No gel but all in one tabs are ok as long as the setting is on tab for a tab cycle. What I do (and I checked with them, they said ok) is to change off the tab setting and just still use a half-tab when I use express. I use the Miele tabs which are crumbly anyway and they work just fine. I've got some rinse aid in there so if a load gets a double dose of that I figure what the heck. The dishes come out clean and dry. I'm a bit of a dw nerd but not 2 kinds of detergent crazy. I get the Miele tabs from vacuum-express and almost never use a whole one so they go twice as far. I'm sure there's a more economical approach but 0 issues with anything since I switched to those and great results, so if it ain't broke....

That is exactly what antss is saying: rinse can back up out of the newer models. It is strange because my gasket didn't look all that bad: I have my suspicions that it may have been weakened during the recent phase that I used Finish DW tablets: they have a chlorine like smell, or even the Finish rinse aid. Not sure though how the main detergent could get to the seal. In any case I am now back on Miele tabs & RA and that's where I am going to stay! Thanks antss! Seems that Miele did not know that the gasket could go bad like that. I am glad this is posted in case anyone else gets the problem.

I have the G2830 LaPerla similar to the Excella. Detergents: I alternate and use a different one each week. I use powder - Electrasol with chlorine bleach(non enzyme), or Cascade Complete(enzyme). I had a disaster with Seventh Generation powder which left grit all over everything including the insides of the dw. I use Liquid Gels - Cascade Complete Gel. I don't use Electrasol Gel because it left a film all over everything. I use tabs - Miele tabs (1/2 to full tab depending on soil level), or Electrasol Red ball tabs, or Electrasol tabs with Jet dry, or Cascade Action Pacs or Electrasol Gel pacs. No problem with any of these. When using Gels I set the detergent selector to Liquid. When using Tabs I keep the detergent selector set to powder. Most powders, tabs, gels and pacs contain enzymes. Electrasol tabs and Gel pacs contain enzymes. Electrasol powder and Gel in the bottle do not. Finish/Electrasol has released their Quantum tab to the USA, although I haven't been able to find it in stores where I live. Rinse Aid: I use Jet dry Green apple with vinegar, I use Jet dry turbo, I use Miele Rinse Aid. I alternate when filling the dispenser. All of these work the same. Salt: I use Somat salt or Miele salt. Both work the same. My Dw measures the water hardness when filling as does the Excella. Like PQ said you can find your hardness in the settings menu. If the DW needs salt I think it will ask for it and if the water is consistently below 4 it won't ask. The softener adjusts the the hardness automatically and only softens the water to the extent it needs to during each fill. Between May and October my water hardness was averaging 19 gpg and the Dw performed the softener step(periodically performed before the first prewash, to regenerate the softener) every other week while asking for salt at least once. Now the hardness is down to 2gpg and there has been not been any softener step performed nor has it asked for salt.

markdavis: "I'm in the process of researching this as well for a new Miele that will be installed next week. "Our Costco only has the finish non-quantum version. The problem that some report on these is that you can't break down the tabs and it's a lot of very strong detergent...some use it only for highly soiled loads. "I have both the finish quantum and non-quantum versions that I plan to experiment with. "I'm also looking at: - Cascade all-in-1 actionpac - Miele tabs - Method Smarty tabs - these split nicely in half, but are rated pretty low by the latest CR stuff...obviously, highly dependent on water softness." In other words, you are limiting your choices to what is on the shelf at your local supermarket. That's o.k., but it is a pretty severe limitation. "I'm also doing a lot of wine glassware, so I may end up preferring something w/glassware vs. regular loads vs. heavy soil loads. "BTW, people recommend that you scrape, but not pre-rinse, else the detergent will eat up the plates/glassware." We have VERY soft water in Portland (Oregon). That means that very aggressive dishwasher detergents will etch just about anything you put into the dishwasher. However, in our Miele dishwasher, we wash quality crystal wine stemware every night with Ecover powder dishwasher detergent. Some of our glasses have been through 2,000 or more cycles in our Miele dishwasher, without even a hint of etching. Nevertheless, our dishes come out of the dishwasher every morning spotlessly clean.