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brunel_gw

Miele W4800 water usage - I need a better rinse!

16 years ago

From an earlier thread [crooks101/Miele 4800 new user experience... which is very informative - now full at the 150 limit] I agree with Mr Crooks comment - water usage is "frugal to a fault".

Sometimes I can barely see any water in my machine. I would rather spend more water $ and get a proper rinse. Miele got carried away with US specs (EPA, Energy Star) for marketing reasons and, in my opinion, compromised their hard-earned reputation for building machines that produced the best wash results.

I learned from that earlier thread that techs with a PC can enable a "Water Plus" feature that uses higher water levels and does an extra rinse. Is there a way that I can set that parameter without a tech visit? I understand that certain parameters can be activated by pressing buttons simultaneously on the control panel - does anybody have menu of those commands?

I have a 4800 (vs. 4840).

Comments (15)

  • 16 years ago

    I have a 4800 and I've tried to work around this problem by adding an extra rinse and if I still see soap I'll rinse yet again. I found that the Persil Antigray soap for whites actually makes my whites gray so I went back to Tide. I do have hard water though. I'm interested in this water reset as well.

  • 16 years ago

    If you call Miele Canada about rinse water level, they will send in their tech with PC........ and switch on "maximum water level" and you'll get water level 2 inches above the rim! That's enough water to rinse clean even those 2X liquid detergent..... :)

  • 16 years ago

    All I have (from Miele customer service, and it's also in an old thread here) is the 4840 programming info, which utilizes the display so it wouldn't work on the 4800. If a 4800 procedure exists then maybe Miele could send it to you. I contacted them through their website.

    But I'm still using the factory default settings, and I'm satisfied with rinsing performance. I use the Sensitive (extra rinse) option only rarely. I can barely see water in my machine either.

    I use powdered Sears Free detergent, full scoop for full loads, and proportionally less for partial loads. Sometimes I do see soap bubbles on the window during the second rinse, but I don't pay attention to that, only the results, which show no sign of residue.

    Is your machine doing a sustained full-speed spin between the wash and the first rinse, particularly for loads that absorb a lot of water? That spin is part of the rinsing process. I know that the 4840 will add an extra rinse (third if no Sensitive option, presumably fourth if Sensitive option used) if it can't achieve that spin. Judging from the initial cycle timer, it'll do the same if spin speed of Medium or slower is chosen. This is on Custom cycle, which we use for most loads. I would guess the 4800 works the same. The great bulk of our washes are done on Max Spin. As for temperature, I use Sanitize for towels, Hot for whites (with non-chlorine bleach), Very Warm for bed linens and some colored underwear, and Warm for most other stuff. We do very few Cold washes.

    originalvermonter, how do you rinse again? I thought the 4800 doesn't have a rinse-only cycle.

  • 16 years ago

    Suburbanmd, I press the mastercare button and then scroll through the settings under mastercare until I get to beach towels, that's a 20 minute rinse. If you scroll some more you'll also find a rinse that runs for 18 minutes. There's also an express wash for when you need something washed fast. Has anyone come up with a solution to fix the final spin vibration problem. I can feel that vibration in my son's bedroom which is directly over the miele. Overall I am very happy with the miele. A couple of decades ago I purchased a top load maytag that I sold after 13 years for a hundred bucks. My mom has a 25 year old maytag. I replaced the old washer with a maytag neptune. Believe me the maytag repairman's loneliness ended when that *#**%# machine came out. I choose miele because I'm hoping that I'll get the same dependability that I used to have with maytag. It's not a snob issue as some people have expressed in prior forums.

  • 16 years ago

    Then you have a 4840, not a 4800.

  • 16 years ago

    Been awhile since I have visited forum. But was in the Great Indoor store last week, so swung by to see what was new in laundry world. Still saw the same old Miele W4840 with sagging door and the HE5T model with steam was still their top-end machines for Kenmore. Did noticed square or triangle doors, but guess just shows nothing really new.

    However, this store did have the HE5T running. Noticed the water level in wash was almost undetectable. Wondered if the rinse would be as low. On my HE5T, you can at least see its water.

