Following. I just purchased another Miele today. My 2002 Miele is having trouble pumping water out and restarting over and over isn't in my game plan. You may have noticed from other posts that I was debating whether I wanted another Miele. After careful consideration, I decided that another MIELE was the way to go. Especially since they're offering a free 5 yr extended warranty through Nov. 30th. Since someone here recommended the MIELE tabs, I've used 1/2 tab. Previously I used 1 tablespoon of Cascade powder (old formula). Early on a MIELE service tech told me not to believe the suggested amount of detergent and 1 tablespoon was appropriate. I have never had a problem with cleaning nor had any build up on the walls of the machine. I hope that the new MIELE concierge service will install the machine properly and get my salt levels correct. It's my assumption that the initial machine installers were poorly trained and never set things up correctly. My MIELE tabs are cut and stored in an open box under the kitchen sink. I have never had an issue with dampness or diminished cleaning ability.

Have you read through your manual? If so, you would see that it says selecting the "tab" function is for tabs that contain rinse aid, as it will turn off the automatic liquid rinse aid dispenser. Most tabs here in the US do NOT contain rinse aid, so this is a bit misleading, so you should turn the Tab function off. Otherwise, if it is on, your unit will not dispense the liquid rinse aid. I have the Miele Diamante, the model below the Optima, and have it set to 6 grains of water hardness. With the Salt container filled, it will give me about 5-6 months before the Salt Refill light comes on. But for people with really hard water, like 20 grains or more, it would probably need refilled every 2-3 months. When I fist got the unit installed a year ago, I used the Cascade Complete Tabs and Rinse Aid, since I had some of both left over. Even though everything was clean, I noticed that there was a "chemical smell" on everything. I could really smell it on cups/glasses. I then changed over to using the Miele brand Tabs and Rinse Aid, and have been very happy since then. It eliminated the chemical smell, and everything has a very nice shine to it and is very clean. I only use half a Miele tab for each wash, so the box of 72 tabs really give me 144 wash loads, which is almost 5 months worth.

Hi Rococo, Thank you for letting me know that the air-dry is not a must have! It is good to know that your DW dries the dishes quite sufficiently. I will certainly follow-up once the install is complete and let you know how well the (new?) express cycle works. I think if the one with the fancy tray (Dimension) also had express, it would have been a little harder for me to decide - but they did away with the express cycle, replacing it with an "Extra Quiet" cycle instead. That and the extra $500.00 was deterrent enough. Also, with the Crystal and Classic, there was a special offer: free 10% off and free 5 year warranty - no such incentive for the upper-end machines, I don't know why. I'm pretty sure it will be plenty quiet for me, after the rocket launcher we've had in our kitchen ;) Thank you for posting, I think this one will do everything I need it to and more. I've even bought some Method Smarty Wash tabs in anticipation! That's what most of you seem to have tried and liked, right? Warmly, Wiggs

Okay, I have only had my dishwasher a week now, but I have done a LOT of dishes in that time as we had Thanksgiving dinner at my house. That meant I got to do an entire load of each of crystal, fine china, pots and pans - basically every type of dishware. I have probably done 20 loads of dishes (or more) in this week so far. I went with the Dimension Plus and I am happy I did. The Normal (with Turbo) and China/Crystal take about 90 minutes. This is about 30 minutes longer than I'd like. I have taken dishes out the moment the door opens and there is sometimes (a little) residual water, but if I wait for the drying cycle to completely finish (the fan turns off) then everything is dry unless I did something dumb like load a bowl upside down. I have not had the model without this feature, but my guess would be that the drying cycle of most Miele dishwashers ends where the Drying Plus starts. If so, then this is a really must-have feature for me as some dishes are just not quite dry enough at the start of the Drying Plus mode. I interrupted the cycle a few times to check - it's a bummer than once interrupted one cannot resume it. I did use the Miele rinse aid and the dispenser needed a refill already. I estimate that I will have to refill once every 7-10 days for my usage and one bottle of rinse aid will fill the dishwasher about 5 times. That's a bottle of rinse aid about every 4-6 weeks. I really like the Miele rinse aid. No smell and NO SPOTS. The technician who came out to install my dishwasher recommended that I use Cascade powder detergent. He said not to use gel as it will destroy the interior of the machine over time. He said he really shouldn't say anything bad about the Miele tabs and that they are okay, but that based on talking to the techs who do repairs (and his own 10 year experience as a tech with GE) Cascade powder is his recommendation. Ignoring that advice (although I will try some Cascade powder and Finish at some point), I tried Palmolive ECO+ gel (which I had left over), Miele tabs (both full and half - he left me with 4 of them), and Cascade Complete tabs (the ones without Dawn in them). I always left the rinse aid dispenser on. I have hard water (salt dispenser is set to 20) and the washer is attached to the hot water line. My impressions so far are that when I use an entire Miele tab there is a slight graininess on the surface of the dishes. I even had to rinse some off. This goes away when I use half of a tab. The Cascade tabs result in dishes that seem less dry initially (although they will dry if I leave the door open long enough - say overnight). The Palmolive gel doesn't get REALLY dirty dishes quite as clean as the other two, but it results in pretty clean, dry dishes. In my opinion, I don't think it matters a whole lot. Miele makes a good dishwasher. Dishes come out clean, although there were some dishes that even it could not handle. Glass is always spotless, which is wonderful. Plastics seem to dry, but I wash very little plastic. Based on my experience so far I would not pay more for the Miele tabs.