A contractor I know told me he once remodeled a kitchen, and the owner happily got a new DW to replace a 5 year old DW that was TOL but never got the dishes clean, at all. When that DW was removed, they found the supply line had been bent, apparently upon installation. They concluded that perhaps the DW never got enough water. I'm not knowledgeable enough about such things, but that may have been the problem, in that particular case.

Yeah even commercial dishwashers need the wash arms cleaned out somtimes. Open water lines and drains are important too. Hot enough water and good spray and even a cheapo dw can clean the dishes

This is the difference between D/W's with food disposers vs D/W's that filter the wash water.
The food disposer models let food debris go up into the spray arms where the filter models are designed to prevent this.

Oho! This explains a lot. I have a Maytag, too, over 4 yrs old, and I'm pretty sure it's a disposer type. I get food on the glasses sometimes, too. I need to clean it out. I should have thought of that. I used to clean out the spray mechanism on my old KA, which I loved, in order to eke out a few more years (it lasted 19 years). My DW repair guy used to come take apart the bottom part and clean it all out for me, too. He told me to run a cup of vinegar through it. Maybe I should try that with the Maytag.

Thanks!

Just went throught the Miele install process - they take you through a demo of your new DW...
A couple things they mentioned...
- clean the filter.
- clean out the arms - they pop out easily on Miele's and the holes can get stuck with rice, etc.
- DO Not rinse you plates - the corosive nature of the dish detergent needs something to work on...if there is no food/grease it will attach your plates and the DW seals
- Use basic granular dish detergent. Stay away from gels and liquids as this will leave residue all over the inside of the DW and be cheaper to boot.
- Use Jetdry for drier dishes

capsian