To think the Ozzies are mad (washing question)

[beautyspot]

Living in Oz and renting. Our beautiful and expensive flat comes with a cold fill only washing machine!

(OliPolly's recent thread re washing her smalls by hand made me think about this)

My neighbour was in the other day and shocked to see me filling the washing machine with hot water from the shower (carrying buckets!). Most of the people I know here are happy to wash in cold water and says it protects their clothes and the environment. I say it can never clean clothes properly.

Am I being unreasonable to think that a cold water wash can never clean properly? My neighbours here think so.

Plenty of houses in the UK only have a cold fill to thier UK-spec washing machines. The washing machine then heats the water. There are few exceptions to this and they tend to be absolutly ancient now.

In Australia the washing powder has different enzymes which work at ambient temperature, whereas British powders use enzymes that work (typically) between 30 and 60 celcius.

The detergent industry has considered the idea of bringing cold water enzymes to UK washing powders/liquids but that would involve engineering a cultural shift in attitude and wouldn't be profitable enough.

So probably without realising it, YABU.

You can get the most wonderful stuff in Oz called sardwonder for stain removal. It's in a stick like a prittstick and you can put it on stains and leave them in the wash basket for a week if the fancy so takes you. Gets anything out of clothes. My SIL sends it over to me.

my washing machines have only ever had cold fill and then the element heats it up to the required temp!

"I once used a special appliance cleaner solution I got from Lakeland that suppposedly maintains your dishwasher/washing machine. Our washing broke the week after - I think it must have removed all the crud that was holding it together."

I have heard of this happening, hence am scared to use any of that limescale removing stuff as I very much doubt the last tenants ever did!

I also know someone who tried to get a replacement from the manufacturer for a perfectly formed cuboid piece of lint that she thought was a part of her tumble dryer.

RJ Rabbit - but Ozzies call us all POMS, even although we may come from Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales!

PS Methinks from your manner of writing that you are an Ozzie!?

When an English person (and I believe Scottish/Welsh etc too) is saying it it is Aussies.

"You Aussies"

"We Ozzies".

Maybe. :)

Sorry but no-one uses the term ozzies really, do they? Ive never ever seen it written that way before

maybe its a plebian thing

i've stayed with many relatives in Australia and they've ALL only ever used cold water

I believe that Aussies themselves do object to other people calling them Ozzies, yes. Aussies is definitely preferable (according to my DH, who is one).

I'm sure this has already been covered but:
60deg C is NOT the optimum breeding temp for bacteria - only thermophilic bacteria could cope with that! most vegetative (as in living breeding cells) bacteria will be killed around 56 deg C. Most Pathogenic bacteira breed optimally around 35-39 deg as you would imagine (Body temp); other bacteria will breed optimally at around room temperature and some can breed at temps as low as 6 degrees C (including Listeria monocytogenes), although most will go into stasis at this temperature or die.

Top loaders do agitate clothes more violently, this is true, which is why they destroy clothes more regularly. My MIL has a toploader that is cold water inlet only but it has a heating element and has a choice of washing at cold, warm or hot. I have no idea what the actual temps are, there is no indication.

My washing machine has the ability to wash at cold through to 90 deg (front loader) and has hot and cold water inlet, but it is a Bosch, not Aussie-made. There are incentives to buy front loaders now because they use less water; and because we solar-heat our hot water, it doesn't cost as much because we have the hot water inlet, so the machine uses less power as it doesn't have to heat the water much, if at all.

washing powders sold in Aus are formulated to work their best at 15 degrees or so, I thought everyone knew that? And they will work less well (maybe a lot less well) at hotter temps. So if you live in Aus & wash a lot hotter, make sure you get a specialist washing powder formulated to wash at 30 or 40 or whatever.

Yep - it's Aussie's from Aus and a Wizard from Oz.
Was going to mention it earlier, but couldn't be bothered.
No one will really be offended I wouldn't have thought - they would just think you didn't know better.
POME is prisoner of Mother England and so used to refer to people from Britain no? The prison ships may have sailed from England but they didn't discriminate on which bit of the Isles you came from!

Morloth, there's no need to miss Napisan when in the UK - you can get it in Sainsburys and no doubt other supermarkets.

OP ....just wondering if you are being politically correct refering to people as Ozzies ...is this not racist? Reason I ask is that I'm seeing people getting slated on another thread for calling chinese food 'Chinky' and they're just refering to the food, not the people.:)

PC madness?

I think if you care that someone has used Ozzies instead of Aussies, you actually should be forced to handover your passport because you are clearly not Aussie enough. Because really, who could give even the beginnings of a fuck?

Like that guy who was whining about being teased about his Australian accent. No more Australian passport for him, whiney arses are not allowed.

As I said upthread HappySeven it just wasn't the same. You mean the one in the little blue and white box? It is called Napisan but it doesn't work like it.

Eek - have been here a year and never realised that the washing powder was formulated to work better on a cold wash - will try that out with the next load (although I'm still going to wash my nappies on "hot" - whatever temperature that might be on my toploader!) - feel a bit dim now for not realising!

morloth ..I think I could live in Oz, sounds like my type of place! :)

All washing machines are cold fill only surely. Not had a hot fill one since the 80s.

As my mum used to say. "Call me anything, just don't call me late for lunch"

There are different washing powders I think Eraic for cold and warm washing. I think it says on the packet.

Morloth Are you telling me in 33 years, you have never, ever had a bout of diarrhea? Ever. For most healthy individuals, that is all e coli will do.

yes that's right nightsky - I am completely imagining the line that goes from my hot tap into my machine. Silly me!

of course you are thumb - it's all that hot sun shine that's going to your head

(agree with the points above about washing in cold and then hot sun drying - used to have all my clothes hand washed and hung in the sun in Zim (I didn't hand wash - i was hopeless at it 0 - lovely fresh, bright, cleaning smelling clothes.

I'm washing my whites in 90degrees right now. But I'm in Canada and our washers still are hooked up to the hot water tank.