Washing Laundry in Cold Water is the Same As...

It alwaysl amazes me that so many US homes still have top loading washing machines... Why?

I have always REFUSED to wash my clothes in warm or hot unless it couldn't be avoided, even at the laundry mat, where the water and electric bill isn't mine. Hot water really wears clothes out, degrades the fibers (even worse if you use bleach) and just in general is not great for your clothes.

I wash my work clothes and kid's clothes in hot. The reason is that my kid's are 10 months and 2 years, so it's not uncommon for there to be poo involved. Since I work at a waste water treatment plant, it again is not uncommon for there to be poo involved.

Why don't they make a machine which takes the exhaust heat from drying your clothes, and uses that to heat the water heater?

Your article talked about costs which I can see the point.
However, how about the difference in terms of sanitation and cleanliness between washing in cold water and hot water?
We use cloth diapers at home and I wonder it it will be clean enough to wash them in cold water.

To Derek W: here's a very low-tech device which will take clothes dryer heat (waste) and redivert it into your laundry room. http://eartheasy.com/store/proddetail.php?prod=EX12

Depends on the humidity in the room, because this will put the dry heat and the damp heat into the room.

I was with cold water, but my washer also has it's own heater for use with cold inputs - European. I wonder what the difference would be between our water heater and the washer's own heater. Hmm.

I still have a top-loading washing machine :(
Why? Because replacing the machine costs a phenomonal amount of money!

Can the Treehugger math monkeys do a cost/benefit analysis to determine if there is a net environmental benefit to purchasing a new washer (more manfacturing) vs keeping my old one?

Also, I was told that that even soaps designed to work in cold water work best at 20 degrees C (and non-cold soaps are meant to work at 50C), but putting my washing machine to "cold" just opens the cold water tap, and the water up here in the North is barely above freezing, thus rendering my soap ineffective.
I'm also told that newer washing machines are able to take this into account and mix some hot in with the cold to achieve the required temperature.

**Author's comments**

Peter,
Thanks for your note. Energy Star estimates that the payback period for a new, more efficient washing machine is about 4.4 years, but it depends on your machine settings (hot water, cold water, etc.), energy prices, how much you wash, etc. You can fill out the numbers in their handy calculator [.xls spreadsheet] to get your personal payback period.

-CD

Rather than just saying how much energy you can save, why not actually compare results? Is a load washed in cold water REALLY just as clean as warm or hot? Maybe we need Mythbusters to work on this one. Just by personal experience, I know that soap and detergents are not as effective in cold water as in warm. I generally don't use hot, because there doesn't seem to be much of an improvment in results, but soap and detergent just don't dissolve as well in cold water. And if they aren't well dissolved, they can't do an effective job.

I agree with Jaqueline.
I think hotter water degrades clothes fibers and especially anything elastic - socks, waistbands, stretchy bicycle clothes etc.

All the stains I had seem to come out fine in cold water, even nasty working on the car/yard/bike clothes.

Cold is cool (pay me a quarter each time you use that!!).

vsk

I always wash cold. I'm afraid of having my clothes shrink, and I know that only happens with hot water.

I wash most clothes with cold water, but really dirty clothing just needs hot water. For example, white socks develop a kind of dark stain that won't get out unless I use: a) hot water, b) bleach, or c) chemical stain removers. (I use the Vanish brand, if you kow greener ones please tell me so I can find them here in Venezuela).

So, which option is greener? Hot water, because it won't pollute water with additional chemicals.

However, I've found that using really hot water is not necessary, usually warm water works just as fine. So, I've set my heater to 40º C (104º F) instead of the usual 70ºC (158º F) and use a longer rinse/wash cycle with no bleachers.

Unfortunately I can't put a machine in my apartment so I'm forced to use the shared top-loaders in my building =( Soon as I have a place with a laundry, I'll be shelling out for a 5-star front-loader.

Surely though, hot water cleaning your clothes more effectively with less chemicals is a no-brainer. I suspect the solution here is a friendlier method of water heating, such as solar roof panels, green energy supliers or on-demand gas heating.

I have been washing all my clothes in cold water for as long as I can remember - most of the time using a top loader. The door on the top of the washer must be closed to hold in a button which allows the agitation and spinning to take place. In order to improve washing in this machine that has poor agitation and circulation, I fill the basin with water, rig a piece of paper to hold in the button and then add the soap when it's in the wash cycle. This way, the soap is completely dissolved and good and sudsy by the time I add the clothes. This is also a way to make sure you are using just the right amount of water - put it on the low end estimate of what you need to wash and then add all the clothes. If the clothes are not in enough water, you can just hold the button to the next level and then click down to give it another try. When I have clothes with exceptional grime, just use a pre-treater. This can be a store bought type (which smells horrible) or it can be your unscented laundry soap mixed with some water in a spray bottle. Leave it on there for a few days and you are good to go. If all the clothes are like colors, let them soak with the soapy water in the basin for a few hrs.

