The Miele Little Giants are capable machines, and can get the loads done faster than than a W1/T1 pair, but they also have more demanding installation requirements. For example, the Little Giant washer can use 4,000 watts of power or more, which may limit simultaneous dryer use unless you have high capacity 208/240 V connections. As for the Little Giant condenser dryer, the installation diagrams that Miele has posted suggest a minimum of about 7 to 8 inches of clearance between the back of the machine and the wall.

So would you need a special 240 V connection for the washer , or would a standard 240V connection be fine ?

@H Seattle: I have one 208 V connection in my laundry closet. The circuit breaker is rated at 30 amps. Multiplying the two we get 6,240 Watts, which is enough to run one typical 27-inch wide residential electric dryer. Or, I could run one Little Giant washer (4,000 to 5,200 watts), or one Little Giant condenser dryer (3,680 watts), but not both running full blast at the same time as it would exceed the 6,240 watt limit.

Somebody with a 208 V circuit of this capacity could get an electrician to add a second 208V/240V 30 amp circuit so that both Little Giants could run at the same time without worry, each machine using their own circuit. You will have to speak with someone that knows more about high amperage 208/240 V residential wiring to see how practical would it be to do one high-current 208/240V circuit with two outlets. (i.e. do the local residential electrical codes allow it, and are the wiring options cost effective when compared to doing two separate circuits).

you will need two lines for the washer and dryer - separate . Little Giant and W1/T1 are two different machines in every way.. Little Giant is a true commercial machine. W1/T1 is a very innovative consumer machine

@delray33483 I keep reading that the Little Giants are commercial machines but they seem to have very small capacity. For example, my LG dryer says its capacity is 7.4c but the Little Giant is listed at 3.4c. I was hoping to purchase a washer and dryer set that will launder king-sized bedding (comforters, bed spreads, etc.) so we looked at "commercial for home" and found the Little Giants but they seem rather small. Any advice?

@Mandy_elaine, from my understanding of the Little Giant, they will handle the king sized comforters and spreads. You can load a Miele better than a LG or Samsung. The Little Giant is a machine I would love to have. I have 3 Mieles that are the regular size; the Little Giant is larger. In my machines I can wash all queen sized bedding. You could call the Miele center near you and ask this question too.

yes, you need dedicated 220 connections for each appliance. Code won’t allow you to plug in 2 208/220v appliances on the same connection. They each need a dedicated circuit. Make sure you have space in your panel for these, otherwise upgrading a panel is a ton of money.

It depends what you're thinking of when you say "comforter". To me a comforter is a cover thick enough that a king-size one wouldn't fit in a Little Giant.

Get a duvet for your comforter. You'll be able to wash the duvet.

Which one did you finally decide on? We are also deciding between the W1 and the Little Giant, but when I called the local Miele Experience Center, a salesperson said that the W1's capacity (17 lbs.) is bigger than the Little Giant (15 lbs.). This makes it confusing.

The W1’s capacity varies by type of cycle selected. The Normal/Cotton cycle can take the full 17 lbs, but the WrinkLe Free cycle can only take half that (8.8 lbs), the Delicates cycle can manage a load size of 6.6 lbs and Darks/Denim can be loaded up to 4.4 lbs.. The Little Giants have similar restrictions depending upon cycle chosen, with full capacity available on cotton and some other cycles. But I think it’s safe to say that the more ruggedly constructed Little Giant will stand up to abuse better than the W1. It should ; it’s a lot more expensive.

@CJ-Thank you! Will need to figure out if it's worth it to get the Little Giant.

The little giant has “recommended” max loading just like the w1. Some cycles recommend only half load, etc. This allows the clothes to tumble properly for that specifc program.

the little giant is designed for 20,000 hours of service. The w1 is designed for 10,000 Hours of service. This mostly comes down to the little giant having bearings, suspension and other parts that are heavier duty than the w1. Your paying for the better components.

The w1, cycle for cycle, compared to the little giant will have almost the same ratio of clothes that can be loaded. The w1 will hold slightly more laundry. The little giants will probably wash and dry more quickly on cycles where electric heat is needed to get water up to temp. In cooler water temp cycles the washing times will be about the same.

