Blomberg Dryer Smell

[mieleforever]

@launderess and any other knoledgeable member

Our Miele T8822C is about 8 years old now and gets rather heavy usage, should one try and disassemble the machine to clean it's air ways and fans or should one only clean the condenser unit. The Miels's Condenser unit is removable and I clean it out about every 6 months, but I can see there is a lot of lint in some of the airways of the machine.

I have dabbled in working on washing machines before but have paid a pretty penny for said machine so I don't want to stuff it up, so I guess is it an easy job or should it be leaft to be dealt with by a proffesional technician?

Many thanks in advance.

Regards.

 

[rolls_rapide]

If it's purely a condenser (not a heatpump machine)

Then the condenser should be removable, and wash the condenser with a garden hosepipe.

Unplug from the mains electricity before fiddling!

Depending upon the make and model of machine, it might be possible to reach into the bowels of the machine to remove clumps of fluff which made it past the filters, which might then accumulate in the sump lagoon, leading to drain or pump blockages. Frequently though, there is usually a guard or airflow vanes preventing physical access from the condenser cavity.

Lint from the door/porthole filter airways can be vacuumed out. One of these flexible electrostatic 'furry-dusters-on-a-stick' might be useful too, to release stuck on lint.

 

[launderess]

Louis would know more

But IIRC Miele's design for their condenser dryers is vastly superior to AEG and some others. Very little lint gets past the two filters so there is less to worry about internally.

But for those who like busy work; let the ginger explain. *LOL*

 

[foraloysius]

"Louis would know more"

Well, I'm not so sure about that. lol

But what I do know is that my Miele T420C, bought new in 1997 didn't need it's condenser cleaned very often. I did it only 5 or 6 times in the 21 years I had it. And it never looked like the condenser in the video. I think the Miele of the 1990's generation were sealed very well. It was in the bathroom, the windows there never fogged up, not even in the midst of a cold winter when the dryer was used several times on one day.

 

[combo52]

Testing Clean Laundry For " Cleanliness "

Putting clean items dampened in plastic bags is an excellent way to test you laundry for relative cleanliness and to compare how fast a towel sours compared to a brand new towel for example.

 

Yes you are correct Laundress that laundry is not completely sterile and all damp items will likley eventually mold if left in plastic bags damp long enough, but this is still a very effective test and the results can be very dramatic and vary greatly with different laundry practices.

 

In a Heat-Pump dryer the biggest problem would be the evaporator, it gets cold and wet and can stay damp, the condenser can also clog with lint etc and the fan and air-ways all may need cleaning.

 

Even though my brother Jeff and I along with a friend who is a refrigeration engineer invented the basic concept of the home HP dryer over 30 years ago it is a shame that so many homes in Europe are using HP dryers when they have natural gas available in the home. Yes a HP dryer makes great sense if NG is not available, but a vented to the outside of the home gas dryer also helps add necessary ventilation- air-exchange to the home.

 

This Air-Exchange is especially important when handling, folding, ironing clothing as you are generating lint which is carcinogenic and generally makes a dusty mess in homes. Most European homes do not have the advanced home filtration systems that North American homes have do to their extensive use of hot water heat etc.

 

John L.

 

[henene4]

Natural gas

Gas dryers are inredibly inconvenient here.

1. We rarely have gaslines installed near enough to laundry areas.
2. Most setups have developed for condenser dryers, so about 90% of households have no vent setup.
3. Any gas installation here in Germany is under incredibly tight regulation, thus, pricey.
4. I'd say that not even half of residential housing here is hooked up to gas.
5. A gas dryer needs about 5kWh worth of gas for a full load, that would be 30 cents round about. A HP dryer needs 1.5kWh, that's about 40 cents. So price isn't as huge of a factor as it is going from condenser to heatpump.
6. Venting would vastly increase heating costs for most households during winter.
7. HP dryers are mass produced, while gas dryers by nature would be less produced (simply can't be setup in every case), thus they would always be more expensive to make.

It's funny how often you think to know how we live here and how things work here, combo...

 

[foraloysius]

Gas appliances are being phased out overhere in the Netherlands. In 2021 gas boilers will be no longer available. Natural gas as an energy is a 20th century source, it's not durable enough. The northern part of the Netherlands has suffered from earthquakes rather badly because of the eploitation of the natural gas fields. Energy in the future will have to be more durable, there will be invested a lot in wind and solar energy. The introduction of gas dryers has failed here, and there is no use of trying it again. Because of said developments, in the future gas will become more expensive and electricity cheaper.

