Is a 30 minute wash cycle long enough?

Happytoseeyou

I do most of my washing using a 59 min cycle at 40° but it needs an extra higher spin at the end. I tried the quick wash cycle but didn't like the result.

In reply to forumite twopenny as you can't get Biotex any longer try Napisan. Its intended for babies cloth nappies so works on any biological stain like sweat, blood, food etc. I've been using it over 30 years. If the stain is heavy like with food stains on children's clothes then pre-soak in it. The only thing I find it's not 100% certain to remove is tomato based foods. Sometimes if it's a heavy stain I use a 60° cycle but most times it's 40°. It's a much better stain remover than any you'll find in the dedicated stain remover aisles in the supermarket. You will find it in the babies section in the supermarket and not where detergents etc are. Not all of the major supermarkets sell it. Do a search for it in supermarket apps. It costs around £4 but I did notice one supermarket was charge double that recently so shop around. 

chook1

I’ve changed to a 20c cycle after getting fed up of the set auto eco wash which I think was 40c taking 3 hours. It’s takes an hour and has made a big difference to energy usage. In Covid I started using the dettol laundry liquid - I now use far cheaper b@m one one in every wash and have no problems.  Drawer and seals never have the black gunk build up it used to have. 

Rosa_Damascena

To take the topic down a slightly different route, I have used laundry liquid rather than tables for years, but have recently cut back on how much I am using because with the exception of my exercise and gardening gear, my day-to-day clothes don't really get dirty. This has a benefit: I picked up a load of bottles with pink tops which I found heavily discounted at Wilko, although wasn't over-awed by the fragrance. Using less of it mean that the laundered clothes smell fresh but not perfumed.

Separation is into darks and lights - everything goes in on a 30 degree cotton wash with a time saver. The variation are 40 degrees for bedsheets and towels, or very occasionally I'll gather up scarves and woollens for a gentle wash.

Longwalker

Being old school and of the scrub board and then twin tub generation, I sort my wash

Most of my clothes, both work and leisure go on the shortish 40oC wash as do Mr L 's leisure clothes. They aren't worn long, my work clothes 5 hours, none are close to personal bits, so for me thats plenty

I have always washed bedding, towels and socks and knickers at 60. Bedding cos its not fresh daily, towels cos they get wet, and undies cos they are close to intimate parts

Now within those rules I also sort dark, colours and whites but thats a whole different story

A 30 min wash is plenty for clothes that are worn once or twice as long as you are matching the temperature to the detergent recommendations, most are saying a clean wash at 30 nowadays  

As someone indicated earlier, we wash our clothes too often. Today I have had THREE changes of clothse and only the undies and running clothes are in the basket for washing, They were sweat soaked as well as rain, they needed a wash, The leisure wear in the house, will do me a day or two, the good clothes I wore to town, hung up airing on the wardrobe door, were worn for 90 mins, so dont need washing

KxMx

Jlo31 said:

It's worth reading the instructions with regards size of loads too. Our LG 10.5 kg only suggests full load to run on cottons, eco cotton's 40 60. Most often settings are 4kg load and the 14 min quick wash just 2kg load. 

So if you are using the quick wash function check your manual on the weight suggested.

Happened to have my manual to hand so I checked- great idea. 

My Beko has a capacity of 7kg and 7kg max load is recommended for my Quick 30 wash.

I also agree about washing things too often, only knickers, socks and Zumba gear get washed after one wear here. 
Unless it's sweaty, dirty or smelly it will be worn a lot more than once.