Lucked into a very cheap, barely-used Miele 1986 on Craig's List, but need to clean it up as it had a hard life with (apparently) only cold water and cheap-o liquid detergent. As you might imagine it acquired a bad case of the stinks.
I've already disassembled most of it and it's cleaning up very nicely. I had thought to stop before I broke apart the drums, but now that it's this far, I'm thinking of going all the way. Has anyone separated the drums and how big a job was it? So far (completely field-stripped out everything except the drum/weight assembly) it's all been dead-easy. But, now I'm hesitating; it seems a shame to settle for a half-done cleaning, but maybe the drums are too complicated.
I could always backtrack from here and run several loads with the various chemical additives for cleaning machines that I on hand: Affresh, Miele descaler, Washer Magic and something from Carbona for machine-cleaning. Maybe that would be enough?
Reports of your experience would be great. Thanks!
Dora
Post# 505918 , Reply# 1 3/22/2011 at 17:39 (4,781 days old) by grahamW ()
Here's my thread on the bearings in a W1919 which is smaller and older than your W1986, but the process would be similar. You'll need a puller to get the cast rear weight off and it will probably bring the bearing with it. The front weights aren't too difficult to remove but you'll need to remove the rear if you hope to separate the drums.
I'm not sure that I'd recommend it for a working machine. If you want to clean it out, run some hot cycles with citric acid crystals in place of detergent.
Since I posted my query I did find, and read, your saga with your 1918. (I also have a 1918 which is my mainstay washer at present.) Your very detailed thread did give me pause and I think now I will just finish my clean up of the water pathways, coming and going, and then reinstall the cleaned-up boot in order to do several rounds of high-temp clean up cycles with citric acid (aka Miele's $20/whiz-product) and Washer Magic, as well as STPP, borax and whatever else seems appropriate.
After my cleaning extravaganza(s) I'll re-evaluate the odor-status and decide whether to revisit breaking the drums apart. I have a new boot on hand and may swap it in after the clean-up since the prev. owners used some kind of persistently stinky detergent that I'm not sure I want it wafting about my laundry room. It may be too intermingled in my smell-memory with the over-riding mold and slime-smell to live with, even if it's technically clean.
Given the drums are stainless, I think you should be able to get them clean and odour free without dissassembling them. I think the biggest thing is to get the detergent box and main drain hose apart and clean them separately. My W1903 was bought used and had a similar smell issue. I removed and cleaned the front seal and then ran 3-4 hot (95C) washes with citric acid, cleaned the trap and that seemed to work. The water in the first wash was murky grey but they cleared up subsequently.
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