There are a few nice new features. One of these – which the company is calling AddLoad – allows you to add items to your wash at any point in the cycle. This will be useful not only for the stray socks you find on the floor 10 minutes after putting the washing in, but also for garments that you want to join the load at the start of the rinse or spin cycle, or later on in a drying programme. Miele has also improved its power wash programme to reduce the cycle time by 10 minutes, from 59 to 49 minutes for a 4kg load. The company is also using a new refrigerant in its dryers. Not only does this speed up the drying cycle by 20 minutes (the new machines can dry 8kg of clothing in a cottons wash in only 2 hours 35 minutes) but the coolant is completely fluorocarbon free and therefore environmentally harmless. It’s always good to see a company designing its products with their ultimate environmental impact in mind and indeed Miele is touting the longevity of its appliances as an environmental benefit, with Richard Treffler, category manager for Laundry at Miele GB, saying: “In a world where everyone is becoming more conscious of waste and our impact on the planet, buying appliances that will last has never been more important.” Miele asserts that its appliances are tested to last for 20 years of use. This means that the door should open and close 60,000 times and the drum should last for 7,500 rotations. As a final check, a pair of tights is run over the honeycomb of the drum to ensure that nothing will catch or snag – which may help the average pair of tights last more than a week. As you might expect, connectivity is a big part of the range. The app allows you to remotely pause the wash as soon as you spot that vital piece of clothing you naturally forgot to include. Miele products are Alexa-compatible as well, so you can verbally request a status update on the programme and (we think) pause a cycle with a voice command. The washer and dryers can also share information, so the dryer can suggest a programme based on the washing machine’s information about the load. You can also use the app or Alexa to get information about different functions and programmes, as well as to order laundry products like detergent. Another advantage of connectivity is that your machines will inform you when they’re running low on these things. The question mark we have is over how well Miele’s app and connected functions will match the quality of the company’s product engineering. A quick look on the Miele@mobile app on Apple shows that it has an average of 1.5 stars out of 5 from 94 ratings, and an average of 2.4 from 870 users in the Google Play Store. The most common criticisms are that the app is slow or buggy and that initial set-up is complicated and doesn’t match instructions. If you want one of the new washers or dryers, the range is now available to buy in the UK from Miele. If you purchase two freestanding appliances, you can use the code DIRECT1019 to receive a 10% discount. Emma is Home Tech Editor at Tech Advisor. She covers everything from kitchen appliances to smart home devices, from floor care to personal care to air care technology. She’s particularly interested in environmentally conscious brands and products that save people time and money.
