brand new Bosch Home Professional tumble dryer made weird knocking noises. What was the problem ?

[wholelottared]

Okay, thanks @mrlaundry101 . I heard that 64db Miele's do it too, apparently only 62db models don't do it.

So, now I learned that:

Bosch/Siemens = heats too much, doesn't know it's own temperature
Electrolux/AEG: lacks important filters
Miele: makes annoying ticking noise, has smaller drum

Literally why can't we have a perfect dryer? It's like brands aren't even trying hard enough. This is disappointing. I was waiting to buy a dryer for years. Maybe I shouldn't overthink and be happy with my Bosch dryer, I don't know. So far it didn't shrink anything even though apparently it gets hotter, so I guess it would be ok.

 

[maytag85]

Reply #19

All dryer designs have their Achilles heel, sometimes it has to do with the way it’s programmed or the mechanical layout/design. Condenser dryers don’t need a vent but the condenser needs to be cleaned out from time to time or else the efficiency will be choked down. Heat pump dryers are similar to condenser dryers in the way they work but have a refrigeration system in place of the condenser and if there’s a leak in the refrigeration system, it simply will stop working and will have to have someone who’s licensed to work on a refrigeration system due to the complexity. Vented dryers electric and gas aren’t nearly as complex as condenser and heat pump but need a vent to exhaust the warm moist air to the outside and are a bit more expensive to operate but depends on the area you are in. Vented dryers need to have the venting/ductwork cleaned from time to time along with the inside of the dryer itself for optimum efficiency and reliability. Only things that really fail on vented dryers are thermostats, heating elements, and on gas versions it’s the gas valve coils, igniter, flame sensor.

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #20

Thanks for your reply, but i'm only interested on HeatPump dryers. The other type of dryers aren't even available on Europe anymore, they feel outdated. The problems you talked about depends on the type of the dryer, while the problems I was talking about depended to brands (they are all HeatPumps).

 

[logixx]

I think Miele has a 120 liter drum, AEG is 118 (I think) and Bosch is 112.

As Lucas pointed out: Easy-Care won't dry. Didn't dry fully on my old Siemens condenser, either. I guess you're better or equally well off just using Cottons without +1.

Also: yeah, I think the Duvet cycle is just a timed 3 hrs. program.

One thing I will say is that I have not had major issues with tangling in the Bosch. My neighbor has a 55cm deep Beko that reverses and it's horrible at tangling things. There are a bunch of reversing models here in Germany, now. All of them middle-of-the-line.

If I had to buy a dryer now, I'd probably go for Beko and then I'd purchase the bottom filter separately. At least that way I didn't spend too much money when it breaks. Miele would just be too expensive, if I really went for the "cool" features I'd like (and probably never use ).

The Bosch dryer certainly does get the job done and I haven't had any shrinkage yet... it's just not what I've come to expect having used their washers and dishwashers.

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #22

Yeah, @logixx . I also never had any tangling in my Bosch dryer (during my 1 month use before they took it to exchange), I think it's because of that weird cone shaped thing on the back of the drum. Maybe that really helps. I think people exaggerate it when they keep saying it balls things, it depends on what you put inside it too, and how you put it. For example if i'm drying large sheets with normal clothes, I fold the sheets before putting it to dryer, and that helps a lot. It gets slowly unfolded during the drying so it doesn't ball/tangle anything.

 

[wholelottared]

Also, I don't think Miele's have 120 liter drums. I can't find any info about it on the web. When I saw them at the shop they were looking way smaller compared to both my Bosch or any AEG/Electrolux. They might have a deeper drum, but their width weren't big at all. And I think width helps more.

 

[logixx]

Miele = 120 liters

It's in their manuals listed under technical data.

 

[foraloysius]

Condenser dryers and heat pump dryers always leave the laundry a bit wet. That's due to the closed system. Most of the time after a few minutes the laundry feels dry. Selecting a higher dryness level may help a bit. I experienced it both with my Miele condenser dryer and the Siemens heat pump dryer I now have.

