With regard to pricing around this area there seems to an official list price and a minimum selling price that Miele allows. In essence the miniumum selling price becomes the list price. Other than a showroom floor item, everyone sells at the same price. The differences are all the other things. Delivery, installation and removal prices vary, and deals on extended warranties and financing vary. On our recent Miele dishwasher purchase we got about $175 off by having our preferred dealer match the extended warranty deal of another.

Forgot to mention...

I'm almost at the same point on the washer, and only want to hear some more first hand experience before making a final decision. We also have 220V installed, and I'll have to run a new dedicated 120V line during the remodel of the laundry room for the W4840.

On the dryer side I don't find enough value in the T9800 to justify it's price, and similar to you we have no need for the items to match. Our 14 year old plain jane drying sensor based Maytag has worked the way Maytag advertising would have you believe all their equipment works - flawless and never a break down. The GE Harmony dryer seems to have some great technology (independently managed airflow and temperature) but I worry it's complexity may lead to reliability issues over time.

Yeah, I do have a hard time seeing enough value in the T9800. Still, it comes down to whether getting a new dryer is worth it in order to get a moisture sensor. The other things I'd like in a new dryer are all 'cosmetic' and it would be silly to spend hundreds just for them.. but it would be nice to have a drum light, window in the door, and an actual countdown timer - especially if it could guess accurately how much time was left in the moisture sensor mode. By far the most important part, though, is what will be gentlest on our clothes while still getting things dry in a reasonable amount of time. Yes, I know, line dry is the BEST option for that.. but realistically, that's just not going to happen regularly in my household.

Actually, if I do get a new dryer, I'll probably keep the old one around too. I have the extra outlet, the laundry room's on an exterior wall so adding the venting will be easy, and it would be kinda nice to have a second dryer.

Got the washer. It's great. Clothes get cleaner, dry faster, and it's so quiet you can barely tell it's running. (I do wish that the end-of-cycle signal was louder - I'd like to be able to hear THAT upstairs.) With the pedestal, it's a great height, and the pedestal even works well for storage.

Also, the 120V hasn't been a problem at ALL. This machine uses so little water (yet still washes great) that it can still heat up the water QUICK even with the smaller heater.

Even on the most aggressive cycle (Sanitize + Extra Soil + Extended + Sensitive) it's still much gentler on clothes than my old TL on Delicates. The controls are just simplified enough that they don't confuse anyone else in my house, and aren't missing anything significant to me.

I'm still considering a new dryer. Will need either a left-opening or hamper-style door. Also, I want a real moisture sensor (instead of the simple temp-based system my old dryer has). A drum light, reversing tumble, and a real countdown timer (with good estimating logic based on moisture) would be nice too. Unfortunately the T9800 doesn't have the timer.

Right now, I'm using Persil Sensitive, 1/4 to 1/2 cup in the main wash and under 1/4 cup in the prewash. Also 1/2 cup DWV in the fabric softener compartment (for cat odor). I've tried using LCB a couple of times - 1/2 cup on the Sanitize cycle for whites REALLY blasts the stains out. And there's no residual odor like there was when using LCB in my old TL.

1/4 - 1/2 Cup of Persil in a front loading machine sounds like an awful lot. Do you have really hard water? I know a lot of people who use just a tablespoon or two or Persil in their FL washers.

Yeah, the water is pretty hard here. It does rinse completely, even with a "large" amount of product compared to what many people are using.

Based on a lot of the comments here, I tried the tablespoon approach - it wasn't enough. I do know that my water is very hard here; in my DW I do have to use both compartments to get clean.

FWIW, in the DW I'm using a 2-in-1 Cascade tablet in the main wash compartment and a full prewash compartment of Cascade powder.. way more than is recommended around here but it works way better. Tried it with less and it left crud on the dishes - and even with that much in there I have to use the rinse aid on a high setting to avoid spotting.

..and I feel *really* stupid now.

If I'd spent a moment to reflect on it, I surely would have noticed that the scoop in the Persil box obviously *wasn't* a full cup. The 1/4 and 1/2 markings correspond to 22ml/43ml. (For DWV and LCB, I am using an actual 1/2 cup measure. This makes the dosage about one third of what I was using in the TL.)

So, converted to tablespoons:
Small load - 2 tbsp in main wash
Full load - 4 tbsp in main wash + 2tbsp in prewash

That does sound much more in line. It does have me using about a third of a cup TOTAL for a large/heavy soil load.. which does seem pretty high, but doesn't seem too out of line given how much I have to "overdose" on DW detergent.