I have two experiences, of which I will add two different postings.
Firstly, our Miele W5741 with the Honeycombe drum needs no introduction to the members of this site - since I've babbled about it plenty of times in the past since we bought it in September 2012.
We had "graduated" from the Top-Loading machines of yesteryear, and a bit of a POS at that - a Simpson (*cough* Electrolux *cough*), Made in Thailand that had failed once and was perhaps fixing to do it again...
At the time, we hadn't completely established our new garden, and our water bills were around $150 or so.
Well, the Miele came in the door, and was pressed into service immediately. Whereas before we couldn't do hot washes because of an ailing water heater and broken hot tap in the kitchen laundry, the Miele had an inbuilt water heater and could quickly raise the temperature of the water from tap cold, to anything up to boiling if we so desired.
The best part at this point was that our clothes didn't have a "musty" odour to them when hanging out on the line anymore - thanks to the warm and hot washes we were now able to do!
Fast forward about a year and a half later, and the machine is typically running 5-6 loads every week in warm water at the very least.
The machine has no smell to it, and I regularly drain out the sump, clean the detergent drawer and might occasionally run a Boil-Wash as more of a preventative measure against buildup.
This week, the machine has run 4 washes in HOT water - and will often be run at very high water levels in hot water (Delicates) - which I presume really helps to keep the machine quite clean.
The cleaning of the machine is very nice, and we don't need copious amounts of detergent or water (even with "Water Plus") to achieve very clean and well-rinsed results.
Even though our Garden is now mostly established, our water bill has not risen dramatically like we thought it might - this is because the Miele uses roughly half the water our previous Simpson did.
Plusses:
~ Machine has a heater
~ Lots of customisation options
~ Cycles are adjusted based on load size (esp. Automatic Plus cycle) and fabric type. Cottons 40ºC (Warm/104ºF) takes up-to 2:34 with Water Plus - but is usually shortened to about 2hrs (or less, with "Short" selected)
~ Wide variety of water levels, generally lower levels for washing, but can be VERY high levels for rinsing, depending on the load sensed on Cottons/Automatic
~ Water bills have theoretically decreased, but have remained steady due to the establishing garden
~ Typically very good cleaning
Minuses (More of an FYI rather than my own experiences):
~ Miele can be expensive... Guess Quality=Expensive
~ Some people dislike longer cycles or changing wash-habits to fit newer machines
Firstly, our Miele W5741 with the Honeycombe drum needs no introduction to the members of this site - since I've babbled about it plenty of times in the past since we bought it in September 2012.
We had "graduated" from the Top-Loading machines of yesteryear, and a bit of a POS at that - a Simpson (*cough* Electrolux *cough*), Made in Thailand that had failed once and was perhaps fixing to do it again...
At the time, we hadn't completely established our new garden, and our water bills were around $150 or so.
Well, the Miele came in the door, and was pressed into service immediately. Whereas before we couldn't do hot washes because of an ailing water heater and broken hot tap in the kitchen laundry, the Miele had an inbuilt water heater and could quickly raise the temperature of the water from tap cold, to anything up to boiling if we so desired.
The best part at this point was that our clothes didn't have a "musty" odour to them when hanging out on the line anymore - thanks to the warm and hot washes we were now able to do!
Fast forward about a year and a half later, and the machine is typically running 5-6 loads every week in warm water at the very least.
The machine has no smell to it, and I regularly drain out the sump, clean the detergent drawer and might occasionally run a Boil-Wash as more of a preventative measure against buildup.
This week, the machine has run 4 washes in HOT water - and will often be run at very high water levels in hot water (Delicates) - which I presume really helps to keep the machine quite clean.
The cleaning of the machine is very nice, and we don't need copious amounts of detergent or water (even with "Water Plus") to achieve very clean and well-rinsed results.
Even though our Garden is now mostly established, our water bill has not risen dramatically like we thought it might - this is because the Miele uses roughly half the water our previous Simpson did.
Plusses:
~ Machine has a heater
~ Lots of customisation options
~ Cycles are adjusted based on load size (esp. Automatic Plus cycle) and fabric type. Cottons 40ºC (Warm/104ºF) takes up-to 2:34 with Water Plus - but is usually shortened to about 2hrs (or less, with "Short" selected)
~ Wide variety of water levels, generally lower levels for washing, but can be VERY high levels for rinsing, depending on the load sensed on Cottons/Automatic
~ Water bills have theoretically decreased, but have remained steady due to the establishing garden
~ Typically very good cleaning
Minuses (More of an FYI rather than my own experiences):
~ Miele can be expensive... Guess Quality=Expensive
~ Some people dislike longer cycles or changing wash-habits to fit newer machines
