Long story short, last week I came across a used W4800 on craigslist for 500$, the deal was good so I bought it for the parents to replace a not so old GE top loader.

The machine is now installed, it was a pain to bring up the stairs, and it already did a couple of washes with respectable results.

The machine has the following minor issues considering the price paid:

1: Plastic part where the control panel sits on is cracked along the lip; it seems like a bad plastic batch.

2: Upon pulling the boot to see the drum, there is some mold in there.

3: The heavy door is a little sagging.

4: Water levels are ridiculously low! I can barely see water at the bottom on the normal cycle.

Some problems I'll live with given the price paid and the fact that the machine is out of warranty, but other stuff is bugging me.

Does anyone know how to program the water plus on this one? I searched the forum and most of the discussion is about the 4840. Is there a service manual available somewhere for the 4800, I have the one for my 1213 and it came in really handy?

I would also like to know how many hours of usage this thing has.

Can anyone recommend a machine cleaning procedure?

I was thinking to do the following, all in Sanitize mode:

1. One cycle with 3-4 tbsp of dishwasher detergent to degrease the machine.

2. Another cycle with a good load of bleach dumped in to kill the mold.

3. A delicates cycle to rinse the whole thing.

4. If needed a cycle with some citric or oxalic acid to remove any possible scaling.

Is this overkill?

Thank you for any input, it is greatly appreciated.

Mihai

This is a link to Miele Canada website with the W4800 manual.

I don't think the things you listed for cleaning can do any harm so why not.

I'm not sure about the programming menu on the W4800 as there is no display screen.

This is normal level on my W4842.

As for the mold, you might have better luck with a dedicated mold remediation product. I have some that I bought from an allergy store, which I use to treat a foundation wall that gets damp from time to time. This is what the companies use in homes that have been flooded, etc. I was told this stuff messes with the DNA of mold and really kills it, versus chlorine bleach which only bleaches it to a lighter color. (I'm just telling you what he said).

The active ingredient is the same active ingredient in the Dow Scrubbing Bubbles aerosol bathroom cleaner.

Suburbanmd, message sent, I really appreciate it! I already programmed my compact machine which has a basic display (numbers only), you have to use blinking lights to figure things out, and it's not that bad to do.

Cavimum, thank you for the tip, I will most likely have to go that route as the mold is more stubborn than I thought. After that sanitize cycle with dishwasher detergent you could see mold particles floating around during rinsing.

I've seen worse before and it currently doesn't smell but I would rather take care of it now than deal with it later.

Mihai