Washing at 40 or cold is not a good idea

[Stangerthings]

There is an advert for washing clothes in cold water. I think this is wrong. I washed a load of towels at 40 degrees and had to wash them again as they smelled dirty so how is a cold wash going to remove bacteria?

Me too. I haven't washed above 40⁰ save nappies and very grotty baby things when mine were little.

I asked this question in a similar way and MNHQ deleted my post and said "wash at 30°" in the reply.
I still wash at 40°, husband puts everything in at 30°

i wasnt aware you were the op.

Get some help for your phobia about fantasy germs and bacteria.

I wash everything at 40°c. Occasionally do bedding at 60°c in winter when the sun won’t dry them. Wouldn’t consider a cold wash, nothing would get properly clean imho.

I wash towels,bedding,dishcloths and tea towels at 60. Everything else is done at 40.

I usually wash towels at 60.
If we’ve had overnight guests I will wash the towels and bed linen at 40c.

My machine has a 45 minute cycle on 40 and I use that for everything except the occasional load of towels, as my repair man advised that you should do a boil wash every so often to keep the machine clean and mould free.

Everything is always clean and it always smells nice. (I use liquid, fabcon and sometimes the scent balls).

You need biological washing powder for low temperatures.

You only need to wash at 60 or above if your clothes are heavily soiled or you have parasites.

A 20 degree eco wash is sufficient for most lightly or medium soiled clothing. It's better for your clothes, the environment, and your purse.

If you’re washing things like towels at 40°c and as they dry they smell it could be that the inside of your washing machine is not clean. If you look right under the rim and in the folds of the rubber seal all around the door and in the circular holes in the rubber (all hidden from view) you might find a load of grey sludge that needs clearing out from the folds and the holes in the rubber (I think they’re drainage holes) 🤢. This is all the bits of paper, fibres, hairs, [and worse] etc that get trapped. Removing that makes all the difference, especially if you are inclined to leave any laundry in the machine after it’s finished. Lots of people don’t ever check this part of the machine.

I burn everything, then boil the ashes in Zoflora. It’s the only way to ensure things are properly clean.

So you don't bleach the ashes? Yuck, that's grim.

how is a cold wash going to remove bacteria?

Try putting detergent in. That's what it's for.

60 wash for everything here.

😂

Towels and bedding at 60.
Everything else 40.
Some things 30.
Always clean and fresh.

Machine gets a 2 hour deep clean at 70 every 40 washes (it beeps to tell me it needs this)

No issues

I wash everything on cold: towels, underwear, the lot. I can't remember ever having a sickness bug but if that happened I doubt I'd do anything different. If I were that bad, the washing wouldn't happen. Once I felt well enough to resume laundry duties, it'd all go on cold as usual.

Germs? Dunno. I can't get worked up about germs on clothes. Has anyone got stats on serious illnesses caused by germy clothes?

It’s entirely possible that there’d still be no issues if you washed everything at 30°C. And did your deep clean every 80 washes.
Try it. Why not save some money and energy?

I've been washing clothes at 40 my entire life and I'm in perfect health.

My washing machine is at least ten years old, I wash everything at 40 and have never had a problem with mould or needed to run a hot wash. Perhaps because I use powder (which i understand washing machine engineers recommend rather than liquid)? I just put the (non bio) powder straight into the drum, not the drawer.

bacteria and viruses can survive on your clothes

that doesn't bother me.
a square cm of my skin (even if I scrubbed it hard with bleach) will still harbour millions of bacteria & viruses.

Things that do bother me: climate change, wasting textiles, paying unnecessarily for new textiles

Someone said you need non-bio at low temperatures and another poster has said you need bio which one is it?

I have taken to doing a pre-soak on extra dirty bedding or towels instead of a hotter wash to give enzymes in washing detergent extra time and that seems to be fine and the patterns last longer.

I wash everything at 20 with non bio powder in the drum and nothing else never had a problem and I've done this for years

40 degrees gets most things very clean. The only reason you would need to go higher is if the laundry is heavily soiled or the odd occasion if someone is sick on the bed or has an accident for example.
There are other ways to kill the potential germs. Using hot water is one way to help to do that if it’s necessary.