Cold water washing- WHY?!?!?

[dustin92]

I was visiting some friends who wash EVERYTHING in cold well water, with cheapo detergent (xtra), and to make things even worse, they dont sort anything. dirty greasy work clothes, towels, dish cloths, underwear, socks, it all goes in. Then set the washer (low end whirlpool direct drive) on the extra heavy setting (18 minutes), and add a capful of soap. Well I said id help out with the laundry and so I put the temperature to warm and added about 3 capfuls of their cheap detergent.( I didnt measure it, just poured some from the bottle) and fired up the washer. a few minutes into the wash the water was brown (washing some jeans, some t shirts and some gray or white socks *not sure what color they were supposed to be* and nothing looked terribly dirty) and the clothes were clean at the end of the cycle (and smelled better too!) My question is why do some people seem to overlook how bad their clothes are coming out just to save a few dollars? even sorting properly and still washing in cold water would get better results than this!

 

[ronhic]

mmmmm......

.....74% of Australians either exclusively or predominately use cold water for clothes washing....

As for using a cheap liquid, well they are proven to not work particularly effectively......

 

[ronhic]

mmmmm......

.....74% of Australians either exclusively or predominately use cold water for clothes washing....

As for using a cheap liquid, well they are proven to not work particularly effectively......

 

[appnut]

Many people just don't care. All they wanna do is get the laundry done as soon as possible with as little fuss and muss involved.

 

[dustin92]

brilliant idea!

I am thinking of making a concoction of powdered laundry detergent and either clorox2 or Tide stain release and trying it out on our whites and if all goes well, giving them some and telling them to try it on whites and see if they like it and to use it in warm water so it will dissolve. that sounds like it should work and will sneak some good stain removal additives into their laundry! I am sure they will like having clean clothes and then I can tell them what is in it, and that the warm water did more than my mixture!

 

[strongenough78]

People don't realize that the few dollars they try to save doing laundry like that, costs them when they have to replace the clothes that are damaged or are so stained and ruined and need to be thrown out. Laundry done properly will make clothes last much longer. I still have t-shirts from highschool that still are in pretty good shape. And I graduated in 1996 lol.

 

[dustin92]

exactly!

people think they are saving money by washing everything in cold water with el cheapo detergent, but they are just wasting more money by destroying their clothes!

 

[strongenough78]

Well I just think of it as their loss. Although when I spent the weekend with a friend of mine in San Diego a few years ago and I didn't have time to do laundry before I left. So I did it there with his stuff. And he's the "do everything together in cold water" type of person. I said "bulls--t", you go to work and I'll take care of this. When he came home, his whites were white again, and his button up work shirts were brighter and looked much better. He asked how I did that, I said I seperated them, washed the whites in hot water with bleach, and the rest in hot or warm water and made sure towels weren't in with clothes, you know, like you're SUPPOSED TO! LOL

 

[laundromat]

Why, I never

wash anything in cold water.Even my hands.I use hot for my whites,bed linens, bath and beach towels,underwear, throw rugs,and socks. I use a warm rinse because a cold rinse does not remove all the left over detergent.I wash my colorfast clothes in hot water too. the rest are all done with a warm wash and warm rinse.Everything I dye or tint gets done in hot water with about 1/2 C of sea salt and rinsed until the water is clear in warm. I get lots of complements from customers who come to drop their clothes.They see the ones hanging to dry and not only see how clean they are but,also,smell the fresh Gain sent they have.Cold water washing is only for wollens and some man made synthetics.I still have the great rainbow striped bath towel ensembles I purchased at Sears twelve years ago and they get washed weekly in hot water with Gain and Clorox Bleach.My bed linens are also a rainbow pattern and they also get washed weekly in hot water with no bleach.

 

[favorit]

these "cold wash only" people are those very ones that write on forums looking for help cause their washers are possessed by mold & mildew )

 

[ronhic]

Well it is interesting, but I can promise you that Australians by and large don't smell, and our clothes are clean (says I who washes in warm water...)

