hot or cold water washing machine - cheapest

evosy1978

hello all

I would like to know which costs most.

a washing machine using cold water only, so being heated up by electricity.

a washing machine using hot water which is heated by using the gas central heating to heat up the hot water tank.

were about to buy a washing machine u see.

thanks

Cardew

The vast majority of washing machines are cold fill these days I believe and those that are hot/cold fill are more expensive.

Heating water by gas costs about one third of the cost of heating by electricity.

However you need to get costs into perspective. Modern machines use very little hot water and indeed most washes are at very low temperatures.

My w/machine(cold water only and about 4 years old) uses 0.6kWh or 0,9kWh for a full cycle at 40C or 60C. Even the rarely used 90c wash for whites uses 1,6kWh. So the cost of a full cycle is approx 4p, 6p or 14p. Much of that is the cost of the motors, pumps etc.

So I would estimate that for the majority of washes you will save perhaps 1p or 2p per wash by having a hot fill machine. If you use the machine every day perhaps £5 a year.