New Miele W1 Little Giants

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mielerod69

mielerod69

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Here is the first pic of the new Miele Little Giants based on the W1 series domestic range. The model shown has touch screen controls. There are three new models ranging from 6 kg to 8 kg capacity. Wash times around 49 minutes. There are two dryer models, a vented one which dries a load in 38 minutes and a heat-pump which can dry a load in under an hour.

mielerod69-2019011423520609889_1.jpg
 
Debut date? And no don’t lose that button .

I wonder when can we expect them in the US? Shame that they removed the mechanical orange start button , it’s a signature Miele identity .
 
Is touch screen gonna be so much better now ?

What’s the difference between performance and performance plus ?
Any new internal changes or is it just vanity ?
 
I can’t imagine the Little Giants getting any better so I hope they don’t change them too much.

When we see that they are “based upon the W1,” I wonder what that means. The Little Giants seem better than the W1s, at least IMO
 
Thanks to the mielelovers website

Someone with much sharper eyes shared a photo on Instagram which shows such machines.

That photo is from September 2018 (from ifa)
It shows touchscreen machines and ones with a knob.

Wonder what else about these machines is floating on the internet
 
I wonder that nobody visiting the IFA saw them

It was me who found the photos on Instagram by coincidence searching for some kitchen design inspirations.

I really do think that the little giants can get better and happy to see the new series.
Compared to a Schulthess or V-Zug washing machine (the ones for multy housing) the Miele PW has dissatisfied me in terms of washing, rinsing and even spinning performance. I still think, that a really fine perforated drum is better for cleaning e.g. flushing out hair, particles or sand than a Miele Honeycomb drum. My laundry done in a V-Zug or Schulthess comes out with less wrinkles and dryer . Good that they added additional holes in the back of the drum and I hope that the wash and rinse rhythm in the cottons cycle will be more vigorous, which is needed to clean laundry in less time besides a good heating capacity.
 
So they do have knobs and buttons?

How different is performance plus vs performance?

It’s odd that no other companies will create an equivalent version to compete against Miele’s Little Giants.
 
If you're speaking of North American market

Likely no one will take on Miele's Little Giant washers at least for the electrical power requirements. As Miele itself learned when they finally gave in and began producing 120v washers for sale here, Americans just aren't going to spend the money for rewiring when they can get a perfectly good washer that doesn't require.

Miele can spread production costs of their Little Giants across a world wide market. So even if there are only small number of sales in North American everything balances out.
 
The USA is Miele's LARGEST market outside of Germany. It's not like the USA is a minor market for Miele. The Little Giants are "Semi-Pro" models. The true professional models are designed for 30,000 hours of use and for a commercial only setting. The little giants were always designed for high end residential or small commercial.

Their only real competitor is Electrolux for the same capability and build quality. Electrolux professional is vastly better build quality compared to their residential machines.

Take a look at the line 6000 dryers that were just released:
https://professional.electrolux.com/commercial-laundry-equipment/tumble-dryer/
https://opl-ltd.co.uk/products/launderette-equipment/electrolux-td6-7-7kg/


The washers will be released later this year. They look just as good as the current Miele models. The smartphone connected models look really interesting. I did some research and Electrolux is building a fully integrated monitoring system for their machines. They will report on total energy used, water used, etc. Reports faults immediately so they can be dealt with. I almost think Electrolux has somewhat leapfrogged Miele in this area on the professional side.

If I had an on-prem laundry fleet or ran a Laundromat these new systems would allow me to better track my costs and know which cycles were most in use, when the busiest times of the day were, etc. All of this from a smartphone app.
 
USA/North America Might Be Miele's Largest Market

Outside of Germany, but they remain a relatively small player in the appliance market here.

Electrolux, Whirlpool, and lately LG sell far more laundry appliances than Miele.

Miele USA lacks a serious nationwide service network for a start. Meaning if you live far from (or in some cases even relatively near) a major urban area like NYC, LA, SF, Boston, etc... you can be waiting a very long time for a call out. Worse if the technician does not have the part(s) required he must send to Princeton, NJ. Heaven help if part isn't in stock there either as it must come from Germany.

