I had been loyal to my In-Sink-Erator Classic Supreme dishwasher, a KA 22 series clone, from the first day I installed it and gave the Thundering Thermador a swift kick all the way up to Oakland back in January of 2011.

Little did I know that on a run to the local ReStore just for kicks last week I'd find a beautiful TOL Miele Diamante in great shape complete with owner's manual.  It was a new arrival.  It was tempting.  But it seemed a little pricey so I walked away.

Over the next couple of hours, recurring thoughts of the machine were making me anxious.  It would match the other appliances in our kitchen so much better than the ISE.  After consultation with one of our well-respected resident experts here who, as it happened, was equally excited, the decision was made.  A quick run back to the ReStore and it was mine for a fraction of what it cost new.

Not a moment was wasted after the machine arrived at its new home.  The ISE was summarily extracted and replaced by the Diamante.  I wanted to be sure the machine had no problems within the time frame the ReStore's return policy allows.

It performed silently as it completed a test cycle.  No issues or leaks.  It was a keeper.  Dave was thrilled with it, even though he doesn't do the dishes.  He complained every time the ISE would be running while he was trying to watch TV in the breakfast room.  He loves the Diamante.

I've processed a few loads through it since, and I'm smitten if not 100% hooked.  Say what you will about vintage KitchenAids, but this 5-year old (at most) machine has proven it can out-clean them all.  I'm a convert, although some may consider me a traitor.  The last two loads contained crusty un-rinsed items that I know from experience the ISE would not have gotten clean.  Even a pie dish containing crusty areas with cement-like adhesion that wouldn't budge with a metal utensil came out clean.  The ISE would have been no match for such a challenge.

Take a look at this sleek European beauty:

The panel

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The top cutlery rack lifts out so is as convenient as a removable basket.

The rear wall could double as a shaving mirror.  It even reflects the stove across the room.

The ISE is safely stored away in the shop.

I do not expect the Miele to provide 20 years of trouble-free performance like a classic Hobart designed machine can, so the ISE will be waiting in the wings.

Does a Miele have its quirks?  Indeed.  Does it require some behavior modification with loading?  For sure.  I can't BobLoad this thing like I could a vintage machine, there are no china guards, and the user must push the on/off button after the cycle has ended, which is a new practice to me.

I liken this change to that of switching from a top-load washer to a front-load.  A front-loader requires more care and will last longer with regular maintenance, just like a fine car.  It's no different with classic vs. contemporary dishwashers.

The bottom line is this:  The Miele makes my glasses sparkle and handles tough challenges with ease, it uses the same hard water (but much less of it) that the ISE did, and doesn't require running the sink faucet to get the water hot first.  Those are all reasons enough for me to hope this machine will last me a while.

If I'm not mistaken, it can vary depending on soil level and/or water heating, but don't quote me on that.  I haven't officially timed it yet, but last night's load seemed to come in at right around two hours.

As for why anyone would get rid of it, I can only speculate.  We're talking Silicon Valley here, the wealthiest county in the U.S., and people have money to burn on everything from Teslas to trophy homes.  Probably a house was purchased and the five year old kitchen was considered to be out of style, or the whole place was gutted down to the studs.

It's a 22 series clone, and would be most like a Patrician model if KA was still making them at that point.

This one has automatic water heating so there is no delay.  No Soak & Scrub either.  For a while it had been giving me trouble with spotting and rinse aid dispenser leakage (go figure).  As I stated above, the Miele is using the same hard water supply and delivering sparkling glassware.  I even reprogrammed the rinse aid dosage to dispense 2ml instead of the default 3ml and still got spotless results.

Here's a shot of the ISE:

I think the issue with BobLoading modern dishwashers is that their wash arms don't spew the same volume of water as vintage ones.  I stacked a medium sized dish on top of a smaller one in the lower rack, and it didn't come clean even though it was positioned in a way that, if it were in the ISE, it would have been hit with enough spray to emerge clean.

It seems careful placement is the key to success with BobLoading a modern machine that uses less water.  It will be a fun challenge trying to find the right configuration to effectively get all contents of a BobLoad clean in this machine.  I need to study the owner's guide more with regard to placement and loading techniques.  The rack configurations are literally foreign compared to what I had become accustomed to with the ISE.

