Well, I have Asko and Miele washers and the Miele is generally considered very expensive but very high quality.

OTOH, I've had the Asko since the early 90s and this particular Miele machine for about a decade and both have given me excellent and trouble-free service, (utterly without issue on the Miele, and only a minor one on the Asko.)

And I average 30-40 loads per week, so I consider they've earned their keep.

I wouldn't hesitate to replace my Miele with another Miele if I could buy an older one of my model, which is no longer available, unfortunately. I don't think much of the recent dumbing down of the cycle options on current Miele (USA) models, but I think if one wasn't already accustomed to the extreme flexibility of my model the currently available selections could be OK. I would expect the same high quality, even if the latest Miele options didn't please me.

I would examine the current crop of Askos carefully, not for feature differences, but for quality and build standards since their parent company has changed.

And if you do a lot of laundry, and space and costs are really not an issue, I'd opt for a double washer set-up like mine. Very handy to have.

I don't think Asko makes gas dryer, and I think Miele may only be coming out with one, or has just done so. Dryers aren't a big thing for me as I am a hanger-outer, even in the depths of a northern NY winter.

HTH,

Molly~

If money were no object I would hire Molly to do my laundry. I am not sure about hanging my undies ouside in the NY winter, though. Brrrrrrrr!

And I average 30-40 loads per week, so I consider they've earned their keep.

WOW. As a family of three (two adults, one 3yo) who does maybe 3-5 per week, I am boggling at that number!

May I please be nosy and ask for details? :-)

--Steve

For the American marketplace and your situation as you described it I'd buy large and common. "Common" could depend on your service area.

"Large" would be 3.8 - 4.0 nominal cf. Almost double the Miele and Asko capacities but without 220v hook-up. You'll be limited to lower temps but OK to 150F- 160F. My most-common cycle is "whitest whites" (stupid designation -- why don't they just tell me the temp?) which boosts to 127F.

My money went to Whirlpool Duet 9400 two trouble-free years ago. Second choice would have been Bosch. Third LG.

I like Meile and Asko both but the scant service network where I live, smaller size, and 220v hook-up knocked them out of consideration early for me.

I guess when I got my new washer money and space were not really a concern. I would not pay what a local dealer was selling the Miele for, but that is just because I could not bring myself to spend $2400.00 on a machine to do a chore I dislike. (Plus they would not exchange for another machine if I was not happy with it, not a chance I was willing to take.) Now if it was a new oven...

So, I started with the Bosch 500 and ended up with the Cabrio HE. I had vibration/rinse issues with the Bosch which caused problems with my heart problem/ allergies. I switched to the Cabrio because I could not stand the pots rattling on my stove, and the itchy skin after two weeks. The Cabrio has been great, and the capacity is huge! I currently do about 10 loads of laundry a week. I did 15 loads a week with the Bosch, and 17 loads a week with my old Kenmore TLer (super capacity plus size). The Cabrio washes faster than the Bosch so It does not take all day to do the laundry, Yeah!

I have 2 adults and 1 17 year old boy. I can see 15 loads of laundry a week easily, that is what I used to do. I'm impressed by foolyap's 5 loads a week, and with a 3 year old! That is amazing! Your 3 year old must be the neatest child! My breakdown goes like this. Have one husband who wears XL and dresses in office cloths then changes to casual wear in the evenings, one 6 foot tall teenager who loves very heavy cargo shorts/pants with about 12 pockets apiece, and a family that likes really large and very thick Turkish cotton bath sheets, and uses one a person each day, plus one to hang in each of three baths. Then add bedding, whites, and athletic wear and you get 1 load whites, 2 loads delicates, 2 loads perm press, 2 loads dark, 2 loads towels, and 1 load bedding per week. Extra on weeks I wash comforters, blankets, and mattress pads.

So what is your breakdown foolyap? How do you do it? And yes, before anyone asks, all my loads are max size per machine directions (that means full for towels, sheets, darks, whites and about half full for perm press and delicates to prevent wrinkling).

I have the GE Harmony set and I love it. It is a TL without the agitator so it has lots of room and it's an HE so it uses less water. I'd but another one in a minute.

I have 2 adults and 1 17 year old boy. I can see 15 loads of laundry a week easily, that is what I used to do. I'm impressed by foolyap's 5 loads a week, and with a 3 year old! That is amazing! Your 3 year old must be the neatest child! My breakdown goes like this. Have one husband who wears XL and dresses in office cloths then changes to casual wear in the evenings, one 6 foot tall teenager who loves very heavy cargo shorts/pants with about 12 pockets apiece, and a family that likes really large and very thick Turkish cotton bath sheets, and uses one a person each day, plus one to hang in each of three baths. Then add bedding, whites, and athletic wear and you get 1 load whites, 2 loads delicates, 2 loads perm press, 2 loads dark, 2 loads towels, and 1 load bedding per week. Extra on weeks I wash comforters, blankets, and mattress pads.

So what is your breakdown foolyap? How do you do it?

I guess we just have a less active, less clothes-changing lifestyle. Maybe we're the unusual case?

DW and I both are white collar geeks. We both wear super casual clothes; blue jeans, and T-shirts or polos. Frankly, both of us tend to wear the same pair of jeans for multiple days, so our own clothing contribution mostly tends to be shirts and underwear (small). We also don't change clothes when we get home at night. So that's maybe two loads, total.

The three of us each (re)use a towel for a week, hanging them to dry between uses, before washing them. That's one partial load.

Bedding is a once-a-week change, but we typically just change & wash the sheets. That's one load. Kitchen towels also get tossed into that load.

And DD's clothing is all pretty small stuff, given that she's only three, so though each day she goes through a change of day-clothes (at daycare) and a change of PJs, the total is no more than a load.

Neither DW nor DD are doing sports of any kind, where uniforms come into play. Neither do I, but I will often get totally filthy on the weekend doing landscaping or woodworking; that's at most another load.

--Steve

Why would a towels hanging in a bathroom for decorative purposes need to be washed weekly? That's much excessive.

Who hangs decorative towels nowadays? The only towels in our baths are the ones that get used for drying hands, faces, etc. Neither my son nor myself could get away with reusing towels multiple days because of allergies. The same goes for cloths. I actually have to change my cloths and shower after I go shopping at certain stores because of the levels of allergens (esp. fragrances). Sometimes I have to wash my hair twice to get the smell out and the use a saline solution to clean out my nose and eyes. I realize most people do not have to be concerned with keeping their homes free of allergens to this extent, but I did think it was normal to wash towels after bathing. I know a lot of people who wear their jeans multiple times between washes, I used to do that with dresses until my allergies got so bad.

Ah, allergies, that's a tough one. My sympathies. Well, towels are bulky, so I can see how the washer loads would add up quickly if you need to be washing those frequently.

We only use fragrance-free detergents in the laundry ourselves, but not because of allergies; we just find the perfumes in "normal" soaps and detergents used to be noxiously overpowering.

--Steve

Isn't that the truth, I can barely stand to walk through the detergent aisle. What I wonder is do women wash their cloths separate from the men of the families or do men really like to smell like flowers? My husband likes to tease his brother about smelling "April fresh" because my sister-in-law uses one of those highly fragranced detergents. He said he can't wear aftershave anymore because it clashes!