Also consider that, given 74% of the population do wash in cold water, just how much energy is saved on annual basis...

The approximate difference in cost assuming 7 cycles a week is around $40 per year....

If we assume for a minute that all house holds are 4 people and they only do 7 loads a week and our population is 22 million....and we use 75% rather than 74% to make the maths easy...

Thats 5.5million family units....

...of which 4.125million wash in cold water....

multiplied by $40 each.....$165,000,000.00 dollars in energy saved as a nation.....

Washing in cold water does not have to give poor results. Our consumer magazine doesn't test detergents in warm or hot water anymore because the majority don't use it. The top performing detergents today - Omo and Drive...were the top performing 10 years ago too....and the performance scores are the same today in cold as they were in warm. In fact, the difference is normally less than we can visibly detect with our eye(around 6%) if an item is washed in cold and an item with the same soil level is washed in warm using the same detergent....

 

[polkanut]

My wife's uncle was a bachelor who was never taught the coreect way to do laundry either. Well, while he was still living at home I happened to be out at his house one day and noticed that his laundry basket was full and volunteered to take his dirty clothes home with me.

I sorted his laundry correctly, used the correct water temps, measured the detergent properly, and each tub of wash water (3) was absolutely black. I double rinsed each load and even the rinse water was gray looking.

When I brought the clean laundry back to him he asked what I did, and I told him. He said he put as much as he could into his washer (Maytag wringer), dumped in some powdered Cheer, added lukewarm water, and let it wash for 20 minutes. He had his washer so full, the clothes couldn't roll over. The agitator just jiggled the load a little. His wearing the same shirt and pants for 5-7 days in a row didn't help either.

P.S. We have a 1998 Maytag Dependable Care set as our daily drivers.

 

[MikeS]

Cold Facts

Yes, I admit doing laundry in cold water--but only my colored shirts, jeans and slacks. They are usually in need of freshening, and the combination of cold water, proper loading and a good detergent does the trick, along with a low heat setting on my dryer. My whites--from sheets and towels to underwear and socks--get the hot water treatment and occasional bleach. Plus, after every washday, I leave the lid on my faithful Roper top loader open to air out. So IMHO, there's nothing wrong with a cold water wash--when done right

 

[joe_in_philly]

"Cold" water can cover a wide range of temperatures. In some parts of the US and the world, cold water may be what other people consider warm.

I live in Philly, and in the winter I have measured the cold water coming out of my tap as low as 36F (2C), and as warm as 83F (28C) in summer. A coworker of mine who lives in Phoenix says his cold water sometimes tops 90F.

 

[dirtybuck]

I can't remember where I read it, but the "standard" temperature for cold water washing should be 60 degrees.

 

[neptunebob]

Also, do not overload. My mother in law overloads all the time, so much that after the cycle is over there is only 3-4 inches between the clothes and the agitator. Once she was staying at my sisters house, and did the laundry. Once I had to come over. I had to wash my hands in the bathroom and when I reached for the hand towel, the water made the towel smell so bad I nearly panicked. An awful mold smell. I did their laundry for awhile just so I would never have to run into a smelly towel again.

 

[dj-gabriele]

smelly towel

That's the most disgusting thing that can happen in any household! :S

I have a dear friend in France with this problem regardless the use of a nice machine (he's got a Candy pair and the washer is the same as mine!!!!!) and good detergent (Le Chat powder and green liquid).
He (and his family) don't sort colours and only wash in cold water... he lives in the alps and water is COLD in winter! :S
That's so disgusting :S :S

 

[supremewhirlpol]

El cheapo detergent?

XTRA WORKS QUITE WELL THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!

 

[dustin92]

still,

Xtra is still some of the cheapest detergent you can buy, and is nothing compared to Tide, or Era, or arm & hammer. I do like some of the scents though, (mountain rain, tropical passion, summer fiesta, and the original sparkling fresh scent that is no longer made.) It works ok on lightly soiled loads, but not heavy soil, and not in cold water!