On the flip side, since the Miele uses less water than the ISE, so I don't have to feel guilty about running it when it's not fully loaded.

David, do you mean that big blocky thing? 

When you say vertical, would that be positioned so the thin edge is on the floor as opposed to the larger flatter side?

I've also been advised that there's no need for an air gap on the drain hose.

I'm pretty sure mine is just on the floor.  So should the dishwasher end of the hose be on top and the inlet end on the bottom?

I took a look and my hose presents a problem.  The protection assembly is right at the end of the hose by the connector for the supply.  I'll have to install an elbow to position it vertically.  As it sits now, there's a double violation.  It's horizontal and the larger flat side is in the same plane as the floor.

This isn't a huge deal to correct.  One of the fittings I had to use in order to adapt to the garden hose connector type appears to have a defect that no amount of teflon tape will fix, creating a very slow drip.  I was planning to tend to that issue anyway.

I guess now it's just verifying whether it matters which direction to aim the elbow.

I took a look in the owner's manual and in the back there's a warning about cutting the inlet line since it has electrical components running through it.  The drawing showed the box assembly with the connector at the top, so that's how I worked it. 

As you can see, adapters were necessary for the initial connection because the original supply line from some 40 years ago used a flare fitting.  It seemed prudent not to mess with the elbow coming out of the supply valve.  The leak was happening between the two brass fittings that are now separated by the galvanized street elbow.  I used galvanized because I had a couple of non-Chinese ones around and decided to save myself a trip to Orchard Supply.

In the picture below, you can see that there's still a small leak where the male end of the street ell is fitted into the brass flare- to-MIP adapter, but it's barely a drop every 30 minutes compared to at least a couple of drops per minute before.  Using the galvanized fitting helped quite a bit.  That brass adapter is clearly suspect, but I think the leak is so slow that it will "take up" fairly quickly.  I'll keep an eye on it.

David, thanks for the tips.  My machine doesn't have water softening capability but so far it hasn't proved to be an issue.  I know the water here is fairly hard, but the Miele seems to take it in stride.

I'm currently using my stock of phosphated Cascade along with clear Cascade rinse agent.  I bumped the dosage down to 2ml because I was catching a whiff of rinse aid after running a cycle.  Glassware is still sparkling, so I might give 1ml a shot and see how it does.  The true test will come after I run out of phosphated detergent.

Meanwhile, the Diamante continues to impress.  It even made knives that had been used for peanut butter sparkle.  That has never happened before with any dishwasher I've owned.

We were puzzled by the "Rinse" light (not the rinse aid refill light) when the machine first ran and thought something could be wrong.  Since the washer completed its cycles and all dispensers were activated as per usual, I assumed this indicator light was normal during the wash phase and your photo seems to confirm it, but there is nothing specific about it in the owner's guide.

Thanks for clearing things up about the rinse light.  I had a feeling it meant exactly what you said it does.  I'm still getting used to the tines and what to load where, but I did straighten out most of them since taking the picture above.  They can use a little more tweaking but I need to spend more time with the owner's manual to learn a little more about loading strategies. 

I'm getting used to the third rack for utensils.  It's a better system than just fitting large ones like tongs and spatulas into the upper rack as is the case with most dishwashers.  Some are too tall to place in the traditional utensil basket and will end up blocking the upper rack from being pulled outward.  Miele solved that problem with the third tier.  I also like unloading the top tier.  With either system, you're spending extra time on the front or back end.  With a basket, you can drop things pretty much anywhere, but sorting through it when putting things away takes time.  With the third rack, "nesting" when loading is the rule rather than the exception, but it makes putting away clean items a snap.

The upper (middle) rack seems like a free-for-all.  So far I haven't been able to load it as tightly as on the ISE.

When I checked the guide, it appeared the pots & pans cycle omitted a portion of the wash cycle, which seemed odd.  I'll review that again as well.  So far I haven't had the need to use that cycle, but it's only a matter of tine. 

Right now, in addition to loading strategies my learning curve has come to include detergent dosage. 

