wash, results were better but still not up to some of Beko’s standard dishwashers in this respect. It was clean generally, but stains persisted throughout crockery.

Irrespective of the programme, drying wasn’t great. While we have come to expect so-so drying from energy-efficient dishwashers trying to save the last watt of electricity, the awkward top-rack loading consistently resulting in cups and bowls pooling water. The combination left a lot of wet items that would drip all over plates and bowls in the lower basket when you jarred out the stiff upper basket.

Beko’s DEN59420DX AutoDose is quiet, sophisticated, and an achingly stylish machine with features that set the benchmark for dishwashing smarts. Yet in a drive for technological supremacy, Beko seems to have let some basics slip, with ergonomics, wash performance and even drying somewhat off the pace for a machine at this price.

Should I buy the Beko DEN59420DX AutoDose?

On the surface of it, Beko’s AutoDose dishwasher is a strong contender with a great range of programmes, clever HomeWhiz App control, slick features and nicely low running costs. Features such as AutoDose and  SteamGloss are genuinely useful, and the exterior finish will bring a high-end appliance look to any kitchen.

Yet we struggled to get consistently perfect clean results despite some excellent tough stain tests, particularly when we used the AutoDose features. Awkward upper-rack configuration seems to limit the area capacity, and drying is only average unless you deploy the excellent SteamGloss function. Beko’s AutoDose is one of the smartest looking, smartest featured dishwashers we’ve ever tested, but there’s still a little work to do on the basics of loading ergonomics and wash performance.