I have had mid level Asko, Bosch and Miele in the past 10 years in that order. I have preferred Miele, Asko, and Bosch in that order. I actually replaced the Bosch in less than 1 year after installing it because of its small capacity when compared to the older Asko. In the Bosch, I could not fit all of my daily dishes in 1 load as "easily" as the other brands. This was a big surprise to me! I really hated the lack of capacity in the Bosch that I had. Using my dishes, Bosch has a poorly designed upper side rack relative to the other two. Asko and Miele has metal upper narrow side racks (these are used to hold wine glass stems in general) and Bosch uses plastic rack. Only one side has the rack on the Bosch in the model that I bought. Both Asko and Miele, I can fit coffee cups under the side rack and put something flatish on the "wine glass holder". With Bosch, I could not (the pastic would not go down) do this with my coffee cups. So I had about 3 lineal ft less of usable rack. Bosch also does not have enough steepness on the rack to drain water off the bottoms of the upside down glasses and cups, so they were more wet. Miele has a flip down rack even on the lower rack which increases the capacity when compared to the others. I use this alot, again increasing the capacity. When I looked at the Asko this time, I really did not like the odd third rack that Asko was touting on their upper end models. I seriously thought of buying another Asko but I wanted to try using the cutlery rack. Asko had the cutlery rack in the middle section and I thought that this would make the handing of the taller items more difficult. I don't have real life experience on this, just a hunch. After using the cutlery rack, I do think the cutlery rack washes them better.... In terms of cleaning abilities, they are all about the same, IMHO. For me, Bosch was the most sensitive to the type of detergent I used. In the old Asko, I sporadically used a rinsing agent. When used, I saw minimal difference. I have a Miele with built in softener but I don't use it. Both of these factors are proabably due to my soft water. I think they are all about the same for the noise level, all pretty quiet but not silent. The models are not super high end models where the noise level drops off significantly on the spec. Bosch and Miele have express or short wash but they were not able to clean my daily dishes well enough to use them in my daily use. Many people seem to be able to use these settings but I could't. I just run the normal wash. In my old Asko, there was a heating coil that you could turn on and off. I always had the heating coil turned off after "burning" a few plastic items that dropped down. I think they don't make them that way any more. Hope this helps.

I check my filter on my Miele, once a month. Its rare that anything is in there. It takes about one or two minutes of your time. I like to open up the basket on the filter and squeeze some dishwashing liquid on it and then run it under the hot water tap. Close the basket and insert the unit back into the dishwasher. You literally pop it in place and turn and that's it. Its truly no work or no hassle nor gross. I also just scrape my dishes, you really shouldn't be rinsing them off. The enzymes in the detergent need some debris to work properly. Before my Miele I owned 2 Maytags for a total of 30 years. They obviously had macerators that ground the food. I would never go back to a North American dishwasher, not ever.

I don't own either one, but I have read every thread I could get my hands on. Both Meile and asko are well built machines. Asko used to have a lot of problems but more recently they seem to have resolved them. They are solid stainless steel: interior, exterior, and all racks. Their tall unit will hold an enormous amount of dishes and the only problem with it is will it fit in your cabinet space. Meile has a lot of believers on this forum. They too have had some recent quality issues reported by owners. You should search this forum for leads to the issues. There is another forum where consumers report issues but I can't recall which unless it is Consumer Reports online.

Like Heather, I, too, was surprised to find smaller price differentials between the two brands. I happened to be shopping for a replacement DW a couple of months ago. This was just as Bosch and Miele were releasing their updated model lines. I mention this because (at least, in my area), there have been deals offered on warehouse stock and floor models which may be worth considering, particularly if you are interested in a Miele. For your question about potential differences in the quality of the interiors of the two brands' models, I would say that Bosch models I saw all had nylon racks and parts much as the Miele models did. Miele's racks are designed to provide loading flexibility with few movable tines, etc. The new Bosch models' racks seemed to be a bit lighter in construction and seemed to have even more moving parts than they used to have. Because of that, I second homepro's recommendation to take some of your dishes and etc. down to a showroom (or showrooms). See how your things fit and whether you like or dislike the loading patterns for the models you are considering. Like 3katz4m3, I found I slightly preferred the Bosch models' layout. But that is very much personal preference so YMMV. You mentioned that your 8 y.o Bosch had developed leaks and asked if the latest Bosch models are more durable than your old one. That seems hard to judge. My original bottom-of-the-line Bosch DW lasted from the 1990s to 2011 with the only work being replacement of a worn latching release spring for the detergent dispenser. I bought a new DW when the control panel burned out and replacements were no longer available. The new DW was a Bosch 500 series model. It developed cracks in the plastic pump and sump housings this March just after the five year warranty ran out. The parts assemblies seemed very expensive and the replacement process seemed (to me) onerous enough to make me look at a new DW. I can say that, to my eye when shopping back in March, the new Bosch models did look better to work on than the ones from five to eight years ago. Whether that makes them more durable is hard to say. Miele DWs have a longstanding reputation for being built like tanks and there is the company's vaunted mantra of "designed for a 20 year useful life" or "7500 cycles." That is an admirable yet aspirational expectation; Miele's extended warranty is only five years. (Canadians can sometimes get 10 year extended warranties from Miele.) Some posters here have had Miele dishwashers last for a long time, but some have not. An additional consideration from previous threads on Miele DWs is that you probably will not need service, but if you do need service, you want to be sure that Miele factory service is readily available where you live as opposed to dealer coverage which may not be as good. One small thing of possible note: if you want a smudge resistant stainless steel finish on the exterior, Miele DWs had it and the Bosch ones did not, at least when I was shopping in March. On cleaning performance, I cannot speak directly to the abilities of the current Benchmark and 800 series because I bought one of the new 300 series models. What I can say is that the new 3-rack 300 series model takes about 15% longer to run a full cycle than its 500-series predecessor did, but does an excellent job. One difference between the machines is what Bosch calls a "Clean 30" cycle. So far, for me, the new DW's "Clean 30" cycle (which I now use frequently) has worked as well as the standard long cycles on its predecessor. ETA: Although the cycle is called "Clean 30," the timer display always shows it taking 38 to 40 minutes on my unit. I suspect you would see the same with the new Benchmark and 800 series models. As best I could tell when shopping, the higher level Bosch models offered those and additional cycle choices, additional rack flexibility, and, as Heather noted, there were a couple of the more expensive models that also offer built-in water softeners. Before starting out on my shopping trip, I had read some older posts here saying that Miele offered an automatic water softening system. Don't know if they still do that but the Miele model I saw when shopping (a "Crystal") required testing water hardness and programming the water softener much as the Bosch ones do. If memory serves, the price of that Miele was less than the Bosch Benchmark with the water softener (at least on that day). It also offered the end-of-cycle auto-door-opening feature which enhances final drying. I passed on it mainly because the cost was over my planned budget and our town's water is not all that hard. And a final FWIW : even the new Bosch 300 series models are rated at 44 dBA for quietness. Some of the Benchmark models are even less. The low-to mid range Miele models that I looked at were rated at 46 dBA as was my previous Bosch 500 model. The 2 dBA difference seems negligible to me.