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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

New washing machine. Can't cope. Urgent advice. (Lighthearted)

100 replies

EntropyCentral · 23/02/2025 03:47

My old washing machine was about 17 years old and very good until it packed in. Time for a new one.

So got a new one. And I'm shocked at the washing times!!

Eco : 3 hrs 45 mins

Easy care : 3 hours.

Cottons: 3 hrs 20 mins.

Way, way too long! Surely that will wear out the fabric of the
things being washed, being swished about in water and detergent for hours on end.

The easy care and mixed wash programmes are less than an hour so not an option. It's just not enough when you include two rinses. Surely things can't be clean in less than 30 mins.

There's a 'quick wash' button you can press on most programmes but then it reduces the time from 3hrs 45 mins to an hour. Which isn't quite long enough
if half of it is rinsing. I'm at my wits end. I want stuff to be clean but 3 hrs 45 mins
seems hugely excessive. And one hour seems not nearly enough.

I've read the manual, tested all the many various programmes and options available, pressed all the buttons and I still cannot make my new washing machine get in line and do what I want it to do. Which is to complete a wash in one hour and a half. Not almost 4 hours, or less than one hour. One and a half hours all told is all I ask. One hour wash, 30 mins rinse, like my old one did, very well, for many years.

I just want comments really. AIBU?

My view might be skewed because I'm old, and never met a washing machine until I was 18 and my mother got a sort of 'drum' washer with an agitator at the bottom. It washed your clothes and took most of the hard work out of washing.
You had to fill it up with hot water via a rubber pipe from the geyser in the kitchen.
When the things were washed you had to drain the dirty water out from the bottom into a bucket in stages and empty it down the sink.

Then you had to take the stuff out and wring it out by hand and then fill the drum up with cold water and put all the stuff back in to agitate and rinse. And you had to do that twice because once didn't get all the soap out. Obviously draining and filling as necessary. It all sounds like a load of faff, and it certainly was a load of faff. My two brothers and I often got home from school and helped my mother with this and that. They were both much older than me by 8 and 9 years so probably much more helpful than I was. But I did my bit.

In those far off days though, nobody had social media or mobile phones to distract them, and take them away from the here and now.. We got off the bus from school and walked home with our friends if they got off at the same stop.
If not then you walked home alone. It was so normal it simply wasn't an issue.
Kids walked home quite happily without a screen to stare at.

It makes me so sad when I see young people so engrossed in their phone screen. They are missing out on so much of real life. It's limiting their overall development as a functioning adult human being.

OP posts:
Blushingm · 23/02/2025 08:53

Is it a washer dryer? I have a mashing machine and my quick is 14 mins but regular 59 mins. DP has a washer dryer and his is about 3 days (4 hours but feels like longer!)

RaininSummer · 23/02/2025 09:05

I only use the 30 mins quick wash on 30 or 40 degrees. My washing is clean.

SnoozingFox · 23/02/2025 09:09

I think it depends on what temperature and cycle you are choosing. A 60c cottons wash on my machine does indeed take 3 hours or more, so I don't use it.

A standard "mixed load" is 1hr on standard and 1hr 20 mins on eco - so I use the eco, temperature is 30c or 40c (you can choose). It has lots of other settings too, I don't use them all, but they are there.

SnoozingFox · 23/02/2025 09:10

I also don't understand why an hour in the washing machine is not "nearly enough". It's plenty.

JMSA · 23/02/2025 09:20

I have a new Bosch. I select the mixed load cycle (1 hr) but add a pre-wash to it, making it 90 minutes. One hour just doesn't feel long enough to me.
Does anyone else's machine bleep when you press the start button? Sometimes I have to press it 3 or 4 times for it to kick into action. Other times it will work straightaway. Drives me mad!

JadeSeahorse · 23/02/2025 09:24

JMSA · 23/02/2025 09:20

I have a new Bosch. I select the mixed load cycle (1 hr) but add a pre-wash to it, making it 90 minutes. One hour just doesn't feel long enough to me.
Does anyone else's machine bleep when you press the start button? Sometimes I have to press it 3 or 4 times for it to kick into action. Other times it will work straightaway. Drives me mad!

The "Bosch beep"! 😁

I don't have a Bosch washing machine but do have Bosch tumble dryer which does this.

JMSA · 23/02/2025 09:27

@JadeSeahorse

There's also the 'Bosch minute' which is surely different to 60 seconds by any other standard Grin

Grannyinnwaiting · 23/02/2025 09:31

amazed that you think an hour is not enough to clean clothes, I do almost everything on the mixed 1 hour programme at 40 degrees but adjust the temp to 60 for bedding and towels. For anything needing a freshen I use the 30 min programme. I don't like the long programmes. I tumble the clothes and havvveverything washed dried folded and put away in an afternoon- - usually 3 loads.

babasaclover · 23/02/2025 09:33

I wash everything on 40 degree 1400 spin quick wash of 26 minutes. Nothing ever comes out dirty.

I do whites on an hour 40 degree. No way to you need something nearly 4 hours that's horrendous!!!

