At full retail there is zero chance I take Benchmark over Miele.

At significant discount I may take a look at Benchmark or Asko.

It seems Miele has really tightened the retail noose the last couple of years and you can't find a significant discount. They will discount a floor model Diamond $500 but take away the 5 year warranty and 90 day 100% satisfaction warranty.

BTW I have heard Bosch is finally bringing over their zeolite drying dishwashers to the USA after debuting in Europe ~5 years ago. I hate getting a new appliances that is obsolete a few months later.

Full Disclosure: Happy owner of Miele La Perla II for 7 years.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Regarding clean and noise: Our current unit was rated at 45dB or so. The layout of the space makes it objectionably loud at times (very open and plenty of hard surfaces to reflect noise). Back in 04, Clean was not a given (Dacor in particular was having problems), so it's good to know that such is no longer the case. No, I'm not the month old welded on food guy; if anything, I'm the one who prewar he's too much (trying to change that).

Deeageaux, what about the Miele makes it superior in your opinion? The racking and controls seemed more contrived than on the Bosch when I looked briefly this weekend. Are you thinking in terms of reliability? Noting that a 6985 with their stainless door panel is a solid $700 more than the made in Germany Benchmark model, I'm hoping there's something obvious in play.

Asko was a major player a decade ago when I was last looking at these things, but has their quality and performance really recovered from having been bought and sold and relocated a few times?

Glad to be back on these forums after a long absence, by the way. I'd forgotten how helpful and knowledgeable the community here is!

1) Cleaning performance is not a given. Nothing here has materially changed in the last decade for average dishwashers. What has changed is the ban on phosphates in dishwasher detergent. Which makes the job of cleaning dishes significantly harder not easier. If you have consistently very soft water then an average dishwasher plus Finish/Cascade will probably due.

2) Decibels are objective not subjective. Various decibel meters may be properly calibrated or not but the scale is objective. What can very is how well a person hears. The quality of noise is subjective. What type of noise one considers annoying or not is subjective. Asko claims that although their dishwashers have higher decibel ratings their sound is more pleasant. Asko claims they consulted acoustic specialist to accomplish this.

3) What I like best about upper end Miele dishwashers is their adjusting builtin water softeners. Others require you to use a test strip to measure water hardness and then fix the amount of water softening. Miele has a sensor that measures water hardness and automatically adjust water softening. Second, I really like the automatically opening door at the end of cycle that allows steam to escape allowing a quicker and less energy consuming drying process. Third is the tactile quality of Miele. Opening the door, pulling out/in of the racks, adjusting the tines or the height of the racks. Remove the cutlery trays in a Bosch and Miele and just feel the difference.

* Samsung also offers automatically opening doors in some of their dishwashers now. After years in the cellar of quality/satisfaction ratings including an alert by Consumer Reports to not buy Samsung dishwashers JD Powers named Samsung #1 in Dishwasher Owner Satisfaction. I wouldn't trust a Samsung dishwasher farther than I can throw it. All appliances have horror stories but leaking Samsung dishwasher videos are far too numerous on Youtube.

4) In its recent history Asko has been purchased once by Slovenian appliance company Gorenje and production moved from Sweden to Slovenia. Engineering and design is still in Sweden. Asko is still well regarded in Europe and is now distributed by Wolf/Sub-Zero in the United States giving them stability here. I like their all stainless steel wash bars and filter parts. It never made sense to make the upper bars plastic allegedly in case they strike a dish. A dish can just as easily protrude from the bottom rack and be struck by the bottom bar. Asko dishwashers are bigger inside and can fit upto 17 place settings. They are taller but still fit under a standard counter of 33.5". Standard dishwashers adjust from 32.5"-33.5". Asko(non ADA) adjust from 33.5"-34.5". If I had very soft water or a whole house water softener I might have gone for an Asko if I could have found a very good deal. Instead I found a very good deal on a Miele La Perla II.

