Little Giant question
Comments (101)
suburbanmd
8 years ago
enduring
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Miele Professional (Little Giant)
Comments (39)We have had three sets of Miele's over the years since 87 when my daughter was born. We gave our c.1987 Mieles to our daughter when she was 20 and moved into her first condo. She's now in her new home (she built the thing!) and her Miele's moved with her into the new house. They've been thru a $700 factory service reconditioning ten years ago, and never had a service call on either of them over the years. These machines are now 31 years old and still working like all Miele's do. Amazingly well! We bought a pair of "Little Giants" when we were building our retirement home about five years back. I just didn't want to buy another pair before I left this world...and the way they run, it looks like my investment will eventually pay off on that score. While the 'standard' Miele's have been "Americanized" and dumbed down - like they no longer run on 220v current and the washer now doesn't heat about 158 degrees, etc., the Little Giant's have a built in heater for hot water and it will get to 195 degrees and be held there for the entire wash cycle. These things are fast, efficient, and work as well, if not better than the Miele's of 15-20 years ago before the "Americanizing" of the standard US Models. The dryer we have is electric and vented. Our electrician had to put in a couple of extra 220 vac circuits for the Washer and Dryer, and it was money well spent. They do not use a lot of power except when heating. But given the 1400 RPM spin speed, the clothes don't take long in the dryer anyway. Maybe 1520 minutes to completely dry a load of towels (and we don't buy skimpy towels in this household - they're Egyptian long staple cotton and made by some mill in the UK and last forever, even though they're about 70/each for a bath towel and 90-100 for a bath sheet. That same company that makes the towels holds a royal warrant and supplies the linens to Buckingham Palace and the Queen's other residences as well. Not cheap but we've still got some we bought in 1994 and they are still looking great - of course you NEVER use chlorine bleach in a Miele. With decent detergent (Persil Powder is our fav) and hot water and enough time, almost any household stain comes out and towels are left in good shape and blindingly white, too. The Little Giant pair we bought cost me about $7100 all together including delivery and set-up by Miele Factory Service and a visit from their Scottsdale Store Manager to teach us how to use them (totally unnecessary but she didn't know this was our 4th set of Miele's over the years, although none in the pro series till these.) And we did learn some finer points about the machines and the various programs already built in and how to create a custom program if we wished to do so. My spouse has dozens of silk shirts and they did get a custom program designed just for those garments. Perfect results every time - better than our cleaners could manage and a hell of a lot cheaper than paying the dry cleaner $15 dollars each to toss the shirts in with who-knows-what kind of dirty fluid, and then press them and leave them smelling of cleaning fluid under the plastic! Ugh! I'd much rather have them washed at home - cleaner, wear longer, and the colors look better too! The savings on our dry-cleaning and laundry bill has probably paid for the Little Giants several times over during the past few years. And our dry cleaner's prices keep spiraling upward. I took in some cotton sheets to have them done while I housekeeper was off on vacation. I got nailed $18.50 for each sheet (king) and $6.50 for each pillow case and (get this!) $10 per sham. Doing that one change of sheets cost me over $100 at the laundry. In fairness we own a Miele Ironing system and a Miele Rotary iron so doing the sheets at home is not difficult and our housekeeper says she actually enjoys ironing them with the Miele products! And it takes her less than an hour to do the sheets, pillowcases, shams, and duvet cover... thanks to the investment in the Miele ironing system and rotary iron. I didn't feel I could do them as well as she does, hence my braving the cleaners and getting ripped off royally in the process. Sorry. Bottom line for us is the Miele's are amazing. The residential machines were excellent. The Little Giants Pro Series are simply AMAZING! Pricey? Yes they are. But if you are fussy about laundry, do a lot of table linens, sheets and fine shirts, blouses, etc., that you probably send out - these things will more than repay the investment in savings, durability of towels and sheets, etc. My mom gave us some Porthault sheets for Christmas a few years ago. I didn't have any idea they were over $3500 for a hand-embroidered set of sheets, cases and shams. But we do them at home, in the Miele's, and have been since the day we got them. The look brand new today. No fading, no color bleed. and their condition is like they came out of the package last weekend, not three or four years ago. BTW: we use them often because they're our favorites although I cannot bring myself to order more at those prices. If it weren't for Mom's generosity I'd have never owned a set. <grin> If you're doubting or questioning the value and durability of the Little Giants - my advice is BUY THEM. You will have no regrets. We certainly don't!...See MoreMiele Little Giant questions
Comments (14)I got extremely lucky and picked up this pair from a dealer that was closing a location and got the floor models for roughly half off and will be having them installed over the weekend. I was surprised by the earlier poster that called Miele and didn't get help. You have to be sure to navigate through the phone options and select "Commercial/Professional Equipment" to get to the right folks. The rep sent me two documents that are incredibly helpful. One of them is a Technical Service Bulletin that gives explicit information on two transformers that should work: 1. McMaster Carr P/N 70525K76 2. Grainger P/N 2CM61 (Square D #1S46F) I ordered the model from McMaster because their private label transformer was $172 vs $426 for Square D. The wiring diagram for the transformer is available on McMaster's website, so your electrician can look at it and see what he needs to do ahead of time. My electrician is coming in the morning to wire this up and (fingers crossed) I should be good to go. The two documents Miele sent me were WAY more informative than what's available publicly from their website in the Operation Guide / Installation Instructions and are exactly what an electrician would need to properly prepare the electrical for the dryer. I gave them feedback that this information should be incorporated in the installation instructions to prevent a lot of headaches....See MoreChristmas & Bday arrived today...BIG MIELE NEWS. Little Giant BIG!!
