To think towels need a hot wash?

[FirstOfHerName]

Recently I was staying with my parents on holiday and I noticed that my mum washes everything (including towels and bedding) on a cold half-hour wash. I told her that towels probably need a warm wash at the least and she got annoyed with me, saying that she used a special washing detergent formulated to work in cold water. They're her towels so I left it at that and said no more.

However, whenever she's stayed with me, she's told me it's grim that I wash towels and bathmats together. Well it would be if I did them on a cold wash, but I wash them (and bedding) at 90 and then tumble dry after, so don't see the problem with it. Any bathmat germs would be killed off at that temperature, I would've thought.

Who is more in the right here, her or me??

(someone telling me we're both disgusting in 3...2...1...)

The most amazing thing about this thread is the amount of people in the UK who do wash things in a hot wash. Have to admit that my preconceived idea that British people wash everything in 40 degrees (tops, and on the quick wash to save energy, i.e. money) with loads of scented fabric conditioner has taken a knock on the head.

I've always washed towels, sheets, underwear (and cloth nappies when we had them) on 60 degrees (at least, with the odd 90 wash). This thread has led me to googling and if it is true that most ordinary washing machines don't hold 60 degrees for long enough to make a sanitizing difference I'll revise my routine, and wash things on 40 degrees instead and just make sure I do a 90 one more often. It'll save me some time! Since we're slatterns we change our sheets quite seldom so 90 isn't a bad idea there.

My opinion has always been that cotton needs quite hot water to get properly clean. The fibre is twisted in on itself and the hot water helps to really get in there. This is born out by observations in real life - try washing a skid-marked pair of knickers (not pre-treated) in 40 degrees and one in 60 and you'll notice the difference in stain removal and in smell. (plz don't ask how I know this). But it could be that it's the longer cycles in the machines, i.e. the agitation of the washing, that's making more of a difference than the temperature?

Once again I find myself agreeing with Anatidae though

It may be your opinion that certain things need to be washed with hot or very hot water, however science disagrees.

And facts beat opinion. So you can do as you like, but you are wrong in your reasoning.

Yes, that's what I said. I may have thought it was the temperature that cleaned, but it might have been the agitation, i.e. the cycle.

It may be your opinion that certain things need to be washed with hot or very hot water, however science disagrees.

Genuinely interested, as a scientist, in exactly which studies show this. Hospital scrubs, sheets, blankets etc are not washed at 40 for very sound reasons. I use my 75 wash as it's not insane boiling but does hold the temperature long enough to nuke stuff. I don't use it for much - towels, sheets, some undies and the wipey cloths for the toddlers . But as someone who has actually used this in an experimental context (swabs/presses from clothing, household items etc) I can confirm that a face flannel that's been on a hot wash and a face flannel that's been in a 40 wash have remarkably different levels of fungal/bacterial load,

Should the NHS be washing your surgeons scrubs on 30?

I wish I had a 75 wash. I wash in the apartment building's communal laundry and the only settings are 30, 40, 60 and 90. grumble On the plus side, since they're more "professional" machines maybe they hold the temperature so maybe the wash IS at 60 degrees for long enough :D

@Anitidae fellow biologist here.

"Believe me, work in a lab for a bit and you'll be off 30 degree washes for bedding and towels." Actually, it's had completely the opposite effect on me, as I developed a better understanding of a) sterilisation techniques and b) the effect of bacteria on humans. Not sure about your lab but we definitely use proper sterilisation techniques and autoclaves, not a 'hot wash'!

As previous posters have said, washing machines don't actually reach temperature for very long- not long enough to ensure bacteria are killed (and the most harmful bacteria can survive the relatively low temperatures of a so-called 'hot wash' anyway), but enough to denature the enzymes in the washing product and render it much less effective. Have you compared biological and non-biological washing powders in an experimental context (as you have hot and cold washes)? I have, and I can assure you those enzymes do a damned good job- if they're allowed to work at their optimum. Cook 'em and they're useless

The idea of bedding and towels being 'unhygienic' is a social idea that has been passed around with zero basis in fact, and I find it disappointing that people risk the environment to perpetuate a myth that they need to be washed at high temperatures. Our houses are not sterile, our clothes are not sterile, our skin is not sterile- why on earth should our towels be sterile (if a hot wash did even sterilise them- which it does not )?