The idea of using a device to capture dryer exhaust heat could be achieved through an air to water heat exchanger or similar device. Dumping dryer exhaust right into the house is a very risky idea. Many of the fine particles will pass the filter and dumping all that moisture into the house is a recipe for condensation, mold and building decay. Please don't do this.

Clothes line is a great eco way to dry clothes, and in cold months, put them over the shower curtain rod or clothes line in your dryer, point an oscillating fan at them and turn on the room's fan.

Why not go all the way and use a tub and a washboard?

70°C? What on earth? Who the hell washes their clothes that hot? Christ on a pony that's ridiculous. I've never washed my clothes any warmer than 40°C and they've always been clean. Most of my things are washed at 30°C and they too are nice and clean.

Another stupid washing-related practice, would be ironing. Not quite sure why so many people think that's such a bright idea...about five minutes after you don your garments, they look the way they always do, regardless of whether or not you ironed them. The only exception to that rule is a shirt collar. And even that you can get to look nice without touching an iron.

Just think how much more you Eco-Nazis could save if you gave up washing your clothes or taking showers all together!! Come to think of it I think I've passed a few of you at the grocery store.

Washing in cold water is a great first step. Switching to a front-loading ENERGY STAR washer makes a huge difference too - they use far less water and soap than top-loaders, and because they spin so fast, the clothes coming out contain much less water and so dry faster.

If you feel you have to wash some clothes in hot water, I suggest:
- Turning your hot water heater down - you might need hot water but it doesn't have to be THAT hot! You can generally lower your hot water heater from 140F to 120F and still get the same laundry results
- Alternate hot and cold weeks for the laundry you think has to be cleaned in hot water. You'll get every speck of the dirt out in the hot weeks, and the cold weeks will still do a good job. Saves half the hot water anyway.
- Never use the warm rinse feature even if you wash with hot - cold rinses do a better job for less energy.

Finally, don't forget that the best way to save on laundry is not to do it as often. Do you really need to wash a shirt or jeans after one day of wear? Do your kids pile their clothes in the laundry hamper because it's easier than folding them and putting them away? Only wash what really needs to be washed!

I haven't washed anything in hot water for years. If you feel you must do so, here are some tips:
- For the clothes that need a hot water wash, alternate hot and cold washes - one week do them in hot, the next in cold. Sure, your white socks may be a bit gray after the cold wash but they'll still be clean, and the gray will be gone after the next hot wash.
- Lower the hot water heater temperature from its factory default 140F to 120F. The water is still plenty hot for laundry but will save you a lot on the heating costs.
- Switch to an ENERGY STAR front-loading washing machine. These use far less water, so far less HOT water. They also spin very fast, so your clothes are much closer to dry before you stick them in the dryer.
- Above all, don't do laundry as often. When you take your clothes off do a sniff test and a visual inspection and put away what isn't really dirty or smelly. Wear dirty clothes on weekends. Force your kids to fold and put away their own clean laundry - it will make them less inclined to just throw stuff in the laundry basket because that's easier than putting things away. (For that matter, force them to fold everything they put in the laundry basket, and give them the chore of doing the laundry!)

I'm actually working on a way to start drying my clothes with the heat generated by the centralized AC of our house. But probably the most efficient way of eating water right now would be the solar water heaters on the roof

I assure you that using that clothes dryer heat recycling device will put to much humidity into the area, not a good idea.

Better to make one wall a heat exchanger if you have six inches of space to fabricate a sheet metal box that will release some of the heat before it exits the home.

Well, my place is very small and my dryer lives outside so I can't do that. They should outlaw top loaders.

Washing in hot water is usually not effective in killing germs, because most hot water heaters are set to 120 degrees farenheit or below. This is both a safety measure and energy-saving measure. But water must be much hotter to effectively kill germs in the clothes. Most of the germs should be washed down the drain by the activity of washing and rinsing the clothes.

Not only can most clothes be washed in cold water, they can even be washed without detergent occasionally. Most Americans wash clothes that are not very dirty. They wear clothing to the office or school or around the house one or two days then wash it with more detergent than needed. The detergent builds up in the clothing, so washing without adding detergent still works. You can also save money, water and electricity simply by washing your clothes less often.

