Hot synthetic washes (e.g. White Nylon 60)...

[ultimafan]

Hi everyone!

I've posted this in the modern washer thread as I think this is a bit recent.

In the past, there was a 60 degree synthetic wash (White Nylon, programme 3 in ITCL), but I think the programme was made redundant during the mid 90s as it stopped appearing on washing machines (e.g. Hotpoint, Zanussi). I presumed that it was because most synthetics would crease at high temperatures (even poly cottons) and synthetics were included in the 50 degree programme. However on more recent machines the 60 degree synthetic wash has made a comeback. We tend to use them to wash white cottons and synthetics, as it is quicker than the normal whites programme, but things tend to crease up a bit on these washes. Does anyone else regularly use this programme?

 

[launderess]

My Older Miele

Allows high temps to be selected for "Permanent Press" but that cycle does a special series of cool down rinses and does not spin between the three main rinses. It also stops and hold the final rinse water unless programmed to continue with final spin (series of three short pulse spins).

Long as one does not allow man made fibers to cool or otherwise stretch/mis-shape them with heat creasing or damage shouldn't be a problem. However YMMV.

When doing such loads it is best to under fill the machine by half or less. You want to give items plenty of room to move about. This will go along way in reducing creases.

 

[glenfieldmathk1]

Miele Programme Packages have...

..a Minimum iron Hygiene programme in the UK programme packages. It shows an available temp of 95C for synthetics. I remeber there was a 95C special finish cycle (programme 9 ITCL). Not sure if this is what Miele are thinking, and if it is at 95C surely this would really crease the garments, if as you said 60 would. Also how long would Mieles Cool down be, bearing in mind Minimum iron cool down is usually 8-10 minutes long. 25 minutes??

 

[tomturbomatic]

Our 1958 LK had a setting for white and colorfast wash 'n wear items that used the medium (120F) water temperature that was much hotter than the mild warm setting in the 90sF. It was the "C" program. Of course, being a w'n w cycle, the clothes went through the very thirsty cooldown before the first spin.

I don't like the no intermediate spins PP cycle on the Mieles so I wash the PP stuff in the Creda and select slow spin if anything is unusually tender about wrinkling. Most ain't.

 

[matthewza]

synthetic 60

I wash towels on synthetic 60 in my LG because the water level is higher for wash and rinse and its a few mins shorter than cottons 60. But I wash linen on cotton 60 because the tumbles are a bit stronger. I suppose it boils down to personal preference

 

[chrisbsuk]

synthetic 60

...my Maytag (a rebadged Asko) offers synthetic cycles of cold, 30*, 40*, 50*, 60* & 95*.

I use the 50*c for work shirts, and 30*c for things like t-shirts etc

Quite a quick cycle (around an hr), with 4 rinses, high level, no interim spins, and a final short spin off 800 RPM (which is fixed, sadly)

If i am tumble drying, I normally run the load through a 1400 RPM spin after the cycle has finished

 

[launderess]

Creasing Synthetic Fibers

Being thermoplastic only normally occurs if the fibers are heated beyond a certain point, creased then cooled quickly which sets the new "shape". For this reason most every automatic washing machine since the invention of "wash and wear" fabrics have invented ways of cooling down the wash before any sort of extraction (spinning) took place.

The original name for these fabrics was "drip dry" which is quite honestly the best way of dealing with such items. Wash in warm or hot water, gradually cool down to cold by rinsing, then either gently extract (low spin speed) or simply hang up to dry.

Mad made fibers tend to resist water and hold onto oils/soils.This is one of the reasons they are so difficult to keep clean. Man made fiber textiles and or blends usually start to look dingy and or not smell as fresh after laundering if done in mainly cool or cold water washing. To compensate for this many commmerical laundries will add special surfactants and or increase the detergent ratio for man made textile or blend loads to get them cleaner when using lower wash temps.

 

[ultimafan]

I guess my question is...

Is it a good idea to wash synthetics or delicate polycottons/cottons with special finishes on higher temperatures? For a while it was limited to 50 degrees, yet in recent times we see more 60 degree programmes on synthetic cycles (though it can be reduced to 50 with variable temp. control).

@glenfieldmathk1 Actually that's another programme I was going to write about, Special finish cottons (programme 9), but I don't think I've even seen clothing marked as special finish cotton, and I reckon they could be washed on a normal white cotton cycle with the spin reduced/omitted.

 

[superelectronic]

A good idea?

It's not so much that it's a bad idea to wash sythetics at higher temperatures - up to 60*C - but that if you do, you need to be prepared for the the creases that ensue! They can be a lot of work to remove properly.

