I have just had a service chap out for my miele washing machine as it had a water electrical fault. Turns out there is a hole in the rubber seal and water has leaked out, now this hole is quite big you can get your finger in it but cant see it. What I am surprised about is that its like had a knife blade pushed through it and as i haven't had anything like that in my machine(coins yes) i have no idea how it would have happened. I have a bosch machine for the dogs stuff which is 7 years oldish and takes a battering with collars  and beds etc and has only ever never needed a new seal because of being worn (it used to be my main machine as well so did normal washing).
The miele seal is thick rubber so am amazed at how this can happen on such an expensive machine.

total cost to fix is £214 which includes today's call out! I could by a new machine for that. Watch out for those thinking of miele washing machine, has been good up to now(3yrs) but so exp to fix.

I've had to replace the seals on a couple of machines, I'd imagine a zip, coin or something could damage it bearing in mind how fast they are whizzing round inside?