What's the point of the wool cycle?

[NCIrishEnglish]

Loads of people have told me not to use the wool cycle to wash my wool dresses ( jumper style dresses) or wool jumper (hand knitted fair isle) because it will shrink or deshape them.

What's the point of it then?

Many modern woollen garments are now made with a washable wool. They are manufactured to tolerate the wool cycle on a washing machine. The label will give directions and if in doubt, ask when you purchase your clothes.

Hand knits can be knitted from washable wool but mostly not and you need to cool hand wash..

I use it

I use it loads. With special wool detergent. I think that’s the key

Can you not use normal detergent then?

My wool cycle has a hand wash symbol next to it. I think I'm going to risk it..

Wash anything that says hand wash and lots of stuff that says dry clean only. Wool, cashmere, silk, some period pants, kids school blazers......

yes I use a wool detergent
I use this - others available https://www.persil.com/uk/laundry/detergent/persil-silk-and-wool-14-wash.html

I use it on mine, with special detergent (Eucalan, Wensleydale Longwool company wool wash). It’s been fine on both super wash and stuff I have processed and spun myself from heritage breed sheep. Obviously there are no guarantees and it depends how gentle your wool cycle is, but it is meant to mimic a cool hand wash. If knitting myself I will have done a swatch and knitted to take account of likely shrinkage.
However everyone involved, washing machine and clothes manufacturers, are going to want to cover themselves so they will all tell you not to.

I uses to use this all the time but it then disappeared from the shelves. Tesco had it once last year but then never to be seen again. I now use woolite though I think Sainsburys does one you can use in the machine

ocado has it and widely available online

Wool detergent makes a huge difference, much more so than cycle. And temperature. We wear a lot of wool.

I don’t use my wool cycle because it sets it to 1400 spin, which doesn’t seem very good for delicate fabrics.

For wool I set my machine to 30 degrees, do a short wash and less spin than usual.

Always remember to very gently stretch / reshape the clothes while wet because they will dry in that shape.

I don’t use wool detergent, but I only use a tiny amount of normal detergent

Can’t you choose the spin speed?

I’ve never used wool detergent either just a very small amount of my normal powder.

Will wool stuff generally though I would wash it as little as I can get away with

That might have been true years ago, but modern machines are far more sophisticated and gentle. The wool cycle in the machine I had 20y ago was too rough for handwash only wool. It was fine for silks, though.

I use Liquid Soap Flakes to wash woollens on the wool cycle. I also use it for washing silk. IIRC detergents, enzymes, chemical brighteners and fabric conditioner damage fabric of animal origin.

I wash all my woollens in the machine, but they are merino and made to be machine washable. I wouldn't use it for hand knits.

Yes I can change it. But if I started with the wool cycle settings I would be changing the spin, temp and time settings (all of them).

So it doesn’t make a difference which preset cycle I start with because I’m going to change all the variables anyway.

My point was to not get hung up about the specific “wool” cycle, rather to select the correct variables.

Boring I know but you did ask 😁

I use it all the time for woollens and silk and other stuff that I 'think' might be okay. They always have been

It uses a v low temperature, agitates more gently and has a low spin cycle. Also wool detergent as it uses less err, detergent and is gentle like a baby shampoo I guess

I use it for wool and it works!

Have accidentally washed wool on a normal cycle and ruined whatever I put in there.

To make felt fabric you use wool, washing up liquid, hot water and agitation.

So you can see how easy it would be to get this repeated in a washing machine.

I always hand wash wool as I find it can shrink drastically or more modern knits can stretch.

Others may have had more success than I have with washing machines and woollens.

I use it for wool and cashmere, with wool wash liquid.

It really depends on the machine. My sister's washing machine has a true wool cycle that doesn't spin and just gently lets the clothing sit in detergent and turns the drum a few times slowly, just like handwashing expensive wool. But mine does a full on spin that doesnt resemble how you would handwash wool at all (it spins).

As a PP says, the key is to wash wool as infrequently as possible. Are your woollen dresses and handknits absolutely, visibly, filthy? If not, airing between wears is good enough.

You shouldn't really spin wool, it ruins it.

You can use pure liquid soap, Wilko used to sell this but luckily you can also get it from Waitrose:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/dp-liquid-soap-flakes/581461-82431-82432