New Bosch washing machine | 3 hours and 50 minutes cotton cycle | WTF?

[ThisOldThang]

Our old Bosch washing machine gave up the ghost. The cotton cycle took around 90 minutes with extra rinse selected.

The new one has a 3 hour and 50 minute cycle.

How is that acceptable to anybody?

From what I've read it's all due to water efficiency. I live in Britain. We've got shit loads of water falling from the sky. This isn't an arid Greek island.

Am I unreasonable to think this is total bullshit and not what any family needs? Which morons allowed this to happen?

The eco cycle on my Bosch is about that ,I never use it , the cycles I use are 59 minutes and the cotton cycle is 1 hr 29 if you press the speed perfect button .

My 10 year old Bosch has a 60 min cycle at 40 that does the job

the eco setting takes 4 hours

No because it uses small agitation movements and lots of pauses for soaking. It’s quite clever really and mine works well even though it does take 3. Hrs 50. I’m sort of used to it. But sometimes I just use the mixed load option which an hour

Ah ok, I didn’t know that, thank you for explaining!

I never use the eco wash on my bosch. Except for a handful of days in a heatwave when I'm not trying to chase good laundry drying weather. Everything goes on a 1hr shirt cycle so it doesn't get too creased.

Eco bosch dishwasher cycle takes 4hrs and is also crap as it doesn't dry properly. I mostly use the 1hr cycle. It doesn't even beep when it's finished. I hate it.

On my old washing machine I just pressed the same old buttons every time - done in 1hr 20mins. Now I’ve got a WiFi Hoover washing machine I use loads of different cycles (weirdly). But my ‘go to’ is a general 59 minute option. But I do use the quicker cycles too - although, I can’t quite get my head around the 14minute one even though I have actually bought the (extortionately priced) Persil “good at 15 minutes” washing liquid.

Honestly basically everything goes on a quick wash with an extra spin. All in takes around 45 mins 🤷‍♀️

It is not Eco if you end up tumble drying your washing as you didn’t get it out on the line in time for it to dry.

i worry about my clothes being churned around for so many hours. Surely it is worse for the fibres being washed into the water system.
Have a good explore of the settings - there will be a shorter one that also gives a bit more of a wash than the 15min ones.
for example on my newish LG machine (which I hate for others reasons) the cotton cycle is 3:45 if fully loaded (10kg), but take one or two things out and it will do the wash in 58 mins…

I'm also in Aus, although my Bosch machine is made in Germany, and it has a 45 minute Mix cycle I use for everything.

PSA though: the cycle times are a guide only due to it being a 'smart' machine so 45 mins could well be longer if the machine senses the load is too heavy, sudsy or whatever. I'm sure most Bosch owners have experienced the joy of standing around waiting as the machine goes from 1 minute left, to 2, and back again for 10 minutes!

There is a speed perfect option, but the maximum load is 5kg vs 10kg for the standard cotton washes.

There's also no extra rinse function. 😠

Pay no attention to that guff, fill the machine and pick the cycle you want and the machine will wash your clothes, I promise.

That's simply not true. Heading water quickly or slowly uses exactly the same amount of energy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specificheatcapacity

5 year old Hotpoint.
Mixed cycle 1 hour
quick wash 30 minutes.
Both cycles I press no spin, when finished use 1400 spin.

Hate how long washing machine and dishwasher cycles are.
I've 4 kids when we come back from holiday I need better timing than anton du beke to try and get all the washing through the machine.
I know there are quick cycles but don't think they are any good they are for stain removal.

Have you not seen the barely half full reservoirs we ended up with this summer?

You'll not find a new washer with short cycles except for very small loads. You just need to work with it.

Our new Hotpoint is a bloody mystery.
Our old Samsung could do a wash and extra spin put this bloody thing on extra spin it adds more bloody water

My Bosch has all the long eco options but I only ever use the generic 59 minute wash at 40° or 60°. Might see what happens with the speed perfect button, didn’t realise it cut the stupidly long cycles so much shorter.

Don’t you programme it so it washes in early hours of the morning, then finishes around 6:30/7am when you get up? (Not sure what time you get up!!)
so it doesn’t matter how long the programme is.

But my Bosch 60 degree cotton wash is shorter than my 40 degree cotton wash. How does that work?
I love my 20 year old machine for it length of life but like everyone else, resent the 3 plus hours per load.
Anything on a fast wash and the spin cycle doesn’t go full tilt. So half wet washing.

A few silly posts on this thread.

1. we’re not generally short of water in the uk but processing water for re-use uses energy.
2. longer cycles use less energy and water overall because eg they leave the clothes to soak for periods. Short cycles need more water and power. I’m not especially saying you should use either but longer doesn’t mean more energy.

Oh my god, the last minute time changes to the cycle length make me apoplectic!!

I actually hate recent washing machines

The water usage is so low they don't clean as well. There isn't enough water used to properly saturate then rinse the clothes well.

They take hours.

I would rather the government pushed for new homes to have solar panels and reuse of grey water for flushing toilets etc as standard, than making us accept worse and worse appliances. It feels like a backwards step in technology.

You don't have to use softener. I never do.

Have you run the cycle and does it actually take that long?

When I select the cottons 40 deg cycle on my Samsung machine, the display says it's going to take 3 hours 14 minutes. But it weighs the washing in the first few minutes and 9 times out of 10 adjusts the time downwards, usually to about an hour and a half. The 60 degree cycle is also shorter.