Washing machine settings

zippychick · 22 September 2010 at 7:18PM

Hi

I've never used the 95degree setting either. In my house everything gets washed at 40 degrees but bed sheets towels and duvet covers and teatowels get washed at 60 - some say that's extravagant but it's just what i was taught and how i do it myself:p

I looked up a range of links which may be useful for you

Washing machine settings

OS way to brighter whites

remove stains from white tops

Tips for removing sweat stains from clothes (and would help with general clothes - not saying you have sweaty clothes:eek::rotfl:)

Washing a duvet

Washing powder vs liquid or tablets

How do i make my washing smell scrumptious?

Cold washing your laundry

I'll merge this with the first link later

thanks
Zip:A

Bronnie · 22 September 2010 at 8:15PM

Bronnie wrote: »

Oh! I used to LOVE that smell, I'd forgotten all about boiling washing in a pan on the stove until it was mentioned in this thread..........we didn't have a special pan though !! :o

In my defence I have to say it wasn't the smell of stinky socks or wee-soaked nappies bubbling away that I loved, it was the steamy soapy smell!! My mum did teatowels, dishclothes , bibs and hankies in the pan as well. Very hygienic actually.

catkins · 22 September 2010 at 8:22PM

I always wash bedding and towels at 95 degrees because I have read that it needs to be that temperature to kill any bugs.

uropachild · 22 September 2010 at 9:00PM

I've never done a 90 degree wash. I use cloth nappies and just wash them at 60 - apparently this is hot enough to get rid of the germs.

I do have some stubborn stains on some towels and things though, so i may just try a 90d wash and see if it helps...

littleowl · 22 September 2010 at 9:19PM

Coloureds 40 degrees, whites 90 degrees with a touch of vanish.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted · 22 September 2010 at 10:50PM

Bronnie wrote: »

Oh! I used to LOVE that smell, I'd forgotten all about boiling washing in a pan on the stove until it was mentioned in this thread..........we didn't have a special pan though !! :o

Mum was posh

(she just didn't mention to anyone that it was an old double boiler that she also used to do the eggs in when nobody was looking)

ciderwithrosie_2 · 23 September 2010 at 6:15AM

meritaten wrote: »

perhaps you have to be a certain age to remember this...............but snotty hankies were boiled up in pans on the stove! they had a VERY MEMORABLE fragrance to them, along with nappies and socks! the hankies always had to be ironed out flat first then folded in half and ironed then half again and ironed over then large gents hankies got folded again into a rectangle and ironed while ladies hankies were folded into a triangle and ironed

I must be of that certain age then :eek: because my mum used to boil hankies, she had a special old saucepan that had gone all furred up on the outside with washing powder and limescale. She still irons them that way as well.

I do tea towels and bath towels (if they've been left in a soggy heap to fester) on 95 degrees. I live with OH and 3 sons and they think tea towels are dish cloths necessitating a boil wash. Also I have done dusters on a boil wash, separately though or everything comes out yellow.

grimerking · 24 September 2010 at 3:07AM

I always wash bedding, towels and tea towels at 90C and clothes at 60C with non-bio powder.

This will disolve oils, fats and bodily discharges - as well as killing bacteria, fungus, dust mites, bedbugs, etc. It also has the added benefit of cleaning the washing machine and killing any mould spores that might cause a nasty smell.

Make sure you use a non-bio washing powder for boil washes. Biological washing powders contain enzymes for breaking down fats, etc. These are very effective at the correct temperature, but are destroyed if you use a temperature that is too high. I believe that the optimum temperature for biological powder is actually 60C. However, they are still effective at 40C.

Since I moved to 60C washes for my clothes, I haven't looked back. Everything comes out spotless. Don't believe the labels, they just state 40C to cover themselves. I've never damaged cotton at 60C (or bedding at 90C).

40C just isn't hot enough to kill bacteria.

I have a flatmate that has repeatedly left his clothes in the drum after washing. Now all his clothes stink of mildew. Everytime his clothes get wet, the mildew spores reactivate and they start stinking again. I've tried tactfully suggesting he boil wash them and use vinegar as a rinse aid, but he doesn't seem interested - a pity, as it's the rest of us that have to suffer the revolting smell...

LittleMissAspie · 30 April 2011 at 1:04PM

We have a washing machine that tells you how many rinses it's going to do. The default is 3 but you can choose between 1-5.

If I change the number of rinses down to 2, I save 13 minutes on the wash and presumably quite a lot of water.

So how many rinses are standard and is 2 enough?

BitterAndTwisted · 30 April 2011 at 1:24PM

I think mine does three although I have no way of over-riding it. I suspect the number of rinses a load of washing requires would depend on a number of variables, including how much detergent you're using and how full the machine is, so I would have thought the only way to be sure is to experiment.

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Washing machine settings

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