Which Miele W1?

[hippo]

@jerrod_six
I also use three rinses with spins for just about everything except towels where the Ultra White cycle seems to do fine with two and its fast interstitial spins.

Not sure on your machine, but for mine the manual specifies that Baby Clothes has two rinses but it actually has three by default. Took me a while to realize and I was unnecessarily doing four rinses for a bit as I'd been adding an Extra Rinse. It was nice when I figured it out though since it cut the cycle time and also gave the option of a cycle with four high level rinses with high speed spins between them in case of needing to rinse something extremely thoroughly.

Playing with the Wash Assistant on my machine it recommends Wrinkle Free for a very wide variety of items, almost as if it is Miele's intended (non-regulatory) default cycle. Unfortunately it uses so little water in the main wash that I find its usefulness very limited. If there are sweatshirts or sweatpants in the load or if the load is even close to full the laundry will absorb so much of the wash water that the recirculation pump can be heard running dry throughout the cycle with no water at the bottom of the drum. Perhaps this reduced water programming is new to the latest generation machines in the march towards lower and lower consumption, but unfortunately I don't find that cycle useful unless combined with AllergyWash which raises the water levels.

 

[appnut]

Jerrod, a man after my own heart lol. Use a cycle that best suits what your idea of how a load should be washed (laundry or dishes) instead of what the cycle is labeled for the intended purpose!!!!!

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks Everyone!

I really appreciate all the responses and everyone's fantastic tips!

One of the main reasons why I got the WXR was the ability to save favorites and am looking forward to using that feature. I'll have to try the different default cycles/options and see what I like best for regular clothes like t-shirts and underwear.

And thanks Matt for showing how you refill the TwinDos cartridges and describing how you do pillows. You have been very helpful here and on houzz (if you happen to be luna123456).

The Mieles will be a very welcome addition to my home after living with a very crappy Frigidaire unitized set for much longer than I care to admit.

 

[hippo]

@littlegreeny
The ability to save favorites is fantastic on the WXR 860! You can even save specific stain options to a favorite. Its both useful and fun to have your most-used customized cycles easily accessible and there is something very satisfying about having your chosen name displayed for the cycle. I only wish I could save more than 12!

 

[littlegreeny]

My new set is up and running. The washer is great but not loving the dryer. It's leaving a strong plasticy/machine shop "new" smell on finished laundry. Anyone know how long it takes for that smell to dissipate?

 

[chachp]

Plastic smell

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I don't remember that with mine but it seems I had to run an initial procedure for the washer and dryer.  I have noticed the same with the dryer where they seem a little damp when you open the door and in no time they feel dry.  I don't know why that happens but I've heard it before.  Sometimes I close the dryer and let it run again for a few minutes then they don't feel damp like that.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I always run mine on delicate (press the delicate button not the delicate cycle) because I've always felt its easier on clothes.  I don't like a really hot dryer.  The one amazing thing I noticed was when I put sheets in the dryer they would roll into a ball and run forever to dry through that middle clump.  Then I discovered the Bed Linens cycle.  I have no idea what it does but the sheets don't ball up and come out real nice.</span>

 

[littlegreeny]

Ralph

Thank you for responding! The "new" smell is still there but getting better.

I haven't tried the delicate option (it's listed as gentle on mine), so I'll try that. And I'm curious, when you dry your sheets, do you put the the whole set of sheets in the dryer? And do you use the delicate option for those too? Before I got my Miele, I would always dry the fitted sheet first by itself and then the flat sheet with the pillowcases. That would prevent them from balling up and would also decrease the amount of wrinkling.

I tried drying the whole set in one cycle on the Miele and thought they were pretty wrinkled. I had better luck with drying them separately. And the bedding cycle does a lot of reverse tumbles which prevents everything from balling up.

 

[chachp]

David,

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">In my old dryer I did them separately because they balled up so badly.  When I got the new one I tried the Flat and Fitted at the same time and they were balled up so I was doing them separately until I discovered the Bed Linens cycle.  Now, I do the Flat and Fitted at the same time, then do all the pillow cases ( we have a number of them ) separately in the Bed Linens cycle.  I do not use the Delicate on those.  Ours are King size if that matters.  I also have three wool dryer balls that I use in every load not sure those matter but I'm not a fan of Fabric Softener so I use those instead.</span>

 

 

[littlegreeny]

I washed sheets today and noticed you can't select the gentle option on the bed linens cycle. I tried the wrinkle free with gentle enabled and it worked really well. I did the fitted and top sheets separately and each took only about 20 minutes. I didn't tumble dry the pillowcases and instead hung up them up because I was worried about that "new" smell.

I was told by someone outside this site that condenser and heat pump dryers always leave the smell I am describing on finished laundry. Is that true?

 

[launderess]

My AEG Lavatherm condenser dryer that was low use when "new to me" doesn't leave an objectionable smell on laundry. But there is sort of a scent, cannot describe it however.

One thing have noticed when using vented dryer things retain whatever scent from laundry products (detergent, fabric softener, etc...). Things dried in Lavatherm emerge with almost nil scent remaining. This is bothers one as certain scents one likes such as Ariel Alpine Fresh....

 

[chachp]

Smell..

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">My clothes don't have any kind of smell when I take them out other than what comes from whatever flacon I have in.  I have dried clothes without the flacon and I don't notice any kind of smell.</span>

 

[logixx]

I, too, can't confirm what Adam said on FB about all condensing dryers leaving a smell on clothes. Mine never did. You might have to experiment with softeners/scent beads to find the ones that will "survive" the dryer. Although, given the low temps on some of these cycles like Bed Linen, I suppose that shouldn't be much of a problem.

