I finally found a 27" Miele washer on the recycle pile that did not appear to have a broken spider or bad bearings, so I took it. This dealer only charges us $10 for each old appliance.

Not sure why they got rid of it, it had about a cup of dry detergent in the wash basket so it looked like it did not start or fill ?

I hooked it up yesterday turned it on and it took off, so I added about 5 pounds of old towels and added 1/2 cup of bleach to start working on the bad moldy condition of the washer and it finished the cycle properly.

I will report more as I test it further.

John L.

These have been on our CL for a while, see today they have dropped the price $300.  These look way worse than yours, John, you found a good one.  Keep us posted..

Hi Greg, These may clean up well, and you need a washer and dryer anyway, LOL

Is the dryer gas or electric ?

I think I got the cheap model, I wish it had a time readout. I started a Sanitary cycle this morning and it ran for what seemed like 2 hours heating and tumbling, it was using enough power to keep the plug warm the whole time.

Hi Eddie, thanks for the offer of the service manual. Jason already printed out all 100+ pages this morning, We subscribe to Mieles service information etc.

Thoughts so far, The wash basket is plenty large enough, it is about the same as my 15 YO SQ FLer, and around 20-25% smaller than the current SQ FL washers.

The machine is quiet and very heavy 286 pounds.

John L.

Hi Eddy, Thanks for asking.

Don't have a full report, have run about a dozen loads of old towels through it mostly on extra hot or sanitary cycle with bleach and lots of good detergent to try to get the odor and yuck out of it.

No functional problems with it they must have just gotten tired of the moldy smell, I have not washed any of my clothing in it yet.

It apparently came with a bleach insert for the dispenser that was missing, I will try to find one or I will probably soon see another machine on the junk pile and can grab one. I scrubbed the heck out ob the door boot and got it to an acceptial condition, you could shin a bright light through the plastic outer tub and see how scummy it was and now it looks pretty clean.

Overall it is a heavy and highly insulated machine, so it is quite and has a quality feel to it. When you take the top off and look at how it is built it just looks like a German WP Duet but much more complicated. It is no where nearly as ruggedly built as a Speed Queen FL washer and it is easy to see that a SQ would not only outlast a couple of these machines but would be far easier to repair when needed.

The controls are not well laid out and it is difficult to get it to do what you want, there is no spin only, or even rinse and spin cycle and the lack of a digital display on such an expensive machine is ridiculous [ yes I know there is a way to get a rinse and spin or spin only, but it means going to the owners Manuel ]

I don't think it uses nearly enough water in the wash cycle, it takes 10-15 minutes to get large loads and blankets completely wet, it simply wastes too much time. The holes are so small in the basket lint and even sand does not wash away very well when I tried a load with added lint and sand to test.

I will probably keep it for a while and will report back after more testing.

John L.

Finnel Report

We ran 30 plus loads through the washer with plenty of detergent and bleach to clean it up, however any full sized loads made some really incredible sounds, It became pretty clear that the owner got rid of the washer because it had a cracked spider, I pushed it aside in March with the though of tearing it all apart to see how bad it was.

Today Jason and I tore it apart saving parts for possible Ebay sale, Or if anyone has one of these washers and needs parts get in touch.

It was a well built machine with good attention to details, very much like a Mercedes Benz. It is a little overly complicated and hard to completely disassemble with quite a bit of work we finally got it completely disassembled and the spider was toast, it is really amazing that they made  the spider so thin [ although it probably would have held up vary well if the machine have been used properly ] Manufactures never assume that people are not going to use enough detergent, I am sure that they don't have 20 moldy washers at the factory where they are testing for durability.

Overall, I very made machine that is difficult and expensive to service, it is not anywhere as rugged  and easy to service as a SQ FL washer, you can easily see why a SQ would easily outlast two or more Miele washers.

Pictures of the spider Etc.

John 

Great looking installation Christopher,

This Miele washer Is very well built and if treated well it could last a long time. 

This one that I picked up had been treated very badly by poor washing practices and became very moldy from cold washing and lack of detergent and Bleach to keep it clean, If you use this machine well I am sure you will likely never have a broken spider.

It was an impressively built machine, the plastic outer tub had a massive cast iron hunk of metal molded into the rear of the tub to support the bearings and allow a smooth inside for good flushing action.

It is easy to see why they quit building these washers, this machine would easily cost $2000-4000 to build and sell today so they could never get the volume necessary to keep going with all the throwaway FL washers in the $1000 range.

We are lucky that Speed Queen sells thousands of their FL washers for commercial use every month which keeps the cost as low as it is for the home models.

I was going to use this Miele washer in my new outdoor laundry, I have instead ordered a new SQ FL washer with the SS cabinet witch should work well for our use.

John L.

Exactly what are they?  I have a new Miele set and I want to know what I need to be doing to insure a longer life because they are not cheap.  I don't wash in only cold water.  I do a mix of water temps each week depending on the fabric.  I do at least one sanitize cycle a week.  I am running one as we speak for our towels.  I use the Autodos system most of the time so I assume I'm getting the proper amount of detergent.  I still have Miele powder left over from the old machine and I use that for some loads to get it used up.

What else do I need to do?  My old washer (Samsung FL Pair) told me when to run the cleaning cycle.  According to the book for this new set it sounds like this washer will do the same but also considers a sanitize cycle as one that helps to clean the washer.  What else do I need to do?

For what any of these new FL machines cost, I would think the manufacturers should build them to allow for "bad practices" but I guess that's not the case.  I ran the clean cycle religiously on the old machine and didn't wash in only cold water.  I got rid of them because I was redoing my laundry room and wanted to reclaim some space for another use.  This Samsung set was enormous and with my set up I couldn't stack them.  I'm happy with this new set and if I have to do things a certain way to extend their life I will, it's just too bad that I have to.

John, are those two dissimilar metals?  Say, one aluminum and one stainless?  Plus the possibility of some leakage current from the heater?  I mean, that cast part is et plum through! 

Yes they are available for order distributor says it will take about a month.

Yes the tub and spider are two different metals, EVERY FL, TL automatic washer ever built has had dissimilar metals touching each other and exposed to water detergents etc, touching each other is not the main cause of this corrosion, it is rather many other causes that we have discussed at length.

I will post pictures once it arrives and gets put into use.

John L.