To criticise DP's laundry methods

[jynnantonyx]

Got myself into hot water yesterday, could use some advice on whether I was in the wrong.

DP (32F) works full-time in a well paid and demanding professional job. We agreed when our second child came along last year that I (36M) would give up my job and spent all my time looking after the kids. I do most of the household chores including all the cooking and laundry.

Yesterday DP offers to do a load of laundry, an offer I happily accept. Less than an hour later I find it hanging up to dry. Turns out DP has washed our clothes, together with the baby's reusable wipes (which were disgusting, he currently has diarrhoea), in a 30 minute cycle at 30C. I was fairly appalled, did my best to be nice about it, but did point out that they needed to be washed for longer and hotter otherwise it was a recipe for breeding bacteria. DP was v upset, told me I was undermining her and she was just trying to help, and that I'm unnecessarily pedantic about temperatures etc.

I ended up doing the whole load again because I'm don't like taking chances about that sort of thing. This didn't exactly lighten the mood. WIBU?

Eh, not sure i could get worked up over this assuming an appropriate amount of detergent was used.

Yes 60c and separating them would have been better but if they looked and smelled clean it's not a a battle I'd have.

Of course not.

Is she always such a drama llama?

I’m not pedantic about washing temperatures but dirty wipes wouldn’t go on with other clothes at 30 for me and I’d feel I need to say something too

I agree with you. I wash all the baby’s wipes and muslins at 60. Im
not usually a very clean person either.

We had resuable wipes and I would have re washed in this scenario in separate loads

Obviously DP is BU to be very upset about this, but I think if she never does laundry you should have explained your system when she offered to do a load, rather than assuming she'd just know.

On a side note, I do actually wash our clothes with dirty nappies and wipes, mainly because I need to bulk up the load so that the washing machine will rinse with plenty of water (the amount of water used depends on the weight of the load). I do the dirty nappies on a rinse cycle on their own first, then shove in anything else I can find that can be washed at 60 and put it on the longest cycle possible.

I used to wash our Cheeky Wipes with whatever else was ready to go on at the time. Probably at 40 rather than 30 but I'm not sure that makes much difference.

I would have rewashed as well I think.

I don’t wash at 60 when I can help it though. I add an extra laundry sanitiser like the dettol one.

Surely the clothes and wipes did not come out clean after 30 mins at 30 degrees?

Yuck.

We cloth nappy- I wash everything twice, and at least one of the cycles has to be at 60oC.

It's human waste, it needs to be cleaned properly.

Washing once for 30 minutes means it was just swished around in its own filth. 🤮

Unless you actually sanitise the entire machine after washing the wipes etc, it is pointless to seperate loads.

Faecal matter in a washing machine at 30 degrees is just a large germ tombola.

It needs a couple of hours at 60 degrees to have any chance of killing the bacteria. Washing machines cold fill so take forever to reach the peak temperature.

I would rewash.

Eew. 🤢

I had no idea you could buy reusable wipes though, interesting. I am old.

Disgusting

Her, not you

Surely the dirty bottom wipes get put through a rinse cycle before going on a 40/60 wash with nappies, muslins or towels?

Your partner is wrong. Put poo wipes in with normal clothes on a cold wash is a silly thing to do in my opinion.

Wonder where the 60 degree thing comes from, the water we wash our hands with isn't that hot is it?

Probably not far off. The proteins in bacteria start breaking down at temperatures between 40 and 60 so an hour in 60 C water is enough to kill most bugs. But a 40 degree wash cycle will be enough if you're going to tumble dry afterwards, because that's plenty hot enough to kill any that are still hanging around.

Well that’s one way to ensure you are doing all of the laundry from now on.

For a highly paid professional she doesn’t handle basic feedback very well. Any idiot with half a brain would know that was completely minging.

The temperature wouldn't bother me as long as bio washing powder was used but a 30 minute wash is too short for wipes imo so I would have rewashed on a much longer cycle.

Is this a reverse?

When I worked in a care home 67 degrees was apparently optimal for germ killing on clothes/cloths.

But isn’t bio detergent deactivated after a certain temperature?

But that's more to do with removing stains than hygiene.