Boil a t-shirt to kill viruses?

cj2011

silverwhistle said:

Soap should be enough (hence the advice on hand washing) but the other advantage of  60 a degree wash is that the t-shirt will shrink so much you won't be able to get it on again anyway..

LOL. I've never had anything shrink at 60. I remember my mum even tried to shrink some cotton T-shirts and jeans by washing at 90 when I was a kid - unsuccessfully. That would be my least concern.  

cj2011

couriervanman said:

cj2011 said:

Martin_the_Unjust said:

If you fill your sink full of hot water from the tap then put your washing up bowl in the water before pouring your boiling water into it then it will stay hotter longer.

Manxmans suggestion is the better option though.

Isn't it rare to find a washing machine that does boil wash? I haven't come across one in the last 10 years for sure. I use a laundrette and the machines are less than 5 years old and definitely don't have that programme.

Just bought a new Bosch couple of months ago and it has 90 degree wash on it

I have no say whatsoever on what machines they put in the communal laundry or laundrette. The ones they use, which are a couple of years old, don't do 90. I've checked and they definitely don't. 

cj2011

avoidtheupsidedownbottles said:

cj2011 said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

Can't you do what they call a "boil wash" (probably 90 degrees C) in a washing machine?  I would have thought that would be hot enough.

Is it really necessary?

I use a laundrette and if they had a boil wash programme, I would have used that for towels and sheets occasionally (not each time I washed them, but probably after a cold). But anything over 60 degrees seems rare nowadays.

Launderette machines don't have heaters - they rely on hot water being fed to them.  For a 'hot wash' they take in just from the hot supply; for 'warm wash' they take in hot and cold, and obviously just cold for the cold wash.

I don't think this building has a hot water supply in that room. The machines need to heat the water for 20 minutes (I asked). They are coin-operated and they've only been there for a couple of years. They're supposed to be eco friendly. I think that's the reason they got rid of the boil wash altogether. 

hollydays

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

Tumble dryer will kill viruses, whatever temperature you wash at.

I don't have one. Would have to be the hottest setting in that case. 

The advice I've seen is jus5 to put it in for twenty minutes.Alternatively just iron it at a hot temperature.Easy to do with cotton or linen

cj2011

hollydays said:

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

Tumble dryer will kill viruses, whatever temperature you wash at.

I don't have one. Would have to be the hottest setting in that case. 

The advice I've seen is jus5 to put it in for twenty minutes.Alternatively just iron it at a hot temperature.Easy to do with cotton or linen

It's the temperature that does it. On low or medium, your clothes would just about get dry, they wouldn't continue to get heated to a high enough temperature beyond just getting dry. It would be misleading to say that it wouldn't need to be on a hot cycle. 

hollydays

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

Tumble dryer will kill viruses, whatever temperature you wash at.

I don't have one. Would have to be the hottest setting in that case. 

The advice I've seen is jus5 to put it in for twenty minutes.Alternatively just iron it at a hot temperature.Easy to do with cotton or linen

It's the temperature that does it. On low or medium, your clothes would just about get dry, they wouldn't continue to get heated to a high enough temperature beyond just getting dry. It would be misleading to say that it wouldn't need to be on a hot cycle. 

My tumble dryer , as do many, only works by time, not temperature..... Obvious you wouldn't put it on low....even if you had a low setting which I don't..

cj2011

hollydays said:

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

cj2011 said:

hollydays said:

Tumble dryer will kill viruses, whatever temperature you wash at.

I don't have one. Would have to be the hottest setting in that case. 

The advice I've seen is jus5 to put it in for twenty minutes.Alternatively just iron it at a hot temperature.Easy to do with cotton or linen

It's the temperature that does it. On low or medium, your clothes would just about get dry, they wouldn't continue to get heated to a high enough temperature beyond just getting dry. It would be misleading to say that it wouldn't need to be on a hot cycle. 

My tumble dryer , as do many, only works by time, not temperature..... Obvious you wouldn't put it on low....even if you had a low setting which I don't..

If it doesn't have a temperature setting, that gives you less control. That's not a good thing in this context. The germs would need to be "cooked" at a high temperature for a certain length of time. A towel that's still wet won't have the same temperature as the walls of the dryer (in the same way that the inside of a frozen chicken won't have the same temperature as the walls of the oven). Newer dryers automatically adjust the temperature down to save energy, or stop, once the clothes are starting to get dry so it's unlikely that the germs would have been "cooked" at a high enough temperature for long enough (some of the modern ones work out what temperature is needed based on the weight and/or time. That gives you less control). Older dryers would have kept on going beyond getting dry, thus allowing you to "cook" the germs to death.