20 Most Recent Miele WT945 Front Load Washer / Dryer Questions & Answers

STAGE 2: EASY ROOT CAUSE FIX (1 hour)

The next stage is to attempt a cleanout of the fan box itself. Fortunately you can get to some of what is needed without dismounting the whole box (if you want to bite the bullet on this straight away, go to Stage 3).

Dismount the heater by undoing the two large bolts at the front holding it to the drum, and two Torx bolts at the rear. Although the heater is still attached to the flexible rubber outlet at the front, it will swing up and off to one side just enough to reveal an upward-facing hole at the rear – this is the air outlet from the fan box. Peer down into this hole and you will be astonished at the buildup of mummified fluff and goo – it’s similar to papier mache.

Draw up a comfortable chair, fix up a desk lamp to shine down the hole, and start unpicking the goo with a fine metal hook (a dentist-style hooked probe is ideal – Maplin do a good set). First clean out the hole, then probe deeper to clean out each fan blade. It’s fiddly and quite a long reach down the hole, but by no means impossible. Turn the motor manually to move on to the next blade, and every so often vacuum out the hole with a small nozzle to remove the pile of dislodged goo. Unfortunately the goo is too adherent to come out with the vacuum alone, without unpicking first.

Finally, if you are confident with moving parts and mains electricity, you could finish by using the first few seconds of a dryer cycle to get the fan itself to blow the remaining dislodged goo out of the hole. Have the vacuum going while you do this to avoid a fountain of fluff! Also, be very careful that the heater and its wiring does not obstruct the motor while you are doing this.

With luck this will make a huge difference to the dryer’s performance, not only eliminating the motor seizures but generally restoring the airflow power considerably.

If you’re still having problems, or if you have an uneasy feeling about all the goo you still suspect is in there that you couldn’t see or reach from the hole, read my next tip 'Stage 3/4 fix'.

STAGE 3: THE ‘PROPER’ FIX (4 hours)

Unfortunately, if you want to go further the next stage of disassembly is horribly inaccessible. The Miele man rated it as probably the most difficult job on the machine, but said it was feasible and that he would personally undertake it if it was his machine rather than move to Stage 4. The challenge is to get the fan box itself off, which extends deep down into the rear of the machine where it eventually plugs into the back of the drum. And the back panel of the machine does not come off or swing out like the front does – the back and the sides are one piece of sheet metal. So you’re stuck with manipulating the thing at arm’s length in a very narrow gap, and to add to the fun there are some very sharp edges down there.

I've now personally done this job - it's a two-person task, took us around 4 hours but is feasible.

So (omitting some of the obvious smaller tasks like disconnecting wires and cable ties as needed), in addition to Stage 2 disassembly:

- undo a further Torx bolt holding the fan box to the drum, just to the left of the outlet hole you worked on in Stage 2, and loosen another bolt near the motor which holds a slot in the fan box casing to the drum

- remove the fan motor (held by two bolts, one low and invisible on its mounting bracket)

- remove the fan box's air inlet from the hole in the back of the drum that it slots into. This is right at the bottom of the fan box and thus very inaccessible. Eventually I found a long piece of sturdy wood (around 4 x 1cm section) could be poked down to this point (between the rear of the drum and the front of the fan box) and then gently pulled forward to lever out the air inlet.

- using Corbin-type pliers on the clips, remove the four hoses that connect to the fan box (best to do this once the air inlet is free from the previous step, as you can then lift the fan box up a little with the hoses still connected, which makes access to the clips a lot easier.

- remove the fan box from the machine, and unscrew the Torx screws holding the white plastic cover (which includes the condensor unit) to the metal casing. Go very carefully here - corrosion can cause stiff and maybe sheared screws. Best to soak the screws with WD40 beforehand where they thread into the metal casing.

