Washing heavy items

[hamustro]

How do you wash things that get very heavy when wet? In particular I'm thinking of things like bath mats, and fleece liners that I use for pets. They get really heavy when wet as they're so absorbent and I'm worried they'll do my washing in, but I don't really fancy washing them by hand in the bathtub every week!

Does chucking a few light but voluminous things in the wash help as it allows the weight to be distributed better, or does it just make the whole load heavier and therefore more difficult on the machine?

I just wash them and always give everything an extra spin anyway. I do have a large capacity drum, can't remember if it is 9 or 10 kg

Best to put it in as part of a bigger load. My machine won't spin if it has one heavy item in a very light load. If that happens I have to take it out, wring it out by hand and then try and spin it. I put other towels in with thick bathmats and that works OK.

Thanks everyone! The washing machine repair man is coming to fix the machine this week, so I'll ask him what he'd recommend.

I've broken two washing machines washing bath mats.

I do them by hand now.

You need more than one thing in if it’s weighty. My bath mats aren’t huge so I throw a couple in at once or add some old tea towels in with them.

This is exactly what I don't want to hear and will cover my ears and pretend you didn't say it until the repairman confirms this! Out of interest, what sort of damage did you inflict on your washing machine? I'm trying to work out if I've done the same ...

I do them at the launderette in the big big machine there. I don't have a lot though, plus launderette is very near, so appreciate that might not work for everyone. I also don't have big heavy bathmats - I switched to lighter ones more like a slightly thick towel, they don't get as heavy when wet.

Both times I fucked the motor. I can't rush doing it 3 times so I handwashing now.

Hopefully yours isn't a write off.

I fill up with towels as well. You could also try spinning it twice but do the first spin at a lower RPM so the whole load becomes lighter then do a higher spin.