Mud Wash

[DADoES]

I tried the "Sports/Muddy" LifeCycle on my F&P IWL12 yesterday evening. I had a couple pairs of jeans with muddy knees from yard work. One had been sitting for a week, the other was fresh from the afternoon. Six pairs of jeans in the load. The cycle seems to be intended for clothes substantially more muddy/dirty than that, but I figured this is as close as I may ever get.

All fills are cold. The user manual says warm or hot water sets mud. Soil level automatically sets for high.

Tide Coldwater.

The cycle begins with a 5-min prewash and drain (no spin).

Next is a cold EcoActive wash, and a cold deep wash, both for the longest possible time due to the soil level selected for maximum. Interesting that it tried to agitate after EcoActive, but *before* beginning to fill for the deep wash. The basket hadn't floated, so of course it couldn't agitate properly, and it went on with the fill. I don't recall seeing it do that before. It could be a one-time 'glitch' or maybe the EcoActive phase on this cycle fills a little more than usual which causes water level pressure to be at low level when recirculation stops.

Drain. Spin with sprays. A deep rinse, agitated *longer* than usual. Drain. Spin with sprays. Another deep rinse, agitated for the normal length. Drain. More spin sprays. Final spin. The entire cycle took about 68 minutes.

Other cycles have two deep rinses, but I believe this is the only cycle I've seen (thus far) that spins before both deep rinses, with sprays both times, and also the only one with sprays in the final spin.

The muddy knees came out clean.

 

[mayken4now]

Nice to know we have success on the cycle used for what it is intended. Great job Glenn. Thanks for the info.

Steve

 

[mrb627]

Beeps?

At any time in the cycle did the machine pause and call you for more detergent? How did it manage to perform an eco-active wash after the prewash water and detergent were pumped away?

MRB

 

[DADoES]

Yes, it stops and beeps to signal for adding more detergent. A cold prewash can be added to any cycle at any time, it just happens to be included by default on a couple of the pre-programmed LifeCycles.

After a LifeCycle is selected with the various parameters preset, most of the usual things can be still be adjusted. The prewash could be eliminated, a different water temp selected, (probably) Traditional Wash to skip EcoActive, a lesser soil level, a specific water level, etc. I'm pretty sure the extra rinses would remain in effect, however. Prewash is always cold, and I don't know in this case if a temp adjustment would affect both EcoActive and deep wash. Many combinations of cycle and option are possible on this machine.

 

[appnut]

SOOOO COOL!! You always provide such great detail of each cycle as you try it. I'm sooo looking forward to playing with it. I've warned Bryan about laundry I'm bringing for both laundry studios. HE HE HE LOL

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hey Glenn

Replied to this on THS (mainly to wind up the water-police LOL); but thought I'd post here too .

I've also found that deeper water levels aid in better solid removal such as mud and dirt. I wash my brother's jeans (which always come to the washer caked in dirt & covered in grass stains) on the 30*C Delicates cycle, with Prewash, which takes 1.07h in the Miele (counting a final Rinse Hold, and a separate 1600rpm spin instead of the defualt 600rpm on Delicates). I have found that this is the quickest and most effective way at removing the mud from his jeans; whereas on the cottons cycles they have to get at least 40 or 50*C (not good for the dyes), and a fairly long wash time at low water level to get the same results, and if you ask me they do seem a lot cleaner after the delicates cycle.

I've boiled down to the fact that it's the water torrents which are more apparent in the higher levels of the delicates cycle that flush the mud away from the fabric, in the same way that the same water torrents clean delicate loads efficiently but gently. Have still found the lower wash levels of the cottons & minimum iron cycles better for whites and most general laundry where the detergent concentration is higher, but really I might run a white loads through a Delicates wash to see if it really does make any difference.

BTW, the delicates cycle on the Miele fills almost halfway up the door, tumbles at 40rpm for 8 secs, pauses for 4, then reverses. Rinses are the same, but with no spinning between them (just tumbling through the drain). Interestingly the delicates cycle also includes a cooldown cycle - i.e. tops up the wash water, drains a little, adds a bit more, over about 5 minutes or so before the wash water is drained. Was very surprised when I first saw that - if your lucky enough to have a cooldown now on delicates cycle on modern frontloaders it is just a top-up of the wash water at the end of the wash cycle (which my AEG actually does at the end of every cycle).

Take care,

Jon

 

[gyrafoam]

Different types of soil react differently to water temperature I suppose. I work out in the yard and garden and can get trashed with good 'ole red Georgia clay.

I typically just throw everything into the '64 Highlander, set 'er for hot wash, toss in a measure of Fab and set 'er for maximum wash time. Comes out clean every time.