We've just set goodbye to our second Miele dishwasher, and have bought a Bosch instead.
Our first Miele dishwasher was a top of the range one, and was a problem throughout its guarantee period and beyond. Time after time we had to get an engineer out. Thank god for their "Diamond Care" or whatever it was called.
We quite liked its features, everyone knows Miele is a fantastic brand, so we assumed we'd just been unlucly and had a Friday Lemon. We decided to buy Miele again when we;'d had enough of paying for repairs for the first one. Another top of the range one, even more features. Loved the interior light, seemed to work well.
It first packed up just after the 2 year warranty expired. Miele were very good, and sent an engineer anyway. He fixed it, and it worked for a year. Then it packed up again. The "Diamond Service" was no longer sold. Now, you could either pay per hour plus parts, or spend a reasonable sum but it would cover the problem with no extra costs. We did that.
Eighteen months later - well outside the time limit warranty on the previous fix - it went wrong again. We paid the now increased even more "all in" price, and the engineer ended up replacing half the machine.
And now, 20 months later, it's gone again. The "all in" price was now an eye watering £300.
The machine was now 7 years old. It had cost a fortune to buy, and we'd already paid twice to have it repaired and this would be the fourth repair in that time. We decided it was time to cut our losses and to look at getting another dishwasher.
We looked at Miele again, to get a benchmark and to see what had changed in 7 years. Our requirements were short (and I know they are going to sound stupid). We both agreed that the interior light feature , initially a nice to have, was surprisingly useful, so we listed that as a "must have". It also "must have" a delicate programme, and it must be possible to set it to start at a sopecific time (to make use of cheap electricity periods).
n the end, it came down to Miele or Bosch,
Availability of models from lot sof manufacturers is really rubbish at the moment, and I ended up with 2 models on my list, one from Bosch and one from Miele. I couldn't find a showroom anywhere near me which had either of them in. We didn't really need to see the Miele, we've enough experience of them to know enough. But I really did want to see the Bosch.
We found a lower model (seriesd 6) Bosch in a local Curry's, so we had a look at that. It wasn't great (after owning a Miele). Even the 5 year warranty (vs Miele's meagre 2 years) wasn't enough. I was disappointed, as I had really wanted to love the Bosch.
We watched a selection of YouTube videos for the Bosch series 8, trying to piece together what we had seen of the series 6, and what the videos showed us. In the end, we decided we'd go with the Bosch. It was 2/3rds of the price of the Miele, and we didn't think that Miele deserved a third chance really.
The new dishwasher arrived today.
Some of the features (like the folding down of bits of the basket) are definitely clunky compared to the Miele, but (a) the adjustments are even more versatile than what we had before. and (b) the machine was 2/3rds of the price. The grey baskets are a bit grim and utilitarian looking, but we dno't have them on display so it doesn't matter.
I'd forgotten that most dishwashers salt is inside and the basket has to come out to access it (the Miele has salt in the door). But it was easy to reach, and the salt funnel is fine.
The basket layout is completely the other way round, so it'll take us a couple of goes to find the "normal" places for our various items. The basket adjustments are good though. It'll just take a bit of getting used to.
It's doing its first wash now.
So far, I'm very happy with it.
