Miele TSH783 WP 9 kg Tumble Dryer – Freestanding, Quiet

This is a big purchase at 850 in Q4 2022. At around twice the cost of typical heat pump tumble drier my expectations on performance and durability are high but depending on the energy cost trajectory I think It might break even in around 8 years as well as being significantly more convenient and taking up less space than drying on heated admiring racks.

I’ll start with the best bit: this machine seems well built, it is quiet, the door and filter parts are high quality and it is generally sturdy and feels built to last. It was also very well packaged when it was delivered. It is heavy.

It also seems well engineered and the energy ratings seems plausible. The machine doesn’t seem to lose much heat to the room when it is running and the sensor systems for detecting dryness appear consistent. It dries things fast without them getting too hot.

On to the inevitable niggles.

Firstly, take the ‘fragrance flacon’ out of the bag and throw it immediately in the bin. That stuff is nasty and why on earth do you need it. This feels like a strange gimmick that is inconsistent with the engineering-first parts of the marketing.

Secondly, and I’ll give Miele the benefit of the doubt and suppose that they were slavishly ticking boxes in energy efficiency regs to chase that second + after the A rather than deliberately sabotaging the product, the ‘normal’ dryness that is mandatory in the default energy efficient cotton setting is not a level of dryness that anyone would consider normal. For ‘Normal’ read damp. The setting anyone would actually want and use is the ‘extra dry’ (which in fact just means dry) setting available in the other cotton cycle. I don’t believe that taking clothes out of the drier and immediately hanging them on an airing rack is a typical thing that most people do. My laundry goes from the machine to a basket to a folded pile to a cupboard and I have no interest in adding another drying step to that process.

Thirdly, for 850 they might have included a drain hose adaptor or size-up coupler nozzle or splitter with one-way valve so that you can attach the drain tube to the relatively common drain hose nozzle size used on washing machines and dishwashers instead of this tiny catheter-sized tumble drier condensate one. Expect to pay 5-30 more and spent 1-4 hours figuring out and installing the drain-away setup if you haven’t had a condensing drier before. Miele do sell a non-return valve hose extension which might partly solve your problemfor 66. My solution for this took hours of figuring out 40mm vs 43mm drain pipe and nozzle sizes and push fit vs compression fit vs solvent weld and hose internal and external diameters and ended with trip to Screwfix, 25 worth of bits and the installation of a standpipe in order to do it ‘properly’.

Finally, no one needs the Wi-Fi. No one ever uses it, the functions is provides are not even motivating enough to make me look at the app on the App Store let alone download it or set it up. Get rid of it and knock 30 off the price. If that’s only there to tick boxes for efficiency rating then shame on the regulators for incentivising unnecessarily complexity with no real-world impact and shame on Miele for playing their game.

Basically if they stuck to the basics – good mechanicals and quality sensors where it counts then even at this price this would be a clear 5 star review. The other gimmicks just add fragility and frustration.