Miele has steadfastly refused to open production plants in USA. LG, Bosch, Electrolux and of course Whirlpool all have manufacturing in USA. Now that White Swan owns GE who knows where that will lead.
 
I think Miele is a privately-owned company and therefore doesn’t face the same pressure to grow as it would as a public company. It remains iconoclastic and Teutonic, and at least the US branch doesn’t bow to consumer pressure on many issues. I like many of their washing machines, but sometimes feel like a chump for spending so much on them. I was pretty happy with my old Maytag Neptune (pre-Whirlpool acquisition). It has outlasted several Miele’s, although doesn’t have the plethora of cycles and options.
 
The little giant washer design

The design is so appealing . It has the performance credentials to match it . Washers are one of the few appliances I can take with me if I move .

What does the new Electrolux look like ?
 
Back when front loading "compact" washers pretty much were only Miele, Bosch, and Creda things were different. Unless willing to go with a Westinghouse, you had to deal with one of the named three.

However things have changed and North Americans have vastly more choices for H-axis washers. Miele has been stubbornly slow in adapting IMHO, and that cost them market share.

It wasn't until just a few years ago they finally realized 208v-240v service is *NOT* as widely distributed and or can be accessed as Miele hoped and or thought. Persons being asked to pay over one thousand for a washing machine often balked at paying an equal sum (or more) to put in the required wiring where it didn't exist.

While Miele appliances are wonderful when they are running, again heaven help you when they don't. Initial contact with Miele's customer service here seems to espouse all the not so nice traits persons attribute to Germans.

What did you do to the machine? No, it can't be doing *that*, you are doing something wrong...." When a repair person finally does confirm the thing *is* doing what you said it was (after a wait of two or more weeks for a call out), you'll likely be told another appointment must be made to fix the appliance. This can be again two or more weeks away. Meanwhile you've spend huge sums for an appliance that is sitting broken.

It's like buying a BMW or Mercedes then having to deal with the thing being laid up in repair shop more than on road.

Unlike say Europe where spares can be had from many sources, for North America Miele insists on keeping everything under their control. You basically can only get Miele parts by either going through them (MieleUSA), or trying your luck shopping in Europe by internet or whatever.

Because Miele won't supply parts and other things required for "non authorized" service men to work on their machines, few want the hassle and bother. Though IIRC Miele recently opened a service center here in NYC, but don't know if they are part of that company or independent.
 
I'm not so sure the "electrical requirements" of a Miele washer is all that important.

That's because Miele sells a setup where both the washer and dryer can run on a single 220 volt split phase American dryer outlet. Electric dryers seem to account for 50% or more of American home installations, after all.

More likely it's the smaller capacity of the traditional Miele that turns off some buyers - as well as the significantly higher price.

As for Electrolux, I like very much their front loaders, but they have poor market penetration in part due to the fact that they can be quite hard to locate in shops here. I like their washer because it seems to be the only front loading washer on the market with a reversible door. (I have a tight laundry closet where the washer must go to the right of the dryer). Their build quality seems OK to me, above average for washers for the American home market.
 
Was referring to the 208v-240v connection in general

Not every home has such electrical service in their laundry area, especially when it came to urban settings where it meant apartments.

Miele lost many sales here in NYC because even residents of our very best white glove buildings found their requests to upgrade electrical service denied.

Or course if one owns one's own home as in a house or something besides multifamily that is something else.

Often what it came down to is that due to age of housing stock it wasn't just a matter of upgrading a meter. But replacing a fuse box *with* a meter and pulling up wiring to handle the increased loads from basement panel. This was if things could be supported without having local utility run a new line from street to panel.

We've had this discussion previously; you have multifamily housing here where units barely have 100 amp service. That and there hasn't been any significant upgrading of electrical service since building went up ranging from early part of last century to the 1960's.

Salesmen at local Miele dealers would tell of deals they thought were done, only to have customers either return the Mieles for something else, or cancel entirely because of issues getting proper electrical service installed.
 
"I still think, that a really fine perforated drum is better for cleaning e.g. flushing out hair, particles or sand than a Miele Honeycomb drum."

