Miele 1918 control board failure (repeated)


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Thread Number: 83777 / Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Miele 1918 control board failure (repeated)

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Post# 1081377 7/17/2020 at 11:53 (1,670 days old) by araguato (ny)
Checkrate/Likes Hello, I am hoping for some advice. I have a Miele 1918 and its upper electronic control board keeps failing. My husband replaced it, twice. It lasted from a couple of weeks, to less than week. Since owner-installed parts from Miele carry NO WARRANTY, we finally hauled to washer to an Miele authorized service dealer (where we had originally purchased the machine). They transferred it to an authorized service tech/contractor and after more than six months (supposedly waiting for the control board to arrive from Germany) it was returned to us with the control board replaced and significant cosmetic damage to the case, and stinking to high heaven from some sort of industrial cleaner. (Clearly they had left it closed up and it got moldy and this was their attempt to fix it.) Anyway, I have finally, almost, got the smell out of the machine, and now the same board has failed again. It has had less than 50 cycles run in it since we got it back. This is $600 part, so I am reluctant to replace it again. Obviously something is causing the control board to fail. When the first replacement failed, I was willing to allow that some error in the repair done by my non-Miele certified husband might have been the cause. When the second one failed, there seemed nothing else to do but haul the machine out of our cellar and take it to the authorized dealer and repair place. But that obviously, didn't fix the problem, either. So now we're back at square one. Miele USA is completely unhelpful about this - they "have no idea what could cause a control board to fail, over and over." They just want us to take the machine back to an authorized service location and try again. New Miele machines seem to have have lost the point (no profile wash, cheap-feeling chassis, lower temps, lower speeds, dinky water heater, etc.) so I am not inclined to replace the 1918 with one of them. But I am at a loss to know what to consider when looking for the cause of the repeated failures. (I'm no longer willing to entertain the idea that either of the two owner-performed replacements were anything other than as good as the authorized dealer fix. That's not the problem.) Any ideas on what to look for, or consider, as the root cause of the board failures? Otherwise, the machine works like a champ, and aside from the damage done at the authorized service dealer, is in perfect condition. Thanks for any ideas you may have. Araguato

Post# 1081384 , Reply# 1 7/17/2020 at 12:28 (1,670 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)
Checkrate/Likes I am sorry you are experiencing this bad service from your machine and from Miele.

Post# 1081398 , Reply# 2 7/17/2020 at 14:02 (1,670 days old) by ozzie908 (Lincoln UK)
Checkrate/Likes *@Araguato* As the machine was taken to a service centre does it not have a warranty with it ? Would it be worth asking them if they would come to you this time and at a reduced cost as its not lasted very long? Good luck I hope you get it sorted :) Austin

Post# 1081400 , Reply# 3 7/17/2020 at 14:43 (1,670 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)
Checkrate/Likes 2 *the answer is...* Speed Queen.

Post# 1081417 , Reply# 4 7/17/2020 at 16:42 (1,670 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Broken Miele Washer* Either take it back to the repair center. Buy A new Miele. Owning a Miele in any country is not cheap and in the US there is no decent service, it is like buying an expensive Mercedes automobile with NO SERVICE available. Selling you an expensive part with no warranty is ridiculous, NO OTHER appliance manufacturer does this, I would be filling a case with NYs attorney General. Best choice if you want a really durable and REPARABLE FL washer get a Speed Queen, otherwise just buy another Miele, we have lots of customers from Germany and Europe here in the DC area and they always tell us that they love Miele appliances but that they always replace then in around 10 years max, they are not meant for the long haul, they are too complicated and parts are too expensive. John L.

Post# 1081422 , Reply# 5 7/17/2020 at 17:08 (1,670 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There�s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes 1 While feel and understand your pain, Miele's attitude is not uncommon. Myself and others have posted on this site regarding our dealings with Miele USA. Or you can simply Google to find scores of similar complaints. For all their great German engineering and design, Miele's customer service in USA seems to embody the worst Teutonic traits. Nothing is ever wrong with Miele appliance, but rather it is always something you did to the machine. First contact with Miele tech/service will be "no, machine cannot be doing that". When you insist then comes "you don't know how to operate/use machine....". Have a Miele washer older than yours, and have been on rough side of Miele's tongue more than once regarding repairs. Long story short is MieleUSA really doesn't want to be bothered with older washing machines and some other appliances. By this mean W700, W1065/W1070, and now yes even the W1900 series are considered "obsolete" by Miele. They will do repair work, but much comes down to what tech comes out. If you get someone that knows way around these older machines (getting rare these days), that is good. Otherwise you pay your money and take your chances. Cannot imagine hauling that W1918 out and back from authorized service center. Why didn't you simply have Miele send a tech to your home? We are in NY as well and in past used an excellent Miele repair service,KMS. But it seems they may have closed. www.yelp.com/biz/kms-appl... KMS was owned and run by a former certified Miele tech, he left that company and went out on his own. There was nothing he didn't know about older Miele washers... Miele parts installed by certified techs carry a warranty (have been there and done that enough times....). Is Miele saying you'll have to pay again for everything? You should have received a diagnostic report with repair bill stating what was wrong, and what Miele did to correct. Yes, it is obvious something inside your machine is causing control board to fail. At this stage simply installing another new won't solve issue.

