Here We Go Again Folks! Miele Needs New Brushes

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Popped Into Local PC Richards Today

In order to scope out modern offerings from Miele and other laundry appliances.

Saw the 3033 and while one couldn't open the door build quality wise from the outside it just didn't seem equal to my older unit. Asked about the discontinued 4842 and salesman said they sold out of stock eight months ago. Even the floor models were sold as well. Knowing how cramped some Mahnattan quarters are wondered who purchased such large machines. Salesman replied he sold quite a few to foreign consulates. Apparently Europeans knew the brand name and often purchased several, one for each floor so as to avoid a central laundry room.

Compared to the large Samsung units on the floor was told the uber Miele was about two inches taller and deeper, that is one *BIG* washing machine. *LOL*
 
@Laundress:

Sorry.

Sort of. We've pretty much run the gamut of whether to repair or replace your faithful Miele.

Guys tend to be good at:

A. Turning irreperably broken appliances and farm equipment into yard art.

and,

B. Blowing stuff up

or,

C. Building stuff.

"B" is much more interesting than "A". "A" involves questions like, "how heavy is it?" and "what color of Gerber Daisy would look best planted in it?"

"B" involves fun things like exceptionally reactive chemicals, gunpowder and fire in general. Plus electricity. Which is always awesome.

"C" usually comes into play when there's nothing left to blow up.
 
Yikes!

This thread makes me want to ebay my 3033 set and put my Speed Queens back in service. At this rate, Miele USA may be destined to close its doors in the next couple of years. Obviously, Miele hasn't much to gain by their customer base hanging on to machines that it has indeed EOL!

I would recommend keeping an eye out for a replacement machine on eBay or Craigslist. Whether it is a Miele or something else. While Continuuing to use your machine until it can run no more, then send it on its way.

Malcolm
 
To Be Fair

Have no intention of giving up on my Miele. IMHO the 10XX and 19XX series were some of the best and last of the "great" washers that company sold on this side of the pond. Everything afterwards including the 12XX and later seem to be lacking in many ways. JMHO.

@Malcom,

Am always scouring CL and so forth for a decent second Miele, or perhaps SQ washer. Am going to sooner or later cull my tiny collection so to swap out and make room for whatever comes up.

Ideally want something a bit larger than the 5kg my Miele now holds. The 30XX comes in at a hair shy of 6kgs, but the uber-sized 40XX are somewhat misleading. Sure they are huge machines but Miele recommends only loading them 3/4 full. How does that work? Every front loader one has ever used including the large 50lb SQ front loader at local laundromat allows one to load it full.
 
was told the uber Miele was about two inches taller and deep

Put them on a pedestal and, well, they are quite monumental.

I have not yet had any of the "bits of shavings on laundry and or causing damage to textiles" in our W4842 (mfr'd in 02/2011 and installed 04/2011). Keeping fingers crossed. . .
 
Miele Will Always Be A Niche Brand In The United States

Unless they pull their socks up and make some changes.

Persons spending >$2000 USD for appliances don't want to be held captive to waiting one to two weeks for a service call by a Miele tech, then possibly wait even more if parts aren't in the USA and have to be sent for from Germany. All this to fix a washing machine or whatever. At least when a Whirlpool or other domestic brand goes south parts are usually easily found via Sears Parts Direct or some such.

Miele also needs to drop the "attitude" some customer service/techs give when customers call in with problems. It is like the old joke about those who complain about problems with a Rolls Royce car: "Sir/Madam there is never anything *wrong* with a RR, you just don't know how to operate it properly and or appreciate it's functions". For god sakes it is a washing machine not a nuclear reactor. [this post was last edited: 11/17/2012-20:30]
 
@Laundress:

Sounds like the CenturyLink telephone people. They took over our phone service from Qwest, who took over our phone service from U.S. West, who took over our phone service from Northwestern Bell.

Northwestern Bell had the pea-green trucks that would show up first thing the next morning when there was a problem. And would fix the problem, usually within about 15 minutes, or less.

"Some critter bit through the line where it goes into the house, but we fixed it. No charge."

Now you talk to someone in a foreign call center that says, "You need to unplug all your phones from the line so we can try to find the problem."

"If I do that I won't be able to talk to you."

Umm...yeah.
 
Here We Go Again Folks

According to Miele service the rattle/knocking sound that comes during spinning is from shock absorbers going and they will have to be replaced.

At first tech seemed "ok" with this until it dawned upon him (with some promting from Moi) that on these older Miele washers the struts are in *back* of the wash tub, not the front as with the 19XX series onwards. The only way one has seen shocks replaced on these older units is via tipping the unit on it's side and working from underneath. Either way it is going to be a "two man" job and that is if even corporate MieleUSA will give the ok.
 
Miele Does Back What They Sell To An Extent

However one has heard it is common with appliance customer service/dealers/makers to draw a line at some point. Even when units are covered under extended warranty or service contracts there could come a point when an offer of a new unit at a discount will be made.

Am also beginning to understand why there is so much DIY on Miele and other appliances in the UK and EU, especially older/vintage models. Showed YouTube videos from "Wiljann" (sp?) (who by the way seems to have deactivated his account/vids) and others who can take apart, rebuild and so froth Miele washers to the Miele tech when he was here last. The man had a look of amazement and "why would anyone bother?" on his face.

Think one mentioned this before, but there is a small but growing chorus of complaints against Miele's high handing their customers with all their proprietary nonesense for parts, service manuals and so forth.

