My 2006 GE Profile top load washer hasn't needed any repairs in the 12 year I've had it. But earlier this year, my Miele Dishwasher from 2010 died (circulation pump motor), and to fit it would of cost $1000 for part and labor. So I ended up replacing it with a newer Miele at $1200. I didn't care much for the Bosch dishwasher units.

Gah. I hate that you're going thru that. What is a "water path" and how does that break? Seriously, I need to know.

Our seven-year-old W4842 has been giving me problems with the door not unlocking at the end of a cycle and fault message on screen. Manually opening the door was getting old. Long story short, it is going to cost well over $1,000 to get it repaired. First the new door lock, that didn't fix it, so now a new computer panel. I know!!! I could buy a smaller new E-lux washer for that amount of money!!! Hubby choked when I told him the estimate, but that new E-lux wouldn't have the pedestals to raise it up for my bad back, etc. etc. etc.

This is my first and LAST Miele washer. I told hubby the next time it needs a repair, it is getting traded in. I'm having Volvo flashbacks .... two of them (yes, I like to learn my lessons the hard way!). Cars that will run forever if you can afford all the repairs every year. Ugh ..... I now drive Toyotas (on my third one) and love them. LOL

Oh and the water path is basically a plastic pipe piece that has some kind of little propeller thingy in it that moves the water along. That little propeller was not working properly, so the water level was too low and things weren't getting rinsed well. Oddly if we ran the economy cycle it was OK but for longer cycles it was not. I can't explain that part.

The 4842 were models that were made only for North America so I was leery about them. They are not built the way the Eur models are, not the same design, not the same parts. No wonder they were discontinued. I try to stick with models that are also offered in Europe and elsewhere since they are usually released to North America a few years after other areas, and the kinks are worked out of them. My washer is 15 1/2 years old and still going on without problem, but it was made for the European markets and was sold there and other regions before coming to North America. Like my washer, my DW is 12 1/5 years and working ok.

Even so, sometimes things don't work out and you get failures regardless of brand but it seems like there are less problems with the Miele brand overall.

We have a 4842 and 9822 gas dryer since 2010 and the washer has been repaired 3 times and now the dryer is leaking gas and been red tagged by our local gas company. Extremely disappointed. Needless to say, Miele does not make the gas parts anymore, so will be purchasing a new set. Thought it would last 20 years and only got 8. I these North America Miele's were junk, even though they were made like tanks and looked great. Probably why they discountinued them.

I don't mind paying more money for great quality, but expect it to last.

Still tempted to buy the new W1/T1 because it was made for the European market, but suprised they only have one year warranty. May buy a set of the 2017 Stainless Speed Queen Front Loaders, as our local dealer has one set left.

all the Miele stuff now has a 1 year warranty. it does not inspire confidence... It seems like many if not all manufacturers have gone to 1 year. How much could possibly have been going wrong in the second year to have them all cut it?

I have a house full of miele - and I'm about 50-50 on satisfaction with all of them. it was not intentional to end up all Miele - there were many factors in each appliance decision. I keep joking that they need to hire me as a product tester. I can tell them exactly what features i like and don't like and why LOL - separate from reliability issues.

What I don't understand is that why here in the US they only come with a 1 year warranty but you can buy a 5 year extended warranty, while in Canada you can buy a 10 year extended warranty. And sometimes Miele Canada has promos that will include the 5 or 10 year warranty on items.

I don't get that either. Miele Canada has that 5 year promo now. A high end Appliance should have more than a one year warranty. That is a joke, especially considering how expensive their repairs are and how few people service them. Speed Queen is 5 years and I think Asko is at least two. Miele if your stuff is such great quality, back it up! (My 4842 and 9822 were definetly not great quality repair wise.)

I know that you can get 2 with Miele IF it is installed by a certified installer.

When I got a Miele Dishwasher in 2010, it was installed by a company that was certified, so got the 2nd year warranty. But when I purchased the 5 year extended, it starts from date of purchase, so really was a 3 year extended warranty past the first 2 years.

Unfortunately the circulation pump motor died after 8 years back in Jan. The part would of cost $700, plus labor, would of be close to $1000.

I looked to replace the unit, Asko, Miele, and Bosch. But out of all of them, still liked the flexibility of Miele most. I ended up going with the Crystal G6625 model since my dealer had one new in box at a discount. Been using it 4 months now, and a nice improvement over the 8 year old model.

I'll end up buying the 5 year warranty again "just in case".

I thought about the one year Miele warranty for a moment and have a theory. I have a feeling most Americans don't read their user manuals, abuse their appliances and don't do proper maintenance so they wear out quicker.

Maybe true, but that surely is not my family. Heck - I am reading the manuals now on the Miele W1/T1, Speedqueen Frontloaders and LG WM5000HWA before purchasing and definitley did not help with the problems on the 4822 and 9822. I think those problems are due to limited production of those for the NA market, at least I am giving Miele the benefit of doubt. The warranty was even longer on those, so not sure why they changed to one year.

DBV DBV, my W4802 is awaiting diagnosis from Miele Canada. This will be the 3rd repair and I'm thinking of just replacing them (after 8 years). How has switching to the T1/W1 been for you? I note that they have the same 8kg capacity as the W48** series, but have a smaller volume capacity.

It has been great! The T1/W1 are much improved and I think do a much better job washing. I thought be smaller would impact our washing, but it has not. Also was worried about the dryer, but have noticed no difference and I think it is easier on our clothes. Glad we made the purchase and don't miss the W4802 washer and dryer at all. They had too many issues.

