New Miele DW does not regenerate

[mrboilwash]

After 22 years my old Bosch decided to no longer heat the water and to be honest I was glad it did so I could finally justify a new dishwasher. (That`s the downside if you can do minor repairs yourself)
Got a BOL Miele and while it seems to be a tad louder than the Bosch I like really like it and don`t regret my decision at all.
The manual mentions a regenerating cycle after every ninth cycle if water hardness is set on factory setting.
I did not notice anything unusual at the beginning of a cycle and I think I think I`ve done more than 9 cycles so far.
One time I went into the service menu to program a second interim rinse so this might have thrown the counter back to zero again.
Then I decided to up the water hardness to the max setting which made me to believe there should be a regenerating cycle before each wash cycle, so far two cycles are completed but still no regeneration.
Should I worry and contact Miele or just wait and see for a longer time?
How exactly does regenerating perform?
It just does a very short drain and a longer one then fills and starts to wash.

 

[lavamat_jon]

When salt regeneration is needed, it will do it before the cycle begins as soon as you hit start. You can tell if it’s going to regenerate as it will start to fill when you hit start rather than drain. It will do a series of fills and drains over a couple minutes or so before the cycle begins.

Ours is set to soft/medium hardness (12°dH) and regenerates every few cycles though I haven’t counted the frequency it maybe regenerates the softener for our usage twice a month.

 

[mrboilwash]

Thanks for the reply! It never did a series of fills and drains in the six weeks I`ve had it, so I think it`s time to make a call.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Might be worth keeping an eye on it and see how you go. I must say ours is very economical with its salt usage even compared to my previous Miele dishwasher, and much more so than the Siemens IQ700 that we had for a couple of years before the current one. I’ve not yet finished the 1kg box of salt which I bought when the new Miele was delivered in July last year. I also find it needs a lot less rinse aid.

How are you otherwise finding the results? I still can’t believe how well ours cleans with very little water and electricity even compared to the previous, and back then very efficient, G6000 series machine that I had before.

 

[Marky_Mark]

Another thing you could do is start the machine and then test the hardness of the water that it has filled with. If there's any hardness present, it's not working.

When I had a modern Miele dishwasher recently, I could tell when it was going to regenerate on the next cycle because it would fill the brine tank at the end of the preceding cycle. Normally the cycle would end with a drain. But if it was going to regenerate at the start of the next cycle, you could hear it filling for a few seconds before the cycle ended.

Of course it's still early days and I wouldn't worry too much about it just yet until you've done more cycles.

 

[mrboilwash]

Ok, I´ll give it more time and keep an eye on it. Maybe it`s just way more economical than expected.
Currently it has done a 2nd cycle with hardness set on 70°dH and still no regeneration. My water hardness is only around 18°dH but my impatience made me set it to 70°dH. LOL

I find the results outstanding on all cycles even the 45°C delicate glass cycle seems to clean normal daily loads very thoroughly.
It`s still new and exciting to try out all the different cycles and in combinations like with "short wash" or "second rinse"
Not sure yet what my favorite to go cycle will be.

Though not exactly the most silent DW on earth at 45dB I find the sounds it makes much more pleasant than my Mom`s 10 years old Bosch which is more silent in dB but has a very unpleasant frequency to my ears.

I wasn`t sure how I`d like the cutlery tray because it takes space in height from the upper rack but have to say my doubts were wrong and I would never go back to a cutlery basket.

Another thing I just love on the Miele is that the spray arm under the top rack does not retain any water after the cycle is finished.
On the Bosch I always covered the bottom rack with a dish towel and then gave the middle spray arm a spin by hand to get the excess water out so it couldn`t drip on already dry dishes and leave ugly water marks.

The top rack I also find superior to the Bosch, much easier to load.
Bottom rack reminds me a bit of my AEG I had in the 1990s which is nice too but I think large items like pots and pans were easier to fit in the Bosch. But I`m still learning...

 

[mrboilwash]

Mark unfortunately I don`t have any test strips on hand and currently also using all in one tabs, so I couldn`t even tell from the look of the dishes.
But great idea and I`ll pay extra attention to the final minutes listening for an open water valve.

 

[henene4]

Is that one of the more recent G5000 series with the filter in the middle of the sump - so like the G7000 series?
And does it have AutoOpen?



My (pretty early) G7000 has the Miele typical 2 stage regeneration.
At the end of the final rinse, my starts the fan as it drains.

If it needs to regenerate, just as they display switches to dry and adjusts the cycle time (SensorDrying), instead of stopping the drain pump, it keeps that running. It makes a short hiccup sound basically - you can hear the drain pump power is switched off and on again in a fraction of a second as it switches from one cycle stage to another.
There is flushes salt into the resin from what I understand.
Drain and AutoOpen happen as before.

At the beginning of the next cycle, usually, just as you hit start, it would immediately start draining.
If it is regenerating, the drain pump needs a few seconds to start as you hear the flow diverter move.
Then it starts the flushing sequence.
At the end of that, you get the same drain pump hiccup as at the beginning of the dry cycle as it starts the usual cycle.



Mine is set to 18° currently as well and with anywhere from 16° to 20°, with about 6 cycles a month, it doesn't even regenerate every month.

Having it set to 70° should probably trigger a regeneration every cycle basically. And if you're unlucky, it might lead to salt residue on the dishes.

If you're still in the return window, you might just ask your seller if an exchange or such might be possible.
If not, Miele service is very helpful and you should have your 2 year warranty - so no real hurry to figure that out, especially when using multi tablets.




On a tangent or 2:

LG recently launched their DWs in Germany and DAMN those are water and energy hogs.
On the max settings, they regenerate TWICE per ECO cycle - and you only have 5 settings with the top setting starting at 21° dH.
That means one Eco cycle in not that few places here could basically use as much water for regeneration as for cleaning.
And think about their Intensive cycle that uses 30 liters - that would require something like 5 or 6 regenerations at 20-24 liters JUST FOR THE WATER SOFTENER.
The Turbo cycle takes over an hour, uses 1.35kWh and more than 18l of water. Mieles (or even BSHs) equivalent cycles are faster and more efficient in every way.
They look great - but usage stats are just devastating.

And on pump noise:
As DWs get quieter the actual sound of the pump becomes way more important.
I don't really mind the sound of the BSH pumps, even in the quieter 42dB versions. Haven't heard the new 40dB versions yet in person.
But I don't mind the Zeolite fan noise either - and many think something is broken when they hear that.
With my Miele however, I found that overall noise level is much more dependent on loading. My mums Siemens sounds more or less the same regardless of loading.

And: One thing Miele allows per manual is tilting the top rack - and I don't wanna miss that.
However, even though BSHs manuals say you shouldn't, their service manuals still say you can.