Here we go again, the mantra of washing laundry in cold water

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I recently stepped down to using warm water (averages 105 degrees) instead of hot on all loads of whites and was stunned to find the detergent actually works better. I’m using Tide 10X Heavy Duty pods for large loads and Tide 4-in-1 with Oxi pods for smaller loads. I’ve also replaced my beloved Clorox bleach with a 30-minute manual soak. These are both significant changes in lifelong habits for me.

I experimented with using temp-controlled cold water for all loads back when Tide ColdWater first appeared, but eventually reverted back to my warm & hot water ways.

I might be more tempted to wash loads of mixed colors in cold if I lived where the water at the tap rarely dips below 75 degrees, but the water here is refrigerator cold half the year. Not interested.

We are decidedly old-school, Bob! LOL
 
Washing in cold in some areas of the country and if you have an electric water heater might save $, for me not so much.  Was looking at my utility bill for June, gas bill was $14.  I have a gas cooktop, gas dryer, nat. gas grill and water heater set as high as it will go.  It's not costing me much to heat my water, I'll stick with hot or warm washes and a warm rinse if cycle permits.
 
Detergents heavily reliant on modern day enzymes do a better job removing stains at lowers temps, no arguments there. Where they fail, quite miserably I might add, is in the final sniff test right out of the washer. There's always a hint of sourness (bacteria?) when I washed a couple of dark towels I rarely use in 120F wash, spin rinse, and deep rinse temps using enzyme detergents. The white towels which are the daily drivers washed in 160F using detergents with little to no enzymes are 100% fresh smelling, all the time, every time. I started washing the darker towels with the whites at 160F and they immediately became just as fresh smelling the very first go around. Yeah, they fade a little every few washes but nobody sees them anyway and I can't take them with me into the next life, so blazing hot water washes it's!
 
Steam phase

I found that using a steam phase during a wash cycle really improves results. I have a Miele W1 and when I select AllergoWash, it does a steam phase for 20 to 30 minutes after the main wash depending on if I choose the short option. The washer spins out the wash water and then covers the element on the base of the drum to create steam.
I use this option if I'm washing dark-coloured towels at 40 degrees and at the end of the cycle the towels smell incredibly fresh and odour free. I've done this for white towels too washed at 60 degrees.
I believe if you use steam for items that can't be washed hot, you can still achieve a good level of hygiene and odour removal.
 
Posted a link to YT video in another thread where some scientist (or whatever) conducted tests on bio and non-bio detergents and stain removal at various water temperatures.

Bio detergents worked best in warm to moderate temps, performance fell off at higher temperatures.

OTOH non-bio detergents were opposite, stain/soil removal was far better in hotter water.

However distasteful some may find it. warm or cold water washing is not going away, and is being heavily pushed from many directions. Both in Europe and North America washing machine and laundry product makers have been given directly or indirectly their marching orders from government. Energy use must decrease but performance cannot suffer.

Modern top shelf (and even some middle) laundry detergents work quite well in temps ranging from 86 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This is largely attributed to new complex enzyme cocktails along with various other bits like polymers.
 
I rarely do hot or cold wash. Cold only for delicate items.

It's cool, warm, and warm-hot washes and cold rinses.

I always pre-wash dirty clothes, sheets, and towels.

For detergent it's original Oxydol, Simply clean Tide, and Foca detergent (the stuff made out of baby seals. lol).

And for most loads (not towels) a bit of april fresh Downy in the rinse.

bradfordwhite-2022080104555503660_1.png
 
In all fairness, laundry done under ideal circumstances:
the proper amount of unscented detergent
clean, filtered, softened water
thorough cleaning in the machine
the machine is clean with no lingering bacteria to get on clothes.

Clothing is not a thing of wonderous fragrance. It is after all wet cotton mixed with other petroleum based threads of polyester and the like.
The cheaper the clothes the more woven plastics.

But yeah, if you ask a novice person how clean their laundry is they will most likely judge it based on the amount and type of perfume it's giving off.
This implies that one could take a pile of dirty clothes,
hose them down with perfume
perhaps fold or hang the still dirty clothes
and they would be fooled into thinking they were clean.
 
Cold water washes

I generally do 1 load of dark colors a week in 75°F water. I have noticed that detergents do clean much better at this temperature than they did 10 years ago. However, after many washes I find that my clothes can have deodorant and oily stains on them that is removed in one cool wash.
To wash towels or sheets in cold is crazy. Warm is understandable.
 
