Tide "Cold Water" Nd "HE Free" Question

[mattywashboy]

cold water washing

i find cold water washing to be a little bit pointless, i mean, we might as well walk down to the stream and wsh our clothes there the amount of good it does. But some people argue against, like 98% of the population of Australia, everyone i know washes in cold water cept my parents. And apparently it gets things clean, i am yet to be impressed, how can bacteria and germs be killed in stone cold water??? On the new front loaders with the tempreture gauge i see people using the no heat option, for gods sake turn it to 30* at least. The standard temp in England is 40* which doesn't take much energy to heat up. However, the detergents they make like Cold Power do have a fairly good effect, if only they had time to work, once again peple are obsessed with laundry being quick, always using the quickest cycle. On the new front loaders there is always a 30 min quick wash, once again every person i know who owns a front loader uses this cycle in cold water, absolutely pointless. But hey what do i know, i'm only 18.

 

[frigilux]

Water has to be pretty hot before many germs are killed; medium-warm doesn't do it. Also, if you dry your clothes fully dry in an automatic dryer, that's supposed to kill a fair number of the critters...

 

[launderess]

If one were counting on water temp alone to kill the most common germ found on laundry, E Coli; it would require wash temps of at least 160F held for 20 minutes.

However there are many chemicals which sanitise laundry at temps well below boiling or 160F, and even work in cold water. Liquid chlorine bleach is of course one such chemical, but there are also quats, phenols, and even pine cleaners (must be at least 80% pine oil). Activated oxygen bleaches will sanitise as well as or even better than chlorine bleaches if held at 120F or 140F for 20 minutes.

Enzymes can probably kill many germs if they are targeted to destroy protien (which makes up bacteria cell walls).

Bacteria are also removed by the simple mechanical process of laundering. True, they might not be "dead" but just the same are removed from laundry and flushed out with the wash/rinse water.

Normal laundering is merely to reduce bacteria count, to totally disenfect would require a much different process. It would pay however to launder items from the sick room, diapers, hankies and other items with human waste and or from a person known to be ill on their own in very hot water.

Would tend to think modern "cold water" laundry detergents have address the "germ" issue, at least those sold in the United States given that country's "maina" for clean and germ killing.

Yes, there probably are germs on some freshly laundered items, but am here to tell you there are far worse things to worry about. Long as one is healthy, intact skin is the best barrier to disease caused by contact. One common assignment in nursing school/microbiology classes is to swab and culture common items around the home/person and so on. If you saw what was growing on your hands (even those claimed to be "freshly washed"), computer keyboard, light switches and so on, you might not eat ever again.

Launderess

 

[peterh770]

The simple act of adding detergent to the wash kills most bacteria by changing the pH of the water. What does survive the wash is destroyed in the dry heat of the dryer. I believe the standard is that 99% of all cooties are destroyed in everyday washing methods.

 

[angus]

Funny thing though, I have recently noticed that Tide HE free is now available in all of my local markets. Up until two months ago only Shaw's supermarket carried it - now Stop&Shop as well as the local IGA carry it.