That is weird. My Miele has no smell just clean dishes. What kind of smell is it? Food smell or something else? Did you call Miele support? Could it be a problem with the filter or the drainage?

It's hard to describe the smell. A little like rotten food, sewer, musty/stale... It is not filter or drainage. They made sure it was installed right since it is a replacement unit.

I have that same smell, and it happens no matter what I do with the dishes. But we aren't bothered by it. I am thinking it might be that there isn't enough water left in some sort of a "trap" to keep sewer gases from coming up in to the DW, but not sure to be honest, just a guess.

phil

It sounds like you don't have a high loop in your drain hose.
This has been discussed many times in the forum.
The drain hose needs to be looped up to just under the countertop and then to the drain connection. This keeps bad water from backwashing into the drain and also forms a trap to keep gasses out.
You really need the high loop for sanitary purposes

Running the rinse and hold cycle between loads is helpful. But I would check the plumbing set up too.

Miele service was just here on a different issue and I asked them. The guy said 99% of the time it is plumbing set up. If your plumber has not installed one of these before. More likely than not, he has screwed up the high loop.

My first thought when reading your post was also that you don't have a high loop hose. Who installed the DWs? Same person both times? It's odd that it would happen twice. I'm linking a 1-minute video so you can see what is meant by "hi-loop". It's really simple.

But since the smell is occurring with TWO dishwashers, I'm wondering if the problem is the DW at all. There may be something wrong further down the plumbing, or with the plumbing venting. A couple of homes ago my plumbing venting was just slightly blocked, and the kitchen sink drain smelled stale and sewer-ish as a result. Plumber figured it out, and no more odor.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1-Minute Video Explaining DW Hi-Loop

I've had a Miele Diamond for about 18 months (actually, I've had 2 in 18 months), and also posted on this forum about an odor when the DW was new. Thread would be easy to locate.

A lot of GWers suggested that it could be a missing high-loop issue, but in our case it wasn't. I emptied and cleaned the filter basket like it was my job. I was pretty upset.

Someone suggested it's the fact the the silverware tray is on the top (as in, near your nose), and the bacteria on silverware starts to smell after maybe 24 hours or so. Gross, I know, but sort of made sense and I just accepted that explanation.

But then, after maybe 2 months, the smell just disappeared!

About 6 weeks ago, I got a second Diamond. Again, I noticed a rather strong odor, but truly, the more I run it, the less noticeable the odor is. At this point, it's hardly there at all.

I have to say that I believe to some extent, the repairman's explanation of it being the stainless steel may actually be true--in my experience, the "new" smell of both Diamonds was rather funky, but all is well now.

FYI, I always run it on a Pots and Pans cycle, b/c I'm a bit OCD about things being sanitized. Maybe that helped.

Try running it maybe 10 times in a row, and see if you can "flush out" or clean out the odor. I really hope you solve your problem, it's a great DW when it's working properly.

An unrelated aside, if you don't have the Diamond (which comes with a 5-year warranty), buy the extended 5-year one. It's worth it. The reason I recently got a second Diamond is because Miele ended up replacing my first. They really go to great lengths to make things right, but these DWs have a lot of complicated electronics to them, and a lot can go wrong.

This post was edited by Madeline616 on Sun, Sep 22, 13 at 15:45

Just because the installer was Miele authorized doesn't
mean that it is installed correctly. 5 and 1/2 years after a "miele" install I just found out that it was installed incorrectly allowing the machine to tilt backwards so that when it developed a leak, the dishwasher sensors didn't pick up on the leak and instead the water was flowing out the back and onto the floor. FWIW the DW was giving me random codes that miele could not explain until I finally got the repairman to pull the machine out and we could see the problem. The machine is ruined in the sense that cost to repair is close to a new machine. I'm waiting to see if MIELE will help me out. I second the extended warrantee advise.

Lucy, how frustrating for you. I'm surprised the repairmen who looked at the machine before the leak (when it was having random codes) didn't take it out--I've had mine worked on so many times and they've always completely removed it.

I'm not sure if you'll end up with another Miele, but for future reference the "master" Miele techs are amazing with repairs.

Good luck, hopefully Miele will do something to at least partially compensate you.