Adding hot water to washing machine.

[Belindabelle]

I was half listening to the radio yesterday and people were giving tips to save money.
One idea, if you have gas central heating/water, was to add a few buckets of hot water to your washing machine drum before turning it on. Apparently this means you use less electricity as heating up the water is the most expensive part of using a washing machine.

Do you think this would work? Can you think of any drawbacks to doing this?

I remember years ago looking into hot filled washing machines but there was only one make available and it was expensive and often out of stock so I did t bother.

I see that a few of you have been adding extra hot water for a while.

I thought I would update on my cold water wash experiment from yesterday. (Just taking a moment to acknowledge how boring my life is now, bloody hell)

It was a full load mainly of DS and DH’s clothes, so underwear, t shirts, sweatpants and those massive big hoody things that DS wears.
i washed on a cotton cycle at 20’c using biological colour powder.

Everything came out clean and, most importantly, fresh. By that I mean no sweaty smell or, in the case of DS, no body spray/aftershave pong.

I would normally wash that at 40.

@Belindabelle Thanks for that! I’ll give 20 a try.
I’ve been using 30 for a while now, with Lidl bio, and everything generally turns out fine. 20 shouldn’t be that different…

60+ degree washes help to keep your washing machine hygienic and smell free.

I found that out when DS and his mates spent three years doing only eco washes for sports clothes etc. The clothes were coming out worse than when they went in! I suspect they were sometimes forgotten, too…

I also add a few liters of water once the machine starts the wash cycle as my machine rarely has enough water to “slosh” the clothes around. But as PPs have said, choose your moment or the machine just pumps it straight out again!

I will still wash sheets and towels at 60 to make sure my machine doesn’t turn into a mouldy breeding ground.

Since I read on here a few months ago that washing machines in Europe are cold wash only I now wash everything on cold with a once per month 90' wash. Can't say I notice any difference in cleanliness so I'm going to continue using cold wash only on the eco setting.

I do a lot of cold washes. I judge the dirtiness of the clothes and if I think they are a bit dirty I might go to 20 or 30. In this very hot sunny weather I hung stuff online. My understanding is that not all detergents work in cold setting. The one I use says it works on cold setting.

ive also changed to Aldi coloured powder £3.19 a box will use up the Ariel then Aldi bio same price

anybody use these and how do you find them