Warm Rinses

[Chetlaham]

Call me ignorant, but why did old washers offer a warm rinse? What advantage if any did a warm rinse provide? I've always assumed cold water worked just as well and helped to prevent wrinkles. I see a lot of MOL and TOL vintage machines with hot/warm and warm/warm on the temp knob. Why is this?

 

[launderess]

Warm water was needed (if not hot) when using soap for wash day.

Even when detergents came along warm water does give better rinsing than cold. This would depend upon how cold tap water was. If at or near 86F to 90F that's one thing, lower down scale as found in colder climates or time of year is a different story.

Next there is a savings in energy when using clothes dryers starting with laundry rinsed in warm water versus cold. How much of an energy saving would depend on a few factors including cost to heat water versus whatever was used in dryer.

FWIW commercial or industrial laundries rarely rinse in water below "warm" (100 degrees F).

With energy crisis of 1970's appliance manufacturers in USA were pressured or otherwise got shot of warm water rinses. Consumer Reports and similar sorts noted while yes warm water gave better rinsing and less wear on dryer in bringing cold wash up to temp, overall energy savings from not heating water won out overall.

With cottons and linens any creases created by rinsing in warm water either largely came out in dryer or were ironed out. When man made fibers came along cold water rinsing was necessary to bring down temp before spinning, otherwise creases would result.

Properties of heat and cold are same across wide variety of things. Heat causes expansion, and cold constriction. Thus it stands to reason flushing out suds and dirt will be easier while textiles are still warm or even hot versus cold.

 

[Chetlaham]

Agree, but I can't see the amount of energy even coming close to heat 5-10 gallons of water being the same as the amount of energy needed to heat about 1 cup of water in a spun out load of towels in a dryer assuming both the dryer and water heater are of the same fuel source.

I guess it comes down to people using soap as a detergent?

 

[launderess]

See: https://www.google.com/books/editio...+rinse+warm+water&pg=PA43&printsec=frontcover

Contrasted with:



Or:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/warm-water-rinse-superior.83943/

So there's quite a range....

As always it pays to wander through the archives.

"warm water final rinse"

My new Samsung 4.5 cubic ft. front loader has a warm final rinse on "normal" cycle. 1 to 5 rinses can be selected. Pretty neat. This machine is an excellent performer if ya ask me. Better stain removal than I'm used to also.

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[appnut]

My grandmother moved into a very nice high-rise apartment building in 1964 that was built in the late 1950s--woodtown brown GE appliances, pull out dishwashers, ... The laundry room that was right next to her apartment, I remember we did a load of whites in the late 1950s SQ washer. The rinse was hot. My partner told me his mom sometimes rinsed loads in hot for a final time. And he told me sometimes he'll rinse a load of towels in hot before puttijng them in the dryer to make sure all detergent is rinsed out.

 

[Chetlaham]

Thank you! These were the links I was looking for.

I wonder what the first link is basing their assumptions on... How do they know that cold water extracts the same amount of detergent or soil in the rinse? They also use an 80*F rise for the water heater, so that would mean 140*F-80*F= 60*F. That is not cold in my book, but cool. In many parts of the country tap cold water does drop below 60*F... so I'm inclined to think Speed Queen and others are right. Warm water does provide any advantage.

 

[gyrafoam]

When laundering white cotton fabrics or kitchen cloths and towels, I always use a hot wash and rinse.

 

[bajaespuma]

I'm a WARM person

IMHO it's just plain science. Solubility increases with temperature ( I'm talking about the 35^o-110^o zone). Given the current state of non-phosphate detergents you would have to show me hard data to convince me that cold rinses work as well as warm rinses in removing laundry additive residues.

 

Is it worth the extra cost of heating the water? Maybe not for many vintage top-loaders, but with a modern front-loader with an internal water heater (so the heat of transmission isn't added to the cost) I would guess it's worth it.

 

I always want to see the WARM/WARM option on my machines, and, as much as I love Mieles, I wish you could select a temperature higher than faucet cold for at least one rinse.

