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...)

I don't wash anything at 90. The annual maintenance wash, perhaps. 60 for towels, but not always. Naice guest hand towels maximum 40.

Dear god, the poor environment.

I'm shocked at the people using 90 (or even 60) degree washes regularly! What on earth is so unhygienic about a freshly-washed body being dried? Hang your towels up properly and they shouldn't smell...

Also, if you're using biological washing powder/liquids/gels (which the vast majority are), you'll actually be destroying the enzymes at that temperature, so they won't work as well. Follow the damned instructions, it's not the 1950s any more.

Perhaps I'm sounding overly brutal here, sorry, but I do think it's unreasonable to waste energy and water (and I don't give a crap if you pay for it- so does the environment, and that doesn't belong to you) for something that is so utterly pointless.

I'm also staggered when people say they only use a towel once! You are wiping CLEAN water off your CLEAN body! Its so wasteful of resources.

Everyone is different though and has different reasons. Washing/cleaning is one of my coping strategies for when my MH is playing up.

My washing powder is non bio and I only use the 30 and shock horror I mix everything up.

This thread is scary. Glad MNers are so conscious of the environment. Don't worry about climate change - dust mites are the real threat.

What an utter waste of the world's resources

Indeed, especially those washing clothes and towels that they admit aren't actually dirty. 28 towels washed a week is still an enormous pile of unneccesary washing whether it is done daily or once a week.

Some of those quick washes use the most energy and/or water, so it may save time but it's not a less intense wash or less resourses.

Half the world doesn't have access to clean safe drinking water but we have such an adundance of it in the UK that we can use it to flush our toilets and some wash laundry that isn't even dirty without a second thought. Shameful.

I wash everything at 40 degrees

(not to mention, your fabrics won't last nearly as long).

We've come a long way- get with the times, people!

www.persil.com/uk/laundry/laundry-tips/washing-tips/temperature-use-wash-clothes-towels.html

Neither of you are right or wrong its personal choice.

It's OK to ruin the environment now if it's one of your coping strategies. Jeez

So doing many of loads of laundry a week doesn't use up more water and electricity that doing fewer loads? Can you explain that to me, I don't understand?

People on mumsnet be boiling the shit out of their cottons!

People put DETTOL in their washing machine? What the actual fuck??

For ordinarily used towels and bedding, not for stuff people have been ill on?? Have I missed an epidemic of disease caused by duvet covers or something?

Neither of you are right or wrong its personal choice.

Just a shame that all those people whose homes are being/will be destroyed by climate change won't get that personal choice. Hey, it's their fault, they should have been born in a fully developed country where they could afford that personal choice, right?

I do a 'boil' was once a week.

*wash

What on earth do you do with your towels that you need to boil them? I use mine to dry my freshly washed clean body or hair and get several uses from each towel as they're not dirty.

I wash bedding and towels at 60, everything else at 40 or 30.

We chuck everything together at 30 or 40 if very dirty. I find that many people only give a shit about the environment if it fits their lifestyle.

I too use a 90 degree wash to clean the machine but I pop a load of white towels and dishcloths in at the same time.
30 for dark clothes, 60 for bed-linen (all white) and 40 for everything else.
I never use enzymes or fabric softener (it's a pollutant) but if something is stained or a bio-hazard, I pop in some Napisan. It makes towels soft BTW.

I do towels, underwear, baby clothes, some of the older dc's T-shirts etc, flannels, sheets at 60, all together - machine goes on when I have a full load. Everything else at 40, delicates etc at 30. I very, very rarely use the 95 cycle - perhaps if there has been a D&V bug in the family.

What's with the washing towels after ONE use? We change bath towels weekly, hand/tea towels every couple of days.

The reason I bung the towels on a hot wash is because I started to do a boil wash with powder to clean the machine and it felt like a waste of water not to stick some washing in with it. Tea towels and cloths go in, there was still space so I bunged in towels. I use my towels for a long longer than once, though, and swimming towels that have been on the floor of the changing room - bleurgh!

I do it once a fortnight on average. Though I've started washing the bedding more frequently (why does it need changing every week? Especially in winter, but even in summer?) at 60 and now stick the bath towels in with that.

Modern biological washing powders need a moderate temperature to be effective as the enzymes denature at high temperatures. So anything above 40 is unnecessary. Anything above 60, you're wasting your time.