@littlegreeny
I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the Towels cycle. I have not had much of a chance to use the Towels cycle as I have always gotten excellent results using the Extra White cycle for my full loads of towels. I do understand if you feel that cycle is too long and intense for your needs, however, as it washes for about an hour before the first rinse. The spins are superb however and I have not had balance issues with Extra White. While I rinse most of my loads three times I get perfectly acceptable results (even with our naturally soft water) with the default two rinses for towels with correct detergent dosing.
I have also noticed that the Towels cycle does not extend its time when an extra rinse is selected, however the machine does increase its estimated water consumption. I haven't had the chance to observe cycles with both options to see what it actually does.
I find the OOB management of this machine to be one of its biggest mysteries. On some cycles, particularly Normal, Extra White, and Baby Clothes it seems quite insensitive to imbalance and willing to spin even with a good amount of drum displacement. The Drain/Spin cycle also seems very insensitive and willing to spin just about any load. But some cycles, namely Dress Shirts, are absurdly sensitive to balance. I often wash a small load of about 4-5 button downs and the machine will, every time, attempt to balance for a full 5 minutes per spin (adding 20 minutes total to the cycle) before giving up and spinning "out of balance" even though the resultant drum displacement is far less than would occur in a large Normal cycle without complaint or delay from the machine. You seem to have discovered a similar over-sensitivity in the programming of the towels cycle, unfortunately. I do occasionally find that the machine has rejected the last spin and left a large comforter soaking wet on the pillows cycle, but selecting Drain/Spin has always fixed that. I don't begrudge the machine the latter as much since those are much heavier than a large load of dress shirts.
Many thanks to henene4 for the interesting notes on the balance sensors and cycle logic. Please let me know if you discover anything useful changing your balance sensor settings, littlegreeny.
I think you are on the right track to use Normal with an extra rinse for your towels if you want a good, but not extremely intensive wash, and excellent spinning between rinses. If you want a faster cycle (and aren't using 1600 rpm anyway) you might also give Table Linens / Drapes a try. I wash microfiber towels and 100% cotton sheets with that cycle and it provides a quick cycle time but aggressive cleaning and rinsing action with a high water level in the main wash. The manual says that Table Linens/Drapes has two rinses but I find that it does 3 normally and 4 with extra rinse.
I don't know exactly what the interim spin speed are supposed to be. I know that if I select 0rpm that there will be no intermediate spins, but beyond that I always use the maximum spin speed available and haven't had any issues with stretching or wrinkling.
I agree with you that QuickIntenseWash doesn't rinse well enough for towels. I find that cycle rather puzzling. Miele says it is not for heavily soiled items, but it spends nearly the entire cycle aggressively washing and then just a few minutes rinsing and spinning, clearly to maximize the wash time. It spends longer than the Normal cycle in the wash phase so it would seem that it would be intended for more heavily soiled items. Perhaps the design of the cycle only really makes sense on Euro cold fill models where the very low water level in the main wash and devoting the vast majority of the cycle to washing allows the QuickIntenseWash to hit temp in the shorter time.
