Washing machine settings

happy35

of the two cycles you have I would use the shorter one then if it was me.

If the actual wash time is 30 mins plus 10 or or so for rinse and spin I think your clothes will be fine, I have a cycle on my machine that takes 15 mins and for me that doesnt clean clothes,even those that are not dirty.

I dont think that cold water washes deodorant etc off clothes properly but a 30 probably will and a 40 definitely does.

Have a go for a couple of weeks with the shorter wash and see if you are happy with you clothes, if you are not try the other option

Justamum

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's the heating of the water which uses most of the power (and therefore the cost), and the moving of the drum hardly uses any. I wash everything at a minimum of 40c as I don't think 30c cleans properly, and cold water definitely won't! Whiffy underarms on shirts are the big test for me, and they still whiff at 30c.

oldtractor

Good thread. i expect its the hotter the water the more energy used. It would be good to know a definitive answer.

jason589

We have just got a new washing machine in our shared house and it seems much more advanced than the old broken one. I can't just select which rinse, spin and heat I want. It wants to know what sort of materials I am washing e.g.

Cotton, Synthetics, Delicates, Wool, Outdoor care, Dark Garment,

My biggest confusion is what exactly are cotton and synthetics? I promise I am not that stupid, but as an example.

I have a new packet of socks. On the back, it says:
67%cotton, 24%nylon, 7%polyester, 2% elastane,

I would guess that cotton is cotton :T
And the other materials would constitute to being a synthetic?;)

So what mode would I use for these? If they have some of both? Would I go for the 67% cotton and use the cotton mode?

The old washing machine was much better, I would just select my settings and press go. This thing doesn't allow for any of that.

Any advice would be really good! :money:

kitschy

Hi there

I am too [STRIKE]lazy[/STRIKE] busy to sort everything, so unless it's wool or silk, I sort into three piles - whites, brights and darks. Those three loads get bunged in on a 40 degree cotton wash (quick cycle, half the recommended powder/conditioner) and I've never had a problem! There's always a mix of cotton and synthetics in there and they've all been fine. The silks/hand wash only stuff either goes in on a delicates cycle with a much slower spin or do get a handwash.

HTH

JodyBPM

I just sort into lights and darks and bung on at 40 degrees too.

Can you set the temperature independently of the type? If so, then I'd go for cotton 40 degrees. If not, I'd probably be inclined to use the sythetics setting, as the cotton setting may be hotter than 40 deg.

Obviously, if you have the manual, read that and see if it tells you the temp for the various settings. I'd say you are looking for 40 degrees.

jasmin10

I shove everything in my new one as cotton, but the lights go at 60 and the darks or mixed colours go on at 40.

hth

SpikyHedgehog

A cotton cycle will be a bit rougher on the washing than a synthetic cycle - it washes & spins at faster speeds than the synthetic cycles. Then the delicate wash is more gentle again. Wool settings wash on the more gentle settings but spin fast like cotton to get the water out.

Outdoor care & dark garment, I don't know about...

I'm guessing you don't have a manual for it, but you could try the manufacturers' website to ask for 1?

I wash sheets & towels (& DS2's white school shirts) on a 60 degree cotton wash, but most other loads go on 30 degrees synthetic wash & the jeans come up clean! I'd stick white socks in a hot wash because they tend to get so grubby, but I put dark socks on the synthetic load - with the rest of it, not on their own!

I do use my wool setting when I do my big woollen blanket & when I washed my dry clean only woollen winter coat. But it doesn't get used often.

I_luv_cats

http://www.playpennies.com/save-money-clothes-washing-59995


Save Money On Your Clothes Washing

by Lynley Oram in Features on 2 July, 2012 at 1:00 pm
How many loads of laundry do you do a week? A day? There's two adults and a child living in my house, and we would put on a load of washing every day, and about half the week there will be two loads.
Every penny counts around here, especially at this time of the year when I'm trying to save everything I can for the summer holidays. Here's some great tips I came across when I set out to find out if I was making the most of my washing machine.

