They are trying to show you how to make your custome panel have the same gap as your drawers form the counter top.
Install the D/w and raise it to the proper install height. Then use the template to mark the top edge of your drawer. Take the template put it on your custom panel with your mark at the top edge of the panel. then drill your pilot holes in the panel and instal the hardware. When you install the panel the top edge should match your top edge of the drawer.

Jakvis, I read your post over and over trying to figure out how your instructions are any different than the Bosch template instructions - they really aren't. Then one sentence that I had repeatedly glossed over jumped out, "Install the DW and raise it to the proper install height." I'll be the one installing the panel, but I had my GC install the dishwasher (I don't do anything with plumbing.) Could it be? So I went and looked and Presto! There's a sizable gap between the top of the DW and the underside of the countertop. I can fit my fingers in there with room to spare. The Bosch DW install instructions don't really say just how high it should be, but I would guess until the top rubber gasket is at least touching the counter. I have a quartz counter, so the top mounting clips got moved to the side, which is maybe why he didn't notice it. Also, without any kind of a door panel, it's not immediately obvious that the height is off. I remember him leveling it, I guess he just didn't raise it. I haven't had him look at it yet, but I bet this will make all the difference in the world. So thanks for the response!

This reply might be a bit late for Pendleton, but I thought I'd post anyway because I was having issues with the template too, and I think I've figured something out - it's a little tricky to explain verbally, but I'll try to be as clear as I can...

For the template, Bosch assumes that the dishwasher will be installed so that the top of the dishwasher is directly beneath the bottom surface of the finished countertop - i.e. directly beneath the bottom surface of the marble, granite, quartz, whatever - and that the tops of the adjacent cabinet doors will also be directly beneath the finished countertop. If that's the case, the template should work - but there still may be problems; more on that below.

Anyway, the problem we had was that we installed a 3/4" ply sub-counter beneath our very heavy cast concrete countertop, so the dishwasher is 3/4" lower relative to the underside of the finished countertop. So when I aligned the template and marked the dishwasher panel per instructions, the panel ended up too low. (I've included a snapshot showing the sub-counter - not sure if it helps explain.) When I realized that, I re-drilled the panel, placing the template 3/4" lower on the panel than it was when aligned per Bosch's instructions - lowering the template raises the panel when it's installed.

(In Pendleton's image of the template instructions above, this would mean marking the template per Bosch's instructions, as in step 5; but then instead of aligning the pencil-marks on the template with the top of the panel, as in step 6, measuring 3/4" down from the top of the panel (the thickness of my sub-counter), drawing a line on the panel, and aligning the pencil marks on the template with that line.)

So, in short: if you have any extra material beneath the bottom surface of the finished countertop, you need to lower the template when drilling the panel by the thickness of that material - i.e. if you have a 1/2" sub-counter, lower the template by 1/2" when drilling; if you have 5/8" sub-counter, lower the template by 5/8" when drilling, etc.

But... Another problem I ran into was that the holes on our template were misaligned - they were about 3/16" too high relative to the marking gauges on the top corners of the template. So when I adjusted the template for the thickness of our sub-counter and re-drilled, the panel, when mounted, was still about 5/16" too low. Not sure if this is just a misprint on Bosch's part or if all the templates are like this, but now I'm on my third drilling and I'm just measuring by hand with the help of a laser level. Hopefully Bosch has got their act together and corrected the templates - ours is marked "revision A" at the top; maybe there's a "revision B" out there that actually works. Anyway, assuming your template is correct, you should be able to adjust for a sub-counter as I described.

I've spent all morning working this out. It's 11:18 a.m.; I'm waiting until noon just for the sake of propriety and then I'm having myself a glass of wine or two. This deserves a well-aged Rioja, I think...

In most cases it won't even matter if the DW is not raised up all the way to the underside of the countertop. with one exception.

What does matter is that you place the paper template all the way to the underside of the finished countertop AND MARK THE TOP OF THE ADJACENT DOOR or DRAWERS on the graduation marks of that paper template. If your finished counter is actually a "subtop" liek Zia's then that's the underside of your finished countertop. Zia's is really two countertops rather than a subtop - which would be hidden by the built up front edge of the "money" top.