I don’t wash in cold water at all,

I only wash in hot water if it’s my laundry or warm water if it’s delicate even though I constantly see adverts for “cold power“ and laundry detergent in Australia that advertises that it uses enzymes for “cold” water, I’ll stick with my powders my Oxy clean and my biozet thank you very much, but generally I tend to wash anything in hot water no matter what the hot water temperature is, it’s like one time I think I did my entire laundry in 80°C water at a laundromat that’s about an hour away outside of my city and that was because they had a really hot temperature there and I decided to give it a shot, did a pretty good job, but generally the only time that I’ll end up having to wash in cold water is either and attended laundromat where the operator chooses cold water, that I can’t really help or when hot water is physically not available but thank God for washing machines with heaters
 
Warm water most of the time over here...

I wash most of our clothes and linens in warm water, don't use hot or cold very often. We have almost no whites so no real need to worry about dye transfer or anything like that. I don't really understand why most clothing labels say to wash in cold now, and on items that in my opinion aren't that special or fancy. For instance I bought a couple pairs of cotton track pants from Old Navy, just basic elastic pants, and they say to wash in cold. What the heck for? I've washed them on warm several times now and they've been just fine. Now I am pretty careful with the dryer, drying most things on low except towels, socks, and underwear. Hang drying really isn't much of an option here except for items that absolutely require it, because we have no yard and minimal space inside.
 
Nasty

Maybe I’m the only one in the free work that still hand washes dishes using a dishpan, but can you imagine what the dishpan would look like if one only used cold water?
Top or front loader washing machines are going to be gunked up with pure nastiness with constant use of cold water, liquid detergents and fabric softener! (I don’t use)
Many of us here have taken washing machines apart and have seen what can build up on outer & inner tubs.
Yes we all have to wash certain things in cold, but for everything?
Nope
 
Stan My Friend

You aren’t alone in washing your dishes by hand. I’ve been washing the dishes by hand for over four years now. And I wouldn’t dream of using cold water to do it either. And BTW I can’t ever see myself going back to using the DW.

At the very least warm water needs to be used for doing most of the laundry, with the rare exception of certain fabrics that would be adversely effected by not washing them in cold water.

Eddie
 
Hi Eddie

That’s what I get for assuming I was alone with my dishpan!
I’ve never had a DW so I don’t know anything else
But I’ve not heard of someone having a DW that gave it up?
Prey tell?
 
Stan,

In April 2018 I’d started the DW with a full load in the afternoon while I was getting dinner ready. When the cycle was complete I opened up the DW to put the clean dishes away. What I found was a dirty load of dishes with the food baked on them. The pump apparently had gone out and the water just sat at the bottom of the tub with the detergent undissolved because it hadn’t been recirculated with the water, and I’d used the heated dry option.

So in the middle of dinner prep I had to wash 3 days worth of dishes with baked on food and detergent by hand, and I wasn’t a happy camper. Since the DW was just under 1 year old and still under warranty I called Whirlpool to make a service appt. The soonest they could get someone out to repair it was over 3 weeks out.

In the meantime I of course had to do the dishes by hand and I found that I actually liked doing them by hand better! I always had every pan, bowl and implement clean and ready for use whenever I wanted to use them. No more stopping to remove a dirty pan from the DW to wash it by hand. And no more having to unload and put away dishes an hour and a half after I’d finished dinner and have to disrupt my evening after getting comfortable watching a movie or show. Leaving them until the next morning doesn’t work for someone OCD like me, plus I don’t like to start my day with work, I want to read the paper while I have my breakfast and tea.

And I found that the whole process of doing the dishes by hand was oddly calming. While waiting for the DW to be repaired we had family over for Easter dinner and even doing all the dishes for lots of people and a big holiday meal wasn’t a deterrent.

After the DW was repaired I decided to just keep on doing the dishes by hand and I like it so much better! I wash and David dries and puts them away. Its a pleasant ritual that we both enjoy. And it takes all of 10 mins or less using about 2-3 gals of water. I don’t let the water run only turn it on very low to rinse and I let the rinse water go into the dishwashing side of the sink. By starting out with only 2” of hottest water in the sink washing the cutlery first, then the glassware, next plates and the bowls pot and pans this way I use a minimal amount of water to save water. When I’m finished there are maybe 6” of hot soapy dishwater in the sink, which I then use to clean the stove top and wipe down the counters. I save this water to wash the dessert, coffee and tea dishes later on to save water.

I also took the garbage disposal out too a few years before starting to wash the dishes by hand, we compost instead.

I use the DW to store the dish draining rack and drainboard and the coffee can we use for the compost, so I still use the DW, just not for its intended purpose.

I know most members here think I’m crazy as a crap house rat. But at age 71 I’m entitled to my do it my way.