Cutting down on water and energy

The less water that's needed for a wash, the less energy is used, and the cheaper it is for you. That said, there's not a lot you can do to reduce the water your current machine takes in. But when it comes time to get a replacement, make this one of your top considerations. It will save you money in the long term.
In the meantime, make the most efficient use of the water that is in there. Have a look in the manual and find out what the optimum load is for your model. If it doesn't have sensor to reduce water automatically when there's a lighter load, you'll be filling up the drum with unneeded water. So make sure you run it at optimum as much as possible.
It is a myth that washing won't clean as well if the drum is completely full. It will do the job just fine, and you'll save on water and energy.
An optimum load is also a good idea if your washing machine is noisy. This will cut down on the noise the washing makes in there. You should also make sure the washing machine is set on the same level front and back. And if it is still noisy, and you don't want to wake the baby, then cut down on the spin cycle. Clothes will need more drying time, but the noise will be reduced.
Another way to cut down on how much energy is used by your machine to wash clothes is to run the loads at a lower temperature. All biological detergents can irritate sensitive skin on a small minority of people, overall they have the advantage of being able to clean clothes at a low temperature or in a cold wash just as well as at higher temperatures.
If your machine and/or clothes have a slightly musty smell, this is caused by bacteria and possibly fungal growth in the clothes. These will be resistant to the detergents. Dry the clothes, perferably outside, and 'clean' out the drum by running it through a hot cycle of 60 degrees or more. Then wash the clothes again and the smell will go.
What is the best temperature to use?

There's an array of temperatures available on my machine, and talking to my friends I find that most just stick with using one temperature for all their washes. It's just easier that way, and frankly I didn't find a single person who knew what each temperature setting should be used for. Myself included.
So, here we go.
Nearly all biological (ie enzyme using) detergents will wash at 30 degrees, and this uses about 60% of the energy used at a 40 degree setting. If you're not sure about the cleaning power of detergent at this temperature, then get a detergent that specifically says it is suitable for 30 degrees.
Most people are still using 40 degrees. This is OK for most everyday items - cotton, linen or viscose, acrylics, acetate, wool mixtures and wool/polyester blends.
You can put polyester/cotton mixtures, nylon, cotton and viscose in a 50 degree wash if you've a stain you really need to get out. But they all wash fine at lower temperatures too.
I used to think I had to use the absolute hottest setting for bed linen. Not so, 60 degrees is just fine. Also use this for towels and heavily soiled garments such as baby clothes.
So what is the 90 degree setting for? White cottons and linens that really show dirt apparently. I don't actually have a lot of those myself - not really practical in a house with small children.
What about the different program settings?

Many machines have an eco wash setting, but researchers have found that this doesn't really reduce the energy used by that much. Another common setting is a quick wash. This won't reduce energy, in fact it will probably use just as much as more energy is used to heat the water up faster.
Researching this also bust another myth for me. The reduced ironing programs don't actually make any difference. Well I kinda knew that anyway from experience but I always live in hope.
Is there any difference between handwash and delicates/woollens? It turns out there is, although I've been using both randomly for the last 20 years!
Delicates and woollens are for clothes that might bobble easily, like silk and wool or wool mix. But, the woollens setting should only be used if the wool item is marked ‘pure new wool’ and ‘washable’, ‘pre-shrunk’ or ‘non-matting’ . Put everything else in the delicates cycle.

Ben84

It goes against popular current advice on how to wash things, but I learnt how to do the washing long before anyone worried about energy use and have been washing virtually everything at 60 degrees for years, because that's what people always did. 100% cotton items, cotton/synthetic blend items and even acrylic things like jumpers, some multiple hundred items considering the number of years and people living in the house have gone repeatedly through our washing machine on the 60 cycle. None were damaged by it. These have been men's and women's clothes of all different types from various shops, so if there was some common fabric that changed colour dramatically or shrunk at 60, I suspect I'd have encountered it by now.

The only exception has been machine washable wool blankets and jumpers, those are always washed at 40 degrees.

As always, YMMV, but my experience suggests so far that all clothes which do not contain wool wash well at 60 and it would be exceptional to have a problem. Doesn't mean it will never happen, but I'm counting the probability quite low.