    I got the HE5T (non-steam) about two years ago now. So for still very satisfied with water levels, spins vibrations and extra rinse cycles (4) with reasonable water levels. Almost out of mind most of the time, as it should be. It just works and nothing as broken yet in about 2 years.

    It has not been a problem, but if I could change the level I would crank it up a notch. Really don't like this trend for almost no water.

    One thing I have noticed is that I do get a better rinse with the machine less loaded, but over time I have leaned to really appreciated the higher loads and have started to really load it up. So far not a problem with 4 rinses, which is my programmed default.

  • 16 years ago

    I have the 4840 Washer & Dryer. I purchased them in February 2008. I LOVE them. I have previously owned a set of Maytag Neptunes....almost as nice.

    My experience with the rinse was a surprise like everyone else as to how little water these machines use. I use the Persil and/or Tide HE along with a liquid fabric softener (Downy) as you could damage the dryer by using dryer sheets due to static electricity.

    I use these machines 2 to 3 times a day. We have a large household with lots of dirty clothes. My youngest daughter is a culinary student and when she first started coming home with all kinds of stains including berries, wine & chocolate I was worried. It proved to be for not. Even with my Maytags such stains would still leave "Ghosts". Not only has the Miele erased the stain completely, it does it with care. Her chefs coats still look new (9 months old). Two weeks ago, her teacher and fellow students finally asked her how she keeps her white coats and aprons looking new. They thought that perhaps she had 20 uniforms. She has 5. She told them to "Ask my Mom". lol

    With that said.....the subject of rinsing. You should also know that I have what's known as "Hyper Smell". I can smell things that most people cannot...unfortunatley somehow related to migraines. To say I am extremely sensitive to smell would be an understatement. I am very particular about laundry. I was told by the technician that installed the Miele's, to use only 1 Tbls. of soap. After a few washes I noticed that there was a musty smell to my laundry. I soon realized that even with the Persil I needed to add more soap. It was the amount of soap (or lack of) that was actually making my laundry seem that it wasn't "Rinsing" properly. I experimented for a while and have found that the 1 Tbls. per load is too good to be true. I now use 3 Tbls. per average load and it has eliminated the musty, not clean odor.

    They are rinsing beautifully. If clothes do not rinse properly you will notice a build up of some kind. Your clothes will feel tacky or powdery...is that even a word? Ayway, ultimatley with 3 Tbls. of soap my laundry smells fresh and the fabric is light. This tells me that the rinse cycle is performing well.

    As for the gray coloring of clothes, I have never had that situation. The Master Care "Extra White" setting is AWESOME!!!!! This is what I use on the Chefs clothes. As hot as the water gets with this setting, you would think it would eventually do some damage to her coats and aprons but after 9 months they still look brand new.

    I hope this helps.

    Warmest Regards

  • 16 years ago

    angelita hibiscus, I am so happy to read your post about not using enough detergent!. I mentioned it somwhere in the forum here too. It just totally make sense if you don't use enough, the grime and dirt and grease won't wash out and partially stays on the clothes and gunks up the washer over time. I think some people use way too little and of course not enough hot water.Long time ago when I got my FL, I put same amount of water that the machine takes in, in the bucket and added detergent little by little and you will get to feel how much you need. It is so easy.

  • 15 years ago

    I found a couple of interesting options in my service menu that lead me to believe it may be possible to do a profile wash with cold water in Normal cycle. There is a "Water Intake" option which you can change from Cold+Hot to Cold. I have confirmed that it causes the machine to only utilize the cold water line. Switching this option to Cold added 10 minutes to my Normal wash cycle. Hmmm... well why would it do that if it didn't need the additional time to heat the water? Unfortunately, 10 minutes into the cycle I hit pause, opened the door, and the water was quite cold to the touch. No heater.

    I've only been able to complete the above on a current load of laundry. I don't want to waste water experimenting. So this next option I can't try until I have another full load. In the service menu there is a Country setting, with EU as an option. I wonder if you would get a true profile wash with the heater enabled in Normal IF you switch Water Intake to Cold and change the Country mode to EU. Any brave souls care to try and report your results?

