Very Long Wash Times, Such Stuff and Nonesense
American laundry detergetns both HE and otherwise are desigened with that market's laundry habits in mind. That is to say are quite "aggressive" detergents designed to work quickly and effectively within short wash times. This no doubt developed from top loading washing machines which usually had maximum 18 minutes or so wash times, but could always be extended by resetting the timer.
Amercian washing machines by and large do not spend time heating wash water like European machines, that alone takes anywhere from 10 minutes or more (depending upon such variables such as incoming water temp/chosen wash temp, and heating power of the machine). The preferred method of whitening within the United States is chlorine bleach, which works quite quickly and indeed will harm textiles with long exposure times.
Now, SQ's former max wash time for cottons of 9 minutes probably was good enough for most loads, but because the machine lacked a method for extending wash times, besides aborting the cycle and starting over, many consumers simply assumed their laundry would not come clean.
American laundry detergents, again keeping with short wash cycle designs of most machines, will loose effectiveness with very long wash cycles. That is to say the ability to hold soils and muck in suspension and keep them away from laundry is not indefinite. After about 15 minutes or so the formula will weaken and that can lead to soils being redeposited right back onto laundry.
Good laundry practice is a combination of time, temperature, mechanical action and chemicals. An increase in any variable leads to a decrease in the others. That is to say powerful chemicals will require less time, temp and even mechanical action than weaker. The only chemicals in todays modern detergents that benefit from long contact times are enzymes and oxygen bleach. Again American wash habits prefer chlorine bleach for stain removal, even with detergents that contain enzymes (which LCB deactivates).
One bug-bear for Americans towards front loaders is the LONG cycle times of some machines. Again unlike Madame La France, Mrs. Average American Housewife is not used to doing small amounts of laundry each day. Rather the stuff builds up and is done once weekly (if that). If a families entire wash was mainly white/colourfast cottons that could all be laundered in hot water with bleach, then a machine that took over an hour *might* not prove such a bother, but that rarely is the case. With several loads of laundry to do most Americans do not wish to prolong the chore any longer than necessary. One reason I've kept the Hoover TT around despite the extra work and dreadful noise, is there are simply times one does not wish to wait ages for the Miele to do a load of laundry. If the Hoover weren't around, probably would look for a small vintage portable/compact top loader for the same purpose.
It is a pity Alliance didn't make some design adjustment for short or long cycles. Eariler "Homestyle" washers had timer controls, do not understand why SQ felt the need to abandon that design for such and inflexible replacement.
