Washing machines don't live longer with Calgon

WestonDave

If an extended test is to be fairer, then that can only be because in the period between washes the element is sitting in a solution of calgon with it acting on it. However if you use Calgon, you put it in the wash at the start with the soap, and it disolves in the wash part of the cycle whilst the element heats and maintains the water at the selected temperature. At the end of the wash, all the water is pumped out which removes most of the Calgon. The rest is rinsed out during the subsequent rinses. So by the end of the wash the amount of active chemical left in the machine must surely be so small that it would make homeopathic medicine look potent! So how exactly is simulating the period the machine is at rest going to show Calgon as being more effective as during that time there is none in the machine. In reality it can't make any difference to the test whether the machine waits a week between washes or ten minutes.

As for the argument about needing the element to cool - surely it cools to sub room temperature as soon as the first rinse water is added - although of course by this point there is no Calgon left in the machine anyway so its immaterial whether it cools at this point or 4 hours later!

Curiously what could have an effect on machine damage from limescale is the temperature setting you run it at. With washing increasingly being done at 30C far less heating is required than if you regularly wash at 60C or above. Also if like us your machine is on hot and cold fill, it may well take enough heat from the hot feed at 55C to enable it to do a 30C or 40C wash with very little heating. This is something that Calgon don't say about their testing - are they saying washing machines live longer with Calgon if you wash at 90C, 60C, 40C or 30C. To be fair Which aren't clear on this either, but if Calgon are testing at 90C and which at 30C, then its entirely possible both are right!

kaya

i spent ten years fixing washing machines, the only place scale would build up was on the element, and i can honestly say no element was ever replaced due to limescale damage during that time, i then did nearly ten years on commercial equipment, tea urns and water boilers were the only thing we descaled then, there is no need to buy this rubbish, its like dishwasher tablets that contain salt`, there is no point whatsoever in putting salt in the wash chamber of a dishwasher, it has to go in the resin chambers and the only way in there is through the cap marked "salt"-yet another example of sales gibberish at work

27col

We live in a very hard water area and have never had a problem with it. Certainly not in the washing machine or the dishwasher. Never used any additives of any kind. The only noticeable effects of hard water that we have seen is the tendency for taps and glasses to "lime-up". When I was last at work I was involved in the maintenance of a large Naval establishment which used a mains powered electrical water softener in the supply to the galley. Going on the lime scale build-up in the calorifiers the softener did absolutely nothing.

RuthnJasper

I'm in a REALLY hard water area, but have never had much joy with Calgon - tablet just turns to ineffectual gunk (might just be me though).

I use Sainsbury's Water Softner powder (navy-blue box) in my washing machine - about a tablespoonful in the drawer for each wash. I've not personally found anything better than this stuff and - touch wood, no washing machine problems to date. x

BaldPlumber

T_T wrote: »

There would be no need to use water softening additives if an inline scale inhibitor was place onto the cold mains...

Would you care to explain the science behind this?

moonrakerz

BaldPlumber wrote: »

Would you care to explain the science behind this?

and the meaning of life.......and the whereabouts of the Higgs boson :rotfl::rotfl:

T_T_2

BaldPlumber wrote: »

Would you care to explain the science behind this?

Your username identifies you as a plumber so you are either asking a leading question to which you already know the answer or you need to hang up the wrench.

roddydogs

Just do a wash with old clothes on the Hottest setting, every 3 months.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

T_T wrote: »

Your username identifies you as a plumber so you are either asking a leading question to which you already know the answer or you need to hang up the wrench.

I would hate to say it but I haven't a clue how they work but I know they do to a certain extent.

Whether they work enough to offset the cost of installing one I havent a clue on that either.

keystone

BaldPlumber wrote: »

Would you care to explain the science behind this?

T_T wrote: »

Your username identifies you as a plumber so you are either asking a leading question to which you already know the answer or you need to hang up the wrench.

I think that, in the nicest possible way, he was saying that one of these is as much BS wrapped in fairy tales and powered by dreams as the offending chemical additive which is the subject of the thread. Can I presume that your nicely executed swerve to avoid the question whilst indulging in a teensy weensy bit of ad hominem, means that you might have missed the point?

Cheers