- remove the fan rotor by undoing the nyloc nut on the shaft. It (the rotor) is a tight fit on the shaft and may need some gentle encouragement with a hammer. Pause again to be amazed at the amount of fluff. Clean everything out fully (fan rotor, metal fan housing, white plastic cover/condensor unit, black rubber strip which seals the two halves of the fanbox together, hole at the rear of the drum which the air inlet plugs into.

- replace the plastic cover using some fresh silicone sealant around the edge, on top of the black rubber strip, to make it watertight.

- reassemble everything in reverse order. When it comes to reinserting the air inlet to the back of the drum, wet the inlet and the rubber gasket with copious soapy water. Even so the fit is very stiff indeed - just pushing with a thumb from the rear will not work. Solution: remove the white plastic cap from the inspection hole on the rear panel. Find a sturdy short cylindrical object (a large spark plug socket from a socket set is ideal) which will fit through this hole and press on the bottom of the fan box acting as a drift. Then rig up a lever (perhaps a horizontal wooden batten levering against a door frame) which will allow you to exert controlled pressure (a lot of it!) on the drift. Pack another wooden batten down the front of the drum to lock it in place, otherwise you will be wasting effort pushing the drum forward against its springs. You should feel the inlet push back into place. Look down from the top with a torch - if you can still see the sharp flange around the inlet tube, it's not pressed home enough.


STAGE 4: THE OFFICIAL MIELE FIX – FOR INFORMATION.

Miele technicians will only replace the fan box, not open, clean and refit it as described above. So the ‘official’ fix is to pay the callout charge, plus the infamous £400 for a new fan box,

After two years of regular dryer fan seizure, and having called out a Miele technician to fix an unrelated problem on the WT945 (main water heater shorted), I pumped him for more information on the dryer side of things. I have to say he was extremely helpful and straightforward with his advice. So – with much help from the expert – I’ve attempted a complete summary of the dryer problem and its various solutions, which hopefully may be of interest to fellow sufferers. Good luck!


Introduction

Dryer fan seizure seems to be a common problem with the WT945 as it ages. The symptom is (usually) a flashing ‘dryer’ light on the front panel and wet, cold clothes instead of a good drying cycle. If you’re familiar with your Miele sounds, there is also the absence of the high-pitched fan motor noise when drying (although the main drum still ‘tumbles’).

Before you attempt a fix, please be aware of safety issues. If you’re not confident about working on mains appliances with large, heavy moving parts, I would not recommend moving beyond Stage 1. In any case, always work with the power off, and beware of the heater (the long rectangular box sitting on top of the drum) – it can get very hot indeed.

First understand your components. When you take the top off the machine (screws under white plastic caps on each side of the top, about 5 cm in from the front), you will see a very obvious electric motor at the top rear right corner of the unit. This is the fan motor, which (through a rubber belt) drives a shaft that goes into a much larger, flattish unit bolted onto the back of the drum. This larger unit is the ‘fan box’, and hidden within it is the dryer fan that moves the air that does the drying (similar to a hairdryer). The small nylon ‘fan’ mounted on the front of the motor shaft (which cools the motor itself) is a red herring – this isn’t the fan we’re concerned with.

You will undoubtedly drop tools into the machine at some stage. Don’t panic and don’t mess about with magnets on strings etc – it’s far quicker to open the whole front panel which hinges on the right like a door. Take out the detergent tray, undo three Torx screws revealed around the edges of the tray holder, undo the three bolts behind the main door of the machine (these aren’t as fundamental as they look – nothing is going to fall off!). Open the filter flap and unclip the filter drain outlet from the inside of the flap. Open the door by breaking the seal and overcoming the spring clip at the base of the left hand side (can be quite stiff). Access is now pretty easy to the ‘floor’ of the machine to retrieve your tools. When closing the front again, don’t forget to feed the emergency door release plastic tab through the hole at the top of the filter flap aperture, otherwise it will be hidden inside the machine next time you want to use it.

See my next tip 'Stage 1 fix' to start work.