Cold Fill Washers and Power use

flashnazia

I've had to buy a new washing machine and they are all cold fill these days (presumably to be A grade efficient).

I was thinking of hooking it up to my gas hot water supply instead and just doing quick 30 min washes.

The question is,

Is it cheaper to do this or is it cheaper to let the machine (using electric which is dearer) heat the water bearing in mind that a wash done this way takes about 2 hours!

Manufacturers say it's cheaper to have cold fill only but I fail to see how?

Cardew

Modern washers really are efficient in terms of water use and energy consumption.

My washing machine - a 4 year old Bosch - uses 0.6kWh or 0.9kWh(4p/7p) on the wash cycles used most of the time; even the longest and hottest is 1.9kWh. - yours might use even less.

Bearing in mind that some of that consumption is for the motor and, if hot fill, you would have to heat water by gas, it will only work out a penny or two cheaper for most washes.

Connecting your machine to the hot tap would mean all your rinses being done in hot water; so would work out a lot more expensive.

KathrynPenguin

I could be wrong here but when you fill the washing machine from the hot fill then the hot water comes out of the tank, is replaced with cold water and then a whole tankfull of water needs to be heated up again - assuming you have the hot water switched on (I've mine down to 30 mins in the morning and 10 mins in the evening - don't need the evening really but the timer will only do 2 cycles.).

Also if its hot fill the water is not the right temperature for the wash cycle so needs to be further heated/cooled to the correct temp.

My new cold fill machine takes just the water it needs and heats it up - it not only is more efficient in that way but it uses less water than our old machine - looks nearly empty when it's running. Also there are 30 degree programmes including a 30 degree quick wash that we use for most things.

Last bonus is that it has a timer on and I can do all the washing on Economy 7 and it finishes just as I get up in the morning!