My husbear had his 61st birthday today, and we had 8 friends over to celebrate. Since it's so close to Christmas, we decided to pull out his Grandmother's Limoges "Montmery" porcelain..you know, delicate, hand painted flowers, gold on the edges..50+ years old. We also pulled out the crystal gold-edged water glasses and the Riedel stemware. We also had to use some everyday blue and white Mikasa.

After a delicious dinner and much wine and champers, I think "hmmph, I'm not hand-washing all THAT on a Sunday night, let's see what the Miele wunderkind can do with it".

So a delicate scraping ensued, and I loaded every bit I could get into the Miele. Half a tab of Miele dishwasher detergent, and the crystal china program, and I hold my breath, hoping that there would still be gold on the rims of the glasses and the plates. As it turns out I had nothing to worry about! Everything came out spotlessly, with the exception of a weird double-sided champagne flute which filled with water.
Here's a couple of pics from my almost heart-stopping experiment.

Here's another. I don't have any pix of the "before shot", but trust me, they were filthy, and I didn't think 1/2 a Miele tab would do it...but it did!

Silverware tray..we used a hell of a lot of forks! Gay men and silver, what can I say....

Yup, those crystal gold rimmed water glasses are DOUBLE-STACKED!

Straight up and down shot...not an inch wasted! I was determined not to have to handwash, but there are about 5 glasses left to wash, and some big pieces...he can do them in the morning, since he loves to hand wash!!

Very gutsy of you!!! The age differrence between you and husbear gives me hope still.

OMG the poor old china!!!
Pleeeeease, never put that old china into the dishwasher again!!!
It ruins the gilden rims!! On glasses as well as on the china!
It's not the dishwasher itself but the detergent!
If you insist on doing it in the dishwasher, which I cannot recommend at all and only should be a seldom way to clean it, pre-rinse them under hot water tap in the sink and take a delicate/short programme with a temperature not higher than 55°C with washing-soda instead of the detergent!

Ralf

The China/Crystal cycle on my Miele dishwasher only heats to 115 degrees. To me thats safe and the Miele Tabs do an excellent job and cutting them in half was smart. I use them for really grungy loads. So if you think about it your washing in very warm water not hot.
In my manual it says to connect the dishwasher to a cold connection for maximum effiecentcy. If the the dishwasher is connected to a hot water line like mine is I dont run the faucet to get the hot water up. If the water is too hot coming for the cycle it will let me know.
Great job! I would have done and have done the same with old china and not had any problems...even gold rimmed glasses..they come out unharmed and gleaming.

Really???
I've always been told by experts that washing golden rimmed dishes or glasses as well as old decor dishes which are not underglazed are not dishwasher proof. They will withstand a while but then suddenly will fade and disappear for ever...

I do not put mine into the DW - because when it's ruined it's ruined...

Ralf

I've been having great luck with the bleach free cascade complete and the china cycle on my Frig DW. I even put my best china in and so far no issues. I use about half the normal amount of detergent. Not one stem or plate has been damaged