Cold washes

calleyw

Does anyone do cold washes in there washing machine.


I am not sure if its worth it and does it get things really clean. I am worried about things being smelly. Me and my partner are normal people and we sweat.


Both of us go to the gym so have smelly sweaty gym clothes and I am worried that it wont get it out of the clothes properly.


Nice to hear from anyone who has done this?


Thanks in advance


Yours


Calley x

Linda32

I wash my normal work dresses on 30degree for half an hour. The come out fine. I wouldn't do it on items which need to be cleaned like underwear, cleaning cloths for example.

Slinky

Visiting my friend in Australia 20+ years ago, they washed all their clothing in cold washes, with a powder called Cold Power. I tried finding something similar in the UK but couldn't at the time. I recall speaking to somebody at a company about it, who remarked that things are different in Australia...... I can't imagine that sweaty clothes are that different there to here. If you can find the right product to wash with and team it with the right programme on your machine, it would work. The only difference I could see was they used a toploading machine, I don't recall how long the washes were for.


ETA


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Power

yellowbear

I've done a typical week's load in cold. Never again. Nothing 'felt' clean. It felt like there was a film left on the clothes.
Towels were awful. Took ages to dry and felt awful on the body.
False economy as everything needed re washing.

coffeehound

Since the cutting-edge bio detergents in the UK only claim to work down to 30° that probably tells you something -- presumably they would grab credit if they worked okay with cold water too?

calleyw

Main reason I asked is that I was reading a frugal blog or such like and they said to save money by washing in cold water.


I know its something that is mentioned a lot on American websites.


I will stick with 30 degrees then as min.




Yours


Calley x

rach_k

It depends on various factors so reading other people's experiences probably doesn't help you much e.g. I have a modern washing machine, use powdered bio detergent, have hard water, am happy to do longer wash cycles if needed, can tumble dry, have a 'steam' function... and I find washing in cold works perfectly for most things and probably helps things stay looking better for longer too. Change one variable and you may have a completely different story. Just try it and see!

mrsr

I do most of my washing in cold water on a long wash,some things I put wash on pause and leave to soak.Works well for me washing comes out clean.Towels and bedding go in a hot wash also helps with keeping machine clean. I would never use a liquid doing this.

wondercollie

I live in Canada and cold water washes are pretty normal.

For a while there was a Cold Power branded washing powder but since liquids became the norm, it seems to have disappeared.

I just use the liquid on sale and do a normal wash set for cold. No problems.

I save hotter water for my whites.


Ah, it was called Artic Power! The washing powder.

Softstuff

I'm in Australia here and wash at 40 degrees, wouldn't use Cold Power detergent either. We had a dermatologist say that he recommends a minimum of 40 degrees for anything directly touching the skin, particularly if you have any skin conditions, unless you're planning to tumble dry or iron everything. We don't tumble dry and I don't iron gym clothes, so 40 degrees it is.

ChrisK....._3

Firstly - Why do you want to do COLD washes and then be concerned about smells? Why COLD?

I am 748748397143982 million years old and can tell you categorically that cold or luke warm (30 degree) washes do not kill stinking bacteria
6473281649873214 years ago when these so called "low temperature" detergents arrived my wife started using them - I noticed after a short while that the freshly washed cotton towels STUNK of what I can only describe a stagnant pond water. The towels looked clean and Im quite sure that was (still is) the ONLY concern for the manufacturers - and here we are 748921748392174 years later and they are still selling this crap

The conclusion was/is simple - Whilst 30 degrees might remove ALLLLLLLLL stains - it does NOT kill the bacteria which causes the stink - The solution is easy - Always wash heavy soiled/sweaty cottons at maximum temperature to kill all the bug

calleyw wrote: »

Does anyone do cold washes in there washing machine.


I am not sure if its worth it and does it get things really clean. I am worried about things being smelly. Me and my partner are normal people and we sweat.


Both of us go to the gym so have smelly sweaty gym clothes and I am worried that it wont get it out of the clothes properly.


Nice to hear from anyone who has done this?


Thanks in advance


Yours


Calley x