I have both brands of machines, the 5 & 6 kg Mieles and the big door SQ. The SQ is made to cope with heavy use while the Mieles caution that no more than 3 loads a day should be processed to avoid straining the motor, but 18 or 21 loads per week is a lot of laundry. That is the sort of use that was celebrated in Maytag ads of yore and the 5 and 6 kg Mieles easily wash as much as the standard tub and deep tub Maytags, respectively.
I cannot accept that the SQ rinses as well as the Mieles, even with an increased water level because the pulse spins leave quite a bit of water in the load between water changes. I have measured this by putting the drain hose in the sink and collecting water that is spun out of the load in a bucket during the final spin AFTER the pulse spins. Depending on the fabrics, this can be close to two gallons for towels. The rinsing is greatly improved by allowing the machine to complete the cycle with the very effective final spin and then resetting it for a rinse and spin. The Mieles, with the sensitive rinsing option programming done, complete their cycles with the load very well rinsed, whether it is the 5 rinses with less spinning in the W1918 or the three rinses with high speed extraction after each drain in the W1986. You have to remember that the cycle in the SQ is a commercial cycle with emphasis on low water consumption and a fast cycle time. The less effective intermediate spins reduce water consumption beause the more water left in the load means that each rinse fill will require less water, a major point of concern for commercial laundry owners. Cycle time is also important because the shorter the cycle, the more loads that can be washed during business hours. Jeff's Philco/Dexter commercial front loader does not even have a timer hold during the rinse fills. Whether the machine fills to the full water during each deep rinse or not, the timer keeps running. Likewise, the SQ rinse time is short with a very short tumble time after each rinse fill is completed.
On very rare occasions, I have heard the tub strike the sides of the cabinet in all three machines, but only once per spin attempt. The Mieles have very heavy counter weights and excellent suspension components. Also, by keeping the tub diameter to a set width and making the tub deeper to increase the capacity from 5 to 6 kg, the problems with load distribution and poorly distributed loads are greatly lessened. The W1986 has much more sophisticated speed control than the W1918 and the SQ has slightly more room in the cabinet for the tub to swing & strike the cabinet, which it sometimes does, but it will not go into the highest spin speed without a well-balanced load; nor will either Miele. The real place where manufacturers of these FL HE machines for the American marketplace bought themselves a whole lotta trouble is thinking that the machines had to have a tub the size of commercial FL machines which do not have suspension systems and have to be bolted down. WH FL machines had a decent size drum for a 27" cabinet and they were fairly stable on a cement floor although many of them were used on wooden floors. They did laundry for all sizes of families.
As to the sliding on the floor . If the floor has a glossy finish, the rubber feet cannot secure a good grip on the surface. I encountered that with my Unimatics when they were on a vinyl tile floor. I cut small squares of foam rubber to go between the feet and the floor and that stopped the sliding.
