Method for controlling zonal washing in a dishwasher

A method of controlling the operation of an automatic dishwasher comprising a wash tub defining a wash chamber, a liquid spraying system defining multiple wash zones within the wash chamber, a controller having three or more cleaning cycles and operably coupled with the liquid spraying system to implement any of the three or more cleaning cycles, and a user interface operably coupled with the controller to provide for input by a user, the method comprising:

• receiving from a user an input representative of size and/or shape for multiple user-defined wash zones having a size and/or shape not corresponding to any pre-defined wash zone, wherein the multiple wash zones comprise more than two wash zones;
• receiving input for a zonal wash cycle from the user interface to the controller indicating a selection of a first cleaning cycle from the three or more cleaning cycles corresponding to a first wash zone of the multiple wash zones and a second cleaning cycle, different from the first cleaning cycle, from the three or more cleaning cycles corresponding to a second wash zone, different from the first wash zone, of the multiple wash zones;
• and
• implementing a zonal wash cycle by implementing each of the first and second cleaning cycles for the corresponding one of the first and second wash zones during a single cycle of operation of the dishwasher to define the zonal wash cycle.