Tangling bed linens was an issue with my reversing Miele and is also an issue with the Siemens I have now. I guess putting two duvet covers, two pillow covers and two stretch fitted sheets in together doesn't help. I usually dry the load partly in the dryer and then hang the bed linens up to dry. Makes a big difference in regard to wrinkling too.

The temperature inside a heat pump dryer is way lower than in a vented or condenser dryer. Even on the normal temperature setting, shrinking should not be an issue.

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #25

Damn I'm surprised then, maybe their door is smaller and that's why it made me feel they have a smaller drum. Or as I said maybe they're more depth-focused.

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #26

Yeah @foraloysius , but if you read the posts in this thread they're saying that Bosch/Siemens dryers reach 60-70C° during normal cycles even though they're Heat Pump dryers and that was what made me worried. A heat pump dryer shouldn't reach these numbers normally.

Also, I saw that you also use one of the never Siemens models, which has an AutoClean system instead of SelfCleaning Condenser (which is like my new Bosch Home Professional). Looks like you were using it since sometime, how is the condenser looking, any signs of clogging or looking dirty? I'm thinking to add the double filter to the door to make even less lints to reach inside the machine.

 

[moon1234]

We have a Miele T1 that has over 5000 hours on it and has been trouble free. The clothes are never overheated and the dryer does have temp control and adjusts based on the dryness of the laundry. The dryer has a de-superheater. Essentially a small radiator that refrigerant is passed through with a fan to remove the excess the heat. As the clothes get dryer the compressor does not run as often and excess heat is removed from the refrigerant.

The Miele dryer DOES NOT make a loud noise like the one in the video above. It has a small set of carbon brushes that ride on the outside of the drum. This is how the sensor that determines the moisture content of the textiles transfers the electrical signal from inside the drum to the outside computer. When the brushes wear down to a certain point the plastic arm that they are connected to starts hitting a spot weld on the drum as it turns. This causes the brushes to “jump” a little as the spot weld passes under the arm. The “knock” heard is just the brushes being pushed back down by the arms attached spring.

In reality the noise is almost inaudible unless your house is virtually silent. I replaced the arm with brushes ONCE on my last Miele dryer when it had around 9000 hours on it. Not due to the “noise” but because the brushes had become so short the dryer was throwing codes saying it could not detect the moisture content of the textiles. My wife had switched to using timed dry to keep the dryer running. So I replaced the brushes and problem solved.

I think you would be happier with a Miele if laundry perfection vs just being dry is what you are looking for.

 

[foraloysius]

The condenser is not removable, so hard to tell. It looks clean as far as I can see. Under the condenser is a thin layer of blue lint, a bit sticky/wet. It is easy to remove. Usually it was clean under there too. I will keep an eye on it.

The Auto Clean system looks more desirable, but that wasn't available yet when I bought my set (2018).

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #29

@moon1234 , to be honest, I saw the videos of ticking Miele's and they were sounding even louder than my faulty device.
Here are some example videos, check the comments too:

Video 1:

Video 2:

Video 3:

Video 4:

 

[lavamat_jon]

Miele dryers

I have the TOL M Touch TCR780, which was a warranty replacement for a TCR860 which had a warped drum. It still makes the ticking noises, although I was assured it wouldn’t as it supposedly has a “Silent” drum (in reality it’s no different to the TCR860 I had before or the one my mum has). I’ve had to learn to live with it as an irritation - although one could argue it’s not something you should expect from a “silent” dryer that retails at the price that it does. It only seems to be a phenomenon with the later models - older Miele dryers (including earlier T1s) will still tick but only faintly and not as audible throughout the house like the newer ones.

