Thanks for taking the time to post such helpful replies. I've got some things to work at now.

I'm sure i remember Lidls and Aldis own brands winning the Which award for best buy, i reckon they clean as well as and for about half the price of Finish's ones made of unobtainium.

In fact i haven't found a single WG labelled cleaning product from Lidl to be anything other than superb and very well priced compared to the usual suspects.

'Flash' dishwasher tabs were on less than half price at Morrisons some time ago and, as usual, i stocked up, well they do clean the dishes and pans but NBG for getting the tea stains off the cups and once we've used 'em i wouldn't buy them again.

Edited by gordonbennet on 05/10/2014 at 22:33

Have you found the dishwasher tablets to be damp recently? I only use a half one and find they no longer snap in half, but crumble instead.

Don't know, still using up the mountain of Fairy tabs (not Flash as i wrongly wrote above) i bought when on cheap as chips offer...yes i know possibly another OCD of many, but we do the same whenever things we use regularly are cheap, only finished earlier this year the Ariel washing machine tabs we bought at well below half price before we moved house some 12 years ago...:-)

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/10/2014 at 08:23

Aldi's standard tablets are pretty good. They also do a powder, available when dishwasher stuff is the 'special', which is just as good and even more economical.

I'd endorse other's suggestions to clean the thing with proprietary cleaner/descaler and check the arms carefully for obstructions in their spray outlets. Also, make sure they are being fed with water and rotating correctly. Our old Bosch alternated the supply between upper and lower arms at some parts of the cycle. The electro valve that facilitated the swapping function failed with result that stuff in top basket did not come clean.

If the upper basket has raised/lowered positions it's worth swapping between them to see if that makes a difference.

Finally, is it a particular type of cup that's not coming clean? Mrs B has one china mug that stains badly with tea. It's a peculiarity of the mug rather than dishwasher and it needs an occasional soak in homebrew steriliser to keep it looking OK.