Eddie
 
Eddie

After reading that I’m glad I never had one!
We kind of do the same thing but I just have one big old sink
(reason for the dishpan)
Dinner clean up is shared. When cooking I have dishpan filled with “hot” sudsy water and clean as I go.
That way there’s not much to do after dinner. I try my best to save water too, but sounds like you have it down to exact Science.
I don’t compost Per se
Scraps are separated…some for the chickens and the rest go in news paper or whatever I can find and taken straight to the alley garbage can. The rats can have what’s left. LOL
 
Interesting issue - and one that is definitely very personal with no single correct answer for everyone. I grew up without a dishwasher until 1975. So my mother had to do dishes three times a day and when there was a holiday dinner, that was another production altogether. I can see both sides - when I am alone I don't use many dishes so it makes sense to keep up daily by doing them by hand. Right now, though, I have my sister living with me. She is a first class slob who believes every drink of water and every snack needs a new dish or glass- and not paper or plastic. Also, since she has limited mobility I'm the one doing the dishes after every meal, not to mention cleaning up after her constantly, shopping and preparing all meals. So for now, it's the dishwasher.

For larger groups (dinner parties, holidays, etc..) it's definitely the dishwasher. I'm not a big fan of washing tons of water and wine glasses by hand and that's where the dishwasher excels. Glasses are hard to get perfect by hand...

By contrast, one of my friends (a self professed genius, engineer and OCD) has never used a dishwasher. He claims to have "invented" a foolproof process that results in dishes as clean as a dishwasher gets them, using much less water and in a fraction of the time. That would normally be fine but he uses his platform to "dishwasher shame" his friends into hand washing and his results don't pan out. On several occasions I have had to eject him from my kitchen during a group dinner for starting to unload the dishwasher and wash things by hand. And his "foolproof" process is only correct on two counts - speed and water saving. As OCD as he is about everything (his house and yard are immaculate), I have never had dinner at his house where I didn't need to wash a glass before using it. When I point it out to him, I am being a "drama queen". Sorry, but I refuse to drink from a glass with someone else's lip prints on it.
So while there is no one correct answer for all, my only non negotiable is immaculate drink ware...
 
Reply#25

I don’t blame you for not wanting to drink out of glasses with someone else's lip prints on the rim, thats nasty.
I use an old fashioned waffle weave cotton dish cloth when I wash the dishes, a fresh one daily. I go over EVERY surface of EACH item I’m washing with the dish cloth to be certain that nothing is missed.

Since I grew up without a DW and didn’t have one until I was 36 years old I’m well schooled in proper dishwashing technique. Some younger people that have never been without a DW may not have the skill set to wash dishes properly by hand, but it can be learned.

Everyones different, but I can assure you my kitchen and everything in it is spotless. I don’t like anything to be dirty. When I still used the DW I almost always had to hand wash at least one or two things that hadn’t gotten clean enough to suit me.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 8/12/2022-11:09]
 
I hate washing dishes.
 
Back in the 60's in SF, radio station KYA had a DJ named Ed Hider. His thing was to intersperse music with humorous clips he'd collected from God Knows Where. One of my favorites was the one with the sound of dishes breaking and a woman screaming, "I hate washing dishes!" over and over. Somewhere I might have a tape of that, but it might have been lost when I played it back in a funky recorder. But I did make a little loop of it to play in unusual locations. One such was in a set of caves we used to frequent. The tourist reactions were priceless.
 
 
I, too, have been washing more dishes by hand. I like to get done and not wait on the 2 hour dishwasher, then have to go back and unload. I still use the dishwasher when Im baking or cooking a lot but since I live alone, I have to save up enough dishes for a full load and that takes nearly a week, and then the dishwasher gets odorous!!! It’s just easier and faster to wash them and be done with it.

A good top shelf dish soap is worth its weight in gold. I did find that a few lower-or-middle-shelf dish soaps can leave an unpleasant aroma on the dishes, and you have to use a lot to cut the grease. Ivory can smell like a wet dog, and those soaps that are “seasonal”, ie. pumpkin spice smelling etc. is just weird. Palmolive has a strong disinfectant scent, that too can linger on dishes.

As for laundry I’ve been washing more in just warm water and getting better results. Think they have reformulated the detergents. Someone had observed the same results and posted. It’s hard to not use hot water on whites though, just learned behavior.

Barry
 
Sudsy bath towels

Yesterday I ran a load of bath sheets, and although I added far less detergent (Kirkland Ultra Plus liquid) than usual, the suds wouldn't go away. Finally I had to run almost 10 rinses in order to bring the suds down to a manageable level.

This is in a Neptune 7500.

The next load I run (I wash ~ 1/2 the total number each time) I won't add any detergent. We'll see.
 

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