I have to say that I agree.

I have a Panasonic (Gorenje made), which has a drum with very few holes in it. I notice that fluff, hairs and lint have a tendency to remain in the drum. Even small pools or puddles of water in the drum are reluctant to drain away. It probably doesn't help with rinsing or spin efficiency either.

On the other hand, I do think that drums with thousands of holes are probably the better bet.
 
How many drain holes are enough? I think the Little Giant already has around 1000. I have noticed any issues with water or debris left in machine. IMO it offers superior cleaning performance, although I certainly have not observed all of the brands mentioned here. The main issues are its electrical requirements and its cost. Of course, a better made machine will cost more to make. But what proportion of the cost is due to Germany’s work rules and regulations and social policies? When one buys a Miele one is also paying those costs.
 
Whatever reasons Miele and others give in their marketing materials and elsewhere about benefits of "Honeycomb" drum and or smaller holes leave us have no delusions. One large (if not main) purpose is that those smaller holes keep more water inside main basket as opposed to between. It is about close to solid tub washers of old as they are going to get.

OTOH in commercial laundries you have "sluice" washing machines where inner basket has large (or decent sized) holes in order to allow solids, muck, vomit and other debris to freely exit and flush down drains.

In fact even on commercial washers of old (and maybe modern for all one knows) you don't find any of this pin sized holes in drum nonsense. It is just unsanitary.

This is why you can load say the Braun machine shown here with poopy diapers and or other laundry contaminated with solids and have things come out hygienically clean.

 
Small holes to reduce frailling of the fabrics

I think at one time miele’s marketing team claimed that the honeycomb drum reduces the frailling of the fabrics.
 
Small holes to reduce frailling of the fabrics

Well they would say that wouldn't they?

When you have cycles that go on for 1.5, 2 or more hours yes, am sure some sort of mitigation against textile damage must be instigated.

OTOH commercial washers (and some old domestics) can crank out full loads ranging from eleven pounds (domestic) to several hundred (commercial) in anywhere from just less than one hour to in about 35 minutes. The latter is mostly commercial machines however.

It all comes down to the wash "pie" for optimal results; chemicals, time, mechanical action and water used. Any decrease in one results in a required increase in others to compensate.

So these "honeycomb" washers use less water, fair enough I suppose. But they still have to get things clean. So cycle time is increased which again means beating washing about for long periods of time.
 
It doesn't make sense to me that the honeycomb drum would retain more water than a more perforated drum. That's because the water is introduced from outside the drum, and gets into the drum through the holes.

Or am I missing something?

Also, poopy diapers aside, the place where most larger debris is removed from fabrics is in the dryer, not in the washer.

And poopy diapers are supposed to be flushed out prior to loading in the washer anyway. I remember my mom dunking them in the toilet and sticking them back into a wet pail for the journey down to the Bendix front loader in the basement.
 
Patent for Miele's honeycomb drum: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090211313A1/en

If by "larger debris" you mean hair or whatever, maybe so for residential settings.

OTOH for commercial/industrial laundries things are different. First and foremost not every wash load will go to the dryers for "larger debris" removal.

It would also be questionably hygienic not to mention visually repulsive to have bits of vomit, faeces and other matter "dried" onto fabrics and or contaminate that machine as residue. Have read online reviews of laundromats where customers found dried bits of faeces in tumble dryers before putting their freshly washed laundry. Needless to say it put them right off and while having to get the job done, obviously chose another machine.

What someone choses to do in their own home in regards to soiled linen obviously is influenced by many factors. OTOH if you think a commercial/industrial laundry is going to manually sluice/pre-rinse scores if not hundreds of pounds of washing per hour or day; think on.

Not even sure various local, federal, union or accrediting bodies allow such a thing.

Before Chux, disposable diapers and other such things came along hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities dealt with far more fouled laundry because diapers and draw cloths were washed and reused. This on top of soiled patient gowns, bed and bath linen. Linen from infectious wards/rooms, OR and so forth is what it is.

http://www.laundryserv.co.uk/blog/posts/05-06-2014/do-you-need-a-sluice-cycle
 

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