POD, Laundress, please weigh in on this

[bajaespuma]

In the norge ad today, they indicated a warm rinse as being very effective. CU has said for years that a cold water rinse is just as effective. What little of high school chemistry that I remember contradicts this. Hotter water would make everything more soluble, no? Or are the numbers insignificant?

 

[toggleswitch2]

www.thechemistrystore.com

http://www.chemistrystore.com/Chemicals_S_Z-Sodium_Tripolyphosphate.html

 

[toggleswitch2]

Admit one please.

Hmm I could swear I posted in the correct thread.

Hello shady pines nusrsing home?

 

[peterh770]

It's more about warm water opening up the fibers of fabric (especially cotton and linen), making them give up residue more effectively.

 

[launderess]

Warm Water Rinses

While indeed can give better results in rinsing for some items, is mostly a hold over from when soaps were used for wash day instead of detergents.

When using soap, the first few rinses were alwasy hot or at least warm to keep the textile fibers from contracting, thus trapping soils, dirt and soap residue (and scum for that matter), into the textiles. Since modern detergents soften water quite well, and when properly dosed in correct washing conditions soils and muck are kept away from laundry, warm water rinsing became less of an issue.

Being as that may, some commercial laundries, and even domestic housewives still use warm water for rinsing, for two reasons. One, as noted above it does keep textile fibers from contracting, thus allowing a flushing action to rid laundry of soils and detergent residue. Two, when going from a hot or very hot wash, it is not good to put certian fibers right into a cold rinse, as it can cause "shock", leading to some nasty creases. Finally the more chemicals one uses for the wash bath, and depending upon the number of rinses, warm water can give better results.

Remember also in the United States, what counts as "cold" water will vary by location and time of the year. Tap water in January in Maine or New York is going to be warmer than the same in Atlanta or Texas.

Only time one has ever used warm water rinses, is when trying to remove heavy detergent build up from laundry.

 

[retro-man]

Launderess: I think you have something a little backwards. The tap water in Maine and New York are going to be alot colder than tap water in Atlanta or Texas in January. I don't think they get quite the same drastic temperature changes that we get in the winter here in the northeast.
Jon

 

[jaytag]

Atlanta TAP water gets brrrrr cold too

Although I am sure it is not as frigid as Maine or New York, you can definitely tell the time of season our TAP water gets cold here as well. One reason is that in the South, the ground does not really freeze, therefore pipes are not insulated. Example most of the 50 60 and 70s built ranches here have carports with storage closets at the back. This is where our water heater is. Our Hot and Cold water pipes go down into concrete and travel to the crawl space and up to the bathroom. Which the concrete makes the water cold......so we have to run the water a bit to get it warm. I try to catch all of this water and save it in jugs so it does not go to waste. Another strange difference here, as I grew up in IL. Our furnaces...or as Southerns say...heaters, are in the crawl space. Fun to change that filter.

 

[jeb]

warm rinse

I thought there was something about using warm rinse for rubber backed throw rugs-helped keep the rubber soft and pliable in the spin so it wouldn't crack and break off.

 

[sudsman]

Water temps in Texas

I run two formulas on all the machines here. A summer formula and a winter formula..As the incoming water in summer is around 98 and in winter it does go as low as 36 . Cold water rinses on the summer formula and Warm on the winter foumulas. Warm last rinse makes the loads extract better and they are eaiser for the washmen to pull. Also they will dry about 10 min faster than cold rinses. And on the ironer with cold rinses we have to slow it down from 80 feet per min to around 60 fpm we loose production of around 3 sheets per min. That adds up fast to over 180 sheets per hour..

 

[launderess]

Retro-Man:

Yes, obviously had that one backwards. *LOL*

Sudsman:

CR has always maintained (not that they are always correct), that cold water rinsing saved energy, despite the fact throwing "cold" laundry into a dryer causes it to use more energy. According to their rationale the energy used by the dryer is less than the cost of heating water for those warm rinses. Go figure.

As for ironer use, when one cannot get to things right away items are bagged in a bin liner and chucked into the fridge. Ironing cold linens am here to tell you is a good way to raise one's electric bill (that Pfaff ironer pulling 3KW, trying to keep up temperature against "cold" laundry), and yes, one has go slower as the unit works hard to press and dry the laundry.

I don't use warm water for rinsing items that are going to be ironed, because find it causes more creasing when spun, which means more work pour petite MOI!

Regarding all of the above, warm water evaporates faster than cold, which is the reason warm rinsed items dry faster, be they on the line or in the dryer. Am sure the same is true regarding extraction of water via spin cycles.

Same principle with dishes really. Hot or boiling water final rinse, and dishes will "flash" dry. Rinse them in cool or cold water, either one has to use some sort of heated drying option, and or tons of rinse aid.

 

[sudsman]

Launderess

I did the math about a year ago .. One of the tumblers uses 400,000 bth at that time a extra 10 mins cost a little over $3.oo per load. the Heaters are 350,000 btu and of them together will heat 25/gal /min. so rinse is around 80 gallon. so it only takes approx 40 gal for a split rinse. Usually giveing us around 100. as a final temp. 2 min beats 10 for the price hands down. I have also found that the "cold wrinkles"are harder to iron out than the warm water. At least on the ironers here, It almost always take two washmen to pull a cold washer and only one can easily handle the warm load. Sheets also seem to tangle more in the cold loads than the warm loads so the shake out girls have more work too. Also when we use dry sour and softner the cold water just will not disperse the supplies as well. I think cu's base if for electric water heating not gas.