Depending on what cycle of the moon is in and what Miele USA tech one reaches on the telephone extracting DIY assistance from them can be either a piece of piss or like childbirth.
 
Depending on what cycle of the moon is in and what Miele USA

And a lot also depends on who answers that call. I've gotten a variety of answers from them for the same question.

Have you ever read the travel book "Culture Shock: Germany"? It really helps understand the Miele mentality, which clearly is the mentality of Miele USA. ;-) I own a few Bernina computerized sewing machines, from the German-speaking side of Switzerland. Same mentality. "User error! It could not possibly the the machine!"

Maybe it's the language? All those mind-boggling-to-me cases in German grammar? Confusing to me the structure of the sentences is. (I never could master German sentence structure. Spoke German our beloved Yoda as his first language methinks, but I digress... Back to Spanish I ran. !Caray!)

Seriously, there are quite a few scholarly articles and books on how a language shapes a culture and way of thinking. I think they make a valid case.
 
Miele W770; a happy ending............for now

My first post on this genius forum.

I realize the last post on this thread was a year and a 1/2 ago, but it seems like the right place to continue the conversation on the Miele W770, which was the original topic! I found a good deal of helpful trouble-shooting hints to what I thought was my issue, in the many posts on this thread

I purchased my (new) Miele W770 in 1988, and it STILL lives on today. The price of the washer/dryer was about $5000, crazy, right? Last year was the first time I had a repair. Laundress gives a good picture of Miele service in the NYC metro area. I've had some good experiences with a smart tech in the fairly recent past, but Miele just doesn't want to touch these vintage machines any longer.

My machine started making the grind noise, so I turned to the internet to trouble-shoot. I thought the grinding was from the tub bearings, I called Miele and went through the "tech has to come", "machine has to be transported to our workshop in NJ at your cost and you arrange it, both ways". Then the cost of replacement parts, the bearing kit $400+, the tub $600+. You do the math.

I'm very lucky to have a building super who loves a good mechanical challenge (he restores cars from the 1980's), he's tenacious and has the patience of a saint.

My SUPER super decided to pull the machine apart. It took him 40 minutes (I found a video on the net which kind of detailed that process). The tub bearings were fine, the culprit appeared to be the motor bearing. He pulled the cast iron monster out of the machine, and determined it was the bearing on the front end of the armature. It doesn't spin as freely as he thought it should.

Back to the internet to research Miele washer motor bearing, and that's how I arrived to this thread.

There's a post above about this bearing being at the front end of the armature behind a non-removable pulley, and that's exactly the case with mine. DRAT! I knew finding and replacing that one part (armature) was going to be near impossible, and I had laundry to do!

I called Miele, a new motor from Miele (they have 'em, and willing to sell direct), is $1200. No, no, and no.

I had replaced the timer and some mixer valves last year (Miele serviced), I wasn't willing to dump more into my beloved Miele W770, it was time to say good-by.
(An aside about the timer, I didn't need a new one, but the package was opened, and Miele has it's rules, the service tech told me that cleaning with WD-40 usually does the trick to get the black stuff off).

I read in another post above to just live with the noise and run the machine until it died. That seemed like the only resolution, so I asked my guy to put it back together (took him 1 1/2 hours, and would have been less if he would've installed the tub gasket in the tub, BEFORE putting the tub back into the machine casing).

Once it was back together, we tested it a few times and he did some various tightening and tweaking. All seemed fine, but I couldn't ask him to wait around for an hour to listen to it going through an entire full cycle. He left and I threw in a medium weight load on cotton program, and went for it.

When it came to spin cycle (the highest on this model is 1100 RPM), I braced for the shrieking, but it WAS GONE. I called him to tell him the noise was gone, whatever he did, fixed it! "Oh yeah, I tighten the belt up a bit".

I don't know how long it will last, but I thought I'd post this story and give my props to Luis, the SUPER super. I apologize in advance for my lack of technical speak in this venue.

I have some pics and video. If there's any interest, respond here and I'll post the pics at the very least.

I would be happy to throw a donation to this site, but they need paypal!!
 
.
Like the last post.
I can get a w1903 very cheaply right now but this thread has cooled me to the idea.
Now free is about the only amount I will pony up for this kind of nonsense.
 
Sort of reminds me to what happened with my Cuisinart. That big pond between the two continents seems to make reliable service too difficult. Parts are no longer available I was told by the Dutch customer service (and then I notice that same machine is still available on the American website albeit it the 110V version). Next time I buy stuff that may need repair in the future, I'll stick to products made on this continent. I can understand why people turn away from Miele products because of the lack of decent customer service.
 
If the machine is "free"

Then why not go for it? Long as it is in working and good condition you could get years of use before needed service, if ever.

Amount of usage along with proper care and maintenance (or lack thereof) will determine the lifespan of any washer including those made by Miele.

Having said this IIRC the 1900 series washing machines (and matching dryers) have joined the 700 and 1000 series that Miele USA no longer stocks parts. That means new inventory is not coming from Europe nor will Miele order, what is here is all there is and will be.

Also for some time now Miele USA no longer trains new technicians on "older" appliances. IIRC for laundry this means anything before the 1200 series. As noted in may many posts even veteran techs who know these units are starting to grumble about having to work on them. It took two grown men better part of two hours or so to refit new suspension springs on my Miele, grumbling, cursing and sweating the whole time.

This being said if one is so inclined and has the skills self repair of a Miele washer or dryer isn't out of the ordinary. Members here in the group and plenty of others world-wide have done so. If Miele cannot or will not supply parts there are ways around.
 

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