We have both brands of dishwashers in our households. Total of four, two Miele and two Bosch. There are pros and cons with both of them. With the Bosch, which we use daily, I feel I can get more dishes in the dishwasher than the Miele. However to get the dishes completely dry you have to crack the dishwasher open yourself immediately after it is done washing. the Bosch gets things much cleaner than the Miele as far as caked on food. The Miele on the other hand is just as wonderful as the Bosch but has a few extra features that I wish the Bosch had. The Miele when it is done washing has an arm that automatically opens the dishwasher to allow the dishes to dry. I have found on some occasions trouble with this because the arm does not always go back in and it takes several tries to get it fixed and back in order to run another load. However I love the fact that it has the utensil shelf, I feel like I get more utensils in the dishwasher with the Miele than the Bosch utensil basket and with a family of 7 I need to get as much washed in one load as possible. The Miele also has a funky bottom rack on the left side and is hard to load pots and pans because it seems as if it is made for square dishes and a cookie sheet behind it. Whereas with the Bosch you can just keep loading and loading and also change the layout of the rack with a couple of clicks on the top and bottom. Either dishwasher you go with you will be absolutely happy with. Both dishwashers are the best you can buy and the one feature about these two brands are that they actually heat their own water up before putting it on the dishes which helps to get them cleaner compared to other brands. If you have never had one or the other you won't even notice the differences between them.

I have the Miele Diamante G2143SC, which has the control panel on the front. The one your looking at G2183SCSF has the hidden controls on the top. Difference is the G2143 has the LED display on the front where you can set a delay start, and there is also a "Turbo" function that can reduce was time by 15-25 percent. The G2183 does not have the delay start or Turbo. The next model down G2181SCSF loses the China/Chrystal mode and the water softener. Since you have a whole-home water softener, as long as it's properly set, you don't need the use of the one on the dishwasher. But since I don't have a whole-home unit, I do use the built-in water softener on the Diamante and have it set to 6 grains. My unit was also connected to the hot water, since that is where the existing dishwasher hookup was. I asked Miele directly about this beforehand, and was told that you can hook it up to either, but said that there is no issue with connecting it to the hot water. So when it was installed, that's how it was done. There was no "cold water hookup" mode mentioned anywhere in the installation sheet or manual. It does not waste water as deeageaux stated. If fills from the hot water line and starts the cycle. All the cycles run fine. Maybe this was an issue on older units? Here's a copy/paste from the manual: The dishwasher can heat its own water to the temperature required by the wash program. This allows for connection of the machine to either a hot or cold water source. For lowest energy consumption connect the dishwasher to a cold water source. For fastest possible wash times, with slightly higher energy consumption, connect the dishwasher to a hot water source. All programs use hot water in the rinse cycles. � The inlet hose is approximately 5 ft. (1.5m) long. � A 5 ft. (1.5m) drain extension is available from Miele. The water inlet hose comes equipped with a 3/4" female hose thread connector. This can be directly connected to a water supply with 3/4" MHT (male hose thread ends). � Water pressure: Must be between 4.5 - 145 psi (0.3 - 10 bar).

I had a large 120 count of Cascade Action Packs, so those don't let you measure the amount of detergent used, as each pack is the same amount. I guess you could open them up and use less that way, but it would be a bit messy. I've only got two of them left, so will be going by the Miele store this week to buy their detergent tabs. There are 60 in a box, but each Miele tab has a line in the middle, so you can break it in half to use (which would give 120 loads). The person at the store gave us a couple tabs a while back to try out, and we only used half in the Normal and Pots/Pans cycle, and they worked fine. So to answer your question..... When I used the Express Wash with or without the Turbo mode, I also used the pre-measured Cascade Action Packs. When the Turbo mode was off, everything was clean. With the Turbo Mode On, it lowered the total time from 20 min to 15 min, but there was some bubbly detergent left the bottom of the unit. I think this is because there might have been too much to begin with for such a short cycle, as the Cascade packs are all the same size, and that the short wash and rinse cycle didn't have enough time to rinse all the detergent away. But when using the Normal and Pots/Pans cycle with or without the Turbo, it is fine when using the Cascade packs, as there is enough time for it to wash and rinse away at the end. Just to add, I've noticed that over the 3 months using the Diamante with the Cascade packs, that a few of my 10-year-old steak knives are starting to wear down around the three rivets on the center (the rivets look like they are breaking apart on the sides), and that my very old cast iron skillet looks like there are now a few rust spots on it. I'm not sure if this is because of the Cascade detergent being too harsh, or because I use the Pots/Pans cycle most of the time since we do a lot of cooking. Once I get the Miele detergent tabs, I'm going to just try the Normal and China/Crystal cycles to see if that cleans my cookware as good.

sreedesq, I don't know if yo've made your decision, but I had my Benchmark installed yesterday. There is a similar difference in dB level between my older unit and the new one. Can I tell the difference? Yes. Could everyone? I'm not sure. If your sound sensitivity and the room situation demand the quietest possible, them do the upgrade. If quiet enough that you will often (not always) have to check whether the DW is running and not have to raise your voice or TV volume is good enough, then anything in the mid to low 40s should make you happy.