My Miele Morning!

13 years ago

Well, the Miele techs just left. I had to have them out to fix my speed oven, which had sadly stopped broiling and convecting and had become a very expensive microwave. Since I used to be a technician myself years ago, I totally know when a tech knows what he or she is doing.

And when he or she does not.

The fellow who came out today really knew his stuff. Since I had had my oven apart previously to fix a separate issue, I knew, for instance, how the top panel has to be canted up from the rear for a retention lip to be freed along its front edge. It was like the guy had done it before. The master tech also had along an apprentice who is just learning the ropes. Since my oven was being worked on and I was paying them for the work, I decided to listen in and ask questions, too. It was great fun!

Let me cut to the chase and tell you what was wrong with my speed oven. I have the H4080BM, the slightly older Master Chef model (mine is one that I bought new from a builder who had it sitting in his garage for awhile and never used it) Anyway, what had happened is the bearings in the cooling fan had stiffened up so that the fan wasn't turning fast enough. There is an rpm counter on the fan that sends a continuous stream of pulses to the logic board, telling it how fast the fan is turning. If it does not turn fast enough, the logic board will not energize the resistance heater elements, either the convector in the back or the broiler element above.

So it was a bad fan causing my problems.

If you happen to own one of these ovens and find one day that it will not heat up by the resistance heaters, but will still microwave, you should suspect the fan as a possible culprit. It is a squirrel cage style affair and should spin easily by hand. If it feels stiff and hard to turn, it needs to be replaced. (fixed would work, actually, but the Miele guys have to replace it) I kept my old one and intend to fix it in case the new one fails.

I did find out how to put the oven into program mode and into diagnostic mode. I now give this information unto you, Dear Gardenwebsters. Use it and prosper.

To put the machine into programming mode (such as to set input power, etc.)

1. Press clear button and hold it.

2. Now press on-off. Hold both for 1 second then release both simultaneously.

3. Now, press clear button 5 times, but on the fifth push, hold it until the display changes to the programming display.

4. Voila, you are in programming mode.

To put the machine into diagnostic mode, do the same as above, but push the clear button 3 times only and on the third push, hold as above until the diagnostic screen pops up. With the diagnostics mode, you can check such things as your fan, your heaters, read the fault codes if any have popped, etc. Be careful with this mode, and with every other nugget of information I share with you, so as not to goon your oven or injure yourself on a hot surface.

I was quite impressed with the boys from Miele. They were VERY professional, very competent. The master tech, Alex (he's from Portugal) knows that oven front ways and back. He was thorough, checking for other problems while he had the machine open, and very gracious about answering my questions. They even have these festive little booties they put on their shoes so as not to track dirt into the house!

Anyway, I have my speed oven back, which is huge for me. I think I can sense nachos coming on.

Featured Answer

Rues Savel

8 years ago

After the microwave function on our Miele Speed Oven stopped working, we called CS for information and repair. They scheduled a service technician to our home, and warned us of the 200$ cover charge for his visit (+time $$ +parts$$). After reading this article I decided to remove the oven from the cabinet, unscrew the top, and check for anything unusual myself. Eureka! The 12A/250V fuse was burnt. It cost me 1,60$ for a new fuse, and the oven works fine.

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Comments (11)

dodge59
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I havta admit, being a "Techie", I'm impressed, a fan tachometer!!!!!

Gary
mojavean
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Couple of things to add to the narrative.

First of all, I did a refurb on the old blower unit. The problem was largely dust/gunk in the motor bushings.

Yes, I said bushings, not bearings. Instead of using roller or pin bearings for the motor shaft, Miele uses those old oilite bushings made out of pot metal and impregnated with oil. They are totally open to environmental dust and were gunked up plenty. I disassembled and cleaned them thoroughly and lubed them up with gun oil. Back together again it works fine.

The other thing the Miele rep did was to replace the microwave fuse. No, it hadn't blown. But Miele had discovered that the 10A fuses originally supplied with the microwave were blowing unnecessarily under normal conditions. They have instructed their field reps to replace the 10A fuses with 12A variants. The tech did not charge me for the fuse swap. So if you happen to blow a fuse on your Miele speed oven, replace it with a 12A.
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maire_cate
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Very interesting - did the Miele tech happen to mention if Miele was wise enough to change the design on newer models to eliminate this issue?
mojavean
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The 12A fuse, part #06817920, IS the change. Miele specs this fuse for all the speed ovens now.

If you have to have Miele out to work on your oven, I would ask them to check the fuse while they have it apart (if they have not done so already) and replace the old fuse with a newer one if its a 10 amp.
rococogurl
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
mojavean, do you make supervisory housecalls?
plllog
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for this great report. I don't have any Miele ovens, and don't really know my bushings from my bearings, but it was a lot of fun reading about your service call. I'm a sucker for competence stories. :)
lapsangtea
8 years ago
I missed this story in 2011, but enjoyed it this morning, esp. with Rues Savel's follow up. Go garden web! Nice job Rues. Glad to hear that you were able to fix your Speed Oven. Thanks to mojavean for posting the relevant info!
aliris19
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
mojavean, you are a gem. Thank you. Don't know if any of the old guard still haunt this place in its new incarnation, but Hi! if you do.

My MW only failed and it's 6.5 yo already. $155+$90 for a service visit and the guy said it was "probably the fuse" so .... now I'm in there looking for it. If anyone's out there -- do you happen to know *where* that fuse is located?

