Which Miele W1?

[jerrod_six]

IIRC there was an Energy Star regulation in the early 2000s that stated that if manufactures provided a visible option way to increase the water then that increased amount would be added to the water-energy usage rating. Even if a consumer never used the setting, Energy Star would consider that amount as used because the option was present. So perhaps this is why the water+ option does not easily appear as an option in the USA. Although the max rinse level is there it is still in the settings and only applies to the rinse. Given the above, I consider myself lucky to even get max rinse level.

 

[derrick352]

Good point @jerrod_six.

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks again to Luna!

I found a post over on Houzz where Luna was talking about the plastic/chemical smell from the new dryer. It's from the foam plinth filter! He said it takes about 100 hours of running before the smell goes away. Anyone know how to speed that up? I'm not looking forward to when I'll need to replace that filter and go through this whole ordeal again!

 

[chachp]

Dryer Smell and Water Plus

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Dryer Smell - It makes sense that it could be the plinth filter but it's odd.  I didn't have that issue when mine was new.  You might try soaking it for a few minutes in a solution of dish soap and water.  Then squeeze it out and let it dry.  That's how I clean mine when it needs to be done.  Maybe that will speed it up a little.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Water Plus - I am interested in knowing why so much chatter about the Water Plus.  I guess my question is why do you think you need to use it?  I get stellar results out of my machine without the Water Plus.  I used it once to see how much water it would use but I really don't see where I have a situation where I need the extra water to get the clothes clean.  I just let the machine do its thing with determining how much water it needs.  </span>

[this post was last edited: 12/10/2021-06:11]

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks Ralph!

I wonder if adding a little baking soda to the soaking solution would help?

I'm VERY happy with the default water levels in the wash portion of the cycle. And I've found the default rinse levels to be good too. I have not made any adjustments to the water levels. I just thought it was interesting that the option was available in the programming menu.

 

[launderess]

Water plus/Maximum Water level, extra rinses, Sensitive, etc... in some form or another are offered by most European front loaders along with others.

Basically they are meant to allow certain modifications of water levels in wash and or rinse cycles, or adding extra rinse(s) to cope with various wants of a particular customer within limits.

Since these machines are sold all over Europe, North America and elsewhere they must cope with water quality (hardness) that cannot always accurately be predicted.

Water in many areas of USA (such as New York) tends to be far softer than what you'd see in many parts of EU. Soft water can complicate rinsing. Ditto if a home or wherever machine is used has a mechanical water softening system installed.

Miele or others also cannot account for detergents and other products used on wash day. Some things rinse more easily than others. This and or consumer may be prone to using more than they should. Certain households may have one or more members prone to sensitivity regarding detergent or other laundry product residue, thus want things rinsed more.

At least for Miele Water + seems to be for coping with loads that absorb lots of water.

Modern computer controlled washers will only use water levels as programmed within certain parameters. Someone mentioned their washer having so little water during a cycle the recirculating pump was running "dry". Well if washer is programed to give "X" liters of water max for "Y" pounds or kilos of wash, that is what happens. Water Plus moves that needle for two more preset levels in aid of solving that problem.

With machines of old one could simply pour a kettle or so of water down dispenser to raise water levels. Nearly all modern washers have various water protection systems. If levels in tub go above what is programmed machine senses this, believes something is very wrong, aborts cycle and drains water. You can still try that method, but there is no way of knowing where "sweet spot" lies before triggering WPS.

Manual for my older Miele suggests washing less than full loads when doing very absorbent loads such as terry toweling.

 

[chachp]

Science.

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Who ever thunk there would be so much science involved in doing laundry?</span>  

 

[hippo]

@chachp

While I agree with littlegreeny that water levels are usually good in the WXR 860 I would enjoy the Water Plus option in the following situations:

1. Extremely heavily soiled laundry, like with hydraulic oil or grease. More water really helps dissolve the soils in this situation.

