In a nutshell yes.

The Miele Classic does not have built-in water softener.

If you feed the dishwasher water with a hardness rating of 4 gpg or higher it will not clean as well as you read hear or significantly better than the better dishwashers in this price range. But you still get Miele durability.

Miele Crystal and higher have the built-in water softener.

Yes. I bought the second-from-the-bottom of the line. Love it. They've re-done the model numbers since I bought mine, so I do not know what the equivalent is now. Mine does have the built-in water softener, which, by the way, I do not use. I did forego the hidden controls. My Miele DW has the controls on the front. I like being able to see them clearly, and know what stage the DW is in. I gave up some extra cycles on my model, but frankly, I don't even use all the cycles I do have. I use 2 mostly. Love the cutlery tray. Love that my model has heated dry - that was a non-negotiable for me. I wanted everything dry when I open the DW. My DW is quiet, but not silent. I can hear it swishing. The higher-end Mieles are quieter than mine. But mine is quiet enough. I can talk on the phone while it is running with no problem, and the swishing sound does not bother me. I would buy it again, and be very happy with the 2nd-from-the-bottom of the line again.

This post was edited by akchicago on Sat, Feb 16, 13 at 20:36

I also bought a second from the bottom of the line Miele, but that was also 3 years ago, and I have no idea what the equivilant model would be now. It does not have a water softener, nor heated dry. I also have the controls on the front. I mostly use the Normal cycle, but occasionally run pots and pans for exceptionally greasy or dirty loads, and the economy or quick cycle for glasses or dessert plates for a party. I echo everything that akchicago said. My washer is very, very quiet, and depending on how it's loaded, sometimes you can't hear it at all. Mostly you can hear very faint swishing. The cutlery tray is one of my favorite features, and I love the way this dishwasher cleans. Everything gets clean, every time. I do not miss heated dry, as if I leave the door open for a few minutes afterwards everything is dry by the time I unload. I do use a rinse aid, and this helps. Plastics are hit-or-miss dry, depending on what they are. I don't mind but it does bug my husband a bit. If we were ever to replace it, I suspect he would go for a heated dry. Other than that, there's nothing to complain about, it's a solid performer.

Cj

The older second from bottom of the line is Diamante II not to be confused with the new top of the line Diamond. It does have the water softener. If you do not put salt in it then it will not soften water.

The current equivalent is the Crystal.

The old bottom of the line was the Inspira II. The current equivalent is the Classic

akchicago - I didn't realize that there were Miele models with heated dry - is this a recent development to compete with US dishwashers?

I bought a lowest end Miele about 5 years ago and it works like a trooper, as long as I remember to use Lemi Shine with the Finish tab, due to phosphates being taken out of detergents a couple of years ago. (No water softener in mine.) We saw no reason to buy a new dw when we did a kitchen remodel last summer as this one works great. I say, go for it.

Go with the Miele! My floor model Miele blows away the horrible & expensive GE Profile that I replaced after only 2+ yrs. I looooove my Futura Dimension!! No more domestic dishwashers for me EVER again. Even the "basic" Miele has to be better than the GE/Maytag/Frigidaire, etc. garbage out there now. Spend the extra few hundred dollars if necessary and guarantee yourself a dishwasher that will actually wash the dishes, be designed well, and will last for a long time to come.

Weissman - mine is an older model. Does Miele no longer offer heated dry on their DWs? That would be a shame. Though I understand many people like the DWs that just use the residual heat from the wash cycle to dry. I myself like the boost of the heated dry.

I didn't realize they ever offered heated dry or whether or not they offer it now - I thought they only ever used residual heat. I, like you, prefer heated dry and never considered a Miele for that reason. Not in the market for a DW now but worth noting for the future. I was under the impression that no European DWs offered heated dry.

A $1k Classic will be better than any 800-1k domestic models called high end.

Which is their lowest line that has the pull out cutlery tray?

Go to the Miele website and look at all the models, its not very difficult. Pull out cutlery trays are available on all the lines even the very lowest line. However, the particular models in each line may not have the cutlery tray.

I just got a Miele Classic (bottom of the line, with a cutlery tray,) I love it.

We have a whole house water softener, so the lack of a softener in the dishwasher wasn't an issue for us. The Classic is not silent, but it is quiet enough to stand next to it and have a conversation (in person or on the phone) without it becoming a distraction. Compared to the old Kenmore we had, it certainly is VERY quiet.

It cleans well and reliably. Occasionally I will find an errant spinach leaf that has escaped and landed on a clean dish, but otherwise, every thing comes out clean. Items come out dry with the exception of tiny water pools in the bottom of some of our drinking glasses, which have a little well in the bottom. This doesn't concern me; I'll get new glasses before I would give up the dishwasher.

We're trying to decide which Miele to go with. We're remodeling the kitchen and using white appliances, so I need either white or panel ready. Right now, it appears my choices (in my price range) are either the Classic with the cutlery tray or the Crystal with the cutlery basket, not the tray, but with more cycles and the water softener.

Our water is "slightly hard" at 55-60.

I have never had a Miele, in fact today was the first time I had ever seen one. We have been looking at DWs and reading reviews for other brands, I was not feeling very confident about the $800-$900 machines we were considering, so we started looking into Miele.

Any advice?