Save the earth- and some pennies!

(Obviously surgeons' scrubs should be meeting much higher standards of sterility than a bath towel- so that's a completely false comparison)

DHs scrubs say they have to be washed at 40 degrees in biological washing powder. (Hospital guidance)
Which is good as that's my standard for most things.

90 wash would ruin my bed linen, the instructions say 40 so that's ehat I do.

Have no 50

wonkylegs and I assume he hasn't killed anyone yet from awful contamination?! Though maybe if they're washed with towels he might...

Ahh my solution for that is to never wash the towels

I would never wash anything at 90 degrees. What the hell are you doing with your towels that you practically need to boil them? Modern detergent is so effective you are literally washing money down the drain heating it to 90 degrees.

I don't think anyone is being unreasonable. Everyone does things differently in their own home.

I wash the towels at 40. Not on a 30 min cycle though. The only time I use 30 wash for 30 mins is for very lightly soiled clothes. Bathroom mats get washed at 60 as DS's aim leaves much to be desired.

I do however wash my bedding at 90 because I have major allergies to the dust we get from the railway line but that's the only thing I hot wash. The kids don't seem to have any such issues (although their room is the other side of the house so possibly gets less dust) so theirs goes in a normal 40 wash.

Good god we don't need our bedrooms to be as clean as an operating theatre. WE ARE NOT ILL! And most people do not have allergies. Jeez why do I let myself get drawn into these threads....

I do everything at 40.
But I separate things (ie. clothes in one wash, towels in another, etc)

I wonder if the bed linen hot wash thing dates from when bed bugs and fleas were more common? My DM used to talk about apparently constantly trying to get rid of them

Long long ago when the world had no detergent or washing machines and dwellings were rife with disease very very hot water was used to kill of the bugs. Scrubbing the skin off knuckles was required to get rid of dirt. However, human race progressed and biological detergent was created to get out stains and washing machines to agitate clothing to clean clean them. It is not the hot water that cleans but detergent and agitation. Try pouring hot boiling water on a towel and see if it is clean, no stains. Try cold water and then scrubbing a towel. Surprise, it's the cold water with some elbow grease that cleans. Detergents are used to dissolve stains and lift dirt together with agitation to give you clean materials. You are wasting your money heating to 90 or 60° unless you have some kind of infestation that requires heat to kill it off.

I don't think anyone is being unreasonable. Everyone does things differently in their own home

The ones telling other people that they need to do it a certain way are unreasonable. And the ones waffling about ecoli and such like.

You can wash as you want, you can have the opinions you want. However some of them are based on wrong information, and you can't have your own facts.

Towels do NOT need washing at 90 degree, or even 60. That is fact, not opinion.

Hospital scrubs, sheets, blankets etc are not washed at 40 for very sound reasons

except they are.

Aghh... just lost my post so here goes again. As a microbiologist who also used to work on detergents, I think we are too obsessed with sterility. In my lab things were not deemed 'clean' unless they had been dunked in concentrated acid then baked in a pressure cooker, and no washing machine can match that.

Microbes can't get up to much without water, so for me, the most important things is getting clothes dried quick and properly (without using a drier). So my stuff is washed at 40 or 30 which is plenty good enough for washing off dirt, given today''s detergents.

My uber methodical engineer husband, who has thought through the optimal method for all domestic chores (behold his dishwasher packing!) hasn't complained so I must be doing things right !!! (hang on, he does complain about leaving wet stuff in machine, but I agree with him about that).

Most at 40, sometimes 30 if I feel guilty about 40.
They've just said it makes no difference if you use hot or cold water (with soap) to wash your hands....

I wash almost everything at 20 or 30. No ecoli or shitty worm eggs on my towels yet.

www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/blood-borne-viruses/laundry-treatments.htm

gavel

No it's the mechanical rubbing action plus soap that cleans your hands.

We once worked out what blood alcohol concentration you'd need to remove any pathogens from the bloodstream. It was so far beyond fatal... :)

90 for tea towels and washing up cloths, 60 for towels, bedding and underwear, 40 for everything else except woollens or cyclewear which is 30. All full washes. Anything germy is done at 60 to kill bugs. Would rather do this than use anti back washing liquid which I am concerned that it may harm watercourses.