The T1 dryer times will be longer than the little giant condensor. Maybe 50% longer. I own a T1 dryer and no cycle has taken more than 75-80 minutes. Most cycles are less than an hour. It’s not 30 minutes, but it is acceptable. We’re happy with it.

The main question you need to ask yourself if if you will need the 20,000 hours life of the little giant. How many hours you use the machine will determine which one to buy. Keep in mind the w1 cycles will be longer than the little giant washer. Mostly on cycles that need water heating. For those that do, you will get more cycles out of the little giant due them being shorter in length.

For the price you pay for the little giants you can almost have two sets of w1/t1. That will give you about the same number of cycles as a single set of little giants. the upside would be the ability to run multiple loads at the same time.

The w1 will have other capabilities such as twindos detergent dispensing, intensewash (recirculating water), WiFi app, etc. None of these are essential features, but they are nice to have and the little giant won’t have them.

Both machines would be a good choice. You won’t go wrong either way.

So, if you do a load every day (average) and you buy the w1 and use the normal program and then assume a cycle time of 1.5 hours. This will roughly be 550 hours per year. That means the w1 will last around 18 years give or take. Double the cycles and you get 9 years life, etc.

The little giants on the otherhand will have Slightly shorter cycle times. Take the same scenario from about but shorten the cycle time to 1 hour. Now the hours per year is 365. The 20,000 hours now means the machine should last 54 years. We all know that is unrealistic. 20 years is possible and that would translate to about 2.7 cycles per day or about 19 loads per week.

You can can clearly see the little giants are designed for someone who needs to do 2-4 loads or more per day. This would be good for larger families, small businesses (hair salons, vets, etc.).

Me, personally, if I was going to pay the money for a professional level machine I would want something larger than the little giant. That means I would most likely buy two sets of w1/t1. I get similar longevity, but can push much more laundry through in the same amount of time. With a large amount of Laundry to do, I would much prefer to run colors and whites at the same time instead of back to back. That’s just me though.

Just a correction about the little giant :

Those machines are designed for 30,000 hours of use. (taken from a miele website)

You are correct about the domestic machines.

Luna... that is exactly what I did. For almost the same money I bought 2 sets of the w1 and t1 because I’d like to wash two loads at the same time to spend less total time on laundry.

I have both machines (in different locations). pros for the W1 — no need to hire an electrician to alter outlets and it’s cheaper. Pros for the Little Giant— more durable, faster (since it can heat the water faster and hotter), more flexibility and choices about how it operates (want to specify 4 rinses for your cotton loads and a pre wash and a pre rinse? You can do that). It really depends on how you prefer to do laundry.

Iif you are a big user of liquid laundry detergents and like the Miele version of those detergents, you will appreciate the built in twindos of the W1. the W1 seems to push you in the liquids direction even though you can put your own powder in the main wash compartment. if you want to do a prewash on any of your loads, however, you must use liquid detergent (either twindos or fill the prewash compartment with your own liquid - no powder for prewash permitted).

If if you have the patience, I would read both manuals and compare them (keeping in mind the issues described in the big W1 thread where users have found that the machine does not function exactly as the manual describes).

if price were not a factor (along with cost and inconvenience of hiring an electrician), the Little Giant seems to me the superior machine. its Hard to ignore the price issue, though.

There is an upcoming updated version of the little giant debuting this year but in Germany first. I hear the drums size will be slightly bigger.

Washers are the few appliances I want to take with me if I move. so it last 20 plus years, then it’s worth it .

As for as the electrinity hookup of the current little giant , can you safely hook it up yourself without an electricIan ?

I certainly could not. The installation instructions and manual specify what type of connection is needed and may give you more information about whether you can.

@H Seattle: Hardware stores, and some bookstores, sell books on how to do home electrical wiring. I personally would still hire an electrician as he or she may have additional experience to anticipate what things could possibly go wrong when modifying a circuit for added current, or adding a new one altogether, and may also know about local building practices and materials used over the years.

