Miele Optima II DW - observations and a couple questions

13 years ago

I've had this installed and working for about a month, and love it - - it's virtually silent and cleans and fits more than my previous one that I also loved (Kenmore elite something). The cutlery tray really is a great feature for organizing those forks & knives, and makes putting them away a breeze. It doesn't have a energy-saver feature (which the Kenmore elite did), but this is my only complaint about it. We chose it b/c of its shallower depth, to get the integrated look with the rest of the base cabs.

Now the questions:

I've been using Cascade tabs and dishes and glasses really have no spots (that I notice or care about). Our water hardness is between 4-6 grains. Do I need to bother with salt? Will it change/improve anything? Anyone else that's never used salt in their Miele?

The wash time indicator, using tabs, seems to fluctuate between 2 hours 23 minutes and 2 hours 46 minutes. Why does it have different times? I'm just curious about this.

If you have this machine, I'd love your insight. Thanks!

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Comments (4)

fauguy
13 years ago
Have you read through your manual? If so, you would see that it says selecting the "tab" function is for tabs that contain rinse aid, as it will turn off the automatic liquid rinse aid dispenser.

Most tabs here in the US do NOT contain rinse aid, so this is a bit misleading, so you should turn the Tab function off. Otherwise, if it is on, your unit will not dispense the liquid rinse aid.

I have the Miele Diamante, the model below the Optima, and have it set to 6 grains of water hardness. With the Salt container filled, it will give me about 5-6 months before the Salt Refill light comes on. But for people with really hard water, like 20 grains or more, it would probably need refilled every 2-3 months.

When I fist got the unit installed a year ago, I used the Cascade Complete Tabs and Rinse Aid, since I had some of both left over. Even though everything was clean, I noticed that there was a "chemical smell" on everything. I could really smell it on cups/glasses. I then changed over to using the Miele brand Tabs and Rinse Aid, and have been very happy since then. It eliminated the chemical smell, and everything has a very nice shine to it and is very clean. I only use half a Miele tab for each wash, so the box of 72 tabs really give me 144 wash loads, which is almost 5 months worth.
bellacucina
Original Author
13 years ago
THanks fauguy, I read the manual but probably didn't process the tab - rinse aid thing. I'vebeen using the complete tabs too and push the "tab" button.. Don't really notice any chemical smell...but maybe I should just order a box of the miele tabs to see if there's a perceptible difference.
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fauguy
13 years ago
What brand of rinse aid are you using?
If you are going to buy the Miele tabs, you should also go on and use their rinse aid as well? Just make sure you keep that "tab" function turned off. Also, with the rinse aid dispenser you can set it from 0 to 6ml, with 3ml set as the default. I changed it to 1ml, and it works just fine. I felt the 3ml made glasses feel a bit sticky.
dan1888
13 years ago
I have a Diamante and 6 grains of hardness. Cascade complete powder to the first step without salt or rinse aid produces sparkle on all components with wait times between runs of 5+ days using the normal setting.