Miele has been awarded Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers Award for dishwashers for the fouth time and the second year in a row.

The consumer research and ratings service surveyed 750 adults who bought a new dishwasher in the last three years, with Miele coming out on top of a competitive field which included Bosch, Fisher & Paykel, Westinghouse, Dishlex, LG, and Samsung.

Canstar Blue Dishwasher  Ratings 2015
Canstar Blue Dishwasher Ratings 2015

Last month Miele also earned Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers Award for front loader washing machines.

“Congratulations to Miele for another impressive set of customer satisfaction results,” said Canstar Blue spokesman Simon Downes. “Miele clearly seems to be striking a chord with consumers.”

Performance is the biggest driver of customer satisfaction (38 per cent), followed by design (16 per cent), warranty and service (12 per cent), internal layout (11 per cent), value for money (10 per cent), quietness while operating (10 per cent) and finally ease of use (3 per cent).

Forty per cent of the respondents had purchased a new dishwasher because their old one had broken down. One in five purchased a new machine because they moved home, 15 per cent were renovating their home, and 12 per cent said their old dishwasher simply wasn’t cleaning efficiently.

The average price spent on a new dishwasher was $810 and on average they are replaced every 7.7 years, Canstar said.

Canstar Blue also conducted a wider survey of 1,700 adults about how they use their dishwasher.

The majority are sceptical about their dishwasher’s ability to do the job, 87 per cent inspect their dishes and cutlery before putting them away, just in case they haven’t been cleaned properly.

Seventy-three per cent of Australians prefer using their dishwasher to cleaning by hand, and 42 per cent use it every day.

“More than a quarter of people fail to rinse their dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, roughly the same number tend to use the cheapest brand of detergent available, and 41 per cent admit they rarely or never clean their machine. So perhaps some people aren’t taking as much care of their dishwasher as they could,” Downes said.

“Ultimately, consumers want a reliable machine that saves them the time and hassle of cleaning their dishes by hand – and they would prefer it to last for a reasonable length of time.”