  • 15 years ago

    I also tried this and found the temperature did not increase. I measured it throughout the wash cycle up until it started to drain. I was using a inferred thermometer and opened the door every time using the manual release.

    From what I know most of the other country setting tend to reduce wash times compared to the USA. Maybe we should systematically test these machines out together? I have no problem wasting all the water in the world in attempting figure this machine out. IF you want?

    Here is a link that might be useful: My washer and Dry

  • 15 years ago

    -Water intake cold fill only setting.
    True, but there's another setting where you can boost the heater up to 8000 W ****no experiments here : wiring burning hazard !!**** remember that default setting is somewhat 1200ish ....

    - No heater in the first 10 minutes. In euro models the heater starts as soon as the fill is completed just on express, wool/handwash and delicates. On normal/cottons and wrinkle free there's no heating in the first 10 minutes. Once the load is saturated (you'll notice it cause she won't stop and fill anymore) the heater engages. This to avoid continuous power adsorbment fluctuations (continuous heater on-off switching)

    - Profile wash : don't worry that much about it, unless you purge the hot water line via laundry tub tap before starting the washer. The first water entering the washer isn't 140°F hot, plus load and tub are cold. Maybe it will be in the 85-110 range, that's a nice beginning for a profile wash. IMHO cold fill only for you it's a nonsense as you have also warm fill (and cheap gas rates). Go figure there are some european models having both fills to save energy (all commercial ones have both fills)

    Anyway i guess euro mode with hot/cold fill does hold 105-120°F for 10/15 minutes to allow enzymes work, then the heater engages to achieve the target temp. At least my novotronic does it in regular (extended) cycles. Otherwise when i choose short option, it heats straight to target temp. IMHO profile wash makes a real difference on rather stained/spotted clothes, I use it only with table/kitchen linen.

  • 15 years ago

    In the Custom and Extra White cycles on my W4840, saturation of the load, and activation of the heater, takes a few minutes, never as long as 10 minutes. That's even for full loads. I know the heater is on because the Kill-A-Watt meter shows power draw of 1000+ watts.

    The Kill-A-Watt can tell you other things too. Once you're familiar with the range of power draw for the various spin speeds, you can tell at a glance whether, say, the machine is spinning at High or Max spin (after the spin speed has stabilized). So if you return to the machine with 3 minutes left in the cycle, you can see whether it made it to Max spin, or settled for High spin because the balance wasn't good enough. This'll happen to me with a full load of long-sleeve shirts, because the sleeves do get tangled enough to prevent ideal balance. I could avoid this by mixing shirts with other stuff, but I like to do it this way.

    I tried the EU setting, and no, it didn't make the W4840 into a European washer. Many of the cycles showed strange initial cycle times (e.g. 43 minutes), and it was clear that EU wasn't a usable setting.

    The heater wattage setting probably just tells the software what size heater is installed, and trying to fool the software isn't likely to give you faster heating.

  • 15 years ago

    Suburban, good to know, at 1st glance i was disappointed by the W48XX baffles without holes to spray the load.

    Not all the euro cycles are extended (check here at page 64 for a clue)
    Anyway the main reason is that euro machines have default "extended" and "short" as key/option. This is true not only for mieles but also for other brands, e.g. WP Trainee's Zanussi-Electrolux (load size thread). Also previous american mieles W19XX work this way, guess they change because of the "too slow" complaints

    So when you switch to euro, guess you have euro-short by defaut

  • 15 years ago

    I tried the EU setting, and no, it didn't make the W4840 into a European washer. Many of the cycles showed strange initial cycle times (e.g. 43 minutes), and it was clear that EU wasn't a usable setting.

    43 minutes is very short. Compare that to the European Duet washer linked below. Which cycle was 43 minutes?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Whirlpool Dreamspace manual

  • 15 years ago

    If I remember correctly, several of them were 43 minutes or thereabouts, all the same number. It probably isn't a functional washer when set to EU.