Does anyone know anything about ozone laundry systems? Do they actually work? Are they actually better for the environment? And are they indeed safe?

Lets Get Real About Health and Sanitation. Hot water is needed to kill germs in clothing, especially when cleaning underwear, or workout clothing. Hot water is also needed to dislodge particles of oil and grease that melt at higher temperatures.

Studies have shown that washing machines in laundromats often are contaminated with fecal matter. It takes hot water and sometimes bleach to kill those germs.

I would suggest that instead of exclusively using cold water for all laundry, that you run your clothes washer, dryer and even dishwasher only late at night.

Nuclear power stations, and coal burning power plants can't be easily turned on and off so they are running 24/7 no matter what, and they produce surplus power over night. During the day, when electricity usage is heavy, the utilities can use natural gas generators that can be turned on when more power is needed, and washing then is a waste of energy even if the water is cold.

By necessity, what's called base-load power is always there, and using it late at night waste's no additional energy. Some power plants actually have to burn surplus power off at those times, so using it to make your clothes and dishes sanitary is not a waste.

Physicians order me to use a hot water wash, due to dust mite and mildew spore allergies. If someone has a better way to kill off the little b####rds, let me know.

I'll most likely keep using my t top loading machine until the day it doesn't absolutely work at all. A used one I got for free over 7 years ago. When it comes to but a new one the price will be a determining factor in front Vs. top loading.Being single with 5 loads a week at the very most on average, I wouldn't realize the savings a family would.

A dryer's exhaust heat may be a help in preheating the supply water before it enters the H/W heater, but that might be mean feat if the heater isn't locate near the dryer. Her the humidity of the dryer exhaust would be a bonus during the Winter heating season. I hope to be able to make that happen the next time the dryer needs to be pulled out.

As offensively Unamerican as it may seem, and flying in the face of "more is better" folks, We use a Samsung front loader from China. It uses cold water, very little soap, only a bucket of water, and takes much less power, but a bit more time, to get our clothes cleaner than the old top-loader by Maytag. It is smaller, leaving more laundry room space for us, and is quieter, making evening washings non-intrusive. We line dry, a practice legally revived here in Ontario, Canada by government decree and hope to find new and better technologies for cleaning clothes for use in our off-grid existence, which is soon to be forced upon us by the (GRD) great republican depression, as it closes our car factories, makes loans from banks impossible, and prices oil and food out of normal reach for us. The GRD has made even simple tasks such as laundry washing difficult costly and important considerations - a sign of our times!

The math monkeys forgot about mentioning the difference this decision makes in terms of sanitation and health. Sorry but that's what I care the most.

Does anyone have any stats on gas dryers? I'm wondering about using hot temp for short time as opposed to cool temp for longer time.

Thanks!

We have a top loader that is almost 10 years old and still in good running order. If we have to repair it we will or if it konks out on us and we can afford it we may get a side loading washing machine.

Also the way I see it the energy I waste with my top loader washing machine I save with line drying my clothes.

Zig

Real hippies don't wash their clothes, which makes you all VERY wasteful. Shame on all of you for using energy!

The 90 per cent number is a little much, Very few people have electric hot water. I have it because I live in an apartment and pay my own utilities, and the heater is in my apartment and can't be vented. Dishwashers often have electric pre-heat, but I don't think washing machines have same.

At the laundromat we have a centrifugal pre-dryier with no heat in it, for 25 cents it cuts half an hour off your drying time, if you use a dryer.

Good sorting of whites/colors would allow you to limit your hot water usage to whites.

For four years I've been using cold water only, not by choice, but because here in Brazil a hot water machine is simply too expensive when compared to the much more common cold only washers.

It's NOT the same. Clothes do not get nearly as clean without hot, and there is much more labor and time involved in making the clothes clean. More water and electricity are used with the cold only machines than would be with a more modern US machine, capable of using hot water. The cold only machines rely more upon, soak, wash, spin, soak, wash spin, it takes hours to do one load.

Whites are hand washed, then put in tubs of water and soaked in the sunshine in hopes of heating the water. "The sun cleans the whites", I was told, right, HEAT.

I got ringworm at college from not using warm water. For a public machine, you should probably use at least warm so the soap can best kill any bacteria.

However, if you own your own machine, save up your dirtiest and oldest clothes to do a warm water wash, or just sanitize the machine with a load of whites and some bleach.

