Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am posting a revised review of the Miele W4840/T9820. The reason is, I want to revise my score upward. (Fair is fair.) I include the original review for reference below.
I stand by my original assessment of these products, EXCEPT, I was very fortunate that my Miele dryer had a recall. (I am not kidding about this). After a few false starts, the Miele repair guy came out with a firmware change for the dryer. I complained to him that the washer was not getting my clothes clean, and I discovered that there are TWO PAGES of firmware options available to be set by a repair technician. These options include "hygiene" and "allergies", each of which increases the amount of water used in the wash.
Turning on these two options, my washing machine now uses enough water to get my clothes clean. What a concept!
I have 2 things I want to accomplish by re-writing this review. First, if you already own a Miele W4840, and if you agree that the clothes aren't getting clean enough because of too little water is used, you need to know that THERE IS A FIX. Second, if you have the hots for a Miele and are just smitten with the idea of the quality and reliability, my advice is to get them to CHANGE THE FIRMWARE FROM THE GET-GO, so that the clothes are actually immersed in water. Otherwise, you're headed for my initial experience.
My opinion on the dryer hasn't changed a bit.
I think I figured out the problem with Miele USA. When I filled out my warranty registration, and mailed it in, they mixed up my phone number, which is my account number. So any service requests just went straight to the circular file.
Here is the original review. I still think it accurately represents what you will get if you buy a unit is the "stock" firmware settings:
I soooo wanted to like this washer/dryer set (W4840/T9820). I shop for quality and reliability, and am willing to pay a significant price premium to get it. On top of that, I have a Miele dishwasher and I love it. So when my Maytag got elderly, the skids were greased for Miele Nirvana. Alas, it was not to happen. Its not that this product is terrible, it is just that it is not that great, across the board.
I had a very minor warranty failure, and my experience tells me that if you have any real problems, you're hosed. I just had a burned out LED indicator on the dryer. Called the Miele office in NJ. Got the big stall/phone tag/shuck and jive. Eventually, I asked them to just mail me an LED and tell me how to fix it. Nope. After several phone calls, and a no-show appointment (over a period of 6 weeks), I just gave up. My dryer has a burned out indicator. That's just the way it is. Not the biggest thing in the world, but for $3700+ delivered, I figured they could stand behind the warranty. Nope. Warranty performance = F.
Just speculation, but I'll bet that non-warranty repair is a nightmare. There are so few of these sold that probably there are very few people with repair experience, and there is probably not an adequate stock of spare parts. Just a guess.
My biggest beef is that it doesn't wash the clothes all that well. Now, this is my first experience with Energy Saving front loaders, so maybe this is life after going Green, but the bottom line is that I'd rather have my old Maytag top loader. I think that Miele just went so berserk trying to save water that they lost sight of the fact that the purchaser buys this product to get his clothes clean. I have resorted to using the extra prewash cycle for everything, and the extra rinse to get the soap out. To me, this is kind of like the first low-flow toilets, where you get to flush twice. Cleaning performance = B-
The dryer doesn't work all that great, either. Everything is based on a moisture sensor (no simple timer mode), and my experience is that things either come out damp (normal mode) or over-dried and shrunk (extra dry mode). I have resorted to running everything on normal mode/gentle heat and then letting the dryer run in fluff/no wrinkle mode for a while (an extra 30 minutes or so) in attempt to get dry but not shrunk clothes. Drying performance = D.
Both the washer and the dryer are incredibly energy efficient. I saw a noticeable drop in my utility bill. Energy saving performance = A (until you start adding back extra cycles to get things clean).
The controls are needlessly complicated. You feel like a space shuttle pilot getting ready to dock at the space station. It's not that you can't figure it out, but why should you have to? User interface: C-
Now, in all honesty, I have to say that other than the LED indicator, nothing else has failed in 2 years of regular use (2 adults, no kids). Both units seem to be very well made, and I think (hope?) it is not pipe-dreaming to expect that these units will last for a long time. If they do, however, it will be a mixed blessing, since they just don't work all that well.
I just can't believe that this is as good as it gets for a $3700 washer/dryer.
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