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Miele DW, well water, whole house softener?

14 years ago

Hi,

Obsessed with figuring out this DW thing! Found a couple of old posts about Miele DWs and people who have a whole house water softener, but no real consensus on how to handle it:

Some say they bypass the HOUSE softener and use the DW softener instead.

Some say they bypass the DW softener and use the house softener, but sometimes have issues with glass etching?

Some say if you have a whole house softener they do not recommend a Miele at all.

Then there is some other issue with whether it should be hooked up to hot or cold with a softener?

I am looking at either an Optima or an Excella at this point. I don't wash a lot of fine china or crystal but I do have regular everyday drinking glasses that I would rather not have messed up.

Any guidance appreciated--if I'm going to spend the $$$ I want to do it right.

Thanks!

Comments (2)

rococogurl
14 years ago
I'm one of those. Had a heck of a time with the 4.y.o Incognito with whole house softener. But: turns out I had the softener set to 0. Bad idea. I turned up the setting a bit. Also disabled the salt feature in the Miele via programming by one of their techs over the phone. Etching has been resolved with use of Miele tabs and, I think, water softener adjustment.

Big but: I have a new Optima in our apartment and it's a much improved dw. I don't have the salt feature enabled at all and it runs perfectly on our city water. I use the Miele tabs. Absolutely no hint of etching, no issues at all. The Optima rocks.

Both have cold water hook ups -- I use the china and crystal cycle. Even if you don't need it dishwise, it's a bit shorter than the Normal setting and does a great job. Optima has the express which I also use if I'm in a hurry (half a tab, no wrapper to fool it). Others here (catmom for sure) have hot water hookup and no issues with Optima.
59 Dodge
14 years ago
We have whole house water softener , Payne (Same as Culligan Man) tank is changed once a month (by them).
Miele is hooked up to hot water as only our hot water is softened. I ignor the "red add salt light" on the 3 year old Miele Optima. Dishes and silverware come out great.
(See my other post as I'm gonna try a "Short Wash" tonight per a request from another user's post.)
Will Post results.

Gary
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I had my Miele Excella DW bypass our whole house softener and had it connected to the COLD water supply. Why? Long story short, TOO soft water and/or too HOT water can permanently etch your glassware. I learned this the hard way. The Miele DW softener supposedly reduces your water's hardness to about 5 grains of hardness, which is supposed to be optimal for use with today's DW detergents. A whole house softener will reduce it to zero grains of hardness. The detergents are too harsh in zero hardness and permanently etch glassware. Glassware is supposed to be washed in less hot water than a normal household water heater sends in the hot water supply. Therefore, I let my DW heat the wash water to the proper temp for each wash cycle setting. I wash my glasses in a seperate cycle setting "Crystal/China". I have two DW, so this is my luxury and so far it is saving my glassware, including crystal wine glasses and my "good" china! Having to heat the wash water causes my DW cycles to run a bit longer, but my dishes are being washed as optimally as Miele technology knows how to do!
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I'm one of the people who had problems with it with a whole house softener - you probably found some of my old posts on this. Supposedly the softener in the dishwasher can be disabled - and mine supposedly is. However it still etches everything in spite of trying everything recommended by everyone here and at Miele. My KD suggested replumbing to run hard water to it but my other KD friend said might not be such a good idea with the high iron content in our water. My Miele owners manual says hook up to cold water. I have China/Crystal cycle and if you have it hooked up to hot water it can end up being to hot. What I've ended up doing is bascially rinsing anything that's very dirty. Not rinsing any glassware. Washing everything on China/Crystal - since it's the lowest water temperature and supposedly etching is caused by things like too much soap, too hot water, etc. and often rewashing white coffee cups by hand after they come out still dirty. My dishwasher looks beautiful and it's fantastically quiet but my old Maytag was functionally superior because of this issue.
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