Miele G4310 Active Eco SC BRWS (White)
Verified3 reviews
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- +2
Excellent Replacement for Old Miele – My secondhand Miele dishwasher, now a decade old, gave up the ghost with the dread F14 error. I rebooted it, cursed it, and finally, in desperation, called in a technician who diagnosed a sensor failure. After some deliberation, I decided to buy a new one rather than have the old one fixed. This is in part due to other errors appearing, some of which indicated the sensor may be the tip of an expensive repair iceberg. Another factor was that Miele was discounting some of their items, and this included their dishwashers.
So I bought a new Miele G4310 from the Miele shop and a week later it arrived on my doorstep. I rubbed my hands and opened the installation instructions. It had six diagrammed steps. How hard could this be? Well, several hours later while on my back trying to push hoses through two small cupboard holes, I recalled the Dunning-Kruger effect. It is a cognitive bias where someone with low skill at a particular task overestimates their ability. In essence, the less you understand something the better you think you are at it, because you don't know any better.
This me and plumbing (here's the hint: use string or twine on a coat hanger instead of your fingers. Push the string through whatever holes there are and tie the ends of the hoses). Nevertheless, after eventually plumbing the new Miele dishwasher, I had a working dishwasher ready for the stack of dishes on the bench.
So, How Well Did it Clean the Dishes? After running several loads, the G4310 cleans dishes and glasses very well. I run the shortened light soiling program and use Finish 3-in-1 tablets. The result is excellent. Because I use 3-in-1 tablets. I tend not to use rinse aid and you will need to program this in the G4310. If you don't the reminder light comes on and is mildly annoying. It would be good for this dishwasher to have a 2-in-1 and 3-in-1 button, as my older Miele did. Nevertheless, the dishes came out dry and warm, and the glasses had a good sheen, as I've tried to capture in the photograph. The plastic containers came out damp, but this happened with my old Miele so I wasn't too fussed.
I tend to scrape off large bits from the dishes. I find if you don't, then detritus accumulates in the lower filter basket and, if ignored long enough, clogs it up. You will know this has happened when a warning light illuminates and this is easily rectified by emptying the lower filter basket of distasteful gunk. Still, regularly cleaning the dishwasher, including the lower filter basket, and scraping the dishes prevents this.
But in the analysis to date, the G4310 is excellent at washing and drying dishes.
Features: The main feature I wanted was a cutlery tray. This is a drawer you pull out, usually on top, and place cutlery in. I find this easier than a cutlery basket since, and this is my OCD coming to play, I organise each of the types of cutlery together. Knives in one spot; forks in the other; spoons... well, you get the picture. This dishwasher has it.
As you may've gathered by the name, it also has an 'eco' mode. I'm suspicious about 'eco' modes in any manufacturer since it usually means a lousy wash all to save minimal water. Its water rating is a 5 star out of 6 with an average of 11.4 litres a wash, but I'm not certain if this is good, great or just OK.
There are other wash modes or programs, such as 'auto'. It has programs for light soiling (55 degrees C), Intensive (75 degrees C) and Gentle (45 degrees C). I am more likely to use the 'auto' feature, but if you're looking for an 'eco' mode, then this dishwasher ticks that box. One excellent features ist that each of these programs has a "short" button, where the wash time can be reduced albeit at an increase in water consumption.
Another feature I use is the delay start button. This allows you to delay the dishwasher starting up to at least fifteen hours. I find this handy as I usually fill the dishwasher up at night and set it to start in the morning. For me, this is when most of my electricity comes from solar. However, for others this feature could be used to delay the wash until an off peak period.
The upper rack is height adjustable, as was the case in my previous dishwasher, and to be honest I used this feature about half a dozen times over a decade. Still, when you need this, it's good to have it. The G4310 also has a child lock, and a time remaining display.
Finally, the dishwasher is quieter than my previous one, which in itself was fairly quiet.
Missing Features: The G4310 misses out on a buzzer to alert you when it's finished. My old one didn't have it either, so it's not a dealbreaker, but definitely a 'nice to have'. There have been occasions where I missed refilling because I'd forgotten I'd started one load and wasn't alerted when it finished. It also doesn't have an internal light, which I gather some have, but I've never found the lack of this something I missed.
Things to note: An electronic sensor is on the inlet hose. You have to be careful when installing not to drop, cut or do anything that may damage this. If it's damaged, then that's bad as in expensive bad. This electronic inlet sensor, though, seems robust and wasn't the sensor that failed on my old dishwasher (if anyone is curious, it was an internal pressure sensor around the recirculation pump).
Final Recommendations: This is not the cheapest European brand dishwasher, although it's close to the cheapest Miele. There are dishwashers from other European brands, such as Bosch, Smeg and Asko, in the same price range as the G4310, and I don't know how they compare. Also, these brands, like Miele, have dishwashers at double the price of the G4310, although I suspect it's a case of diminishing returns in all cases.
The main differential between Miele and is Bosch, Asko et al, is these brands have models at 40% or less than the price of this G4310, whereas Miele don't. Still, if one 'must have a Miele', but doesn't want to pay for unused features, then the G4310 is a dishwasher at a price point to consider. One niggle I'm not too happy about is, unlike my previous Miele, this one was assembled in the Czech Republic rather than Germany. It's still Europe, but when one buys a Miele one likes to see the 'Made in Germany' label. Still, I'm aware cheaper models exist from other European brands which are assembled in countries outside Europe, and this is how the modern Global world works.