If your Bosch rated at 45 dB has always been objectionably loud, I question whether there was soething wrong with it or the installation from the get-go. I had a pair of Thermadors rated about the same and you hardly knew they were running. DH and I both, as well as guests have opened it without realizing it was running. The only time you heard it at all was a little when draining and the beep at the end of the cycle. We recently replaced one of the two and went with a Bosch Benchmark. We were limited on panel models, we really didn't look a lot further.

We went from 45 dB to about 40 on the new one. I'm very happy with how quiet it is -- basically don't here it in the adjoining room (open) unless it is loaded so that water is splashin a lot -- and I can go move it if it bothers me. That has happened once. It cleans very well (I use Oxyclean DW Crystals -- if you can find them, try them), dries well, and I've adjusted to loading differently with only one slight tantrum.

But before I forget -- you can easily order the replacement filters from Amazon. I replaced each of mine after 8 years, give or take. Under $30 including shipping. I wouldn't replace a DW over that --- and if you want to take your time looking, it might still be worthwhile to have one while you shop around.

Consumer Reports tested 171 dishwashers and said, "Almost all of the dishwashers we tested clean well and are easy to load..." I was was wrong in saying "all but the cheapest" because there are a few high-end, dishwashers that don't clean as well as a $400 Kenmore. That probably upsets a few folks but it is what it is.

Another point they made is that with units with a "dirt" sensor, pre-rinsing dishes can actually result in poorer cleaning performance.

I am very happy with all my Bosch dishwashers (two 800 series and two 500 series between 2 homes). I like the 800 series better because of the third rack. I had dishdrawers prior to these and never again!

They certainly meet all your requirements: 1. clean dishes and glassware; 2. Quiet; 3. gets things at least reasonably dry; 4) flexible racking arrangement (love that all of the tines fold flat on the current Bosch). Has to be a full stainless bar handle door with hidden controls to make it past the rest of the committee.

Caroline, when you said all the tines fold flat, can you tell us which shelf and which model you have? Thanks

Love my Miele #2. Had one for 12 yrs and it was making more noise when pumping and needed to be restarted frequently. I love the third rack and considered a 800 series and a very expensive (more expensive) KA. In the end I bought another Miele and love, love, love it!

We think our first one wasn't installed properly and had issues. This one isn't silent when it empties or the initial on, but once it's going, it's pretty silent. Bonus feature- no AIRGAP necessary!

The Miele dries beautifully. I couldn't be happier. I paid about $1600 for the Futura Dimension.

My 800 Series is the SHX68T55UC. The tines fold flat on both the bottom and middle rack. Love the top rack and use it exclusively for flatware. I took the flatware baskets out and do not use them. I also love the fact that you can adjust the middle rack for larger items on the bottom.

Mine is a Benchmark SHV8PT53UC. I have one quarter of each rack that is fixed. My former Bosch had all the tines that folded down. I prefer that, but I haven't run into anything where my 1/4 fixed has created an issue for me.

Just wanted to close the loop on my topic. We purchased a Miele G6595SCVi K2O today, along with the accessory stainless door and Profi handle. In the end it was between this unit or the Bosch SHX9PT75UC. Bosch was quieter and perhaps more user friendly, but the Miele felt solid and will hopefully be less repair prone. Either would have been a good choice, and we basically decided that we'd had a Bosch so now we'll try Miele as a comparison. I'll try to remember to report back once it arrives and has been installed.

Jealous of the interior LEDs.

Looking forward to that feature in my next DW.

But hopefully not for many years. Knock on wood :)

Please please do report back. We had planned to go ASKO but may have to open the aperture and consider Bosch and Miele

My Miele is a last gen Diamonte. It continues to do an excellent job. No way I would choose another brand.

@2flyingyorkies, I am just curious. :-) I have an k2o too. Why handle with a k2o model if it is not gonna match other handles in the kitchen? By the way, Miele offers an accessory to open the door in cases like loss of power, malfunctioning, etc. Have you considered an custom door matching the kitchen cabinet? I asked that because in my case, Miele's door almost doubles the price of a custom door by my kitchen cabinet maker. And because the custom door could be 24" wide, I didn't have to use Miele's filler, which was another save.