These marks will now be placed on the top edge of your dishwasher panel. Like jakvis said - all this template is doing is measuring and making easy to transfer the gap that exists between the top edge of your drawers and doors to the underside of your countertop. Most of our installers don't even use that template - but rather measure that relationship. We even install these things when there is no coutertop in place !

All you are trying to achieve is alignment of all the top edges of the doors / panels and drawer fronts of a particular elevation.

If there are problems - 99% of the time it's because the PANEL WASN'T MADE CORRECTLY. It's too short or wide or narrow. The height MUST BE the same height as the total height of all the adjacent doors or doors/drawers added together. The width cannot be any wider that the appliance opening or narrower than the min. spec given by Bosch - which I don;t know off the top of my head.

I'm saving this - we have a Bosch 800 series on order, to be installed probably in early December (when our cabinets arrive) with a custom panel. I'm sure this will help the contractor/installer!

I think some of the confusion is that you don't build the custom panel to the dishwasher specs.
You build the panel to the dimensions of your cabinet opening minus whatever gap your cabinets call for.

If your cabinets have an 1/8 inch gap between and on top of the doors the cabinet maker is supposed to mirror the same gaps when making the D/W panel.

It's like xedos said. 99% of the time the cabinet maker didn't didn"t measure the cabinet opening correctly.
It's a custom panel and needs to fit the opening, side to side, and top to toe kick, regardless of the size of the d/w (as long as it's wider than the D/W)

In my case, the KD knew that the dishwasher panel was tricky and when they did the final order, they still made it too narrow! Here's the before an after -- the new panel is 1/4" narrower than the dimension of the opening. The prior was using what the template said (which is too narrow, even for the standard 24" opening). I'm adding the photo to help future people out.

Now, we're left with dilemma of what to do with the toe kicks (if anything at all). When you move to furniture feet style toekicks, you do end up with a gap by the dw.

hey fellas, sorry to bring up old posts, but i have a question that relates to this. I ordered a panel ready bosch, to put in an existing kitchen. There is a drawer and 2 cupboards in that are there now. The specs are all perfect, but the width of our drawers and cupboards are 27''. So looking into this, since the doors sit flush with the rest of the cupboards, i think it shouldn't matter if its a little wider, should it? I will mount it like usual, just have 1'' to 1-1/2'' hanging over on each side, so its even just like the picture above. Is that correct?

That is doable, but presents some issues.

You have to be sure the xtra weight doesn't exceed the spring rating.

You'll need to "fill in" behind the door with material to match your cabinets for looks and more importantly to have something to attach the DW to.

I have spent the better part of the day working on my Bosch 800 Plus trying to attach the door panel. I have super precise measurements, followed the instructions to the letter and the top is NOT in the proper place. Thanks to one of the comments remarking about their problems with the concrete counters. The offset calculation is exactly what I needed to put my feet on the right path. Bosch has failed with this version of their template. My door is not flush with the underside of the countertop but the rubber edging does rub against it.

My goal was to have the panel stand proud of the top of the door as I do not want to see any part of the dishwasher door behind the panel. The template presumes your dishwasher door, not the front panel) is higher than the adjacent drawer face. This is not always the case and there are no details to factor in that variation. Once I "figure" out my approach to this door panel alignment issue, I will post some details in hopes it meets the needs of others.

When you pay over a grand for a dishwasher, the door panel should be a whole lot easier to position and fasten in the place.

I know this thread is a bit stale, but I thought I would pose a question. I installed a bosch dishwasher, had the front panel made and installed it. All sides have proper gapping, as well as the top. When the dishwasher bottom lines up with the cabinet door bottoms to either side. The problem I have is that when you open the door, the bottom part of the door hits the kickplate. It is as if the length is too long. If I was to cut the panel, it would no longer align with the cabinet doors to the sides. I cannot find any documentation that identifies the max height of the door.

Any suggestions?

Lower your dishwasher to the lowest height, secure it in place, (you might have to use shims at the top) then remount the door hardware by re-measuring where the brackets go. This should raise the panel to allow clearance at the bottom to allow the door to open.

@Jakvis, worked perfectly. Thanks

I'm frustrated with mine. This has not turned out how I expected it.