 

Washing sythetics at anything over 60*C - e.g. using the 95*C programme is definitely a bad idea unless you can deal with the fact those creases will almost certainly never come out. It's true that there was programme 9 at 95*C for Special Finish White Cottons in the HLCC guide - cottons that had been treated to make them crease resistant, therefore requiring gentle or no spinning. Still, they were <span style="text-decoration: underline;">cottons</span> and nothing else - no synthetic content.

 

Bear in mind if ever you do wash white synthetics at very high temperatures, you often run the risk of the white turning yellow. Even washing white cottons with seam stitching that may not be cotton can result in white fabric with yellowed stitching.

 

It's odd there was never a direct replacement ITCL code for the HLCC code 3 for white synthetics at 60*C. Then again, a lot of machines now have moved away from the very prescriptive programme selections of using the official codes as the programmes. We tend to get more of the fabric type + selection of available temperatures now. I'm not sure which is better. It's probably the case that fewer and fewer people have any concept of what fabrics are made of, or that they require different treatments! Most people won't even look at a care label before washing an item anyway.

 

The reappearance of 60*C sythetics cycle options is probably down to the fact 60*C has become acknowledged as the temperature for washing linens to remove dust mites and the like. The customer has probably asked for it. 50*C, by contrast, is a bit of a redunant temperature in the popular mind - it's not energy saving like 40 or 30*C, and doesn't have the anti-allergy status of 60*C. From a personal perspective, 50*C is only useful when using non-bio or "green" products for extra performance - it's not enough for the whites and it makes things like polycotton shirts crease more than normal. Then again, this is in part because the cycle on my machine is a bit short and the cool-down is poor - clothes are still quite warm when they go into the first spin.

 

Those are my thoughts anyway!

 

[l86810]

From my experience Synthetics do not simply crease by being washed at high temperatures, but by being spun at high temperatures.

This is why the machine will cool down first... and then spin, or simply not spin after the wash until a cold rinse has taken place as my old Hoover used to do.

I've washed poly cotton bed sheets at 95oC before as never experienced irreversible creasing

 

[superelectronic]

True...

...it's not the very hot water per se that causes the creasing, but the effect that heat has on the fibres if the wash is incorrectly handled (as mentioned a few posts above by someone far more knowledgable than me). That said, it's usually difficult to achieve the necessary cooling in an automatic washer, especially if, for example, you use the standard cotton programme. Quite a number of machines don't cool wash water before proceeding to the first spin or rinse - my old machine certainly doesn't.

 

So, overall, whilst of course you can wash synthetics at 95*C, it's probably inadvisable unless you have a suitably programmed machine or you can be on hand to try and create the right conditions.

 

Probably best not to try it with acrylic knitwear though. And I only need to look through my housemate's bedroom window to see the after effects of washing white polyester net curtains on Cottons 95*C without modifying the cycle in any way: crinkly (after ironing)...and not even any whiter than the other nets that get washed at 50*C tops!

 

[launderess]

Hot or Even Very Hot Washes

In a front loader for man made fibers normally require two things; lots of water and room for items to move.

The manual for my older Miele washer states for PP fabrics and when using that cycle to load drum half or under full. This gives washing plenty room to move about and "float" in water which in theory should prevent creasing.

Next this Miele uses lots of water for the wash (about five gallons) and nearly 11 even gallons per rinse (three in PP), this does not count the sequence of fills and drains that are part of the cooling down rinses that start at wash cycle's end.

This is quite allot of water and haven't had any creasing yet say with Prada items. OTOH today's modern washers that use so little water, then yes you may have some problems using high or very high wash temps.

 

[logixx]

I recently washed a large load on Perm Press at 60C / 140F. While the washer did a cool-down at the end of the wash, it also seriously over-washed my clothes during the main wash that lasted for two hours (extended due to the oversized load). Probably the last time I used that cycle.

That's what a cool-down looks like (this is Bulky Items but PP uses the same water level).

 

[hotpointfan]

Hot Synthetic Washes

My Hoover SE220 from 1999 has a 60* Mixed Fabrics cycle and a 50* Synthetics cycle. Both of those cycles have a single line under the temperature sign on the draw indicating a medium agitation synthetics wash. The machine has not been plumbed in yet and so I have not been able to test either of these cycles but I believe they are going to be very similar, but some differences may occur. I will probably use the mixed fabrics cycle for blankets and throws, and sometimes bedding as I evenly mix between washing on synthetics and cotton washes, at 60*.

Our current daily driver, a 2004 Bosch, has easycare cycles 30,40,60, of which they all use plenty of water for smaller loads and medium loads as well. The machine takes up to twenty minutes to heat up to the chosen temperature on easycare, but I feel that its not washing them for long enough once it has heated.