Post# 1081425 , Reply# 6 7/17/2020 at 17:50 (1,670 days old) by Rolls_rapide (.)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Is your electricity supply stable? Or is it prone to fluctuations/spikes?

Post# 1081427 , Reply# 7 7/17/2020 at 18:19 (1,670 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There�s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes At this stage best solution might be to look on CL, eBay, Facebook, Offerup, etc... for another W1918 or other W1000 model. There are plenty out there often going for very little money. At $600 a pop for control boards it just might be a better way to go. This unless MieleUSA or some independent repair service is willing to perform full diagonstics on your washer to find out what is causing these boards to fail. There is a Facebook group for European appliance hobbists like ourselves. Don't have link but think it is here in archives of group. Maybe posting your query there might bring other responses. If you speak German or another European language maybe try searching for a solution that way. There is a huge DIY laundry machine repair community in Europe, and have come across "control board" queries in past.

Post# 1081482 , Reply# 8 7/18/2020 at 06:35 (1,669 days old) by gizmo (Victoria, Australia)
Checkrate/Likes Hi Araguato First I should make it clear to you that I am not a technician, I am a person with an interest in appliances who has good luck with fixing them, often discarded as "not worth fixing" by real technicians. My own washer is a Miele W3831 that I salvaged from the scrap metal skip behind a Miele retailer as a dead traded-in machine. (with their permission.) It turned out to have a trivial fault that cost me nothing to fix. I am in Australia and our models sold here are not the same as yours. Can you give us any more info about exactly what the failure is? What are the symptoms? If we know exactly what is going wrong, it gives us clues to what the real issue is. What is the last thing the machine did successfully before it failed? in other words, where in the cycle did the fault occur? I don't wish to denigrate professional repairers, but being an amateur can have its advantages too in that if you aren't paying yourself an hourly rate, you can spend much longer on investigating things than a pro can afford to. First you should establish that your electricity supply isn't the issue. Do you have access to a plug in power meter that records the maximum voltage? Kill-a-watt is one such product in the USA, I know of them for 120v in the USA, I don't know if they are available in 240 volt in the USA? (Ironically they are dime-a-dozen here.) I am unfamiliar with the US system for providing the 120/240 volt supply with 2 "hot" wires and one neutral, but can any other person chime in here and say what would happen if the neutral fails so the machine is only connected to both hots? Will that fry a board? This machine specifies 120/240 connection, does that mean it has 120V circuits inside and what would happen to then if the neutral disappears? If one of the hots has a bad (erratic) connection? Let's think what faults could cause repeated shorting of a board? 1. Motor fault - worn out motor brushes can cause sparking, a build up of carbon dust inside the motor could possibly create a ground fault that might fry a board. 2. bad insulation of a wire. Look round where wires lay over parts that jump around when the machine is spinning. Parts of the wiring loom will be cable tied to the drum, look carefully around there in case the jiggling drum has worn through wire insulation and is creating an intermittent short. 3. worn shock absorbers. This isn't as dumb as it sounds. A friend of mine has an old Miele that I gave him years ago. Its shockers wore out, allowing the drum to jump around madly on spin. the drum moved so much that stupid things happened - the motor smashed into the main terminal block where the power cord enters the machine, damaging the filter capacitor and breaking wires. The belt was also getting damaged by touching a sheet metal edge when jumping around on spin - the machine was eating belts. A new set of shockers (cheap ones from ebay, not genuine parts) fixed these assorted serious issues. This particular old Miele seems to have more lives than a cat... 4. Look at other cheaply replaceable parts for signs of shorts / burn marks that might indicate electrical faults that might fry a board. I'll check back soon to see if you have any further clues for us. Having said all that, what are your consumer rights with regard to the repair that you have paid for? If the machine has failed after only a few uses and it is the same failure, surely Miele owe you a repair under warranty? If they aren't prepared to fix it again at no cost, then they should refund you the cost of the last repair. (which would still leave you with a dead washer...) good luck and keep in touch. I have attached a link to a service manual I found online for your machine. May help with trouble shooting. CLICK HERE TO GO TO gizmo's LINK

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