Rinsing is simply a matter of dilution
This is true, but depending on the way it is done and on the fabric you're rinsing.
While handrinsing one uses a reasonable amount of water and changes it a few times as necessary, rather than use just a lot of water in a single rinse.
Other effective factors :
- Interim spins, in both VA TL and HA FL & TL
- Sprays while spinning probably do more than the single deep rinse in VA TL
- Water hardness. Hard water requires more detergents, otherwise it helps rinsing (calcium & magnesium salts link with detergents and precipitate, so it rinses better). Soft water needs less detergent but doesn't help dilution.
Asko W have the OPTIONAL 7+ rinses as soft water is very common in Scandinavia. Similar feature have swiss machines ( VZug, Merker, Schulthess ...) as in southern Switzerland (Vallais,Tessin and Graubuenden) soft water is an issue.
Mieles have the water plus sys, Aegs and Bosches have the "sensitive" option..... also, in case of suds lock, these machines add further rinse(s)
So, if one lives in a hard water place he/she can use the standard watersaving setting ..and lots of Calgon/descaler
Where water is soft one hasn't limescale issues but has rinsing ones, so 7+,sensitive,waterplus and such options come useful
Commercial laundries in hard water areas have water softeners to save on chemicals, indeed they have soft hot&cold pipelines for wash fills and hard cold water fills for rinses
Me too had prejudice about the single deep rinse on VA TL, as i didn't know about spray spins ....
Anyway it is true that the energy/water saving "race" has somewhat pushed things beyond a reasonable limit. For our sake this mostly happens on the programme used for eco ratings
I.E my newer machine uses 52 litres @ full load on standard setting. When I have towel & bathgown loads I use the waterplus to have low washing level but 4 high level rinses as the older machine does