wringersteve
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2010
- Messages
- 138
An appliance salesman told me today that detergents lose their cleaning ability after 14 minutes of washing. Is this true?
After 14 minutes of washing....
- Thread starter wringersteve
- Start date
Help Support :
This is true of non-HE detergents from my understanding...
whirlcool
Well-known member
Interestingly enough, our Whirlpool TL machine can only be set for a max wash time of 14 minutes......
toploader1984
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- Feb 14, 2009
- Messages
- 551
14 min
that can't be true because i have soaked things before to get stains out. he is probably saying that because he heard it from someone else. what they probably mean is after you have been washing your clothes for 14 minutes they aren't going to get any cleaner if you wash them for longer.
that can't be true because i have soaked things before to get stains out. he is probably saying that because he heard it from someone else. what they probably mean is after you have been washing your clothes for 14 minutes they aren't going to get any cleaner if you wash them for longer.
Not Exactly
Certain components of modern detergents such as enzymes and oxygen bleaches will continue to work far longer than fourteen minutes. However as one has often stated here in the group, laundry detergents have a finite time period for keeping soils suspended in water, and from resettling back onto the wash. Even phosphates have a working time limit before they start to convert into other forms.
About twenty-minutes give or take is the limit for many American domestic detergents designed for high dilution (top loaders) wash conditions.
When you have a wash load that is *very* badly soiled, best to run two wash cycles (pre-wash or pre-soak, followed by a main wash), than one long wash cycle. This standard advice was how housewives/laundries and anyone else did wash for ages, and carried over with the invention of washing machines.
If you choose to soak laundry, it really isn't necessary to do so longer than one-half hour to a hour. Any longer and the soils lifted from the fabric will start to redeposit onto the wash. OTHO if one is trying to soak out stains and or "whiten" with oxygen bleach, items should be washed first, then allowed to soak if one is planning to do say an over-night/long bath.
Finally when soaking it is best to lift items out of the water, rather than have it drain through them. As wash is soaked the soils will initially lift out of the wash and suspend in the bath. However as time passes they will settle to the bottom of the container. By lifting items away from the water you leave the "muck" behind rather than have it filtered through the wash.
Certain components of modern detergents such as enzymes and oxygen bleaches will continue to work far longer than fourteen minutes. However as one has often stated here in the group, laundry detergents have a finite time period for keeping soils suspended in water, and from resettling back onto the wash. Even phosphates have a working time limit before they start to convert into other forms.
About twenty-minutes give or take is the limit for many American domestic detergents designed for high dilution (top loaders) wash conditions.
When you have a wash load that is *very* badly soiled, best to run two wash cycles (pre-wash or pre-soak, followed by a main wash), than one long wash cycle. This standard advice was how housewives/laundries and anyone else did wash for ages, and carried over with the invention of washing machines.
If you choose to soak laundry, it really isn't necessary to do so longer than one-half hour to a hour. Any longer and the soils lifted from the fabric will start to redeposit onto the wash. OTHO if one is trying to soak out stains and or "whiten" with oxygen bleach, items should be washed first, then allowed to soak if one is planning to do say an over-night/long bath.
Finally when soaking it is best to lift items out of the water, rather than have it drain through them. As wash is soaked the soils will initially lift out of the wash and suspend in the bath. However as time passes they will settle to the bottom of the container. By lifting items away from the water you leave the "muck" behind rather than have it filtered through the wash.
laundromat
Well-known member
Once the detergent used has done the max,it enables the suds to increase.Usually,anywhere from 1 to 3 hours,not 14 minutes.I fill my Affinity with wash water and detergent. then, I reset the delay for 3 hours. It soaks then goes through the heavy 56 minute cycle.everything comes out real clean.