1. My cabinet door was made 1/8" wider than the opening and it won't open because the bottom corners hit. I don't want to cut the panel narrower because the whole point of this thing was for it to look like it was part of the cabinets and I didn't want to see any cracks on the side. I would have thought the door would swing out like the custom panel fridges.

2. How is everyone handling the kickplate at the bottom. It doesn't look very good?

I see this is an old post but I believe you need to raise your panel to cover top gap and clear base trim. Have you considered building faux base feet, similar to the ones on the right it is bumping into, that can be removed if the DW needs servicing? The panel could drop behind them.

There's some great info in this thread. In the template instructions it's says not to exceed 30 1/8" in length for the door panel. Is this accurate? I only ask because some had said this template might not be correct. I have the dishwasher installed, but i need to measure for the cabinet panel and I'm not sure what clearances to give. Any help would be appreciated.

Can it be done without a template? My floor model came without it.

It's a bit late, but the template is online, might be hard to print to the proper size.
Look on the Bosch site, under manual downloads, the text says everything is a manual, but one is the template.

https://media3.bsh-group.com/Documents/9000825021_C.pdf

1. And the problems installing a custom panel on a Bosch dishwasher continues into 2020. My door panel has the same problem as Johns Lojko's. The door cannot be opened all the way because it is hitting the kick plate. When closed it aligns with my cabinets and looks beautiful. The installer wants to do some crazy work around by using 1/2" PVC pipe as thick 1" washers. Please someone tell me (and him) there is an easier way!

Try to follow my instructions that I posted above and it should work great.

The template is absolutely incorrect. And what so perplexing is that it’s been wrong for so long. Bosch owes me and everyone who’s had this issue a new panel.

Instead of the instructions telling you to push it to the underside of the countertop, it should have you align the top of the template with the top of the adjacent cabinet door.

Think about it. when you raise the template, you raise the location of the hangers, and the higher the hangers the lower the panel will sit. I followed the instructions perfectly and the panel hangs 3/16” too low. I don’t see how I can fix this. When I hang the panel and then lift it to position it at the correct height, the hangers slip out. There’s simply no way to position the door so that I can fasten it with the 6 long screws. Bosch should be embarrassed by this.

Hoping that you all can save me some heartache as I have been searching on the internet to solve this problem and found this thread (yea!). I am getting a Bosch panel ready dishwasher (see installation instructions below.)

I need to make the panel for my dishwasher, as my cabinets are old and are just stained 3/4" Doug fir. As shown, the cabinet doors do not align flat with the cabinet frames, but stick out 3/4". The opening for the dishwasher is 24" x 34' and there is framing on each side so that theoretically, the panel could be 24 1/2 and mirror the rest of the cabinets. I'm thinking of doing something that is 24 1/2 X 30 1/8. Do you think this will work?

TIA.

You can do that. There are two problems people have with doing this.

One is simply aligning the panel at the height you want to the holes in the dishwasher. The template tries to explain a process to predrill your holes, but it's not quite right. I solved this with a little trial and error.

The next problem is the front panel swings out and down, and therefore the bottom swings in.

There has to be clearance for this. Make sure your panel is not too low and the sides don't interfere. You're also going to have to leave a small gap between the door and bottom of the countertop.

Thank you! I had a feeling this was going to be a bit complicated :-)

It only gets complicated when it doesn't fit ;^)

Some people that find the bottom is hitting their dishwasher kickplate, have resorted to a panel that can slide up when pulled. There are specialty kits for that.

Pardon my question but I am just getting started on my kitchen installation. I have the cabinet door for my dishwasher and am about to order the install kit but am unclear on the process. Do I remove the current door face? Or place the cabinet face over it?

If so, am I drilling the long screws through the stainless door panel? I plan to create a video and upload to YouTube as the current videos are not very explanatory. Thanks!!

The custom panel units do not come with a front face. You attach two clips to the door that slide into the lower slots, Then there are two (maybe 4) holes in the interior door though which you run screws into lock your exterior panel.

Thank you I think my question was super unclear. Do I need to remove all of the screws from the door and remove the stainless front or leave it on and install the cabinet panel over it?

