chatfield - it's not typical , but it is based on your water's hardness and/or the machine's setting. Do you know the hardness value of your water and what your machine is set to , if it's not automatic? If it is really calling for this amount you've got really crappy water and should look into a whole house solution.

I check my filter on my Miele, once a month. Its rare that anything is in there. It takes about one or two minutes of your time. I like to open up the basket on the filter and squeeze some dishwashing liquid on it and then run it under the hot water tap. Close the basket and insert the unit back into the dishwasher. You literally pop it in place and turn and that's it. Its truly no work or no hassle nor gross. I also just scrape my dishes, you really shouldn't be rinsing them off. The enzymes in the detergent need some debris to work properly. Before my Miele I owned 2 Maytags for a total of 30 years. They obviously had macerators that ground the food. I would never go back to a North American dishwasher, not ever.

Well the Miele is working again :) Thank goodness my hubby is handy. When he gets some extra time he will take the old pump apart and see what went wrong ( it had to be a seal). Giving some thought to why would the seal go so soon, I am considering using powder detergent, instead of the Finish Powerball tabs. I did notice the last time I picked them up from Costco, the tabs are more concentrated now. The box claims 8x more concentrated. I am wondering if this could possibly be an issue. Since I have whole house softener, I thought I would programme the rinse agent to 2, instead of the default to 3. I will start there, since I can't remember the days before tab detergents, anymore. I think I will give Miele support a call tomorrow. I have read and re-read how to use the built-in softener, but I am a tad unsure how it really works with a whole house softener. I have my machine hooked-up to soft cold water. I live in an area with terribly hard water. 60 plus grains. I truly doubt I should programme the machine for 60 grains because of the whole house softener. As anyone who has a whole house softener, there can be days when the water is less soft (just before regeneration). I have never had any glass nor crystal etch in my machine with either powder nor tabs. I am pleased the machine is once again working. I just now have to play with detergent and rinse agent to find a happy medium of sparkling without eating my machine seals.

Eric, The Miele that I've been using for 8 years was $1200 back then. Now the current model Crystal is $1600. The only differences are the newer racks and the auto open dry. The Asko 40 series is $1400, and has a $150 mail in rebate. Plus the extended warranty is $150 (through the dealer) installed of $300 for the Miele Warranty (which we had before). So overall the Asko wouldn't be as pricy as the Miele. I'm just not sure I like the way the dishes load (side to side) or that the cutlery rack on the top is a lot smaller. Even though my Miele did well cleaning over the 8 years, before the circulation pump motor went out in Jan, I did have to use the warranty a few times. The racks started to rust about 4 year into using it, and also some rust on the bottom of the stainless door. All those parts were replaced without cost by the Miele tech. What's interesting is that now 8 years later, I can again see some rust on the bottom of the door and on a few spots on the racks.