Comments (94)I never wash my down beds - that clumps the feathers ! I do hang them out in the winter to fluff them up ! Like the German story for children : Frau Holle :) I guess it is a preference :) but Germans never wash their down comforters ( they usually cost about 300 dollars and upward , depending on the feather fill ) I just got rid of some my mom used to have about 45 years old !...See MoreQuestion for Miele Little Giant owners - small laundry loads
Comments (15)I have had Miele washer from early 1980:s and there have never been any problems. Miele came with automatic level control late 80's early 90's. That was when they gave up the 1/2 option button. I have said this before and I think that nost washers are underused in capacity, a Miele washer you can pack the drum full and the washresult are great, a bit more wrinkles but thats it. Miele is the only washer I ever used that never had any problems spinning even very hard to spinn loads like area ruggs or pillows....See More
rococogurl
8 years ago
larsi_gw
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agomamapinky0
8 years agolinus2003
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoHere's the Miele truck in my driveway:
They came with the wrong base (12" closed instead of 12" open), plus it was damaged. I discussed base height with the installer, and he assured me that flexing won't be a problem with the 19" base. So they're changing the order to 19" open base, and will reschedule after they find out availability of the 19". Until then the washer will sit in the living room.
Donna-37
8 years agomamapinky0
8 years ago
Alex Chicago
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoYou all would probably have accepted the delivery guy's offer to install the washer on the base he had, and come back later when the new base arrived. I decided I didn't want the machine moved around any more than necessary, especially since I do have a working washer already. No, I'm not going to remove the packaging...though the Little Giant would make a unique piece of living room furniture :-) Come to think of it, with unfinished basement under the living room there's nothing keeping me from installing hookups there, except for residual sanity.
Oh, and this is actually my second Little Giant for the week. The first one arrived on Sunday from Amazon:
whirlpool_trainee
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agomamapinky0
8 years agoJean
8 years agoenduring
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoI was already annoyed. Now that I called Miele Concierge again, I'm steamed... They said I was removed from the schedule because I didn't reply to the email giving the 2-hour window. Here is the email:
It doesn't ask for a reply. Would you reply to an email like that, or would you just update your calendar? This really sounds like an excuse, not the truth, I hate to say.
They gave me a new date of January 18th, but there's a problem because it was agreed between me and the guy who delivered the machine that he would come back the next time (he was scheduled to come today). He's on vacation next week. He's familiar with the installation, particularly the important detail that I want the stand bolted to the basement floor. He wasn't going to do it if I hadn't asked, but has the equipment on his truck and is able to do it. Before I placed the order, I had called Miele to ask about stability on the stand, and was told that it has to be bolted down (you might remember that from an earlier thread).
I told the rep tonight that the installer has to come prepared to bolt down the stand into concrete. He said they don't come with equipment for that, and I replied 1) The first guy was prepared to do it; 2) The installation instructions require it, per my pre-order phone call and the install instructions online. We left it that he is going to contact Miele Professional installation, and get back to me tomorrow. Now I'm thinking that maybe they should be sending a special Miele Professional installer, since I've bought a Miele Professional machine.
Oh, and I asked about compensation for their screwups, and he offered to refund the $99 delivery charge, which isn't enough for two screwups, especially when one of them is just flat standing me up. He said he'll have his supervisor call me. Maybe I have to call tomorrow and ask to speak to a supervisor. Normally I get annoyed at glitches, and then swallow it and move on. But I'm really steamed now.suburbanmd
8 years agomamapinky0
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoTucker Zoey
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoOK, it's up and running in the basement:
I'm 5' 10", and the 19" stand puts the machine at a good height for me. It's a little too tall for my wife who's 5 feet. But she showed little interest in it (until now :-) ), and hardly ever goes in the basement, so I didn't consider usability for her.
The special legs just have rubber with a grippy pattern on the bottom:
I'm leaving for Brooklyn early tomorrow, in time to stay a couple of days and beat the snow. So I can't play with it yet.suburbanmd
8 years ago
sshrivastava
8 years agoDonna-37
8 years agomrb6228
8 years agoDonna-37
8 years agomamapinky0
8 years agolarsi_gw
8 years agosuburbanmd
8 years agoenduring
8 years agosshrivastava
8 years ago
larsi_gw