Cold Washing your Laundry

PinkPeach

I think I'll give this cold wash malarky a go then. It's just a shame that there are so many good tips on here - the other week people mentioned that the machine can go smelly/gunky if you keep using liquid, so I used all mine up and as suggested bought a massive box of powder...now it seems I may have to go back to liquid if it doesn't dissolve :rotfl:

Thanks for the tips, good point about when the weather gets much colder, perhaps thats when the powder will come in handy once I'm back to washing at 30!

starjumper

We wash on a cold wash using power but towels and bedding get blasted at 60* to kill any germs or whatever and every so often we give it a 90* cycle, usually with the dogs bedding and towels which really should be burnt rather than washed. OH is a printer so his clothes are always covered in chemicals and ink and washing at a cooler temperature hasn't amde any difference.

We do have a stinky armpit problem sometimes and occasionally heavy stains that won't come out, these items get shoved in a bag and every so often get a good soaking in napisan overnight and chucked in the wash with another dose of napisan, washed on cool and problem solved.

mommygoose

I wash all my colours on 20 on a quick wash and whites on a 40

icelandic_queen

I do every wash except beds and whites on a 30 degree fast wash. I use A**a's own S"Price brand of powder but if anything is stained I squirt diluted Stardrops onto it and that soon sorts it! As mentioned before, most things only need refreshed.

mommygoose

I use their make too and for my stained clothes I have a washboard which is fantastic for any kind of stain

notjustlaura

Thank you for such an interesting (and educational!) thread. I've been washing everything on 40C unless it was something gross which needed boiled or binned.

My machine doesn't have an actual cold setting but a do have a 30C 30min wash which it seems would be fine for most things? There seems to be a consensus that bedding and towels should be done at 60C so I could separate them out and just do it once a week. What about underwear though?

elf06

Wow I always wash at 30 but never for a min considered using the no heat setting Dont even know why :o
I think I shall start doing this from now on but I'm wondering how it will get on shifting toddler dirt from clothing (bearing in mind DS likes to crawl round in mud :mad:)

mommygoose

You could try rubbing with household soap before you wash them. You can get it really cheap in any supermarket:)

Torry_Quine

Don't personally get why people only wear something once before washing it! Clothes here are changed when they need to be and so a cool or cold wash wouldn't work. have more than enough to do without creating more work for myself.

mommygoose

We always where our clothes more than once, apart from underwear. I've never had a problem with washing colours on 20 as yet, touch wood