About that cycle: someone on YouTube tried it when it first came out. He had his T1 set to cool down to 104F and the cooling cycle never even had to come on. That's probably the reason you can't select Low Temp.

 

[henene4]

That new smell unfortunately takes a bit to come out.
The dryer dosen't get very hot, so that period where the heat drives of any residues takes longer.

On the topic of the bedding cycle: One thing I realized at least on mine is that it is the only cycle with a true integrated cool down cycle.
I only realised that recently: It cuts the heat pump and jumps to 5 min with the cooling fan on. I think the reason is that the regular cool down with the rotating animation on the 7 segment display can't reverse. While still in cycle, the bedding cycle keeps reversing even during that cool down.
I can say though that it really dosen't get hot either. Though that is the one cycle I tend to select extra dry on.

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm really happy to learn the smell from the dryer isn't permanent. It does reverse tumble a lot on the bed linen cycle. It also reverses on the normal cycle, but not nearly as much. I didn't watch it during the wrinkle free to see if it reversed. I will say it's pretty fast and finishes before the next load is done in the washer.

There were a few hiccups (getting the wifi/app setup complete and the dryer off gassing) and one load I must have used too much detergent that resulted in me running a total of 9 rinses but overall I am very pleased with the set.

 

[launderess]

May have things muddled, but seem to recall reading something ages ago that basically all laundry comes from condenser dryers slightly moist. Remaining moisture is carried off moments after things are taken from dryer, shaken out and folded.

May have stumbled across this from someplace explaining difference between vented and condenser dryers.

From one's limited use of the Lavatherm things don't emerge bone dry as say from Whirlpool or any other vented dryer. Warmish yes, but still with a tinge of moisture. After taking things out they finish off rather quickly once out in air.

 

[henene4]

To get that bone dry feeling you do have to overdry in condensers, yes.

Things do finish out just by shaking out for the most part, yes.

Heat pump dryers however have the benefit of being abled to drop relative moisture content below ambient.

The amount of moisture in the process air is dependent on how cold the air gets in the process.
The lower it gets, the less moisture the air can hold.

A vented dryer always has room air to work with, so the air in the laundry at the end of the cycle has the moisture content of the room the dryer is in.
Thus laundry mostly feels as dry as it actually is.

A normal condenser could theoretically only get as cold as room temp but in reality will always be quite a bit warmer than ambient.
So the air inside the laundry will contain more moisture by weight than the ambient air.
Thus the laundry feels moist even though the fabric itself is dry.
As soon as you exchange the air with room air, the fades away and the clothing feels as dry as it is.

A heat pump dryer can drop the relative moisture in the air really low since the cold side of the heat pump can get quite a bit below ambient.
But to take advantage of that, you'd have to really overdry the laundry.

 

[henene4]

On the topic of Mieles rinsing

Mieles never were amazing at rinsing. Not bad, just not outstanding.
Especially if you overdose they can take quite a bit of work to get to an acceptable rinse result.

I do find however that the higher water levels aren't needed on most loads.
All Mieles I used so far from the Novotronics up to the W1s only needed more water if a load was especially bulky or otherwise "special".

I can't really explain it by any reasoning, but they appear to be very efficient in rinsing while not being actually very good at it.
I like to describe their rinsing as "optimised". Does a fine jobs in most situations while being very frugal.

 

[littlegreeny]

Service Menu

I entered the service menu where there were all kinds of settings including adjusting the water plus option, turning on an allergy setting, and an option to increase the temperature which I believe is to enable a warm rinse! Can anyone confirm that?

What does the allergy setting do?

And yes, items out of the dryer have a bit of moistness but it's gone by the time the item is hung up or folded. Amazing!

 

[hippo]

@littlegreeny
The Water Plus option can only be selected in the nearly non-functional app, not on the touchscreen itself unfortunately, notwithstanding the adjustability in Programming Mode.

I believe that Temperature Increase increases the main wash temperature in some cycles by 5C. I suspect that these cycles don’t actually hit temperature to begin with and that the temperature increase setting gets them closer to the selected temperature. I’ve ordered a temperature probe I’m hoping will answer this question definitively. I’ll report when I’ve tested it.

Allergy and AllergyWash do different things. AllergyWash option on cycles seems to intensify the washing and then it adds a steam phase after the main wash and adds extra rinsing, sometimes one or two extra rinses. I haven’t tried the Allergy setting in Programming Mode but I suspect it just adds a standard extra rinse to some cycles.

A lot of clues regarding the functionality of the programming mode can be found in the technical service documentation for a different Miele model here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/jknmy/kxha/#p=1

 

[derrick352]

On the topic of Mieles rinsing

"Mieles never were amazing at rinsing. Not bad, just not outstanding.
Especially if you overdose they can take quite a bit of work to get to an acceptable rinse result."

I have to disagree with this statement. There is no better machine than a Miele at rinsing clothes. Most if not all American machines do not spin between rinses, do not completely drain a rinse before next rinse, and duration of each stepped rinse is pathetically short. Miele powders are extreme low suds and excellent at stain removal without the need for additives.

The revamped just released W1's may treat allergen setting differently now than previous models. On the WWF060 Allergen in secondary programming menu will give you an additional rinse in most cycles, and will maintain wash temp without fluctuation. I like to have a total 4 rinses for my laundry, gaining one with Allergen setting in programming mode and another using extra rinse. I do not use max water for rinsing but do use water plus at max amount 3 droplets in display.

No gripes about my machine other than a non functional "prewash" because Miele is pathetic and ignorant on every level when it comes to correcting service issues.