Last night I chose the Pots & Pans cycle for the first time.  It worked beautifully on the target items and seemed to get the job done in less than 2.5 hours, but I noticed a definite clouding effect on glassware.  This isn't fancy stuff, just heavy everyday tumbler type glasses and the coffee carafe.  I've become so used to filling both cups on the ISE that I think maybe I'm using too much by doing the same thing with the Miele considering how much less water it uses per fill.  It's evident that the cups are proportionally smaller, so I presumed a full main wash cup wouldn't be an overdose.

I know the basic rule of thumb is to use less detergent if there's less soiling, but I'm wondering where to draw the line and if there's ever much need to fill both of the Miele's cups to capacity.  Any advice on how much to use would be appreciated.  I'm happy to conserve my remaining supply of phosphated Cascade by using less if I can get away with it.

This may be a trial & error process since the water supply is fairly hard, but I'm going to start using less with the next load, and may not bother with any detergent for the pre-wash.

Thanks for all of the excellent input.  I'll be ratcheting back the dosage for sure.  No more in the pre-wash cup and only to the lowest mark for the main wash.  Yay!  My phosphated powder will last longer!  Or do phosphates even matter with this machine?

Lesson learned with regard to appropriate contents when using the pots & pans cycle.

I don't currently use tabs but if I eventually do, my machine has no "tabs" setting and instead the user guide advises to set the rinse aid dispenser to zero.  Easy enough.

Vintage is cool to look at, but at the end of the day it has to be about results.  It's been two weeks almost to the minute since this machine was installed, and I think I can safely say I'm already spoiled.

1. Marketing. Some manufacturer came up with the idea to sell a machine with a tab option because detergent tabs outsell powders. So it only made sense, in the consumer's mind, to have a dishwasher that is optimized for tablets.

2. The x-in-one option, on some dishwashers, will decrease the amount of water taken in for the interim rinse, thus more rinse aid (surfactants) from the detergent can be carried over into the final rinse and won't get washed away. The final rinse it heated to a higher temp to increase drying effectiveness and the drying cycle is prolonged.

Thanks Mike!  Your machine does look beautiful, and like it belongs there.

I noticed the configuration of the bottom rack is different on yours, turned 90 degrees from how mine loads.  I'll be getting the hang of maximizing contents as I go along.  So far I haven't followed the instructions about placement of spoons with handles toward the center.  Everything is loaded with handles outward.  I don't see what difference it could make unless I had a lot of silverware to wash and reversing the spoons helped with maximizing space.

I'm contemplating a fairly light load for tonight or tomorrow night.  On Saturday I'm planning to use a wok that's been hanging above the stove for a very long time and has a sticky coating of grease all over it.  I'll have to wash the wok by hand because it's not dishwasher safe, but the lid is equally sticky and I'm sending that through the Miele.  I don't think it calls for the pots & pans cycle but there's only one way to find out!

Mark, thanks for that vote of confidence.  I hope you're right!

I did the wok lid load on the normal cycle and the lid came out still sticky on top.  I'm a little afraid to use the pots & pans cycle until I figure out the current draw.  The one time I used it thus far, I noticed a sort of musty smell in the under-sink cabinet and it seemed warm in there as well.  I traced the heat and odor (again, a musty/dusty smell, not an electrical smell) to the small dedicated breaker box that controls the outlet for the dishwasher.  The box contains an old school glass-encased 20-amp fuse, which was fairly hot to the touch. 

If anyone can advise on where I might find technical data, I'd appreciate it.  Clearly the pots & pans cycle makes regular, if not uninterrupted use of the heating element and seems to be stressing out the electrical supply.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll take another look at the sequences for "short" and "light" cycles. 

I didn't think of registering my machine since I'm not the original owner and it's out of warranty.  I wonder whether they can tell me where it was before, at least the city or town -- if the previous owner registered it.

I don't think I have the same capability on my machine for sensor settings and more water.  If I do, it would be accomplished by pushing a series of buttons and counting flashing lights, but the only thing I saw in the owner's guide that could be changed that way was the rinse aid dosage.

I'll get the info off of my machine's tag and see about registering it on line.

I can't imagine ever opting for the "Economy" cycle.  That's too much like doing laundry in cold water. 

Since I'm not able to change settings on my machine, I'll probably use "Normal" 90% of the time and either "Pots and Pans" or "Light" as required once in a while.