"warm water final rinse"

[vacerator]

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.

 

[eurekastar]

Is a warm rinse better at extracting detergent from fabrics?

 

[vacerator]

Um, no, not to my knowledge,

But because the clothes are warmer, the dryer runs less, and saves power. And gas.

 

[launderess]

When using soap yes, first few rinses needed to be hot or at least warm. Subsequent could be cool or even cold. This was one reason why early washing machines had options for warm rinses. The energy crisis of 1970's along with soap really fading out of the scene put an end to warm water rinses for most part.

OTOH from commercial/industrial end of things there is considerable debate about warm or even hot water rinsing.

Some feel rinsing with warm water does provide better results. Am assuming this has something to do with keeping textile fibers open allowing better flushing out of dirt, soils, chemicals, etc.... Then there are those who feel energy savings are achieved by not chucking "cold" laundry into dryers.

Domestic consumers have been told for ages that the slightly higher energy costs from putting wash rinsed in cold water into dryer are more than offset by not using warm water for rinsing.

Commercial/industrial laundries often use warm water rinsing to prevent thermal shock. When you're doing washes at temps at or > 160F with maybe one or two high temp rinses (bleach baths), then you don't want to just dump tap cold water onto wash. And in parts of this country tap cold water can be rather chilly certain times of year.

SQ washers at local laundromat send hot (or maybe warm) water into fabric softener dispenser during final rinse. Know see steam rising from dispenser, so water temp surely isn't cold.

Since most fabric softeners were and or are still mainly emulsions of oils in water, using warm or hot water to dispense is a way of preventing congealing I suppose. That and ensures even thick/gloppy FS is sent down into machine.

 

[yogitunes]

good or bad...pros and cons...

most front loaders that have a warm rinse option, you have to factor in, the rinses in-between are usually cold....so you have a hot to cold to warm setup...

Mom always like to rinse in warm if she was hanging clothes outside, seemed to release wrinkles better....may be a mental thing, but the clothes seemed softer...

a few of the last DirectDrive machines offered a warm rinse, but note: the deep rinse was cold, the final spray rinses were actually warm....this wasn't much of a benefit to use, as the lines would cool down and by the time hot water reached the machine, the spraying was done...

 

[iowabear]

I used the warm rinse on my Neptune all the time.  It's really not all that warm, 80F (vs. 105 for a warm wash.)

 

It's definitely more noticeable in the cold months.  I figure it keeps the machine cleaner and that's the real reason I use it.

 

[launderess]

Then you have this: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/warm-water-rinse-superior.83943/

 

[DADoES]

 
I recall years ago during the "energy crisis" an advisory that while warm rinses result in better extraction and slightly faster machine-drying, the energy required to heat the water exceeds that of the additional drying time on a cold rinse (presumably in reference to an electric dryer).

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Warm Rinse

I use my warm rinse frequently. Ours is 105°F. I can actually tell a difference in towels. Clothes have less detergent scent remaining, but will have more wrinkles. I’m not sure I could live without a warm rinse option.

 

[launderess]

There's another thing

Cold water rinses effectively affix laundry detergent scent to wash. If one wishes to tone things down, and or remove much of the scent, hot or warm water rinses will do so.

You'll notice when doing a hot or warm water wash and using an unscented product, when water drains you get strong whiff of whatever scented detergent was used previously. That is the scent residue coming out in subsequent wash.

Over years laundry detergents have not only grown inreasingly heavily scented, but chemicals have been added to make fragrance stick to wash not just through rinses, but drying and for several days (or weeks) afterwards. This cannot be achieved with "clean rinsing" which means some sort of residue must remain.

Often the mere act of touching washing out of the machine, or even after drying transfers that scent residue to ones hands.

 

[Chetlaham]

It takes FAR more energy to heat 8-10 gallons of water then it takes the dryer to raise cold clothes to 100*F. It simply is not worth the added energy.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Scent

Especially with the new Tide Heavy Duty I can certainly tell the difference is scent when using a warm rinse. The new Tide Original scent is unbelievable. It sticks around for quite a while. I used it in a prewash and after the Hot wash and three rinses including a warm final rinse the scent is strong after drying.