 

[wft2800]

I'm already paying MUCH more for natural gas than I am for electricity. I also would never have a gas dryer on safety grounds. Electric dryers are inflammable enough as they are without adding combustion heating into the mix!

 

[rolls_rapide]

"advanced home filtration systems..."

We use the tried and tested method... of opening the windows!

No need for air-conditioning filtration nonsense either. Regular hoovering keeps dust under control.

Speaking of dust, I remember reading years ago now, that American carpets were rather problematic, in that they were usually synthetic, thus releasing solvents into the air. Furthermore, the plushness of them allowed heavier particulates of dust to accumulate (e.g. heavy metals), which were of carcinogenic nature.

 

[foraloysius]

I have hot water heating, but also a central ventilation system. Required in all new homes since 2006, but already installed in most homes way before that. I have vents in the livingroom/kitchen with an extra connection for the hood, in the bathroom, the toilet and the laundryroom. It's a three speed system with a very powerful highest speed.

 

[rolls_rapide]

@ Louis:

Does your ventilation system have any form of heat recovery?

Regarding the obsolescence of gas boilers:
There was something about that in our newspapers too, a couple of years ago.

To my mind, I still think that solar-heated hot water (thermal variant) and a properly insulated system, could store water at quite reasonable temperature, with an efficient gas boiler acting as a booster during winter.

If this solar-heated water could then be fed directly to washing machines and dishwashers, avoiding the need for prolonged heating periods in the machines themselves, thus saving money and resources.

You could have a photovoltaic solar system too, to supply electricity back to the grid, thus covering the cost of pumping fluids around the heat-exchanger pipes.

However, it probably would require appliances to be intelligent hot and cold fill. And you might need a small on-machine storage tank to store the cool water from the 'dead leg', which could then be used for a subsequent rinse.

I dunno why governments are so bloody lily-livered these days, solar water heating should have been mandatory decades ago.

 

[henene4]

Hot fill

Hot fills are basicly obsolete as well.

Any modern dishwasher barely fills with 3-4l, a washer with maybe 10-15l for an average main wash.
Between fills there often is 15min or more.
So, with a dishwasher, you often don't get any benefit at all (especially with DW that have a heat recovery system) and with a washer, you might get some warm water, but you waste a lot of heat in form of the hot water in the pipes.

While it is true that the production of electricity is still more impactfull in terms of the enviroment then directly using the the resources, that will change over the next few years.

There are a few verry narrow use cases where hot fills do make sense, and for those machines are still avaible.
But given that the benefits can go negativ quite easily, just going cold fill only makes things much easier.

Solar water heating just isn't verry practical for everybody.
Here in Germany most solar heating systems barely allow for 50C hot water temps in summer, thus booster heating is always required.
Our house back home has enough correctly orianted roof area for 2 collectors, for a (then) 5+ person household and 200 square metere contiously heated area.
With maybe effectivly 100 sunny days and an install that would have to go from the roof the basement (12m, at least), an install like that only becomes viable after decades.

You can't just make the most efficent thing mandatory. That would make the already insane real estate prices go even more extreme.
You have to find a good balance between efficency and economy (2 verry different things, by the way).

A basic ventilation system is about 10k€ for a first install on a new build house and has a predicted lifespan of at least the same as your heating system, often twice that, and saves between 25-50% of heating cost, depending on house.
They are mandatory for all new buildings.

Why all new buildings only?
Adding such a system to an existent, maybe 30-40 year old house, plus sealing the house to the point where the system actually has any effect is about 3 times the install cost.

 

[foraloysius]

Heat recovery

No, I don't have what we call a balanced ventilation system here and I'm glad with that. These systems can cause a lot of breathing problems if they are not kept meticulously clean. I bet that would lead to problems with my asthma.

 

[foraloysius]

Back to the original topic. The OP has posted on the gardenweb too, he seems to come back there more often than here.

Smelly condensing dryer

I've seen lots of threads over the years about smelly front load washers, but neither my memory nor a search turned up smelly condensing dryer problems. We've had a Blomberg heat pump dryer for the last couple of years and it's recently started smelling musty and unpleasant inside the drum and...

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