Cove puts four cycles on the panel, more behind a second key, and a set of options that modify any of them. Most owners use one cycle for everything. Knowing what each is calibrated for is the difference between a load that comes out right and one that needs running again — or one that comes out spotted or still wet.
| Cycle | Calibrated for |
|---|---|
| Auto | Anything — it senses the load and decides |
| Normal | Everyday mixed loads with ordinary soil |
| Heavy | Cookware, baked-on residue, loads that sat before running |
| Quick | Lightly soiled glasses and mugs being refreshed |
Auto measures the turbidity of the water — how cloudy it is — and how that changes over the course of the cycle, then sets duration and intensity from what it finds. It adapts to the load rather than assuming one. If you have been defaulting to Normal for everything, Auto is the better default.
It runs hotter as well as longer. Using Normal on genuinely baked-on cookware usually means running the load twice, which consumes more water and energy than choosing Heavy once.
It shortens the cycle by giving up soak time and water volume. On a full mixed load with cooked-on food it will leave residue, and that gets blamed on the dishwasher rather than the selection.
The Cycles+ key holds the rest — energy-saving cycles, and gentle cycles for china and crystal. The energy-saving ones run cooler and longer to use less. That is a fair trade with one consequence worth knowing: a cooler final rinse means less heat in the dishes, and Cove dries by condensation, so eco cycles dry less well. Pair one with Extra Dry and you get most of the saving without the wet plates.
One more setting lives outside this list: rinse aid dosing is adjustable, and raising it is the standard fix for hard water leaving spots on the glassware.
Two of these — Sani Rinse and the turbidity-sensing Auto cycle — are among the things that set Cove apart from its competitors, compared in Cove against Miele and Bosch.
The top rack is a shallow tray for flatware and for the long, awkward items that never sit well anywhere else — serving spoons, spatulas, whisks, ladles. Laid flat and individually, they get direct water contact on all sides. In a crowded cutlery basket the same utensils nest into each other and shield the surfaces that needed washing, which is why they come out with food still on them.
Using it properly also frees the lower rack for the large items that genuinely need that space. Leaving it empty, or filling it with small bowls it was not shaped for, wastes both.
Load it so nothing hangs through and blocks the spray arm below — a protruding handle stops the arm turning, and that is one of the quieter causes of a badly washed load. The same applies if a rack is riding low, which is covered in rack wheels and derailing racks.
Auto. It reads the actual soil level and adjusts, which is exactly the decision you were trying to avoid making.
Only when it works. On a load it cannot handle it doubles consumption, because you run the whole thing again. The energy-saving cycles under Cycles+ are the ones designed to save.
It holds a higher rinse temperature long enough to meet the NSF/ANSI 184 sanitisation standard, adding about 15 minutes. It is not the same as High Temp Wash, which raises the wash rather than the rinse.
Yes, and combining Extra Dry with an energy-saving cycle is the most useful pairing on the panel.
For half loads, genuinely. It is the alternative to running a full cycle for six glasses or letting them sit until there is enough to justify one.
Picked the right cycle and the results are still poor? Then it is the machine rather than the selection. We service Cove throughout Arlington, Alexandria and the surrounding Northern Virginia communities, plus Washington, DC and Potomac, Maryland — book a diagnostic visit.
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