Seeing how the user satisfaction reviews are leaning at this time, I wonder about the utility of having a mixed set, with the Miele Little Giant washer connected to the 208/240 V outlet that is normally used for a conventional electric vented dryer, and a T1 heat pump dryer connected to the 110-120 V outlet that is normally used for the laundry washer.

There is no real difference between 240v rated outlets other than the amount of current (amps) that they are rated for. You can easily plug a device that draws less current into an outlet rated for More. The downside to this is the breaker may not trip in the case of The appliance malfunctioning and overheating.

I changed rhe outlet for mine when when we got our Miele T9800. It outlet was the three prong oven outlet. I swapped to a four prong. The neutral wire was already threre.

If if you don’t understand electricity then hire someone. Most of these things are pretty simple if you know what your doing.

Now that the new Little Giants (PWM 908 and PDR 908) have been released for a while now, does anyone have any thoughts on the new machines vs the the W1/T1?

It appears the capacity has improved and both the washer and dryer have ~10% larger drum size than the W1/T1 counterparts. (2.58 vs 2.26 for the washer and 4.59 vs 4.02 for the dryer) The cycle times also appear to be much shorter on the LGs.

Downsides are the 240V outlet requirements and the price. I can get 2 sets of the top-of-the-line W1/T1 for the price of a single LG set.

Price and AutoDos are the two downsides to the Little Giant. It is very hard to justify the little giant for use anywhere outside of commercial setting where it will be running almost constantly. To add AutoDosing capability to the little giant will require an extra $500 to $1000 spend on either Miele's solution or a third party solution like Brightwell.

Almost all residential users would be better off buying two sets of the W1/T1. Not only would you be able to do multiple different types of loads at one time, but you would have a spare in the rare case one of the machines breaks down.

The plus side to the Little Giants is you still get US based support. When you call Miele Professional an American still answers the phone and will support you. No calls forwarded to India or wherever they send them to only be hung up on when you need a technician call out. Miele USA-residential support has really gone downhill.

Thanks for the input, it sounds reasonable. Leaning towards 2 sets of the w1/t1 now. I'm going to take my largest comforter to the appliance store and see if it would fit in the w1, fingers crossed. My main hang up is the supposedly long drying cycles of the t1 since it uses a heat pump.

the HP drying times are not long - probably the same as the wash times about an hour. I almost never get backed up

We have a medium weight king comforter that fits in the W1. It also, kinda, fits in the dryer but you have to take it out and reposition during the cycle to get it fully dry

No reason to have a Little Giant set. They are made for commercial use or very rich people

One more question - is there a reason to get the WXR/TXR with the touch controls instead of the WXI/TXI with the rotary knob? It seems the main difference is the controls and a few additional cycle types for an additional $400/machine. Is it worth the upgrade for the price?

One reason to get the WXR W1 would be it is not afflicted with the prewash/soak/add item issue still being worked out. Resolution coming June 2022. If you get the WXI W1 and prewash etc errors with "water inlet error" you will just have to wait for a software update. Functionally you will be fine if you avoid what I have described until update comes along.

The LCD also gives you saved presets. Say you run the extra white cycle with a pre-wash, allergy plus and water plus extras. You can save all that all that to a one touch button with a custom name like ”Work Uniforms” instead of having to use the app every time.

Guess you need to decide if the convenience is worth the money.

@Mark I googled the problem you're describing and I'm shocked that it hasn't been fixed yet. Does the WXR have different software that avoids the water inlet error? If so, that sounds like a reason (even if a bad one) to upgrade.

Yes I know the long period of time this has gone on is beyond. But to redo software for possibly 6 different models, 4 original W1's and now 2 of the new 4 W1's...it will take time. Just made the point so you know what could occur with the machine you purchase. Miele is like no other and you will be happy with them. This issue will be corrected.

Miele rep says the little giant model PD908 8 kg can dry 16 TOWELS, MIX OF BATH TOWELS AND HAND TOWELS in one load. I am sceptical.

