<p>My nine year old built in Kitchen Aid is leaking on my wood floors. The repair guy has ordered a part called a splash guard (after having first replaced all the rubber gasket) and he says it may or may not do the trick. I am researching getting a new dishwasher, just in case the fix does not work. We have already been waiting for the part for 2 weeks and if we need a new dishwasher, I need to be ready to order. I put on family dinners 4 nights a week for seven people…that is a lot of pots and pans even with using paper plates and plasticware!</p>
<p>Our current dishwasher has a custom wood panel on it and looks great in the kitchen. I would like to get a replacement that I can put another panel on. NO STAINLESS, it dosen’t match my kitchen. My double ovens, also kitchen aid, are black though so in a pinch a black dishwasher would work but would not look as good as the wood. Our home is very traditional in style as well. </p>
<p>The guy at the appliance center says that Miele and Bosch are the best followed by Kitchen AId. I have read all about the Bosch issues here on CC and that is not on my radar. I am thinking to either replace the Kitchen Aid with another OR go for the Miele. </p>
<p>Who has a NEW Kichen Aid or Miele and can tell me what the pros and cons are? How is the reliability of the Miele? I really don’t care too much about the noise or how quiet it is since we have no bedrooms near the kitchen but I do care about ease of use, a good heated drying cycle and looks. Also it must hold a lot of dishes!!! I am concerned that the Miele’s all seem 2 inches shorter/smaller than the Kitchen Aid and also worry about repair/parts costs with a foreign made machine. Other than that, I don’t know. I really only need 4 or 5 cycles since really, I only will use one (a normal heat dry). Please tell me which models to look at. I really cannot tell the differences between the Miele Diamante, Optima, Inspira or the 4 top Kitchen Aids. </p>
<p>Consumer Reports is NO help. They didn’t test the Miele at all!</p>
<p>if you get a Miele, make sure you use a Miele-certified installer to get the full warranty.
I have the Diamante Plus, because we needed the built-in water softener. That’s one of the differences that I can remember, between the models. It’s stainless. I don’t remember if there were other options.
I’ve had mine for about two years and haven’t had a problem.
I used to have an ASKO with replaceable panels. That was a great dishwasher.</p>
<p>I have two Mieles (what can I say, it was cheaper than another cabinet). Love them. So quiet I forget they’re running. The silverware tray is great. They hold a LOT of dishes. I have no idea if the panel is replaceable because I like stainless steel.</p>
<p>“if you get a Miele, make sure you use a Miele-certified installer to get the full warranty.”</p>
<p>??? DH and I installed ours. It is not rocket science. We did buy it from Miele-approved retailer, and that mattered.</p>
<p>Miele dishwashers come with many front panel options - ss, custom panel (you have to get it from the cabinet maker), white. I lo-o-o-ove the silverware tray - no clinking spoons and forks during the wash cycle! And no stench (unlike our previous DW that needed a bi-weekly vinegar cycle). Our previous DW was a Thermadore (Bosch is disguise), and after what it had done to my kitchen floors, I will not touch another Bosch appliance ever again.</p>
<p>We just finished a kitchen remodel and I got a panel-ready Kitchen Aid dishwasher. (KUDS40FVPA). My dealer doesn’t carry Miele, so I had to decide between the KA and the Bosch. I liked the layout of the KA much better. It also seems a little bigger. We’ve had a lot of people around this week and its gotten a lot of use. So far, so good.</p>
<p>seiclan - our 18-year-old Maytag dishwasher is giving up the fight this week - but I can’t complain - have used it at least 3-4 times per week since 1992! I have a very cute picture of older son - now a college sophomore - posing next to it - he was not quite a year old and learning to walk when it was installed! I think we got our monies worth. Actually leaning toward another Maytag - we have been very satisfied with our appliances. The thing I find odd is the sizes - 24 inches wide seems pretty standard - as does 25 inches deep - but heights vary quite a bit - by 1/8 and 1/4 measurements. I am more nervous about measuring wrong than anything else!</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, I wish I had an 18-year-old Maytag dishwasher, then. I’ve had 3 (2 I purchased and 1 warranty replacement) since 2000, and they’ve all been cheaply made and prone to trouble. Plastic parts break. Racks wear away and crumble. Electronic panels fail.</p>
<p>If Gordon Jump had only lived long enough, he could have been a very busy Maytag repairman.</p>
<p>We got a Bosch a few weeks ago. Incredibly quiet, which is a huge bonus in our open-plan house. They have a model that takes a full front panel (the controls are on the top rim of the door). We’ve been very, very pleased with how it cleans even casserole dishes with no prewashing. It doesn’t dry fabulously, but the tradeoff of being able to put anything (including plastics) on either shelf makes twenty seconds blotting the bottoms of mugs and glasses for each load entirely worth it. One big change from our fourteen-year-old one that leaked all over our floor: no center post top or bottom, which makes loading patterns way more flexible.</p>
<p>We also got a rebate from our state – might check with your state and your utility company too.</p>
<p>WE are on our second Maytag…the current one is 16 years old (fingers crossed as I write this). I LOVED the one we had from 1984-1994. I like the one we have now. I do NOT like the current model at all…and have friends who wish they hadn’t gotten the newer Maytag dishwashers. I was looking at an LG that I like a lot. Hoping this one doesn’t go south soon.</p>
