Best new dishwasher for stemware

I know this topic has been covered in the past, but I’m hoping that someone has current experience with this. One of our dishwashers is reaching its end of life, and I would like to find a replacement that excels in cleaning stemware without leaving water spots and streaks. I know that there are a few out there that purport to do this. Has anyone had a good experience, and if so, what make and model?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Fischer Paykel … we have a separate drawer from regular washer. Good settings for glassware with quick rinse.

I put all my Zaltos in there no problem.

It is pricy though … about same as regular full sized washer.

We just bought a Miele from Monark Appliance in tempe (there is a open box area in the back). We put our Riedel’s in there all the time and it does a great job.

Ha! Sorry for the thread drift…but that open box area in the back of Monarch is awesome! Really good deals to be had for sure - highly recommended for anyone in Phx.

Ok…back to dishwashers.

Miele works great for me.

+1 for Miele. We bought ours just over a year ago (so pretty recent experience), and we’ve been very happy with it. We wash all of our stemware in there.

Another vote for Miele…Best dishwasher we have ever owned. The plate/glasses/silverware sections are thoughtfully designed, and ours has a “quick-wash” setting that cleans everything in about 30 minutes. I put my Riedel’s in there all the time, no issue. I do have to dry them off a bit after the quick-wash, but that’s only because I am usually in a hurry to use them again!

I think any higher end dishwasher can do what is needed here. Asko makes (or used to) a glasses only dishwasher. The difference here was the racking was perfect for stemware and the water temps are lower. The main things from what I understands are to use a lower water temp than normal (something about not expanding the pores in the glass), racking that supports ease of loading stems, and a good rinse agent. Only a little bit of detergent.

I use a dishwasher all the time for my stems and only a few have grown a tiny bit cloudy after 20 years. I have used many brands for these like Bosch, Asko, Miele etc.

My old Bosch (which did a terrible job on glassware) broke a couple months ago and I wasn’t too upset when I found out that the part had been discontinued, because I had a decade long bad experience with it. Replaced with a Miele and have been thrilled! I put my Gabriel Glasses on the top rack and they come out beautifully.

We need a new one.

I liked my Bosch, but it didn’t have enough rack adjustability for stems. we have fairly tall stems so needs to be able to go down pretty far.

On my 2nd Miele in 12 years and have never had a broken stem. I wash Zaltos in it all the time too.

I used to have top of the line and our new mid-line does all that the top one did and more. Came with a year supply of soap to boot.

I will say, it took me a little while to dial in exactly the right amount of soap, water softener salt, and rinse aid to have neither spots nor streaks on my glasses. I’m not sure if there’s some trick to that that I wasn’t aware of, but it took more experimentation than I’d expected.

(Count down to someone posting about how they would NEVER put their glasses in the dishwasher…)

+1 more Miele

Miele

Miele. For large loads of (Zalto) stems, carefully clear the rims with a slightly soapy sponge, rinse, and put in to normal wash WITHOUT soap. The 2 hour wash and dry (with the salt additive) will make you very happy.

Thanks for all the great input. Sounds like Miele it is. Has anyone tried the special glass detergent from Wine Enthusiast (may not be a house brand, just where I purchased it).

I bought a relatively cheap GE last summer and it cleans glasses extremely well.

Based on my shopping, I’d recommend that you check each model’s configuration closely to see how well glasses fit, and how many will fit in one load. I had to buy two extra plastic holders for the stems for mine (~$15). That allows me to wash 8 or 10 glasses at a time. Some makes wouldn’t allow you do more than 4 or 6 at a time and the top rack was made in way that you couldn’t fit additional stem holders. My advice: Take some of the glasses you want to wash to the store and see how they fit.

Even my modest model allows you to wash just the top or bottom rack, so I don’t see any reason to shell out for a Fischer Paykel. Some years ago, Consumer Reports reported that those machines had a high repair frequency. (FP is not included in the reliability survey of their most recent dishwasher ratings.)

Which brings up another thing to check for: cycle time. I see in the current ratings that the FP machines have a 200-minute cycle time. That’s crazy long. The only other model among the dozens that CR rated that was even close was a Samsung. Most machines are in the 110-160-minute range.

The most reliable models in the most recent survey were Bosch, Whirlpool and Miele. The worst were Samsung (bottom), Frigidaire and GE. For what it’s worth, the salesman who sold me mine said he though the quality of the GEs had improved since Haier bought that business from GE two years or so ago (with rights to the GE brand). The survey would have covered mainly pre-Haier machines, so who knows if these rankings are meaningful now.

Add another for Miele. Had mine about 6-ish years and love it.

Use only a tiny amount of regular Cascade powder in it (per Miele’s recommendation). Like at best 1/2 of the full amount in the powder receptical. Less if I’m just washing stems alone.

All of these comments make sense as in my experience and research Bosch and Miele are consistently at the top for dishwashers in general so it is more likely than not to hold that they would be better at stems as well. I have had a couple of Bosch’s over the last decade and have been very happy with them. I will say that I bought a Fisher and Paykel for my downstairs bar/wine area as I liked the ability to use the ‘dish drawer’ feature to basically load the top with glassware and only run half the machine. Won’t be installed for a couple more weeks, so unfortunately no actual usage data to report.