Today's Topic: Boot Or No Boot?

[speedqueen]

I think he means that before US users were so convinced of this cold water wash nonsense. Back then people cared about clean laundry too and thus were more apt to spend money on high quality detergents like Tide for TL machines and ALL or Dash for FL washers which had phosphates unlike today's user who cheaps out on junk like A&H or Purex detergent which while having similar formulas to 1950s detergents in that they have no enzymes, they are watered down and without phosphates fail to adapt to anything but the softest water.

 

[jerrod6]

I grew up with those Westinghouse fl as my parents had them, and later when I left home I had two of them in different houses. Never a smell or mildew problem, but then never all cold washes. The lowest temp used was warm which was a mixture of hot and cold water from the tap.

I've had my Miele washer since 2003. No mold or smell. When I wash, I do one cold wash and that is for gym clothes, everything else is done using 104F, or 120F and occasional 140F or 190F. No mildew or mold. There is no clean washer cycle on it either.

I think people are told to use cold water and then they don't know any better, and they don't think about it either.

 

[iowabear]

The Neptune seemed to set itself up for a perfect storm.

 

1) Large door boot that retained a pool of water (later fixed with a drain in the boot.)

 

2) A lighted drum that discouraged customers from leaving the door ajar (light later removed.)

 

3) No window so customers couldn't easily tell when they were using too much detergent.

 

4) Many who would pay a premium for this machine would likely be energy/environmentally conscious and wash only in cold water and eschew the use of chlorine bleach.

 

My 2006 Neptune was one of the last made and has the boot drain and no light.  It's seen weekly hot washes with bleach since day one and door is always open if not in use.  No mold on the boot, it still looks like new after 11 years.

 

[earthling177]

Every time I see people asking if this is a new phenomenon (or strongly implying it is) I have to laugh.

Here's the scoop -- I've seen people who had frontloaders in the 60's and 70's and some of them were super gross with mold/mildew and some were so clean you might as well think they were brand new.

When I was living in South America in the 80's, Whirlpool started distributing a couple of models of a British version of the Philips frontloaders under the Frigidaire brand, and my family got one. Then friends and neighbors got the machines when they saw ours and how well it worked. Over half of the machines stayed clean as new too, and some of them had varying amounts of mold/mildew -- all of the ones that were contaminated seemed to only do cold washes and/or stay closed most of the time, while the clean ones spend most of the time with the door at least ajar if not open, and the dispenser drawer removed or ajar.

At this point, one could think that maybe water quality has something to do with it, and maybe it does for the majority of cases. But one case in particular is very interesting to me: when I moved out of the home, I left the washer for my brother and his family to use, and it got a small amount of mold/mildew -- they were using the same detergents and water I was using, but lower temps with mostly cold washes, and they were keeping the dispenser drawer and door closed because they had kids. Of course, when I visited, I would quickly clean the machine for them and it would stay clean for a while, but the cycle repeated.

So, maybe there are people out there that do everything right (high temp washes, good detergent, air out dispensers and tub) and still get problems, and maybe sometimes it may be that some machines are made with substandard boot materials etc -- but my money is mostly that people aren't using the machines the way they were supposed to.

And this is not reserved *just* for the "dreadful" frontloaders either -- all my life I've seen people who owned toploaders of all kinds ("water hogs" from the 60's to brand new HE toploaders) with the same problems. My gut feeling is that it's always the same old thing, people who aren't airing the tub after wash day is over and people who overload and/or use all cold washes and/or cheap detergents have the problem.

In my experience, it's very rare to see people who have blinding white and bright colored clothing have problems with their washers having mold/mildew -- it's somehow only a problem for people who have muted colors and dingy whites, and people who complain about spots being left on their laundry. In the few cases I've asked for details because they were complaining and asking me for advice, they were using short cycle times, lower temps and either overdosing or underdosing detergent, and most had no idea if the machine was rinsing well because they never hung out near the machine not even every once in a while to see if everything was going according to plan -- they loaded things up and disappeared for several hours, firmly believing that if the laundry was cycled thru, somehow the machine would have done everything properly as it it were Rosie from the Jetsons.

And I'll grant them that *some* modern machines can repeat rinses until clothes are well rinsed but most machines don't do that or just get rid of the oversudsing condition, but do not rinse enough.

And as usual, YMMV.

Cheers,
   -- Paulo.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

Damn. Whats wrong with me? I keep misreading/misunderstanding the titles.

 

[wft2800]

Here's a funny thing... I've never used detergent with either phosphates or enzymes in it. Enzymes trigger skin allergies here, and phosphates are rightly banned. I've never, ever had any problems with mildew on the boot, even when I was rarely washing at over 40c and never used bleach, and tended to keep the door closed. The Miele I bought secondhand recently did have some black residue on the boot, but that soon went away with a few 95c washes and a bit of bleach...

 

[rolls_rapide]

I personally think there is a little more to it than just detergent type, wash temperature and airing of the appliance.

There is the possibility of the fabric of the building and its site.

A brand-spanking-new house might have less moulds and fungi spores floating about in the internal atmosphere than a 60 year old property with a fusty cellar.

A house sited on a breezy hilltop is probably much better ventilated than one situated near boggy marshlands.

If a washing machine is installed in a chronically damp/musty, poorly ventilated room, surely the mould spores are going to latch onto the nearest damp surfaces (washing machine tub, seals, dispenser drawer).

Then if you add in cold water washes, using too much fabric conditioner, and using liquid detergent, you end up with a veritable recipe for disaster.

 

[wft2800]

My house was built in 1903. Cavity walls and machine-made brick, but lime mortar and coarse sand & horsehair lime plaster, for the most part. It sits on chalk downland at 280ft AMSL. The back garden slopes up away from the kitchen where the washing machines live. It's generally a bit damp, but the land drains well and the house is breathable. The problem is with new-builds that aren't designed to breathe - cement mortar, cement-based plaster, no open fireplaces or chimneys...