Ugh ... you're killing your fabrics with that much over drying. I'd say call Miele. Sounds like an issue only they could fix (something wrong with the sensor perhaps?).

I can't be any help really ... let us know what happens.

@livebetter...I know, I know. Trust me...not my choice.

The first 2 times it happened, I put the clothes in the dryer, and then left the house for several hours. When I came back, the clothes were still "drying", status on Hand Iron.

Today, I put the clothes in at 4pm, got busy with my son, dinner, baking, etc.. I walked into the laundry room at 7pm, to take the clothes out of the dryer...and they were still going. THREE hours. Status at Hand Iron. Clothes crispy, over dried and HOT! I manually set the machine for a 15 Min cold cycle.

What's odd, is that I do 5-6 loads of laundry per week, and this is only the 3rd time this has happened in about a month. I have a feeling, Miele is going to say "Cannot duplicate". I honestly, just wish it did it every time....So much easier to fix!

Leaving your dryer on when you are not there is a huge fire risk, even if you've never had any known problem. Now that you know it can fail, please don't risk it again.

I am a former volunteer firefighter and I've been to more than one house fire started that way. I don't think I have ever run my dryer while not being there, and almost never when I am alone and asleep in the house.

As for the cause: I would try to locate the moisture and/or temperature sensors and clean them with grain alcohol. Perhaps some of the softeners you use have gunked them up. Beyond that it seems likely to be an electrical or electronic problem. Call Miele. Measure, if you can, the temp of the clothes and drum when it happens. It's a pretty big fire liability risk so I think even an intermittent fault reported to them will get prompt action.

Post-incident fire cause and origin analysis (if you did have a house fire caused by your dryer) would be pretty expensive for Miele to defend. And you can bet your insurance company would be trying to subrogate it rather than just eat your claim.

But don't think of it just in monetary terms: losing money is not important when compared to the risk of losing your life, or even just your pets' lives if you are away when a fire starts.

STOP using that dryer and call for service. This isn't just a glitch or snafu, it's a house fire waiting to happen.

HTH,
Liriodendron

Thanks Liriodendron! I know, it is not smart to leave the dryer running when not at home. I actually had an Electrolux Wave Touch dryer catch fire (black smoke, horrible smell...). Thank G-d, we were home. So yes, I know better, just trust all my Miele appliances so much! Wrong on my part!

I really do wish, it would just do it every time. The few times I've had intermittent problems with appliances or cars...it is a nightmare for service technicians to fix :(

@ larsi

Maybe Miele will have you believe that it's due to "excess detergent residue in the dryer" LOL... if they do, tell them they tried that line on me and it didn't work!

Seriously, though, this sounds like a sensor issue. However, I would think that the dryer would have a safety shut-off after a certain amount of time as a failsafe against a faulty sensor, but I guess not. The biggest indicator is that it gets stuck on "Hand Iron", which indicates a certain moisture level. Levels below that are not being detected properly.

If you are comfortable enough with removing a few screws and then the top panel of the machine, the moisture sensor is very easy to spot. It is a wheel-type thing that rides along a circuit ribbon (feels like 35mm camera film) attached along the outside circumference of the dryer drum. Make sure this ribbon is clean as well as the sensor that rides on top of it while the drum is turning. It may be something that simple.

I don't know if this is at all related to your issue, but here's a tip. Miele's service technician told me not to cancel a dryer program by pressing the start/stop button twice. He said that's fine if the dryer is in cool down mode, but if you do that before it has cooled down and start a new load right after, you run the risk of killing your heating element. He suggests cancelling by pressing the button once, which forces the dryer into cool down mode. Wait for the cool down mode to finish before proceeding. I think it's kind of silly that Miele did not mention this in the user manual or account for this in their design, it's also possible the technician was mistaken. But I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks Sstava. Maybe I will get brave, and look into this moisture sensor. Appreciate it!

I would suspect that if the moisture sensor were failing, the machine would shut off early.

And it does sense enough to get to the hand iron position.

I would contact service.

MRB