Ecological - To Be Or Not To Be?

I'm a slave to whatever the sun has heated the water to. On a sunny day like this, the wash will be at 60 no matter what I tell the machine to do.:DOH:

 

Not any more :happydance:

 

I don't know about what gets killed in the washing at different temperatures, Shiney, but I believe ironing kills everything.
I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

 

I was at 40 degrees for darks and 60 degrees for whites and lights.

 

I have tried washing our clothes at 30 degrees and found that the clothes were not washed to a good standard to hang out on the line and didn't even smell clean so I went back to washing them at 60 degrees and also stopped buying the really chap soap powder and went back to using Persil,but have since changed to Bold 2 in One as it makes the clothes smell really nice.:yess: I put stuff in the washing machine every couple of months in I remember and do a 60 degree cycle with no clothes in the machine and that helps to keep the pipes clog free.:yess:

Plus apart from a few times this last winter that I used my tumble drier when the weather was pretty rough I always hang my washing outside to dry and there is no way I could wear clothes that hadn't been ironed or climb into a bed with creased up sheets...finger drum:pathead:

I'm just off to do a spot more :yess:

 

Thats how we wash the crockery Woo :pathead:

 

Actually, I've just looked at our machine properly - we don't have the option to wash at 30 degrees, unless it's the uber quick wash (which is supposed to be very energy inefficient) or the wool wash.

But I don't think washing clothes at that low a temperature really gets them that clean. I even have doubts about the 40 degree wash.

 

The clogged pipes thing is really interesting. I'd never really thought about that, but it does make sense.

I always wash at 30C, but this year, in the very cold weather, our washing machine waste pipes got blocked twice. I presumed that some water in there had iced up (it's in the out house, so it's pretty cold in there). But I wonder if half the pipe was clogged up, and that's why it blocked so easily?

 

I don't have a setting for 30 degrees on my washing machine. I wash practically everything at either 40 or 50 degrees depending on whether it is delicate or not! I wouldn't trust 30 degrees to get clothes clean, especially if stained.

 

I started washing at 30 degrees but after a while our clothes started to smell stale, so went back to 40.
I heard somewhere you should do a 60 degree plus wash at least once a week or bacteria builds up in the machine.
I've also changed to gels which doesn't build up in the pipes like powder.
Also modern day detergents are supposed to lift the dirt out not wash it out, not so sure about that. I use fabric conditioner with every wash except cotton towels, for some reason it creates a coating which again gives them a stale smell. The washing instructions on most cotton towels tells you not to use fabric conditioner.

 

This is a very interesting thread, I usually use the 40 degree setting for all my washing and I use Bold 2 capsules because powder clogs the pipes, but..........................I now have a washing machine which is very smelly and I can't get rid of the smell!!!! apparently it is bacteria build up from not using a hot enough wash. I tried doing a "service" wash i.e. running an empty washing machine at 60 degrees to kill the bacteria but no luck it still smells!!!! I tried running an empty machine at 60 degrees plus a bottle of bleach added but it still smells:DOH: perhaps doing boil washes would cure it but it only has a cold infill so the cost would be prohibitive!! Any ideas on how to freshen up my washing machine would be very gratefully read!!!!

Val