And Now For Something Completely Different - Miele Twin Tub

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In Case Anyone Was Wondering

First far as one knows Miele sourced these units from AEG who had a similar model as well.

Unlike our Hoover and other twin tub washers this unit fits more under the term "washer-extractor". One set the program for the wash side and the machine washed and rinsed the load accordingly. You then lifted the rinsed but wet laundry over to the spin basket for final extraction.

 
AFAIK Miele never sourced these units from AEG. The AEG's are different in that the drum is positioned differently. AEG and Miele always had a different set of the wash drum. Therefor AEG's were always a bit wider and less deep.

These machines were very popular in the Netherlands. The built quality was good, they were very easy to fix when they broke down (but they rarely did) and they were much cheaper than a Miele frontloader.

BTW, the AEG Turnamat was much more popular than the Miele Combinettes. For a while (IIRC in the seventies) Miele didn't even make a Combinette.

In Dutch they are called "wascombinatie" en in German "Waschbuffet".

 
Thanks for clearing that up

Seems to be some confusion about these Miele combinette units in the EU washer collector community. Some swear (very loudly) that AEG produced them, others (equally loudly) not.

That AEG unit in your link is interesting. Imagine a tub you can literally lift out. Who knew?
 
Aside From The "Cool" Factor

Don't see the point of the machine either.

I mean unlike Hoover and simiar TTs this machine completes full cycles, so there isn't a water savings of keeping that hot or boiling wash water to reuse. My German isn't that great but reading the programming that seems to be how the machine works.
 
Google translate

can be quite entertaining at times:

"For sale here is a top loader washing machine Miele. The device was an old lady who died last year at the age of 84.

The machine was only used a few times and now shines on the distance of the dust as new again. A trial run went smoothly, it heats properly and being quiet. It can be seen only very minor wear and absolutely no rust!

This model is on wheels and it is therefore easy to move.

Of course I would prefer to pick up a delivery is also possible. You only actual shipping cost calculation, but please give me a week's time to the right packaging material (Pallet & upholstery) feared."
 
Germany Is *NOT* The Best Country For Shipping

Unless things fit into the standard sizes of post packaged it becomes *VERY* expensive to ship within the EU, outside that zone is even worse. This is probably why so many eBay Germany sellers specify "no shipping" in their listing.

Indeed many sellers outside Germany won't ship to the place either.
 
There definitely was a point in the past. The AEG Turnamat was introduced in the late fifties or early sixties. Frontloaders didn't spin that fast yet, AEG had models that spun at 520rpm iirc and Miele models didn't spin around the same rpm. The AEG Turnamat spinner achieved 2800rpm, just like a separate spin dryer. Frontloaders didn't spin much or not at all between rinses back then. This means both frontloaders and these twintubs had to use a lot of water to get the laundry rinsed well. So the choice was between a frontloader with a rather anemic spin or these twintubs with a good spin. Most frontloaders were paired up with a separate spin dryer so in the end with a frontloader you needed to do an extra spin as well to get the same amount of water out of the laundry.

There is another difference that made these twintubs more attractive. Frontloaders for that time were complicated machines. They had door boots, suspension etc. The twintubs didn't have that. Because the main drum wasn't used for spinning, suspension was not necessary. If you open these machines, you can see how simple they are. Repairs are also simple, as far as they needed repair. These machines appeared to be very reliable, many of them were used for 30 years without a repair.

As for the confusion, I don't think many EU collectors will confuse the Miele's and the AEG's because they are so totally different. It must be some people who don't know much about these twintubs.

BTW, these machines were also sold without the spinner attached. It were compact models (they were lower too), for people with little space. They they were combined with a separate spin dryer. I have a few of those. As a matter of fact there is a thread in the archives about my Constructa. Have a look.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?15015
 
As for water saving, no they use a lot of water. Five (AEG's and later Miele's) or six (older Miele's) made sure the suds were rinsed out. My Constructa has four rinses, but the first two are a sort of a cool down rinse with pumping, filling, pumping, filling etc. The advantage is that it's fully automatic until the last rinse is done.
 
Fun Machines..

I wouldnt have thought Miele scourced any products from AEG - does anyone know different??

These look great machines to use , saw a few at the Siemens headquarters and Museum in Berlin in the 80`s...

In the 70`s a friends family moved back from the army in Germany bringing back all their appliances, (kenwood Chef with all 25 boxed attachments, Siemens Spinner & vac and a Siemens single tub with drum BUT MANUAL, just one simple timer and ONE outlet / inlet hose that connected to the tap with a flip ball stopper to drain...it was a wide unit the drum moved side to side and the fascia was full width at the back and timer control was on rhs.

Does anyone have any pics of these manual machines, have never been able to find any??
 
I can also see the point and I keep being tempted by spin dryers I see at our local Sunday car boot type market. The trouble is, they don't mark the price on anything and as soon as they realise I'm a foreigner, the price goes up! I will be having a Hungarian staying with me at the end of October so I will get her to negotiate prices when she's here. My Servis claims to spin at 1500 rpm but the stuff would be a lot dryer if put through a topload dedicated spinner.
 
Now I get it-since little or no suspension on the wash drum-makes sense not to use it for spinning-therefore the seperate spinner tub.And for German parts-for one of our transmitters built in Germany in the 1980's it is a pain--EXPENSIVE-and their parts are not like USA ones-not the same stadards.AEG S4005 SW transmitter,250/500Kw.
 
Size

Thanks Louis, the Siemens looked very much like your constructa, that smaller size, drum left to right, no dispenser just the drum, and the lid lifted off not hinged, a light cream colour, the hose came out of the back..

When it came out of transportation it didnt work, we took the machine in the car without the lid and I watched them take the drum out (fascinating) to a friend who was a car engineer, he fixed it all it was the belt had snapped...

I couldnt understand at the time why his mum only used a tiny amount of water in the bottom of the drum....having been used to twinnies I wanted to see it filled....obviously I know now that wouldnt have worked!!
 
@fido

Spin dryers/extractors do not always leave wash loads dryer than with a front loader with speeds at or >900rpms.

Extraction of water from textiles is not merely done by high rpms, but the diameter of the tub factors into the G-Forces which produce better results. This is why all things being equal larger H-Axis or even "V" Axis tubs will give excellent extraction even whilst spinning at <1200 rpms.

Case in point: one day a few weeks ago after doing wash in the Miele didn't have time nor the inclination to separate the load out and place into the spin drier; so just reset the Miele for a short "fast spin". This cycle is a shortened spin used mainly after the "Wool" cycle and runs for about 2-3 minutes.

Upon taking the load out of the machine it was just as dry if not drier than if it had gone into the spin dryer. Items dried just as fast if not a bit faster as well in the tumble dryer.
 
The 60`s

Hi Louis , its the 60`s model, I`m sure it didnt have a handle on the front, the Siemens dryer they had was a new model, very much like todays spinners, they had it all in line under a worktop with a new Hoover D6042 tumble dryer purchased here, and on the worktop was the Kenwood Chef A701 light blue, and shelves above with everyone one of the made attachments all stored in their boxes!!

Spinning @ 1500rpm on a wide drum automatic wouldnt necessarily get it much dryer on a 4+ minute final spin, it may not feel dryer out of a spinner but might take 10mins or so off drying times when using a tumble dryer.
 
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