Any opinions anyone

Can a Little Giant wash that amount of towels? I have an old Miele brochure that showed that the then current Model 1926 could hold maybe 8 large towels at a maximum. If I ever went back to a FL, I would love that ability to do a load of more than a dozen towels. That would be very appealing to me.

It depends on your towels. Do they lean towads bath sheet/spa towel size and thickness or hotel/motel size and thickness?

We can get 8-10 costco Loft or Charisma towels in the W1 at a time. if it was just hand towels then 45-60 is no problem.

luna, some of our towels are rather large and thick. We last bought a set from Saks Fifth just before we moved into this house, so they are going on 5 years old. They are starting to show wear and tear. I know partly from me washing big loads of towels in the TL.

Our previous washer was a LG FL and it would not do a final spin more than say 70% of the time when it had a big load of towels. I tried lowering the spin speed or using the bulky cycle, but our particular LG just did not like large loads and it was frustrating to live with.

Most residential washer motors are not rated to spin more than 18-20lbs of laundry even if they have a huge drumm. Look at commercial washers and their size compared to the amount of laundry they are rated to handle. That should tell you all you need to know.

My TL washer will spin with 8 towels, some kitchen linens, washcloths and a couple of hand towels in it with no problem at all. I am not an engineer but it seems in the 21st century engineers should be able to design a washer that has no problem spinning any size of load-be it just a few items or throw rugs. Washers in the 1950's were advertised to stay perfectly balanced during spin no matter what happened with the load. So if a machine today can't compensate without harm to the machine itself, that is poor engineering, no matter who the manufacturers are.

There is ZERO problem designing it. The problem is hitting a price point that consumers are willing to pay. If build quality stayed the same from year to year, decade to decade, the prices of those items would rise right along with inflation. To keep prices steady something has to give.

That means shock/struts that are built with lower quality materials. Ever bigger drum size because bigger is better in many minds. This decreases the interior area that the drum can move until balance is achieved. Smaller motors, etc. etc.

There is also a very big difference between a top load washer that spins at 400-800 RPM and a front load washer that spins at 1600 RPM. The G-Forces involved go up significantly as RPM increases AND drum size increases.

The drum in a top load washer with an agitator is about the same size as a smaller front load washer without an agitator, yet almost all top load washers spin at a significantly slower speed. This means longer drying times and more energy used.

The washer of the 1950's that you allude to still exists as a commercial/professional unit. You can still buy that quality with a price tag that will account for that build quality. How many people are willing to pay that price? From the many threads on this very forum, very few are willing to pay.

The balance issues were solved LONG ago. Balance issues with inferior materials is what is being complained about. I don't think that will ever be solved.

How much do you think it would add to the cost of a typical washer to offer that quality? Obviously it would be reserved for their top tier products. I agree that not everyone is willing to or able to pay for a $3K or more washer. I readily admit I would do a LOT of soul searching before I'd pay that much for a washer just because I am trying to reduce the amount of loads I run. But it is something that matters to me, and if the manufacturers offered a product like that, I would definitely consider it.

Your explanation was very informative and fascinating to me.

I have very few balance issues with my Miele W1. Miele’s professional models start around $3800 and go up from there. Look at the cost of a Speed Queen front load, soft mount washer. Its as much or more than Miele and does not include a heater.

I just did my typical load of towels in the W1 at 60C on the Normal cycle. As I folded I counted 4 medium bath towels, 4 large bath towels, and 28 mixed hand and kitchen towels. I could have probably packed one more large bath towel in if I really wanted. The results with towels are always excellent and they are spun very well for fast and efficient drying.

For anyone still reading this thread: M&M Appliances US website shows that they are still carrying two discontinued Miele models that I have had great success with in my laundry room. The PW6068WH Little Giant washer for $999.99! And the TWB120WP no-frills heat pump dryer for $1199.99. Neither has wifi. That's a great deal for a really good Miele laundry set-up. You might have to go to google and type in the model numbers to get to the listings on the M&M website -- that's how I found them. I'm not sure that searching from within the M&M website works unless you put the model numbers in the M&M search box.