Washing all clothes on cold?

[asblackasyoursoul]

Hi all, this may be a stupid question but me and my partner are having a debate over what temperature to do the washing at.

Like everyone else, we’re trying to save money on energy so partner thinks it’s totally fine to wash all laundry on a cold wash. I’m a bit dubious about this and think they should probably go on a hot wash.

So what do you all think? Is a cold wash just as efficient? Partners argument is that it makes no difference as to kill bacteria it would have to be a boil wash. Really not sure 🤔

Put antibacterial cleanser in (Dettol or similar) and you’re fine.

In New Zealand and Australia, the average household washes clothes in cold. Not 20 Or 30 degrees but colder. Everything comes out fine.
The only time I up the temp to 40 degrees is when there’s sickness, for whites, towels and sheets, or very very dirty items.

60 to kill off bacteria, so underwear and anything sweaty or dishcloths kitchen stuff and 30-40 for anything else in my house.

I often do a 30 quick wash which gets make up out of whites for instance.

I wear clothes a few times till they actually need washing so I save that way

We have dirty jobs, so wash clothes on a 40.

I can’t imagine washing clothes in cold water, but if you do a ‘clean’ job and don’t really sweat then I imagine it’s fine.

Do you normally boil wash everything? You need over 60 degrees to sterilise (kill bacteria) but you can wash away dirt and bacteria just fine with cold/warm water and detergent.

I tend to wash everything at 40 mostly out of habit, mostly because I have a perception that it keeps things cleaner, but it would use less energy to wash cold.

Why not try it and see what happens? If you notice laundry starting to smell bad then you can always turn the temperature up again.

If you are always doing cold washes it's a good idea to do a maintenance wash at 90 about once every 6 months. You can put towels etc in it or just run it empty.

What do you mean by hot? I wash whites at 40 and darks at 30. My washing is always lovely and clean.

@formulatingAresponse
Def 60 for towels and dishcloths - and 30 for clothes
Or 40 for towels and then put them in the dryer to kill the bacteria (which makes towels smell) but that would defeat the object of being cost effective.

I wash everything on the coolest setting. If they are dirty, I soak them first.

I wash my colours on 20c (Lidl coloured powder) and whites on 30c (Daz for brilliant whites) because these are the temps needed to dissolve the washing powder I use. I've tried lower temps but the powder is still all over the machine when I take the clothes out.

Our machine doesn't do 20 degrees.I wash almost everything at 30 and tend to soak grubby whites first. Laundry clean and fresh. I do a hot wash every couple of weeks for cleaning cloths .

The last few weeks we’ve washed everything except towels and sheets on cold. Totally fine.

Try it. I do a load or two on the speed setting now and it uses less energy and done with highest spin in under an hour. It things clean enough.

Underwear and towels I wash at 40 on a proper cycle. But the short cycle is surprisingly good.

Quick washes usually use more energy than long/eco washes, and they are often designed for a small load - check whether your manual indicates the load size it's designed for. You may find that e.g. the quick wash is only 3kg but a full eco mode wash is 6kg and uses less than twice the electricity of the quick wash.

I wash whites at 40, sheets/towels at 60, most other things at 30 or 20. Nappies and wipes go on at 40 unless illness then at 60

60 to kill off bacteria, so underwear and anything sweaty or dishcloths kitchen stuff and 30-40 for anything else in my house

I have never put underwear in a 60 wash, and the other stuff rarely. Most stuff goes in at 30. Don't understand what the point is if you're using detergent?

60 degrees for undies? Never ever heard of anyone doing this. Just chuck them in on a cold wash.

I wash everything on cold and have my whole life. I'm Australian and as pp says, that's what people do here. We are all fine.

Yep, agree with all other Australians here - cold is fine.

My washing machine has a quick wash setting (20 or 30 min) on 30 degrees and I use that a lot. Only use a hotter, longer setting if I have towels that have started to smell a bit.

in any case, anything above 30 degrees is quite damaging to clothes.

Australia even has a cold water specialist washing powder. www.coldpower.com.au/en/home.html

It has been tested by Choice (our Which) and they recommend it.

I have been trying to wash on 40 but it just doesn't get the clothes clean. I washed and dried DDs school polo shirts, began ironing them and there was the unmistakable smell of sweat. I had to start again...for me, it's a false economy.

Cold works fine unless you have headlice - in which case you need 40 degrees or, to quote a scientist on R4, you just end up with really clean headlice! Or a gut bug - but even germs are denatured at 40 degrees.

High temperatures kill off the enzymes in biological powder which defeates the effectiveness of the powder. I always wash at 30.

Whites that need a bleach get soaked in vanish non bio pre soak.

I only wash at 20/30. Maybe 40 if really dirty. 60 is extreme stains only

We’ve been washing everything at 20 for the past few months and have noticed no difference at all.

Dettol antibacterial wash liquid is good, in goes in in addition to your normal wash products, just a capful in the conditioner drawer.

I noticed sometimes that some of my old sleep t-shirts seemed stinky quickly despite only wearing for a few hours and put it down to doing continual 30 degree washes (which is not even body temp). Seems to have helped using the Dettol stuff.