Katemax82 · 23/02/2025 09:44

The 1 hour reduced time cotton washes should be perfectly adequate, unless horrendous stains need removal

letslaughitoff · 23/02/2025 09:52

I get my new washing machine on Tuesday.
After a long research i got one with a quick wash 20 minutes.
Lots of other settings but i just wanted something with a quick wash button.

Valkyrie3 · 23/02/2025 09:53

An hour is easily enough! Why do you think it wouldn't be?

mnahmnah · 23/02/2025 10:00

I do bedding and towels on a 1 hour cotton wash. Everything else is on a 50min allergy wash. Everything gets clean!

user2848502016 · 23/02/2025 10:03

Mine takes ages too, if I really need something quickly I will use the quick wash option. If stuff just needs freshening up it's fine but for actual dirty kids clothes and bedding etc I prefer a longer cycle.

I use the delay start option on mine a lot and put a load on overnight to finish around 7am - or you could have it on during the day to finish when you get in from work.

SingaporeSlinky · 23/02/2025 10:09

Just be careful with the quick wash / mixed loads, mine is a 9kg capacity machine but the shorter cycles are only for 4kg loads. When mine started making weird noises, the manufacturer warned me the warranty might be void if I’ve been overfilling it. If you’re filling the drum, use the settings for the maximum load (which is only 2 out of about 12 available on mine!).

Fuuuuuckit · 23/02/2025 10:10

None of my washing loads ever take longer than an hour.

Tbh now the kids are grown up, our clothes mostly don't actually get dirty as such, might try a couple of 30 min loads to see how they compare.

I've just started using my dishwasher on the glasses cycle for everything - it has changed my life. A couple of things might need to go through again but it's cut the time from nearly 3 hours to 40 mins.

AgentJohnson · 23/02/2025 10:13

The truth is the detergent and wash additives are doing the heavy lifting and most clothes aren’t as dirty as we think they are. The eco button is designed to be the most energy efficient, not time efficient and the quick wash, vice versa.

I don’t quite understand why you think one or even half an hour is not long enough, as I said, the detergent is doing the heavy lifting. Pre treat problem areas: stains and odours before washing and avoid fabric softener.

HoppityBun · 23/02/2025 10:18

Yes, I remember twin tub machines and the massive amount of hot water they used and no temperature control, just the hot tap. Modern eco cycles take a long time because the clothes are turned and soaked. None of the cycles is continuously pumping in hot water and detergent. If you look through the window, you’ll see how little water is in there.

AgentJohnson · 23/02/2025 10:21

I use the delay start option on mine a lot and put a load on overnight to finish around 7am - or you could have it on during the day to finish when you get in from work.

I get how convenient that may be but it is really isn’t the safest. Washing machines, dryers and dishwashers should only be run when people are present and are awake.

I use delay start only when I pretreat clothes and the pretreatment needs time work before washing starts.

soupmaker · 23/02/2025 10:21

JMSA · 23/02/2025 09:20

I have a new Bosch. I select the mixed load cycle (1 hr) but add a pre-wash to it, making it 90 minutes. One hour just doesn't feel long enough to me.
Does anyone else's machine bleep when you press the start button? Sometimes I have to press it 3 or 4 times for it to kick into action. Other times it will work straightaway. Drives me mad!

I had a Siemens machine for 17 years. I absolutely loved it but when it died replaced it with a Bosch. I hated the new one at first but now I love it. Use the quick wash lots. But, yes the beeping is annoying as hell.

rwalker · 23/02/2025 10:31

Always set ours to run overnight so finished when we get up or from when we come in from work

the reduced time programs fine for lightly soiled but anything like towels ,uniforms and sports wear tend to start smelling after a few quick washes

sesquipedalian · 23/02/2025 10:35

OP, my washing machine (Miele) is no longer new, but when I first got it, I too was shocked by the length of the programme - when I first had children, the programs were about half an hour - 45 minutes; now, they’re hours - my 60 degree wash is 2 hours and the 40 degree wash is even longer. I never use the eco programmes because life is too short! I telephoned the manufacturer to ask why it took so long, and they said in order to get an A rating, it was an EU requirement that they cut down on the amount of water, so in order to get the clothes clean, the wash necessarily takes longer. She said they could have a full wash in under half an hour if they were allowed to use ore water. I did point out that some man must be behind thus because women just want the washing done quickly and efficiently!

mrsconradfisher · 23/02/2025 10:47

I have a short cycle, it washes for an hour and then you can change the temp. Everything gets washed for 1 hour, delicates at 20C, bedding at 60C. Everything is clean.

Vaxtable · 23/02/2025 11:13

I just got a new one. They are so long because it’s all to do with being green you know. It takes longer for the water to heat up and cycles are gentler so it’s ‘better’

Tosh as far as I am concerned. Mine has a rapid button, that’s why I bought it and dusts the 3.5 hour was to 1.5 which is the same as the main wash in my old one. There’s also a mixed wash which is 45 mins but lower spin I cant increase so the washing goes on the drain and spin cycle for 10 mins

OurFlagMeansAfternoonTea · 23/02/2025 11:38

I think an hour is long enough. It's what I use for most washes.

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