My dishwasher stays clean via normal use. I've cleaned the filter maybe three or four times in seven years. Excess detergent should not cause "soap scum" in a dishwasher. If anything, too little detergent will cause residue build-up from grease and food soils not fully dissolved and flushed away. Dishwasher detergents do not generate suds like laundry detergents. Well, except maybe in unusual cases of an odd reaction with local water chemistry, or a leaky rinse aid dispenser. Overdosing of rinse aid can cause sudsing, but only in the final rinse, the remains of which of course is what the user sees at end of the cycle and on the dishes (sudsing when a clean glass is filled with water). Some gel-type detergents can cause excess sudsing, which starves the pump for water and slows down the spray arm. My sister had that problem. Overdosing detergent, can however, lead to etching of glassware, particularly in soft water conditions, and particularly if the user habitually prerinses all food soils off before loading. Dishwasher detergents need some food soil on which to work their strong chemical ingredients. Tomato residue (ketchup, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, etc.) can stain plastic tubs, but that's only an aesthetic issue, it doesn't affect operation of the machine. Running a wash cycle with a bowl of chlorine bleach in the lower rack should clear the staining. Most dishwasher cleaner products are concentrated citric acid to deal with mineral residue, which may not do much for staining. I believe Cascade markets a dishwasher detergent-type product for cleaning stained plasticware (storage containers and such), which likely contains bleach and would also work to clean a stained tub. The move to phosphate-free dishwasher detergents has caused a surge in complaints about poor machine performance when it's really the detergent at fault. The ingredients that replaced phosphates are not as good at dealing with hard water conditions. A larger dose of detergent may help, but sometimes more is needed in very hard water conditions than the machine's dispenser cup can hold!

This is a two way street. The people that get all ruffled at Miele when they suggest that there might be operator error are guilty of the same behavior they're accusing Miele of. They are not considering the possibility that they or a particular use might just using the appliance improperly ! I've had almost 20 years with these machines and Miele sometimes sends out or you receive a bum steer. I've personally seen ones arrive with seized pumps or non functioning heaters - you can count them on less than one hand, but they are out there. second, Miele designs and builds one of the most advanced and highest quality units in the industry today. Like any other company, they sometimes ship a defective unit or it gets broken in transit from Germany or they just get or specify a not so good batch of parts. This does not man that they are a bad or inferior company. It does mean that THAT particular user's experience is not so rosey and like a wrecked car you can't un-wreck it. Knowing that you design and produce one of the best machines in the market it's natural for a company to take the view that if there is an initial prob. that it is operator error, especially when the data actually bears this out. Now, what this doesn't take into account is that the product might just not be the correct choice or a particular individual. i.e I just like rinsing my dishes so they don't get crusty or I like using x brand of detergent which for whatever reason doesn't work in a particular unit. (asolo - I agree with you in principle, but some combos just don't work especially in the prior generation) Or - my dishes are wet AND I refuse to use rinse aid. The prob. is big corp. brother makes NO provision whatsoever for the fact that sometimes a product is not a good fit for or able to meet the needs of some customers. For those that take umbrage at all the try this or that. Take a breath - most of these are good suggestions that have worked for people that have had problems with these in the past - sure it'd be nice to take it out of the box and have it adapt to my habits without needing to read the manual, but that isn't the case with much these days. Again - all this hopping on one leg patting one's head while tugging the left earlobe may be more than a particular customer wants or feels (s)he should have to invest in getting a tool to work for them. But, refusing to do it once you're in the game AND THEN calling the product or co.'s stuff, junk isn't quite fair. I'd advise megg not to get a Bosch - or any other Euro washer and the results are very likely to be the same. I do hope (s)he will come back and tell us what they ended up replacing the miele with and how the new unit fairs.

"Tawny P: ... but every time I open up the washer (when the cycle has completed) all of the detergent has only dripped down the door. None of it getting used." Then you're having some other problem not directly related to the detergent dispenser. No matter when the dispenser opens, all the detergent should be gone at end of the cycle, flushed out of the dispenser and off the door by the spraying water. Seems like the machine isn't filling enough to garner full spray pressure, or has a clogged pump, or clogged spray arm, or some issue of that ilk.

I bought some of the Somat DW cleaner from the persilstore here. It was expensive, around $9 but it did an excellent job. I have recommended it. I hadn't used a dishwasher cleaner in the past because the DW always looks clean and shiny. But I can see doing it for maintenance once a year. The only thing to tell Henkels is that the directions for using it could be a bit more clear. It's odd to put the whole bottle into the machine and I remember not being quite sure whether or not I was doing it correctly. Evidently I did.