2022 Frugal Living Challenge

boultdj

As an ex-laundress in a nursing home and an asthmatic I know bedding needs to be done on a 60 degree wash to kill house dust mites that feed of the skin we shed. hth

Elisheba

I do bedding, towels, flannels, dressing gown, slippers, dish rags, dog blankets (I think that's it) on an eco 60 degree wash, and everything else (clothes and undies mainly) on an eco 20 degree wash, and I make my own washing liquid.  All seems to be okay and I am perfectly healthy and have been doing it for years. 

poppy811

Germs will never always be eliminated.  It is important for people to build up resistance to common viruses.

YoungBlueEyes

Wash everything with domestos on a 20 wash. Germ free and cheap 🤪

maryb

I sometimes do a hot wash but most of the time I wash on 30 or 40 degrees.  I found stuff harbored smells at lower temperatures.  Whenever I can I dry outside.  UV light kills germs.  Stuff that touches my face or touches stuff that touches my face ie tea towels etc gets ironed.  The exception was when DH was recovering from an operation.  Until the scar healed I washed towels bedding and pajamas every day on a 60degree wash with Napisan

Auti

Love the domestics YoungBlueEyes . I have done a search and found Psil have said that their cool washes will not kill germs and that you should use their anti bacteria laundry stuff in your wash if that is what you want washing your clothes to do! I really dislike the way the detergent sellers are playing to *eco/electricity cost fears* to sell their products without saying it will not kill germs especially when flu and covid predictions are high! Have also seen an advert plugging washing your dishes in colder water too! 

YoungBlueEyes

Being serious, I think there’s a fine line between cutting your leccy bill back with an eco wash and getting your wash properly clean. I wash ‘little things’ at 40 and ‘big stuff at 60.  Big is towels, jeans, bedding etc. Little is shirts, T-shirts, pajamas etc. 

I wash with an egg cup full of wash powder and one of soda crystals. I think the soda lowers/raises (?) the ph which helps to kill germs. It certainly softens the water so the powder works better. 

But not an expert, that’s just what I do. 

I’d ring the number on the back of the wash powder, they’ll be able to tell you 🙂

YoungBlueEyes

And I think the anti bacterial laundry cleanser stuff is a solution looking for a problem. We didn’t use to need it…

If it’s to correct the lack of germ killing due to cooler temps, I’d forgo it and wash at a proper temp. I’d guess that dropping from 30 to 20 isn’t gonna save much money, and creates the need for more chemicals (whatever the companies say about carbon footprint!) 

Bluegreen143

I think it is sensible to wash towels and bedding and undies at higher temps but clothes are fine at low temps. It’s good to remember don’t need kill all bacteria around us, in fact it’s also detrimental to our health to attempt to sterilise our environment too much. I personally don’t see that jeans etc need to be sterilised. But for towels etc I’d rather wash on high than buy extra chemicals.

cw18

I've done almost every washload for the last ?? (must be at least 28) years at 30 degrees.   That was as low as the machine I bought in 1994 (?) dropped to.    My new one goes to 20, and I've used that for my exercise kit a few times (always has anti-bac stuff in the fabric softener compartment - mostly so they smell nice, but it only needs half the dose on the bottle for that purpose).   I don't often get sweaty in any of that gear or wear it for long, so it really is only a freshen up wash.

I actually did a pair of door curtains at 40 yesterday, but only because the bottom edge of the cream curtains was looking very grey/brown/black (yucky!).   They've come out lovely and clean, but I didn't have enough confidence that a 30 wash would do the trick.

Everything else is still going through at 30, but on either a 30 or 44 minute cycle whereas the quickest on the old machine was 54 minutes.

4 loads yesterday (2 at 30, 2 at 40) used just 1.72kW, so I'm not going to grumble about that.