No food grinder in the Miele DW's but I can honestly say that so far (a month or so shy of 1 yr in use) it's not been an issue at all. We scrape as well as we can (without going crazy), don't rinse, and I rarely have to clean out the filter/basket. When I do remember to check it, there's nothing in it except perhaps for a few particles of fine grit and a hair or two, that's all.

NO - Euro DW's (incld. Miele) use a filtering system instead of grinders.

We've had 2 Miele Excella dishwashers for about a year and have checked the filters three times. There was very little in them. We use enzyme-based powder dishwasher detergent & a rinse agent.

Miele dishwashers (and indeed, most European dishwashers) rely on a filtering system rather than a built-in food disposer.

That being said, checking the filter on a Miele dishwasher is something that needs to be done only on a periodic basis. The filter on the Miele DW is designed so that most captured food debris is sluiced out of the filter during the draining portion of each program. You'll seldom find anything remaining in the filter beyond bone fragments, the occasional piece of cellophane, or other bits of debris too large (more than 1/4"-1/2") to pass through the drain pump. I check the filter on my Miele DW about once a month, and in most cases, there's nothing in it.

The big advantage of a filter system over a food disposer system is that food debris is captured by the micro-screen in the filter (later to be sluiced out during the drain portion of the program) and not circulated in the wash and rinse water as the cycles progress. As a result of this, you'll never find grit or other debris in the recesses of glass or cup bottoms or deposited on cutlery.

The Miele filter is very well designed. Only periodic (monthly, or so - depending upon how often you run your DW) checking and cleaning is required. Cleaning the filter in my Miele DW requires one hand and takes about 15 seconds. I remove the filter, quickly rinse it under the tap, then replace it. It's practically effortless. With the filter, I NEVER have grit deposited on glassware or cutlery. It's a far superior system in my estimation.

I had a Bosch with a filter for 5 years and a Maytag with a grinder for 3 years. The filter's good as long as your detergent is pretty good (like the Cascade pods). But if you try to use any kind of eco detergent, the Bosch stinks to high heaven on a weekly or at best monthly basis. And taking apart the filter to clean it is rather time consuming. The Maytag on the other hand is some kind of magical monster. It cleans anything I throw at it. I've really tried to push it, nesting things, obscuring bottles behind plates, it cleans everything perfectly. It rattles and the seal around the door seems to be loose, but ... it cleans amazingly well.

Why are you bringing up an 11 year old thread?

Probably, because Houzz in its infinite wisdom brings up old threads in it's "featured" section every once in a while. It also shows old threads in search results without making it clear that some of these results are 10 years old.

It was pretty clear, but it’s one of the things I love about Houzz, following up. A review 1 month after purchase should almost always be great, but a discussion like what M said above is invaluable. Thanks, btw, M.

Miele 6875 for 5 years - not happy even when all the settings are set for max rinse/heat/wash. The water left in the pump sump is always dirty, not the clean clear rinse water expected, even with clean filter (opening the basket is a pain). Obviously the one way ball bearing valve is not stopping water from running back into the DW after the cycle is finished, AND that water is not clear, and neither is my glassware as a result. Euope's plumbing won't take food waste, so filer is needed, My can and I am shopping for a DW that will pump everything within reason out and rinse with clean clear water.

You might try one of these models. They are the only dishwashers that that I know of which offer food grinders/disposers while operating at a 44 dB level. These two models offer this and the only difference between these two model numbers is the handle style. (one has the towel bar style handle and the other is a pocket door style, but they are otherwise identical and offer an impressive array of options and cycles). Not all of the Maytag line has the same low decibel level and even though these are the most expensive Maytags you can purchase, they are still a great value in my humble opinion. I have a number of luxury brands that I selected for my kitchen project, (Wolf & Subzero for example) but I specifically chose these (I bought two of them actually ) for my dishwasher needs because I create so many dishes to be washed on any given day that I really don’t want to have to clean out dishwasher filters about once every three weeks, which is what I had to do when I owned a Bosch. Not everyone has to clean out their filter as frequently as I do and perhaps that’s just me, but it is one of my idiosyncrasies that I do not want to pay $3000 for a European style dishwasher that I have to play “clean the filter game”. On the Maytag website under dishwashers, I believe they have a website video showing off the “ Power blast cycle“ if I recall the name correctly. It shows them putting in all kinds of food such as a whole cake and then running the dishwasher and showing how it cleans. That’s a pretty cocky claim to make, but apparently it works as advertised because I have never had anything left on dishes when running mine. These are the two model numbers I was referring to here:

Maytag MDB9979SKZ

Maytag. MDB9959SKZ