The picture you show does not (to me) look like the model the takes the custom panel. The controls should be on the inside. As my last picture shows. It's possible you have a model where the part below the handle is swappable. That's not something I have experience with.

I just discovered the same issue, the fix is, use the template to mark the distance from work surface to top of adjacent cupboards. then transfer the template to the inside of your fitted draw. Run the template along the draws top edge, now mark your draw where the mark on the template is. Now you need to lower the top of the template to this new mark, mark and drill all your holes. Now when you offer the fitted draw it will sit at the correct height, as in affect you have drilled the holes lower has the effect of fitting the door higher. I hope this makes sense. if your draw is 1 to 2mm out just raise the feet.

Robin, did you order a custom kick plate for your Bosch? If yes, how did you measure it? I have the same question as you on how to measure the custom panel for ordering. My cabinet facing are not flush with the frame. How did you come up with your measurement of 24&1/2? Thanks!

@candice uy did you figure out a toe kick solution?? I am in the process of reordering my top panel as it was made too narrow but noticed the bottom of the dishwasher definitely needs something as well!

I did order a wood pieces for the toe kick. My kitchen toe kick is double layered, one tall and a quarter inch thick at the back and a half inch thick two inch high in the front. So your cabinet maker or whomever you are ordering the dishwasher panel itself should be able to have the trim that will match the rest of your kitchen toe kick. I ended up not using the wood trim that I ordered but instead painted the cover panel that is at the bottom of the Bosch dishwasher. I think this is easier. Unless you have an elaborate toe kick or you can see it, then you will need to order the wood trim. I did not mind so much for mine since it is in the butler's pantry and is not fully visible at all times. Hope this helps.

@candice uy How did your panel width work out? I also have drawer/door faces that are not flush with the frame. Wondering if you were able to overlap your panel with the cabinet frame? Or if the panel door has to be inside the frame opening for the dishwasher? Thinking the door will hit the frame when it is opened if I overlap the frame. Thanks!

The panel has to fit in the opening. There will be a gap between the dishwasher and the opening. Look at pictures. You need to bring out the dishwasher or push it back in depending on how your dishwasher panel aligns with the rest of your drawers and cabinet doors. Our installer attached the panel first and adjusted the dishwasher before screwing it in place so as to make the panel flush with the other cabinetry.

2 questions here. 1. I bought a floor model do I really need a template or the hardware that comes with it? I should be able to clamp and screw the custom panel to the dishwasher with proper depth screws right? 2. Can my front panel be 1 1/2" thick? I am using 3 drawer fronts attached to 1/2' plywood to look like a drawer bank.

The only piece of hardware I'd recommend using is a small blade which attaches to the lower portion of the panel and slips into holes on the front of the dishwasher door. Once the blades drop into the holes, the panel will rest on the blades while you attach the upper part of the panel with screws. I have a Thermador which is Bosch and they sent me template and install kit at no charge.

You’ll want/need to buy stainless steel screws. There should be short ones already in the door that you can take out and match, but get longer. For my dishwasher, the install involved taking these shorter screws out that were in place in the naked door and switching them to longer ones that then attached to panel to the naked door.

At the bottom of the naked door there were spots for little clips that you lock in first before you screw in the screws. Without the clips you can probably just use more screws, but it might be trickier to get the door perfectly straight. There are quite a few short screws in the door to allow different door combos, for example a single door panel or a drawer front + shorter door combo, so you can use several sets of screws holes to attach your door.

As for your door thickness, I think it’s more a question of weight than thickness. I can’t see why the thickness would be a problem. But the weight of your thick panel might create challenges. A new panel ready DW generally comes with door spring tension set for the average weight of a custom panel. I’d say that’s a 3/4”-1” thick solid wood door. (This means the naked door is very hard to open with no panel attached). Your thicker door may be notably heavy compared to what they’re expecting. So you may need to adjust the spring tension, or your door will crash open as you pull it down. My vague recollection from the instructions was that there’s a way to adjust this tension, but I’m not sure, as I didn’t have to adjust mine. But it might be worth researching to confirm before you commit to 1.5” thickness… or maybe you’re better off going with just drawer fronts attached to a frame instead of a solid plywood layer to keep the weight down.

Good luck!