The present invention refers to a dishwasher, particularly of the household type, with a washing basin accommodating at least one removable basket that is vertically adjustable to support dishes of various sizes.
A dishwasher with an adjustable basket is known, for example from DE 3,103,059, in which the basket slides on horizontal guides. The basket is connected to the guides by means of lateral sliding elements, which must be provided in a minimum quantity of four. The basket is connected eccentrically to the sliding elements. By manual rotation of eccentric elements, the vertical position can be varied selectively between a corresponding upper position and a lower position. Because of the eccentric connection between the basket and the lateral sliding elements, the latter are subject to high bending forces every time the basket is moved horizontally along the guides. Therefore, suitable mechanical locking devices are necessary to maintain the basket securely in the two adjustable positions mentioned above. These locking devices, however, are subject to high loads and make the structure of the machine undesirably complicated. In any case, vertical adjustment of the basket requires an undesirably laborious and uncomfortable manual operation.
From DE 4,228,954, a dishwasher is also known in which the lateral sliding elements are connected to the basket in a vertically sliding manner. The position of the basket can be adjusted to discreet levels defined by several coupling sites made on spring elements of the basket. The coupling sites are engaged selectively by corresponding support indentations in the sliding elements. This solution also turns out to be particularly inconvenient to use, since vertical adjustment of the basket requires separate manual operations of disengaging the spring elements and sliding the basket vertically for each side of the basket.