The "regular cleaning" of a Miele DW filter consists of turning the filter handle, pulling off the filter, and seeing if anything is there. Most of the time there is nothing, or perhaps one small thing. Then put the filter back into the spot for it, turn the handle the other way, done. Takes all of 90 seconds. I think I do it about once a month. I do scrape my dishes before putting them in the DW, but I never rinse.

Your idea of a "gross filter full of yuck" is imaginary.

It's not only that the DW disposal adds a lot of noise to the DW. It's that it's not very effective. It's not at all like your sink disposal, not even close. It's kinda useless.

Totally agree with the above. Cleaning the filter is slightly more time consuming than removing lint from a dryer filter. I clean mine on the 1st of the month and rarely is there anything in there and if there is - it is tiny. I expect much more due how dirty my dishes particularly baking dishes are when I put them in. Get to a showroom and take a look for yourself.

Kitchenaid is not what it used to be. We bought a top of the line KA 7 years ago when we redid our condo. Now that we're building a house, we decided to go with the Miele instead since the KA was basically junk.

I have been looking at dishwashers of late and have yet to come across any (no matter what the price) with the food grinder. I think they have been eliminated due to the noise level that they create now that "noise" level has become a talking point in selling a dishwasher. I currently have a Bosch (came with the house) and cleaning the filter is more of a non issue as I thought it would be after having dishwashers with the food grinder. What has become a bigger issue for me is that with the Bosch I'm not able to load as many dishes as in other past dishwashers- Kitchenaid and Kenmore Elite. And in this Bosch because of the condensation heated dry, I have left over water in the trap that after 24 hrs makes the dishwasher reek. Though this has been "fixed" per the manufacturer I still was told by 2 working showrooms that they still can smell linger smells if they aren't regularly run. I haven't read any reviews that any dishwasher is having this problem but once burnt....I've decided that I'm going with a Kitchenaid (my budget was also up to $2K) as it looks like I can get more dishes into it and has the heating element in it. So those may be something to consider as you look at Miele.

if you actually do clean the filters occasionally they aren't yucky. My Miele reminds me to clean them (based on some number of washes I assume). It seems like about once a month it reminds me and I do a load or 2 a day.

However, I stayed in a rental last summer with a Bosch where I don't think the owner/property manager had a clue the filter even existed! The dishwasher barely worked, had skanky residue etc. I cleaned a very disgusting filter, wiped out a bunch of nasty stuff and ran some dishwasher cleaner through. It was a whole new dishwasher after that in performance (and look and smell).

My old Miele in my old house didn't remind me to clean but I probably remembered every 3 months or so (before I had iPhone reminders to remind me of tasks like that) and it was still not bad at all nothing a little how water didn't take care of not like the never cleaned in my rental I wouldn't want to regularly be doing something like that (which might be what you are imagining).

Thanks- I had recently joined a cleaning group on Facebook that had a thread dedicated to how gross their dw filter has gotten. Pictures of filters filled with white moldy goo so I assumed they all look like that. I also recently had to disassemble and clean the dishwasher in the apartment I'm renting while we house shop and the filter, pump and hoses were so full of rotting food the manager bought us a new one- the goo was all there when we moved in.

its nice to know that isn't what I should expect on a regular basis - I was thinking something had to be off because high end appliance buyers aren't going to be into gross moldy stuff!

I agree with above. We've had our Miele dishwasher for four years and I'll be honest- I don't clean the filter as much as I should. But when I do it isn't gross at all. Really no big deal. Miele is worth it!

I agree with you (OP) about NOT cleaning the filter. For those who are able-bodied, bending down and pulling out the filter is no big deal. However, for those who are elderly, pregnant, or have chronic pain and other health issues, it IS a big deal. Self-cleaning filters are great!