<p>We’ve had a Miele Diamonte Plus for about 8 months and I’m not impressed. We’ve had service come out twice, for weird squealing noises while filling. It does a lousy job cleaning dishes too - we scrape off food but things like rice harden on. Yes, we did have it installed by a Miele-certified tech.</p>
<p>That’s weird about the installation by a ‘Miele certified tech’. It’s not difficult to install a DW and there’s really not much to it or much one could mess up. It’s a matter of connecting a water inlet, a drain outlet, and the electrical cord and sliding it in then leveling the feet. That’s about it.</p>
<p>I know you didn’t want to hear about Bosch but the one we have (maybe around 5 years now) has been perfect and so has my D’s who got hers about a year ago. There was a recent DW thread, I think maybe arabrab’s, that had a lot of Bosch posts on it with most of them being favorable. </p>
<p>One problem with ‘brands’ is that what might have been a great quality product 18 years ago could be junk now since 18 years ago it may have been made in Ohio or someplace else in the USA at an actual name brand factory (ex: Maytag) with a lot of quality parts and now it might be made in China by a contract manufacturer with the cheapest parts they can manage.</p>
<p>btw - Bosch has a DW factory in the USA if that matters to you.</p>
<p>Regardless of what you get, I hope you can find some good after-Christmas sales on them now - maybe you’ll get a good deal.</p>
<p>Good point about state rebates for replacing older appliances. I did check that last night and Maryland had such a program - but ran out of funds in November - oh well. But anyone else - do check your state. Just Google state name appliance rebate and you should get your state’s website - states got money from a federal program to offer this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback on Maytag - I have seen some negative reviews on-line as well. I can’t think of anything more boring than researching dishwashers though - what a snoozefest.</p>
<p>Hmmm… My Maytag dishwasher just turned 17 years old last week. When we built the house, we splurged an extra $100 to move “up” from a base model because I wanted it to be quiet (the kitchen is open to family room). It has never needed a repair. Darn, I’m sorry to hear that the new ones are not as good.</p>
<p>We replaced the original fridge a few months ago (it was still running, but the water dispenser had been broken for years). The original stove/oven works fine too… ha, due to under-use. However we are on our 3rd over-the-stove microwave oven.</p>
<p>Spoke to someone at the kitchen cabinet store about getting the panel to cover the front of whichever DW we pick and she told me that I would be better off with the Kitchenaid than the Miele because the Miele’s parts are a lot more expensive when you have issues. She owns a newer Kitchenaid. I am leaning toward the Kitchenaid, same model as Mansfield, since it is a little more basic than the other models (4 cycles and has the hard food disposer, unlike the Miele/Bosch/higher end Kitchenaid). Panel is going to cost about $450 alone because it needs to be custom stained to match our cabinets. The cabinet person says that since our kitchen is 9 years old that the stain won’t match unless we custom stain it. Anyone have any experience with that? My cabinets are Ward’s Cabinetry, honey stained maple.</p>
<p>RVM - researching dishwashers keeps me from stressing over what my Junior son is not doing this winter break (like his homework, studying for midterms, SAT prep)!!!</p>
<p>Our state’s rebate program is long over btw. DW was working just fine last March/April when everyone else in my town was getting new appliances.</p>
<p>We replaced an aged Thermador with a Maytag a number or years ago–5? 10?–and generally it has been great. It cleans well, is quiet, and has a built-in disposal, so dishes don’t need to be pre-cleaned. It has been repaired twice: both times the latch/catch on the door that failed and made it so the machine stopped mid-cycle.</p>
<p>Re the staining: I’d check with some other appliance dealers. We had a new cooktop put in a few years ago, and the installer accidentally broke the side wall of one of our cabinets. They sent out a guy a couple days later with a replacement side, a stain kit, and a varnish kit. He matched the existing (old) cabinets, and about an hour later had the job done. I don’t think anyone could tell that there had ever been an accident. $350 sounds excessive.</p>
<p>arabrab, the 450$ is not for the staining alone, it is for the entire custom panel to front the dishwasher. The old panel is the wrong size. It does sound high though. I will have to ask how much it is to just order the panel already stained in honey (and maybe risk that the tint will not match exactly).</p>
<p>Thought I would update this thread and let you all know that I ended up purchasing a black Kitchenaid diswasher (not the one with the panels) and it looks great in my kitchen (since the oven’s are also black). I got model KUDE60FX. It has the integrated controls (on the top) and it replaces the old model that ended with a FV. I like that there is a tiny light in the top right corner of the front of the DW that glows blue when it is washing, red when it is drying and green when it is done/clean. It has three easy gliding racks consisting of a huge silverware basket with a handle on the bottom rack AND a cutlery/silverware tray on the top. The middle rack is adjustable depending on the height of the glasses (or the pots below). </p>
<p>I am liking it a lot so far (I have had it for two weeks). It cleans well and is very quiet. The layout of the racks was just so much more “user friendly” than the Miele to me. The Miele had no place to put a 9 X13 pyrex dish whereas the Kitchenaid (and many other American brands) does!</p>