But, with respect to cleaning dishes, the Miele G4310 does an excellent job with relative ease and this is what dishwashers are all about... aside from the plumbing.
Purchased in at Miele for $1,199.
Not sure – Our Miele dishwasher died after 18 years and not worth fixing ($1000 plus). Didn't get the promised 20years but near enough. Miele rep recommended the G4310 SC eco model as a replacement, which we will go with. There is no way Miele models should be breaking down after 2-3 years no matter where they are assembled, if quality German components are still being used.!. Also buyers still have recourse through consumer protection if the product doesn't perform properly for it's intended use, for a period which is decided by courts, not the manufacturer( i.e approx 7 years for average use on the average dishwashers) If Miele makes claims that their dishwasher are tested to last 15 years with average use and they don't, then consumers would have a case for restitution. So if this new machine doesn't go the distance( approx 15 years) and Miele won't stand by their claim of 15 years use, then hello consumer protection, here I come!
Purchased in for $1,399.
Well we just got it but its good so far – Edit to add: We've had it 3years now, and no issues so far. (Knock on wood) Still works great and cleans things really well. Disappointed to hear others have had problems, but for us it's been great. I think it's better than our old model so far. Will update if it packs it in or anything. Old Review: We've had this for about two weeks. Our old washer just broke after 10 years, and it was also Miele. Over all, I feel like Miele makes really good quality dishwashers. The quality of the cleaning is very good.
First the bad-- I think its a little over-priced. It was well over a thousand dollars. Our old Miele was the same price a few years ago, and it was made in Germany. This is not made in Germany but a poorer European country. Nothing wrong with that, though It is obviously a cheaper model to make, but none of those savings seemed to have been passed onto the customer. Secondly, they wanted an extra $100 dollars to install it, which, given the cost of the product and that we bought it directly from them, it felt pretty steep. We have bought other white-goods from other retailers, like Appliances Online that offer free installation and next-day shipping, and they took the old one away too. So like, in terms of value for money/competitiveness it doesn't feel like Miele is up there at all, which is disappointing. We had to get a plumber to install it, and they charged less. I can understand why they don't do free installation but feel like it would have been a great 'thank you' to us as a customer if they just included installation in the price, like other sites do.
Over all we are really pleased with it, however. It looks very well made and is sturdy. I do like the 'eco' setting, but am really surprised the program is so long! It's like 3H hours for some reason, even longer than some of the other non-eco program timers on it, yet it's supposed to be the most efficient of all the programs, and use the less water and energy, according to the manual. But it does clean really well.
This model no longer has a 'quick-wash' setting like our old Miele, which is disappointing, but you can half the time of any programs you want, with a 'short' setting which has the same effect, however, it's a little confusing to find out the water and power usage of the 'short' wash/halved programs though. I can't understand if they use less water than 'eco' program or not. We are still getting used to all the programs and the manual, which is surprisingly complicated for a dishwasher, haha.
As for the washing, the quality seems very good. It dries things much better than our old model, and rarely has droplets on things. We have actually tried it with 3 different types of detergent-- Miele gives a sample size of of their own dishwashing detergent tabs, which seem pretty good, although they are (of course) much more expensive than brands like Finish or Fairy and you can only get them online. We have also tried the powerball tabs by Finish and liquid wash by Finish and so far we can't see any difference-- they all clean very well. I will keep trying and keep an eye on it and update if anything changes.
I really like inside, especially the cutlery drawer, which is part of the reason we went with Miele again-- the cutlery cage it is at the top of the dishwasher, there is no little basket like other brands-- It is very handy and without a basket taking up the bottom, it means we can fit way more things in the main compartment before we wash. It's great. As for the other two 'drawers'-- they are designed very well, they can move up and down with ease, the middle 'cup' drawer has three settings of height. Our dinner plates are pretty tall and being able to move the midde drawer up helps fit everything in.
As for the 'eco-ness' of the product. It's hard to speak on the efficacy of it because we don't have much to compare it to--beyond our old Miele-- and we can't remember the power consumption and water consumption of our old model. The eco program on the 4310 Active uses 11.4 litres (from memory) which is pretty low, I think? Again it's hard to say as I have no other brands to compare it to. The energy consumption is 3.5 star energy, the water energy star rating is 5 I think. It's pretty comparable to other dishwashers in its price range from what I can tell.
It also has an 'automatic load' setting, where it calculates the time it should take to clean the dishes. It's a pretty cool setting, but we've only used it once, and so far all the settings have cleaned everything beautifully and we don't see that much difference between them.
The outside is very nice, our model is white and it is very sleek and stylish. It has a very nice front panel that turns itself off when idle, so there are usually no blinky lights going, and it looks very innocuous and sleek. Very nice.
One minor gripe: It has a very strange smell out of the box, almost like mothballs? It stunk up the house for a few days. I feel like it has been sprayed with some chemical, and is taking a few washes to get rid of the smell. It's still not 100% gone, though almost. Very weird, but just a minor annoyance, and it is almost gone. I assume it was sprayed with something so no nasties get into it, but it is very strong 'factory' smell.
Personally I would recommend it though-- it is extremely well made in my opinion and feels much higher quality than the Bosch my brother bought 2-3 years ago; his feels cheap especially in the outer panels and inner drawers. Miele by comparison feels very well made and sturdy, and seems to clean way way better by comparison. Definitely one of the better manufacturers on the market, in my opinion.
Purchased in at Miele for $1,200.
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