 

[Unimatic1140]

I mainly use Hot/Warm or Warm/Warm for wash/rinse temps. The only time I will use a cold rinse is for dark colored clothing during the summer months when our tap cold is above 70F. Of course many of my vintage machines don't offer a cold rinse such as the two AW6 GE's, early Frigidaire Unimatics and my Pulsamatic, Apex, Westinghouse, ABC-O-Matic, Hortons, Maytag AMP, Norge Timeline, Bendix, Speed Queen, etc. I like taking warm clothes out of the machines and the warmer temp helps to dry out the inside of the machine faster if you keep the lid open for 24 hours like I always do on every machine.

The cost difference between a cold and warm rinse in my opinion is too minimal to worry about over the course of a year. Even if it costs $30 a year more to rinse in warm (and I doubt it is that high) that's only $2.50 per month, well worth it![this post was last edited: 1/17/2024-11:43]

 

[tomturbomatic]

My cold water comes out of the tempering valve at 75 to 80F so the machines like the modern SQ, the Mieles and the Creda that rinse on cold now rinse with cool water. Thank you John Lefever for finding the valve at the thrift store.

 

[qsd-dan]

Warm rinse button is always selected on the daily driver 806 when washing warm and hot loads, love the warm spray rinse too. All at 120F.

Everything comes out noticeably softer with a warm deep and spray rinse. I don't notice a difference in wrinkling between warm and cold spray/deep rinses.

 

[ryner1988]

I don't care very much about warm rinses in spring and summer when ground water temperatures are temperate. However, right now here in Indiana tap water is ice cold, and so are my laundry rinses. My washer has a cool setting in which warm water is added to maintain a minimum temperature, but that doesn't apply to rinses unfortunately.

 

[Chetlaham]

Robert, thank you for answering my question. That is so nice that older machines filled for a warm rinse by default.

I am a lot like other here. In the summer I'll use a cold rinse, but in the winter water is stone cold so I sometimes set the machine back on wash for a warm rinse. Clothes come out feeling much nicer.

Also had things been different a warm wash warm rinse only Galaxy at 60/40 or 70/30 would have been a neat thing- just two wires down to the mixing valves- but energy regs killed a sweet luxury that could have been the standard.

 

[jons1077]

Warm rinses

One feature I really miss was the auto-temp control on my direct drive Kenmore 90 series washer I bought new back around 1999 or so when I was in college. It was perfect for winter months when the tap was really cold. I think it would adjust to bring cold water to about 70 degrees and warm to 100 degrees, I think. Hot was just whatever the heater was set to. It wouldn’t reduce the hot water’s temperature.

 

[maytag85]

One of the advantages of a warm rinse from my experience is the machine fills up faster, takes a few minutes off of the cycle time. Miss the Maytag A806 (still have it, set off to the side until I figure out how to disassemble the brake assembly, plan on attempting to re-paint the cabinet) since it could do a warm wash, warm spray rinse, warm rinse. The Maytag A606 does however do a warm spray rinse on hot followed by a deep rinse. The Whirlpool only has hot and warm, no cold temperatures available except on the cool down and rinse portion on the wash n wear cycle.

 

[Chetlaham]

This thread has me wishing that all modern washer did a warm rinse, lol.

Kenmore got it right. They offered ATC cycles that offered something like a 100*F warm wash and a 75*F warm rinse. Also offered a 70*F cold wash.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Kenmore got it right. They offered ATC cycles that offered something like a 100*F warm wash and a 75*F warm rinse. Also offered a 70*F cold wash.

Both Frigidaire and Bendix started doing that right off the bat in 1947, Kenmore and Maytag started doing that for sure in '57 but possibly earlier as well. They all used thermostatic valves for full tap hot for wash and 100F for rinse. So what Kenmore did with their ATC was nothing new, just brought back what use to be common place.

 

[maytag85]

There’s the saying: “what is old is new again”. It’s interesting when people think a ATC is new but the early incarnation of that concept was the thermostatic inlet valve. Same thing applies to moisture sensors on dryers, may seem recent but Maytag introduced that all the way back in 1960/1961.

 

[Chetlaham]

@robert- I never knew this, thats so nice! Was it an actual bimetal or was it a 3 coil valve? I know GE on the 2000s had a 3 coil valve with 2 cold solenoids and one hot solenoid that let the machine do a cool version of warm.

@Sean: Because they knew what they were doing back then. After that its been a race down hill. Easy to claim "energy" and cheat customers out of good wash results in cold climates.