Long wash cycles, diffusion and rinsing
I think I posted that video at some point on here...
Long wash cycles mainly perform better by giving more time for penetration.
The dirt gets broken down into smaller particles, thus encapsulated better by any tensides.
Thus again moved out of the fibres easier.
Further, chemical action like bleaching are outside of that effect and just need some time.
They are a plain chemical reaction and reaction rates depend mostly on concentration and temperature, number of reactions on time and rate.
And I don't think the charges play much role in a process based on diffusion.
Diffusion is mainly concentration based.
So charge of the surfactant isn't a factor in that.
It's just the concentration difference pulling into one direction.
I can think of several examples where manufacturers used this effect of the top of my head - not saying the knew what was going on:
- Miele used to have a "reactivating" stage at the end of the main wash in their W7xx series machines where they upped the water level from low to high.
- Mieles PowerWash system washes in an incredibly highly concentrated detergent solution and only dilutes to a normal concentration after all heating and cleaning is done.
That will use that concentration difference aswell.
- Electrolux machines in the EU for a long time used a dilution rinse before the first intermediate spin after the main wash if you selected certain rinse options (sometimes called "Sensitive", sometimes the normal Extra Rinse option or 2 or more additional rinses if selectable by number).
- Many machines in the US currently don't run interim spins after the main wash. I think WPs newest frontloaders aswell as ELux comes to mind.