We have been using our Sapphire Star for about 2 months and are really happy with it. It is SUPER quiet which is nice because ours is practically in the center of a very open house. I didn't like the third rack much in the showroom, but I have to say that I really like it. We don't put really dirty stuff in there much, but it has seen its share of Nutella crusted knives and it always cleans up well. I also like the number of plates you can wash since there is no silverware on the bottom. I haven't had very good luck with stemware though because the glasses rack is tight if you have it set high enough for big plates on the bottom and use the third rack for utensils. That's not a problem for me though since I've never really trusted a dishwasher with wine glasses so I'm used to washing them.

We installed the Sapphire dishwasher a couple of months ago and love it! The silverware always gets clean on the third rack as well as really dirty chef tools. We had a Miele in our last house and think the Thermador is comparable and it seems to be slightly better at drying the dishes if I use the extra dry button. it also seems to have a better bottom rack layout for the dishes we use (I took my most challenging dishes and bowls to the showroom and tried them in every dishwasher on display)

I had a Miele in my last house. I'm building a new house this winter and will get the Miele Futura Diamond again. I've looked around and haven't found the rack flexibility that Miele offers. I like removable rack sections, removable spines, the wine glass rack, and the 3D top rack. If I only washed plates and flatware, then it wouldn't matter to me.

I think which one you'd prefer comes down to very different rack layouts. Both are excellent machines.

The Miele has a top (3rd) rack divided into three sections; the outer sections can slide inwards toward the center or be removed. The center section can be lowered or raised. The center rack can hold larger plates than the Thermador - some dinner plates will fit if you drop the rack to the lowest setting. The left side of the rack is very flexible with separate folding bars and cup racks. The lower rack is unique and very well designed, so it can hold either large plates or four rows of glasses, again with folding bars and cup racks that can be placed at either of two heights. There is a rotating spray arm above the top rack rather than just a rotating center spinner used on Thermador, which may account for the claimed better cutlery cleaning.

The Thermador 3rd rack always stays in one piece, but the left and right sides can be dropped, and every second tine can be folded on the center portion. The center rack is configured to hold smaller plates in the front and larger plates or bowls toward the back, or you can fold down the pegs for a flatter surface. The right side has folding cup racks, and you may find that glasses placed in the second-to-rightmost row won't stay up unless the cup racks are folded down. A clever door design that's very thin at the top allows for a deeper center rack (front to back) except for a small area where the detergent dispenser protrudes. The lower rack has a good design that allows every second peg to be folded down to allow for large bowls rather than thin plates. The rearward half of the rack can be set up to hold either plates or two rows of tall/wine glasses and one row of cups atop them. All of the tines can be folded down to create a flat surface (without having to remove a large insert as with the Miele), and even though there's a 3rd rack for utensils, a basket for the lower rack is still provided. This has a brilliant design that lets the cutlery basket be placed almost anywhere on the lower rack, and (i think) the basket can also be split in half so you can use only half of it, or arrange it in a 1x8 matrix rather than a 2x4. But if you need to use most of the lower rack for glasses rather than plates, the Miele still has a better setup.

I have good photos of both of these that would be describe these better than any words could but I can't find them right now.

Both machines have illuminated interiors, but the Miele has white LEDs whereas the Thermador uses blue, which looks cool but may be less useful as illumination.

Great write up lee676. I'd really appreciate it if you could upload the pics you mentioned.

I'm so grateful for this post - after all of my research I think we're going to end up with Thermador Columns and possibly a Thermador Induction cooktop - hard to turn down the dishwasher promo.

Like the OP, we were pretty set on the Miele.

We have the Thermador Sapphire dishwasher. It had great reviews and boasted a 20 minute cycle. It was expensive but we got a good discount because we ganged it up with a Thermador cook top, wall oven and refrigerator. After a year and a half of use, the dishwasher is somewhat disappointing, I am sorry to say. I currently have to get the hinge rope gizmo that keeps the door from flopping open fixed for the second time. It is quiet, but not as quiet as the two year old KitchenAid it replaced (i don't recall the model and it is now in quiet service at the cottage) and it does not clean glasses or accommodate wine glasses as well as the KitchenAid. The 20 minute speed cycle requires the dishwasher to be pre-heated without any dishes in it, so it is not really as handy as one might be led to believe. The controls are on the top edge of the door and are much easier to see with our geriatric eyes than front controls, the blue interior light is useful and pretty cool, and it projects the remaining time of the cycle on the floor below. The top utensil rack, which we use for kitchen tools, is useful, effective and can be easily removed if need be. A lot of cycle options that we never use (but probably should).

ceansor, do you fix that "hinge rope gizmo" yourself? Do you have a part number? I need to do a similar repair on my Bosch dw.