Miele does occasionally run 5 year promos in the USA. It is just rare. We got a 5 year warranty on our W4840 and T9800 when we bought them for free as a promo. Lasting 20 years a misnomer. It needs to be qualified. Any car will easily last 20 years if you drive 1000 miles per year. If you put on 30,000 miles per year and expect 20 years then that is something else entirely.

That is why anecdotes of "mine lasted 20 years" and "Mine lasted 8, I am mad" really mean nothing. Miele puts hours of operation counters on ALL of their appliances. This is not usually accessible to consumers unless you find the instructions online. The W4840 and T9800 and the successor models were designed to last 10,000 operating hours. How quickly you use those 10,000 hours determines how long the machine will last FOR YOU.

Our W4840 lived about 10 years. It had 15,000 hours on it when the bearings went out. So it lived 50% longer than it was designed to. We replaced the water path control unit around 7 years in, but the machine had over 10,000 hours on it by this time. The water path control unit is a gear driven unit that directs water to the detergent dispenser tray slot 1, 2 or 3. It usually fails due to buildup of mineral deposits from hard water.

The W4840 was designed for 8KG of laundry. The drum was oversized and you could stuff a LOT more laundry than that inside, which I am sure EVERYONE did since who eyeballs 8KG of laundry. For reference the drum would be about HALF full with 8KG of laundry in a W4840. The new W1 is also certified for 8KG of laundry, but the drum will be almost full with this much inside. You would really have to cram stuff in to overload it. This means the W1 is going to be running at or under its designed capacity for most of it's life. The W4840 was probably overloaded by most consumers and this no doubt had an effect on longevity.

We have a large family (14 people in the house) and we use ONE W1 and ONE T1 washer/dryer combo. We bought the washer in October of 2018. I checked a few days ago and we have over 3000 hours on the washer so far. Not one problem with it. It runs most of the day and part of the night. The T1 has also not had a single problem. We also noticed our electric bill went down about $25-30/month when we switched from the T9800 to the T1. It will most likely pay for most of its cost in electricity savings.

We WILL be buying the five year extended warranty. We have until the manufacturer warranty runs out. We will long surpass 10,000 hours before the extended warranty is expired. Will I be mad I don't get 20 years of life from the unit? Of course not. If it lasts the 10,000 hours it was designed for, then I got my monies worth.

How do you check your hours? Google it. The W4840 had an hour meter. Post how many hours are on on your washer. That will help to clarify if the product is not living up to it's design life. Just because the neighbors have lower end devices that outlasted your Miele does not tell the whole story. Maybe they wear their clothes three or four times before washing them, vs someone else who washes after every wear.

My sister is terrible about going a weeks worth of wear of things like socks, t-shirts and other items that really should be washed after every wear. I could understand if it was dress shirts to an office job where the shirt doesn't touch the body and really doesn't get "Dirty".

When we bought our Mieles the sales staff where we bought also sold commercial washers. They flat out told us the residential LG and Whirlpool would be dead in less than a few years if we did 8-10 loads of laundry a day in them. Said speed queen was the only brand other than Miele that would hold up to our use outside of a commercial unit. We NEEDED an internal water heater to sanitize diapers and under garments. That eliminated Speed Queen.

We had the 4842 washer that lased 7 or 8 years. (I forget exactly) It took one door seal, and in the end died of a corroded spider bracket. The repairman said it was the bearing, but we took it apart to see if we wanted to replace the bearing ourselves and found the spider bracket was disintegrated. (The bearing was fine). I really did like that washer and I think we need to think in terms of "loads done" instead of years. I do at least 10 (up to 15) loads a week, which is most likely way more than a lot you do. So I did get a lot of use from it.

Mine is a W4802. luna123456, do you know how to check the hours on it? Google didn't give an answer.

I am not sure on the models without a display. I remember finding it once in the past, but it was sort of a pain since that model doesn't have a display. Basically you press a specific button sequence, close the door, then push a specific button sequence and then lights next to certain buttons turn on or off. You need a chart to match the buttons that are lit to read the information. I think most techs use their laptops on this model. They have a software program that can read and display the information in a much easier fashion.

For models with a display it is much easier as you can scroll though the menus, select a feature and display/change it's value.

For the W4840 and W4842 to check hours you do the following:

Note - Access has to be completed within 10 s.
- Press Start and hold.
- Close the door.
- Release the Start pad, as soon as the Start LED flashes.
- Press Start 3 times and at the 3rd time, hold until the Start LED flashes
rapidly (5 Hz).
Acknowledgement indicator
Start LED flashes rapidly (5 Hz).
Display: The display shows the service department program mode.
If access is not successful, the control reverts automatically to "select program".

You can also replace the "3 times" with "5 times" to enter programming mode. Service mode basically shows you Operating hours, fault codes (you need a manual to know what the code refers to), etc. Programming mode lets you change things like enabling max water level, automatic extra rinse and other things you should not change. The firmware has options that don't do anything on the W4840 or W4842.

Once your done with the menus you scroll down to exit. The display will "reboot" and your back in "normal" operating mode.

So. the replacement of the water path control unit ended up costing $535 (Cdn, including tax). I also had the tech confirm that it's got 4800 hours on it. So there should be lots of life in it yet. Fingers crossed.

If you can soften your water (if it is hard) that should prevent the water path control unit from getting full of mineral deposits.

Water here in Ottawa is 30 mg/L (1.75 grains per US gallon). I think that's pretty soft. Not much deposits to worry about.

Hmmm. Did the tech leave your old water path control unit? Would be interesting to see what was wrong with it. I put up a video of what mine was doing before it was replaced:

I don't know. Someone else let him into the house and I dealt with him by phone. I'll check when I get home.

My water path control unit just started leaking, from what I understand it is $700 + to replace, $200 for just the seals, for $700 I am going to try to fix it myself!