The TCR780 is however an improvement from the previous TCR860 in terms of control of the drying temperature. My TCR860 got to 65°+, even on Gentle tumble and would shrink laundry if you weren’t careful, which was never a problem with my previous T8860WP Edition 111 dryer (which had the separate fan and equal drum reversing, why I got rid of that I don’t know ). The TCR780 uses the cooling fan a lot more to dissipate and control the heat inside, so is a bit more forgiving. It also has the DryCare 40 cycle which limits the temperature to 40 degrees and basically runs the cooling fan for the whole cycle. I’ve noticed it’s gentler on jeans and elastic - although I have still had a couple of t shirts shrink when using that setting. I tend to use automatic plus for the majority of laundry and it dries evenly - although I do have all the drying levels adjusted to max in the settings menu.

One huge benefit of the Mieles is the filtration and the ease of maintenance - so simple to clean the foam filters on a cold 30 min cycle in the washing machine. When I worked in the industry we once did an experiment where a Miele with foam filter was compared against a self cleaning condenser, and after an extended period of so many uses (can’t remember the exact figure) the BSH condenser was heavily clogged with lint whilst the Miele was spotless from being protected by the additional foam filter.

The bed linen cycle isn’t bad and is certainly an improvement from the first generation of T1s which had a tendency to tangle lighter weight bedding on particular. The only glitch on the newer models with the HygieneDry level is that if you select extra dry on bed linen it will still do the Hygiene stage and over dry laundry, so the highest level you can use is Normal plus. Because of this it will still occasionally leave damp patches. I find whilst not tangling into a ball it will still crease/wrinkle bedding quite badly if you don’t dry the duvet cover separately from the bottom sheet (though again this will happen in any dryer). Because of this I tend to just dry bedding overnight on the clothes horse, which is more efficient still than using even a heat pump dryer.

In fact in the majority of circumstances I prefer to air dry laundry either on the horse overnight or on the line weather permitting. It’s better for the clothes, creasing if any just falls out and is also free, especially important with the price of energy nowadays . Although we are lucky that we don’t have allergies and have a fairly well ventilated house for laundry to dry quickly inside. I only really use the dryer for towels or if I have a lot of washing to get through at once, so one could argue I don’t really get the value out of the Miele .

I personally always thought it was little silly how the majority of BSH dryers here even still don’t reverse, luckily the next generation of Series 8/iq700 ranges due out have the bed linen cycle. Another machine to watch are the Haier I-pro machines - granted you aren’t getting the German engineering but they reverse evenly and they have launched a new model which is only 59dB. They are fairly solid too as they are based on the F&P machines, and have a 5 year warranty which is more than the 2 you get nowadays from Miele and Bosch.

I haven’t owned one but I have used a friends AEG 9000 series dryer a few times and it’s certainly a nice machine, very quiet, doesn’t tangle or crease much at all and is the gentlest dryer in terms of heat that I’ve used, very similar to the Edition 111 Miele where clothes are barely warm to the touch. As others have said though it is a shame it doesn’t have as strong filtration, and my partner had reliability problems with an AEG Protex heat pump a few years back.

Before I forget - Miele dryer drums are 120l regardless of capacity. The washer drum volumes are 64l for the SoftSteam drums (all 9kg and older 8kg), and 59.5 for the traditional honeycomb drums (7 and most newer 8kg).

Jon

 

[lavamat_jon]

Some pictures of the filter system on the T1.

One feature I forgot to mention and that I use a lot too is steam smoothing - it’s great for shirts, just hang dry afterwards and has meant my iron has not been used now for years

Jon

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #31 and #32

Thank you for your detailed reply, Jon. @lavamat_jon . Since you talked about the Miele's filtering system, my Bosch has an AutoClean, not a SelfCleaning Condenser. AutoClean is the upgraded version of that where you can reach the condenser at the bottom, it has two filters there but it doesn't have any filters on the door. You clean the bottom filter every 6-10 runs and that's it. Because of this I bought the double filter for the door which older models already use, and tuened it into double door filter + condenser filter + autoclean, so it still cleans itself even though no lint even reaches inside haha. It probably reduces the airflow a bit since it doesn't have the door filter normally, but it didn't create any problems yet, and hopefully it won't. I think adding that additional filter really helps getting a longer lifetime from the dryer, this way I'll have to clean the door filter after every use (normally you need to clean it like every 6-10 uses with default AutoClean) but it doesn't matter for me and I prever lifetime over cleaning so I clean the additional door filter after every run.