Sorry eshmh, didn't see your post till now. Honestly the K2O feature is one we didn't need, but this particular model had some other features we wanted, so that's what we got. Our kitchen is all flat panel cherry frameless cabinets, and all of hte appliances are stainless. Basically there's no reason to hide the dishwasher since it's part of the design aesthetic. Note that the house is 12 years old, and we're not doing a remodel, so it's all in character still. Add that to the fact that our cabinet maker is no longer in business, and it was a custom stain, so it would be fairly difficult to get a new panel made that matches grain and color. As for the filler strips, those weren't mentioned when we bought the unit. I'll talk to the store again and see what they have to say.

Filler strips are only needed if you are fitting the DW to a 24" opening. One option is to use Miele stainless color strips (other two colors are white and black). Another would be to custom a pair matching your current cabinet. Someone on the forum did that. But my cabinet maker does not have this particular thickness of wood.

Bringing this back from the dead with the promised review/impressions of the new Miele G6595SCVi K2O that was installed in late November.

Overall we like the new machine, though it's not perfect.

Like:

• Things get really clean! We're using the full Miele consumables range - detergent tabs, salt, and rinse aid. Things that I used to think were clean clearly weren't. Does a great job on range filters and grates, as well as wine glasses (and things in between).
• Interior lights are great. Thought they'd be a gimmick, but we both like them.
• 3rd rack is very helpful. Without it, the machine would be too small. With it, I think we're getting more items loaded than in the old Bosch, despite Miele being slightly smaller overall.
• Dishes actually get dry! The Bosch required all plastics and some glassware to be towel dried. Miele has things nearly touch dry when the door opens. Let it run when you go to bed, and in the morning everything is bone dry.

Could be better:

• Loading flexibility is marginal at best. Yes, there are fold down cup racks and the configurable 3rd rack is good. But tines are either up or down, and only a few of them do that. In the old Bosch, I could create two completely flat racks if I wanted (all tines fold). Not so here.
• Cycle times seem long. Typically 2.5 hours or so.

Dislike:

• Noise. The old Bosch was rated at 46dB. The new Miele is clearly and noticeably louder despite a theoretical 44dB rating (and the "Extra quiet" cycle rated at 40dB is no quieter than any other). Primarily water noise (spray hitting the door), and occasional dish noise from lighter plastics moving around from the spray. Some pump and motor noise, but not too much of that. Running the machine with the TV on in the next room is ok, but if there's no other ambient noise, the dishwasher is loud enough to be distracting. Our kitchen is completely open to the living area, with wood floors, so this is a tough environment. But Bosch was clearly better, even with the 12 year old version.
• Ease / Accuracy of installation. This is mostly the installer's fault more than the machine, but still. They installed it with the stainless door misaligned to the cabinetry so much that I noticed, and my wife was ready to tear the whole thing out. Would be better if there were some written instructions to go along with the pictograms. I would think this wouldn't be an issue for an experienced installer, and the guy we used does all of the Miele installs in the area, but I still had to correct them a couple of times (and it still went in crooked) I removed and reinstalled, and it's much better now, but I can still tell it's not perfect.

In conclusion, we're happy with our choice. If Bosch cleans as well today as this Miele, though, I would switch back to recover some noise. Obviously too early to comment on durability, but things seem pretty solid so far.

If the machine is not well installed, or the opening for the old Bosch is 24" vs a 23-5/8" opening that is likely the reason for the noise. I've had Mieles installed in two different homes -- on in the 23-5/8" space and the other in a 24' wide cabinet (cabinet shop error) -- and the difference is significant. Properly installed, it should be difficult to hear the dishwasher while it's operating.

The opening is definitely 24 from the Bosch, but the majority of the noise I'm hearing is coming from the door rather than from cabinet resonance. if I get bored during the holidays I might pull it out and see if I can wedge some sort on insulation around the unit.