I also ordered my appliances from US-Appliances yesterday (GE Monogram 36" gas cooktop and double wall ovens) and the gentleman who took my order said that the price increase would probably take place on Monday (Feb 4th) and he told me exactly what the 2 appliances I was purchasing would be with the increase. I basically saved about 6.5% by ordering them yesterday. If you look at the US-Appliance website, it doesn't actually say they will increase on "February 1st," just in February. I think I read it as Feb. 1st when I first looked though. Regardless, he was very clear that they will increase and I'm happy that I went ahead and saved about $260 :)

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.

Prices were increased in Oregon on July 1st. You will find older Miele dishwashers on close out if you look around. May save $100 to $200 off regular price. From what I have seen, these are going fast. New models are priced already and will not go up in price, however I can only speak for my region, the rugged northwest.

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.