Miele G4920SC

Simple on the outside and clever on the inside proves a sparkling combination

What is the Miele G4920SC?

We love the flagship Miele G6410SC dishwasher, but at the best part of £1,000 it’s hugely expensive for a dishwasher. Enter the G4920SC. Coming in at under £600 this model is price competitive with other premium dish scrubbers, but it promises many of the flagship models’ key benefits including low noise, low energy and full sensor washing.

This is a substantial 14-place setting machine with a simple array of five programmes and segment display for time remaining. You get a delay start timer, soft close door and a high speed short wash option. So does this mix of simple on the outside and clever on the inside add up to a star performer at £600? It most certainly is, in fact it’s one of the best dishwashers we’ve tested.

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Miele G4920SC – What’s it like to use?

The G4920SC began gathering favourable murmurings from the test team right from the outset because it’s spectacularly easy to use. Load your plates into the well-appointed interior, fill with salt, rinse aid and washer tablet or powder in the traditional manner. Selected a programme and press start. It really is as simple as that.

When one of those programmes is a full sensor wash that adjusts the programme duration, water and energy use depending on how dirty the load is, you do start wondering why you need any other programme.

Like Miele’s more affluent model there is a solid and weighty feel to the door as you open it and as it closes with a soft click. The interior looks pretty bare and lacklustre for a premium machine without fancy stainless steel trims and coloured mouldings of some, yet its practicality can’t be faulted.

It is racked out with a basket at the bottom and a height adjustable basket at the top. This allows 28cm plates in the bottom basket as standard, rising to whopping great 31cm dishes if you lift the basket to its highest setting. The art of lifting the basket is made simple with easy side clips, but we found it a lot easier to do this when the upper tray is unloaded.

Both baskets roll out on multiple wheels (4 each side on the lower basket) with impeccable grace and smoothness. OK, there isn’t quite the bewildering array of removable clips, splines and racks of Miele’s flagship model, but it remains very flexible none the less.

At the top of the compartment is Miele’s full width removable cutlery tray. While this does limit the ultimate height of items on the top basket, particularly if it is in its higher position, trays rather than traditional cutlery baskets are the way forward in our opinion. They are easier to load/unload, offer better cleaning as cutlery doesn’t lie against each other and they free up valuable space on the main lower basket. Miele’s tray has a useful recess through the centre allowing for larger kitchen utensils, such as a fish slice or serving spoons.

Running the machine is no more complex than closing the door, scrolling through the five programmes and pressing start. For a little extra flexibility there is the option of a reduced time short wash that increases water and energy to give good cleaning results when you are time pressed, or to delay the start by up to 24 hours in 30-minute increments.

Miele G4920SC – What programmes does it have?

Not many at all. With simplicity of operation at its heart, the G4920 offers just five programmes and two options. The default programme is likely to be the sensor wash that automatically adjusts the cleaning cycles and water/energy consumption by constantly analysing how dirty the water is. After a quick sploshing, this mode will sense whether a pre-wash is required, consider whether you need a mid-wash rinse to cleanse the water and adjust the main wash temperature according to soiling level.

If you are cleaning delicate items such as china or finer glasses, there is a senor wash gentle programme that forgoes the prewash, reduces spray pressure and drops cleaning temperature to around 45 degrees.

An ECO wash programme is where that A++ energy rating will come from as it ditches the pre-wash and sticks the main wash to a low 44 degrees C and the final rinse to a relatively cool 58 degrees. This mode won’t take into account how dirty the plates and crockery are, which means potentially variable results, but it will keep your running costs to an absolute minimum.

As per Miele’s flagship there is a ‘normal’ programme without sensor wash, and equally we really can’t think of a single good reason to use this programme when you have a very good sensor mode. It also takes ages to complete the cycle, with Miele’s own figures suggesting well over 3 hours. Finally, for those hefty cleaning jobs like baking trays, stew-pots and greasy pans, there is an intensive 75-degree wash to shift stubborn grime.

OK, there are no self-clean modes, solar heated water programmes or specific cycles for more obscure crockery or pans, but we didn’t miss them.
 

Miele G4920SC – How noisy is it?

It’s nothing like as discreet as the Quiet Mark-approved flagship dishwasher, and it isn’t as quiet as the EU Energy label suggests, either. Claiming 46dB is a serious stretch for all but the ECO and gentle programmes as the high-pressure spray jets of water hit the load and the side-walls of the machine with some gusto.

In sensor gentle mode we measured a better 48dB during the main wash, rising to 54dB during the same stage of the normal and sensor programmes. While 54dB is by no means noisy, the occasional peak to 58dB means the G4920SC sounds very much like a traditional dishwasher rather than a modern ultra-quiet model – it’s good 10dB louder than the Samsung DW60H9970FS, for example.

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