In Germany, you can expect to pay about €5.000 (including Mwst) for a nice silver one with a drain pump. The matching dryer will cost something like €3.500 - and both will require a three-phase 380/400v mains supply, due to the amount of energy they use. On the other hand, you can also opt for a gas-powered dryer, which is a lot cheaper to run than the electric version. Miele will, if you have enough juice available (25A) in a single-phase supply, convert the washing machine or dryer (or the stack) so it will run on a single-phase (230v) supply - at extra cost, of course. However, this will place an extreme load on your mains supply - if you have three-phase available (and most Swiss and German homes do), you should use it, because it spreads the electrical load across all three phases.

They come in three colours - white, octoblau (blue) and edelstahl (stainless steel). The washing machines are also available with a dump valve (which requires special plumbing) or a more conventional drain pump, which just pumps waste water out and into a sink U-bend valve or a drain. The dump valve models are most useful if you wash lots of stuff with dirt in - e.g. if you run stables, and need to wash horse blankets and saddles that are caked with muck and horse hairs that would clog up a drain pump in no time at all.

You can also buy the stack - washer on the bottom, dryer on the top - for about €8.000 including Mwst, and that includes the electric dryer and washing machine with normal waste water pump (not the dump valve.)

Naturally, any of these machines can also be hooked up to payment systems if required - including Geldkarte, for no-hassle money management - and they can also be connected to liquid soap dispensers, so if you are doing a lot of laundry (one of the reasons one buys a commercial washing machine!) then the machine will pick the right detergent and/or conditioner for the load, and start the wash without you having to mess around with powder, powder dispensing systems - or anything like that. It also helps to keep the laundry room a bit cleaner, since you (or your customers!) won't get a chance to spill any...

I researched these machines, by the way, because I once considered buying a property that would have required me to install laundry facilities for customers.

You do seem to be very opinionated!

Did you know that people wash their new clothes to remove any traces of chemicals which remain on the cloth after the dyeing and printing processes?

If you read the posts chronologically made, then it's clearl that no, I did not know that. I do now, and can perhaps accept this as a valid reason.

The other rationale mentioned, and the one that I was assuming, that clothes could be 'dirty' because of being touched by other hands, was what made engendered my reaction.

I also didn't know that clothes have sometimes been chemically treated but the reasons given to me when I asked why someone washed new clothes was just that," yuk because you don't know who has had them in their hands before you".

Actually I think there's a big difference between fruit and veggies and clothing or, do you usually eat your clothes and put fruit and vegetables on your back, legs etc.?