English isn't my main language so I might be writing a bit complicated but hopefully i'm understood haha. Thank you.

 

[mrlaundry1011]

Reply to #28

Yep quickly went back and this was what I measured with similar loads on Mix plus on the Beko (no low temp option on this dryer), Cotton Normal Gentle Tumble on the Miele and Mixed +2 Low heat on the Bosch. I’ve noticed though that the Beko is quite “stupid” per day since if you start a new programme even if the compressor is barely warm the cooling fan is turned on constantly until end, so a lot of heat is just emitted into the room and wasted so the next load will finish much cooler say around 45c, the Miele will not do this and simply turn the fan on when needed and will finish roughly the same time or a few C less. No idea what the Bosch does but I assume it’ll only get hotter. I do find the overall performance of the Miele far superior, since it has higher airflow rates things like pockets/cuffs/waistbands/ hoods of hoodies or pockets and waistbands of joggers (which I dry all inside out) come out perfectly dry, whereas they’ll still be damp from the Beko since the airflow is much less, I think the Bosch is slightly in between. I do also have the Mieles dryness level set to Max for cotton cycles. Mine also made the exact same ticking noise, after arguing with Miele they did replace the whole brush piece but obvs it came straight back, it doesn’t bother me anymore since the performance makes up for it. Both Bosch and Miele are over a year old and their evaporator fins are still spotless, but I’ve had to flush the bekos through with water multiple times through it’s life to try and keep it clean (both mine and my partners families models are starting to smell of damp now from clogging of lint)

 

[wholelottared]

Reply to #35

Thank you so much for your detailed answer and test, @mrlaundry1011 . I really can't believe Bosch makes that much of a difference, 70C° is toooo high for a heat pump. I can't believe they're selling this as a “gentle dryer on your clothes” slogan too. I wish I did this research before buying the dryer instead of after drying it. My only motivation right now is that i'm 100% sure mine uses the fan on Mix sometimes, so maybe mine is programmed better since it left the factory just some weeks ago lol. And it shows a newer software version compared to my friend's on the HomeConnect app. Hopefully that's helping.

About the Beko, I always found them trash. Their sensors are unreliable, they don't have a condenser filter and their door filter is also unreliable, and even though they reverse people say things still ball more than Bosch for some reason. There's a channel on YouTube called GodDay b and he keeps talking about how Beko's are superior at everything but I don't agree.

About the Miele's ticking, I would actually still buy Miele over Bosch even though the ticking because of it's superior performance, but my family also uses the dryer and they get so mad at noises like that the house, respectfully lol. And they're right too, because from what I see that sounds too loud even on YouTube videos, so I didn't went with Miele.

 

[wholelottared]

Adding to #36

I forgot to say, another weird and different thing I noticed on my Bosch is that for example on Mix (haven't checked this on other programs yet), after running for 1 hour let's say, it does an AutoClean stage, and then it stops for a bit. Like it cleans, stops tumbling, waits for like 2 minutes, then starts tumbling again with the condenser being off. Then after like 2-3 minutes the condenser starts again and goes on for an another hour. Maybe this is some kind of a cooling stage they added? I don't know, this also probably leads to different programming/software version.

 

[mrlaundry1011]

I think the stopping in the auto clean stage is to stop water from being pulled through making clothes wetter again during the programme. Unlike self cleaning where the water runs off the fins immediately it may not in auto clean because it’ll put a thin layer on the filters which will need to ideally run off before it starts back up as the airflow would pull it through. That’s my guess anyway. Yes the Beko is also terrible at balling, since it reverses for only 3sec on any cycle apparently this has been changed now in new models but still wouldn’t touch one again