Tell the brand, model number, and age of your dishwasher. In my many years of having dishwashers - from expensive to the cheapest of the cheap - I have never had one in which ”plates rock back and forth making banging noises. Lighter weight objects also shift around rattling and sometimes getting flipped over”.

May be time for a new dishwasher. But you asked for how to alter your dishwasher without saying what dishwasher it is, so not much to go on.

It’s a 4 year old Bosch 800 series.

You have never heard of plates rattling in a dishwasher or plastic containers flipping upside down from the force of the water???

You need paper plates. No noise.

Bosch 800, nearly 7yo here. The only time there’s any rattling of plates, (or flipping over of plastics), is when DH has loaded the dishwasher haphazardly. When the plates are placed securely, and consistently between the tines, there’s no rattling. And, when the plastics are secured upside down, and not leaning loosely, they don’t flip over. For plastic cereal sized bowls, placed securely between the tines on the upper rack (below the silverware tray), they stay in place.

Occasionally a plastic container flips over, but I hear no plates rattling with any of the three Bosch dishwashers I’ve owned.

Maybe your cabinets are more soundproof than mine. Apparently, it’s difficult to contain dishwasher noise when the dishwasher is at the open end of the counter rather than in the middle or in a corner.

I see and hear dishes rattling here:

I can see the force of the water rocking the plates every time the spray arm spins. This is likely the same thing I hear with mine except my plates are heavier and they bang and thud when they rock.

I've never had incidents of plates rattling.

Aluminum muffin pan or 8" cake pan, yes.

Plastic items, yes, and also flipping. Clothes pins can be helpful. Placing a cooking utensil atop them (spatula, scraper, serving spoon) can be helpful if the loading arrangement is conducive.

I've seen suggestions to place an upside down dish drainer atop lightweight items in the upper rack ... but that may not be doable if headspace is insufficient, particularly if a 3rd flatware rack is above. Perhaps a sink mat?

Yes, sometimes plates or other items rattle and yes, light-weight plastic items do flip over.

It's not a matter of age or brand of DW, it's (1) the loading of the items and (2) how the items fit in the DW.

• Do your plates fit snugly and stay upright b/w the tines in the DW? Sometimes, plates lean over and hit the ones in front of them. This happens when the plates don't fit quite right b/w the tines. You may have to put an empty space b/w the plates. I have to do that with my Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne plates b/c they're thicker than most and when placed b/w the tines don't fit correctly. I also have some Corelle Ware plates that fit so that they don't hit the plates in front of them so they can be loaded without space b/w them.
• As to plastic items, they need to be held down with something. E.g., if there's an edge, I will sometimes wedge the edge under a heavier object; if it's small enough, I put it on the third rack so there's room for water to wash on all sides but not enough room for the item to flip over.
• If you have the same 800 series Bosch that I have, there's also a rack that drops down over the right side of the middle rack (cup rack, I think it's called) that will also hold things in place beneath them.
• Sometimes, there's not much you can do.

Note that these are issues with ALL dishwashers, not just Bosch.

I’m trying to figure out why this dishwasher is so much louder than others that people claim they never hear and always rely 100% on the red light to remind them that the dishwasher is on because its so silent.

I know one issue is because the dishwasher is located at the open end of the counter. It was suggested that I remove the dishwasher, attach pink insulation to the walls of the dishwasher opening and then reinstall the dishwasher so it fits tightly against the insulation on both sides.

That may muffle the sounds of motors and the sound of water spraying against the interior surfaces, but I doubt it can suppress the noise of dishes being knocked around.

So, the dishes need to fit tightly in the tines to not move.

My plates do not fit tightly. They are not clamped into place.

Is it possible that your plates are being hit by the spray arm as it rotates during the wash cycle?

No, its just the force of the water alone rocking the plates. Similar to the video posted above.

I bought a silicone dishwasher net. Works great to hold plastic dishes and large cooking spoons on the top rack.

"Is there a special method to load dishes to keep them from moving around?"

Yes, but unfortunately it's a secret known only by my ex-wife and she won't share.

Check to see if dishwasher is still level.

Same dishwasher, only very rarely does it make a noise I can hear (the metal bread pans after I've made a batch of bread are the most common rattle). Our regular dishes are hand thrown stoneware and probably heavier than average, perhaos that makes a difference. Getting older and having lousy hearing also helps. Overall it's astonishingly quiet.

In that video, there was a plate leaning against another plate from the very start so of course they're going to clink against each other. Maybe you could take a picture of what your dishes look like when they're loaded in your dishwasher.

Are you using plastic plates or lightweight Corelle?

The only items I hear are lightweight metal items like my lightweight pasta pot or stainless mixing bowls. It's not so much rattling as it is the sound of the water vibrating the metal. I have stoneware plates and bowls that don't seem to bang around, and my Corelle cereal bowls also seem to stay put in the top rack. Small plastics do tend to flip if not secured. Like Buehl, I put small enough plastics on the third rack; there's not enough vertical space for them to flip up there.

Try facing your plates the other direction, if you haven’t already. Those plates in the video are loaded backwards compared to the Bosch/Thermadors I have used.