2. For more delicate washing of certain fabrics. The WXR 860 behaves very differently than my previous Miele on the Delicate cycle. It uses barely any water, none visible in the drum, and spins them very quickly so they mostly stick to the drum for a little bit, then fall down, then repeat. The recirculation pump is occasionally active during this. The previous machine used a high fill for Delicates so that the lifter bars would swirl the laundry around but not really lift and drop it. I think that the latter is gentler and more effective and I miss it. If you enable the "Gentle" option in the Delicates cycle it defeats the rapid spinning but doesn't use enough water to let the lifter bars pass under the laundry. Thus I think the Gentle option actually makes the Delicates cycle rougher as there is a lot more lifting and dropping of the laundry and surprisingly aggressive agitation on rinsing. The same comments apply to the Dress Shirts cycle. I have not tested Water Plus from the app yet with the delicates cycle but hopefully it would behave more like my old machine.

More generally I suppose there is some aggravation that Miele has omitted a feature that is quite widespread on their Euro machines on their TOL USA model, which in particular comes at a premium cost for greater customizability via the touchscreen. Although according to Jerrod_Six it might just be due to regulations, sadly.

I played around a little with Water Plus in the programming menu and app a little bit, although not enough yet for a holistic picture. I found that changing the "Water Plus Level" in the programming menu from Normal to three drops had no effect on the wash fill level for empty loads started from the touchscreen for Wrinkle Free and Darks. Selecting the Water Plus option on the app for the Wrinkle Free program did result in a much higher wash water level. The machine started the cycle normally and then several minutes into the cycle increased the water level substantially. I cancelled the test programs before observing rinses. I did not notice a change in the wash water level for the Darks program when selecting Water Plus from the app, although I may not have waited long enough into the cycle if the extra filling is delayed. The app is so slow and glitchy that it makes testing or using it quite annoying, but I will report as I experiment more.

 

[jerrod_six]

I have my machine set to the first water drop of water plus, but I actually don't think I need it- just tried it to see what would happen and haven't set it back yet. My machine adds the water after it has determined the load size. The amount added seems to depend on what program cycle you are using. I get a bit of water added when using the Baby Clothes program and a bit more water when using wrinkle-free. I can't tell any difference during the rinses and really can't see that much during the wash - I can just hear it take a bit more. I don't think you want too much water during the wash anyway since that would dilute the tumbling action but I can see how it might come in handy if you regularly wash thick absorbent items.

 

[hippo]

@jerrod_six, exactly which model do you have? Are you saying that you notice increased water levels with a drop added in the programming menu even if you have not selected the Water Plus option in the app?

 

[moon1234]

Water Plus is somewhat different depending on the model. I have the WWH860 AND the WXI860. Water plus is enabled ALL THE TIME on the WWH860. If it is left at the “normal” setting in the expanded programming menu then no extra water is added to any cycle. If you set water plus to one, two or three drops then wash water is increased in any cycle that honors that extra. It is not possible to disable the water plus option on this model.

On the WXI860 the water plus option is DISABLED by default. It has to be enabled per cycle, each time, if that extra is desired. It will not be remembered even if you have the memory feature enabled. The amount specified in the Water Plus expanded programming menu is what will be used IF the option is added for a cycle. Since water plus is only available when using the app, that is the only way to select it.

So Miele went from one extreme to the other with the model upgrade. I think the WXI860 should remember the water plus setting if the memory option is enabled. Why? When doing a full load of absorbent towels there will be zero free water during the main wash. The recirculating pump will kick on, but there will be no water to circulate UNLESS you enable the water plus option (and for me it needs to be three drops if doing 6-8 large Costco size bath towels).

I personally would rather just have water plus enabled all the time OR have it selectable from the display instead of having to go in the app. For those with the WXR-860 it would be interesting to see if water plus extra can be saved in a favorite.

 

[littlegreeny]

Interesting

My WXR860 uses the recirculation pump all the time in every cycle and it has never been in a situation where it didn't have enough water to circulate water or pump dry, even with huge loads of towels. And that's without Water Plus enabled.

My new washer is amazing in every way and I'm absolutely 100% satisfied with its performance.[this post was last edited: 12/11/2021-17:20]

 

[launderess]

@ littlegreeny

To hasten dissipation of that "new dryer whiff" you could try doing a few loads of rags or maybe things around house that want a wash and or would need drying.

To save wear on your new Miele washer could just do things by hand or something.

