2 1/2 hour washing machine program

[Duckeggbluesy]

All the machines I've ever had have a 1 hour easy care program that I use for general washing that can be adjusted to 30/40/60 degrees wash. I've always used this cycle for my clothes and the kids clothes unless something is extra dirty or has special washing instructions and the clothes always come out clean, smell nice and last as long I would expect them to.

DP insists on using a 2 1/2 hour cotton wash for all clothes (yep, plenty of people say I should be grateful DP does his share of the washing) and the 1 hour wash isn't good enough. With school uniform, muddy sports kits and general laundry 2 1/2 hour washes it means the washing machine is in use for most of the weekend and still needs using during the week to catch up.

Aibu using the 1 hour easy care wash as standard or am I being lazy and the 2 1/2 hour washes are something that most people use? Wondering if I've been using the washing machine wrong for most of my adult life!

Eco wash at 30 degrees for 2.5 hrs. I do a load every other day & our water bill works out at £19 per month, so it’s obviously working.

I use the eco cycles, mine are a bit over 3 hours. The instructions on mine say if you are doing a full load, then long cycles only, short washes are for 2kg vs 8 kg for eco wash.
I do 3-4 washes a week, having a long cycle is no bother really.

Mine has a special cycle where it's longer than an hour but I'm allowed to move away from the machine while it's running.

Did the cat get found?

I like the sarcasm but the point is if you are doing 3 loads of washing in a day for example 1 king size bed set , 1 towel load and a clothes load and each cycle is taking 2/3 hours that means you shouldn’t really leave your house unattended and if you start at 9 am you could still be using the tumble dryer at 9 pm . Personally I’d rather get everything done inside of 12 hours .

I only use the longer cycle for bedsheets and towels that are washed at 60. (The washing maschine is probably around 30 years old so you cant feally fiddle with times or spinning and such). Our normal cycle at 40 takes about 1.5hour.

I do think most people tend to do too much washing anyway.

Get the manual out if you want to work out the energy efficiency. If it's just a timing thing then ask for a dedicated slot for your own washing each week

I used to use the 30 min wash for everything then realised that the clothes come out drier from a longer cycle, so need less time on the airer to dry. I can time the machine to finish when suits me, so not fussed about it being quick.

We use the 4h10min eco cycle with time delay. Can get two loads a day done, one timed for when we get up and one timed for when we get home

3hr9min for an eco wash here. I tend to use it for a full load. It is cheal

Cheaper for an eco wash but fuck me man. Just no need for it to take so long.

I don't trust my washing machine or tumble dryer if am out.

Washers are a fire hazard. Hurts my head that people put them on and go to bed or out.

Yes please don't do this. They catch fire and you won't be there or worse you'll be asleep.

Soaking actually is an efficient way of getting the laundry clean. Obviously not only soaking, but soaking before the actual washing. You can experiment with it while handwashing.

Washing machine engineer told us that a lot of modern fabrics (mostly tee shirts) are thinner these days and are more prone to being pulled through the perforations in the drum. Especially if you have a high spin speed machine, say 1600rpm. On the other side of the drum, the back of the perforations looks like a cheese grater - hence the holes in your clothes.

me neither.

A neighbour of mine years ago put her tumble drier on and went to work. It caught fire and tore though her house before anyone noticed and called the fire brigade.

Luckily they were all out at work/school and it wasn’t at night.

we mainly use the eco settings.
3 hours
it really makes a difference to our energy and water bill.
with a little planning it's no issue.

Ah, dammit, I’ve been chaining myself to mine. Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong.

I just like it done quickly and then into the drier as I have limited time in my day.

I do a mixture. If I’m trying to get through washing quick and get it dry on a nice day I’ll use the 60 min wash. For whites I’ll use a longer wash to get them clean. If I’m not in a catch up I’ll load it first thing and put it on a longer eco wash and hang it out later.

I

I recently had the engineer out to look at my machine as I was having to give an extra spin after using the fast wash programme. Apparently it is a 'thing' with the shorter programmes. He recommended using a standard programme and I have to say it is definitely a faster spin. He also said that people often complain that their machine develops a musty smell if they only use the short programme, especially if they use liquid rather than powder. I had begun to notice a slight odour recently, though I use powder, but have to say the smell has gone since I started using the longer wash programme.

No, that wasn't your point at all.

It will be more energy efficient if it's the long 'eco wash' but not just a long 'cotton wash'. There's a huge difference

I use the long eco washes because I can put in 8kg of clothes Vs 2kg in the speedy washes. I put a timer on it so it's ready when I'm up and about in the morning. If I only did quick washes it would take longer as I would only be able to put less in there.

@Bunnynames101 if it works for you eczema etc then sometimes in life you just have to choose the best option out of two bad options, so who could blame you for that?

does it wreck your towels & bedding. I've done it a few times when one of us has been ill, but it's never been great on the towels/bed linen.