Washing machine cheapest setting?

Norman_Castle

k_man said:

Ultrasonic said:

Generally quick washes are the least efficient but the manual should hopefully give some more advice. You could try contacting the manufacturer if not. 

If the temperature is the same (or lower) what else makes a quick wash less efficient (unless it uses more water)?
Unless we consider how well it cleans as part of it.

From memory the cleaning of the longer cooler washes needed to match the cleaning of a specified hotter wash to be considered comparable although my machine and manual are about 20 years old so standards have probably changed.

k_man

Norman_Castle said:

k_man said:

Ultrasonic said:

Generally quick washes are the least efficient but the manual should hopefully give some more advice. You could try contacting the manufacturer if not. 

If the temperature is the same (or lower) what else makes a quick wash less efficient (unless it uses more water)?
Unless we consider how well it cleans as part of it.

From memory the cleaning of the longer cooler washes needed to match the cleaning of a specified hotter wash to be considered comparable although my machine and manual are about 20 years old so standards have probably changed.

Thanks. Based on that the ECO cotton, would need to match the the cleaning efficiency of the normal cotton cycle, but with lower power usage (this the ECO).
But not necessarily more efficient than an already collet and quicker wash (e.g. 30 C quick wash).

I think that means we just need to be careful recommending using ECO washes as an obvious energy saving measure, as it depends what wash would have been used otherwise.

TonySimon

This got me wondering too.  I always use ECO mode for 40 and 60.  I have got a new maching and keep the pamthlet beside it as I haven't got used to the numbers yet.   It says on the normal 60 wash it uses 0.98kwh and a total of 75 litres of water with residual dampness % at 50.  The ECO 60 says it uses 0.90kwh and a total of 40 litres of water and residual dampness at 53%.  This is based of a 7kg load and 1200 spin speed.  Both take 3 hours 40 mins.  This is Indesit brand and it seems the only real saving on ECO is the water.

k_man

TonySimon said:

This got me wondering too.  I always use ECO mode for 40 and 60.  I have got a new maching and keep the pamthlet beside it as I haven't got used to the numbers yet.   It says on the normal 60 wash it uses 0.98kwh and a total of 75 litres of water with residual dampness % at 50.  The ECO 60 says it uses 0.90kwh and a total of 40 litres of water and residual dampness at 53%.  This is based of a 7kg load and 1200 spin speed.  Both take 3 hours 40 mins.  This is Indesit brand and it seems the only real saving on ECO is the water.

I think on the Indesits (or mine at least) , the ECO 60 cotton is an alternative to the Cotton 90. So claims to clean as well as the 90 wash, but at lower temp, and less energy.

Not that a cotton 90 gets used much, apart from as a machine cleaning cycle.

Mstty

TonySimon said:

This got me wondering too.  I always use ECO mode for 40 and 60.  I have got a new maching and keep the pamthlet beside it as I haven't got used to the numbers yet.   It says on the normal 60 wash it uses 0.98kwh and a total of 75 litres of water with residual dampness % at 50.  The ECO 60 says it uses 0.90kwh and a total of 40 litres of water and residual dampness at 53%.  This is based of a 7kg load and 1200 spin speed.  Both take 3 hours 40 mins.  This is Indesit brand and it seems the only real saving on ECO is the water.

Based on 6 washes a week!our usage)

Saves about £52 in water and sewage and £7 in electricity at the current price cap rate.

newbieFTB

There's no eco setting on mine, only a cottons eco which is a 3h10 min wash, but I have a plug in monitor and was surprised at the difference in prices (which are based on 27p per unit of elec)...

Beko machine, around 2-3 years old...

40 degree, 1h 9 min synthetics wash (standard is 2h10, I've always pressed fast button to bring it to 1h 9 min) = 0.57kwh = 15p

40 degree, 38 min quick wash = 0.39kwh = 10p

30 degree, 28 min quick wash = 0.15kwh = 4p

Spin speed is the same for all, 1200rpm.

Alnat1

That sounds just like my Beko machine which I can't monitor as the plug isn't accessible. Thank you for those figures, they are really useful.

Mstty

Most manuals are available online

jrawle

Ultrasonic said:

Generally quick washes are the least efficient but the manual should hopefully give some more advice. You could try contacting the manufacturer if not.

I know it's often stated that short washes use more energy (because they require more agitation, etc.) but this at least depends on the manufacturer. The manual for my Zanussi machine actually says to use the shorter time-saving washes when the items are less soiled, which implies that they don't wash quite as well. The other week, I did find a web page where someone had tested this with a Zanussi machine, and it used slightly less energy to do a quick wash. Other manufacturers' machines may be different, and use more energy for shorter washes, though.

Ms_Chocaholic

Re spin speed, although it may not reduce the energy usage of the washing machine it will result in less creases in your laundry and therefore less time and electricity to iron (if you do iron that is, I find with a minimum spin then I don't need to iron anything).