Don't think baking soda in a wash load would help with this new dryer scent. Most properties you're wanting from sodium bicarbonate would have been used in wash then gone by subsequent rinsing.

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks Launderess!

The smell is dissipating with each load of laundry dried and the smell is nearly gone now. I do not plan to soak the plinth filter.

 

[littlegreeny]

Miele App Question

Has anyone downloaded version 4.2.0 of the app for iPhone? Did anyone have any issues? My current app is version 4.1.1 and the buggy things I see are the washer status always says the washer is in the main wash and the temperature is displaying the wrong units (i.e. when temp is set to 140F, the app says the temp is 140C).

 

[chachp]

I did.

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Seems to be fine.  Mine are set to autoupdate and I noticed the other day it had updated.  You can now get more information on the AutoDos amounts and the other things seem to be working fine for me.  </span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Under General settings there are options for Fahrenheit and Gallons.  Have you checked that?</span>

 

[littlegreeny]

Thanks Ralph!

I updated the app and now the appliance status is showing. I'm also seeing an actual twindos level which is nice. If I change the units from C to F, it will show the temp as 284F instead of 140F. I'm going to change the washer to display the temp as C instead of F and see if the app will show the correct temp.

 

[littlegreeny]

Intermediate Spins?

One thing I've noticed with my new washer is it seems to have a bit of a hard time balancing mixed loads of towels and low pile bath mats (more of a towel really but texture and density is different than the towels). Anyways, I was washing them on the towels cycle, 120F with an extra rinse. I haven't really watched it go through this cycle before. It was having trouble going into the intermediate spin after the wash was complete. It tried unsuccessfully to spin though I felt it was being a little picky as it seemed to be balanced several times. After about 10 minutes I heard a relay click and then the display said Rinse. To my horror, the Miele skipped the spin! I've watched many cycles of the W1 on youtube and don't recall them ever skipping a spin. And then to further add to my horror, it only rinsed twice even though I had extra rinse selected! It did manage to do an interim spin between the first and second rinse.

So what am I doing wrong here? Should I be washing towels on a different cycle other than towels? I know the wash is pretty short but these towels are just used to dry off clean bodies in my house, so they aren't dirty per se.

 

[henene4]

These have quite well gated OOB targets for different interim spins.

It might be possible that towels trys to run a very high interim spin and thus dosen't allow it.
Or it has a very sensitive setting due to the kind of load.
I don't have any issues with that on my machine with towels on the Cottons cycle, but that's barely comparable.

I don't know how many rinses the cycle is supposed to run normally.
I know mine over here won't add a rinse unless it fails to interim spin twice (usually due to a suds lock).
So not adding another rinse seems correct.

My next idea would be to try to seperate those 2 different kinds of items.

I found at least one type of load with every washer I used so far that just wouldn't work no matter what.

Trying another cycle can never hurt.
I haven't heard much about the US QuickIntense cycle yet.
That would be the cycle I would switch to for a load that needed decent quick cleaning for resistant items if no other cycle would work.
That however isn't the best at spinning either since it keeps balancing windows short.

I'll check the manual and update on what cycle might work.

 

[launderess]

Towels, bath mats, bath robes, anything "thick and thirsty" especially made from but not limited to terry cloth can be a mine field for h-axis washers. Things like hoodies, sweat pants and other things made from fleece can fall into this are as well.

Watch drum movements as washer tries to balance load/rev up to spin speed. If drum seems to wobble more than it should, pull to one side, etc... those are signs (IMHO) load is slightly or very much OOB. How washer will cope and or deal with things varies by manufacture.

My AEG front loader will slow down drum movements and or try to redistribute load until it senses things are within parameters. Then Whoaa Nellie! It's off to races.

To machine's credit if it revs up to spin and things really are out of balance it will stop, then start whole redistribution process all over again.

You may find it's best to use "towels" setting for those items alone with perhaps wash cloths or other small items. Then doing bath mats on their own, or maybe just with a smaller number of towels (like one or two).

Personally one reason got the Maytag wringer was to cope with bulky and or heavy things like blankets, bath mats, heavy and thick bath robes.. It's either that machine or do them by hand using hand mangle to wring or bunged into spin dryer.