TIA and thanks, redundantly!!!
aliris19
6 years ago
Update. Mojavean who appears possibly no longer around, is a sterling soul, IMHO. This post has just kept on giving. More recently, Rues Savel seems to have benefited and just easily replaced the offending fuse. I've had a harder time with that, only because the correct, safe replacement is hard to locate. A few folks want me to "just use this, it's good enough", but I want the exact same one that was there. Inside the unit is a huge warning sign, and it just seems they really mean it about getting the replacement 100% correct.

First, the part number listed above is proprietary and Miele's and they won't sell it to me. I managed to figure out and translate that to these specs: 12Amp, 250Volt, "T" ("time-lag"?), class H ("ceramic"?). Here's an online source: http://www.littelfuse.com/search-results.aspx#q=0215012&t=PartsTab

Locating this in the little burb of Los Angeles has not been fun. Not at: car parts store, local hardware, local appliance supplier, local appliance repairer (2), local electric supply house.

But the guy at Littlefuse.com was great. 1 773-628-1000

And guess who else has been FABULOUS? The guys who sold me this unit: abt.com . 888-228-5800 . They are amazing. I recommend anyone to buy any appliance they have through these guys. I have had so many occasions over the years to love love love these guys. This is just the latest. (they've overnighted damaged stuff, argued my case in out-of-warranty matters, etc, but all different stories).

After calling Miele twice and being told nicely but firmly that they won't supply any schematics or any help on this and that the service call is a minimum $245 before parts, a repair tech where I bought it has been unbelievably helpful and supportive on the phone. I would give his name but perhaps that's not fair without permission. He works as a repairer for ABT, which is a brick/mortar store in Chicago that also sells online. He's been amazing.

After explaining that capacitors can store thousands of volts even after the unit is unplugged and therefore having laymen mucking about inside isn't exactly wise, just his encouragement and verification allowed me to locate the correct part on my own and test it and figure out the issues. Also with mojavean's help. I wouldn't probably have had the courage without his gruff explanations and/or perhaps I might not have had the lifebreathe if I had forged ahead in barefeet tapping everything randomly with a metal screwdriver (OK, I wouldn't have done that but the reminder has been good).

So failing to find the part locally means I must wait a few days to see if it's all going to work. As well as to determine whether there's programming fiddling that needs happening too. But I'm hopeful not.

I still have never located a service manual or any sort of sense for sure about what's going on. There is a red-housed thingymabob that looks like there's a bit of carbon up top suggesting the possibility of a short. I hope not, but, it's possible this fuse blew for another reason than old age. It was not the 10A but a 12A. Everyone worries that the doors are off-kilter tripping the fuse for safety reasons. The doors don't seem to be uneven but .... we'll see.

Mr. Littelfuse sells by the gazillions so he just set a "sample" single into the mail for me.

It's funny, my local hardware is filled with the most horrible, trogladytic males imaginable. But these days, just about everyone else has gotten over their y-chromosome, seemingly, and is kinda pleased to work with a female on this stuff (that did not used to be the case). It's really nice, I gotta say. When I called the autoparts guy he asked that I come see him especially and said it was such a pleasure to meet me. Sometimes some things do change.

I can post photos if that might be helpful for posterity. I might wait and see if I've actually really fixed this first!
aliris19
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Bad news for the good guys.

It's not just random fuse-blowings and I think it's time for the professionals.

Here's what happened.

My new fuse just showed up (thank you LittelFuse!!!!), looking 100% like the other one, beautifully open and power flowing through.

I put it in the machine, grabbed a fire extinguisher to be nearby, plugged it in and threw the breaker.

Display's good, interior light's good, just turned dial to the MW setting, didn't even press any buttons. The kitchen starts making a noise. I have an electric water heater plugged in across the room to a GFI and it's buzzing. I reach to switch off the MW dial and the buzzing stops, but which is first I don't know. I cannot reset the GFIs. I unplug the water pot and use it in another outlet and it does turn on so it's not damaged and the outlet is the problem.
The GFI light is not on. I still cannot reset the GFIs. I think there's a slight odor but I am not positive. What's really weird though is that there is an undercabinet light on the same outlet: that still works.

I throw the breaker, unplug the MW and check: my new fuse is indeed blown.

I should re-throw the breaker and check the GFI... but ... that can't be a problem because I used the hot water pot earlier when the breaker was still off and it worked fine. I'll verify that though.

This is so weird I cannot say because I don't see how the GFIs could have anything to do with the water pot but there is no mistaking that connection; it was not accidental.

So ... maybe some weird short in the walls, not even the machine?

Another oddity electrically around here: an outdoor (old) fridge was discovered to be off last night, blown fuse. It is very, very distant from this other breaker. However I checked it after this event: it is still fine.

WTF?

House breaker just reset and verified that GFIs still will not come back. Undercabinet lighting still on. Also tested nominal GFI breaker throwing on then off, still can't reset the GFIs. No other fuses appear blown.

????? Professionals time I think.

At least I know where to get another fuse.

dh thinks maybe there's a physical short of wires behind the box, that just because the GFI wires are on another breaker doesn't mean they can't short.

Is there any possibility MW are flowing across the interior wiring? Why would this have happened just twisting the dial to MW and not even pushing a button to turn them on?

yikes.

My Miele Morning!

Rues Savel

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My Miele Morning!

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