Personally, I think there's probably potential in using ultraviolet light like they do in hospitals to sanitize clothes. The machine already has mechanisms to not run while the door is at all opened, so they could add a really powerful light to kill the germs while wasting less power. It can easily be generated by a fluorescent light or an LED, but even an incandescent should get the job done better than gallon after gallon of hot water. Granted, ultraviolet light may be a better solution for the dryer, since the clothes are moving more and thus would have more of their surfaces exposed. I think it would catch on well, as it works from two angles: hospital grade sanitation for the germophobes, and warm water cleanness without the energy or expense of heating water for the greenies and those on a budget.

If you are a germaphobe and worried about getting ALL the germs out of your clothes, you are going to be very sad.

To kill bacteria and sterilize, you need to use steam like found in an autoclave at a hospital. the autoclave must maintain a temperature of at least 246 degrees for 30 minutes in order to fully sterilize.. I don't think your weak little home washer is gonna do that for you.

Or you will have to bleach EVERYTHING and sterilize your machine between uses.. Also you will need to dry your clothes on an extermely high heat as the longer there is moisture around, the more chance you are giving that bacteria to grow.

You are like Sisyphus if this is what you are trying to do..

I've been using the "wonder wash" from Laundry Alternative, and doing my laundry consuming no electricity and 2 gallons of water per load (about half the size of a top-loader) - or none at all if i save & re-use the water in the toilet tank. You also only need to put in a tiny fraction of the detergent (4 tbsps max) and hand-turn it for 2 minutes max.

I cannot tell you how much water, power, and money I have saved (as well as effort of going to the laundromat for me). Also, for drying, I got the countertop spin dryer, which spin dries your clothes and removes most of the water in a minute using 80 watts. Then, I hang-dry my clothes for most of the year (in the winter i use a dryer minimally... meh). I highly, HIGHLY recommend it for anyone (maybe unless you have kids). I got it at laundry-alternative.com.

I have a top-loading washing machine and will replace it when my appliance-repair man says to. He says that the vast majority of calls he gets are for top loaders. A service call or two every year negates the savings ... maybe even in energy, since the repair person has to drive over to make the repair. better to spend the money replacing my remaining single-pane windows.

Any info on the repair rates, Math Monkeys?

Hold on! Do your homework before acting on crowd behavior and buying a front loader. Two years ago when I needed to replace my top loader, I eventually purchased an energy efficient TOP loader by Fisher&Paykel. It is a great machine with a unique operating system that costs $9/year to operate (217kWh/year). It has a huge capacity and I love the fact that I can open it most anytime. Most front loaders smell moldy in a short time because of the bacteria that builds up in the door. . . healthy? It appears that we environmentalists are mixing up our concern for Mother Earth with self-proclaimed laundry expertise. As a student of home economics classes in the 1960s and '70s, I know that there are educated people who scientifically study how to get the cleanest clothes. The use of hot water is bad for the environment, but in some cases, hot water is valuable in cleaning clothes. Soap is beneficial, but it's benefit is better the warmer the water. It's my understanding that in order to dissolve human residue (skin, fecal material, mucus, etc. . . it's all there in your underware) the water temperature needs to be at least 98.7oF. This makes sense to me. I use cloth handkerchefs instead of disposable tissues, and consequently, I use very warm water to wash these and my underware (mucus and all). I care about Mother Earth, but I can't deny that truly clean sheets and clean socks feel wonderful! We can pretend otherwise, but I am going for honesty right now.

Okay, I understand the washing clothes in Cold-water and energy consumption. I get it!!!

It does not convince me in name of Health Consciousness, Clean-Freak, even for the sanitization's sake. Green Activists say Cold, Doctors and Health Inspectors say Hot, Energy Conservationists say Cold, Grandmothers say Hot, Cleaners say Hot, Treehuggers say Cold, Clothing Labels say Warm/Hot, and Students say Cold. I am overwhelmed confused. That's why I call your help. I need to be convinced that I don't need water/hot water to wash and disinfect towels, heavy-soiled underwears, dust-mite bed sheets. I'd like to receive legitimate hard-core web site links that prove that we don't need warm/hot water to wash and disinfect clothes. I am soo hooked on generations that wash with warm/hot water. It'd be major shock for me to wash everything in cold water, if I'd be willing to sacrifice the warm water for Mother Earth. Thus, I need legitimate resources to assure me to wash with cold water for my sanitization's sake. I am willing to open my mind as long as the laundry provide me the healthy clean clothes.

cold water sets stains

Ozone does in fact work quite well, and our company is working on a new ozone system for home use. With ozone, people don't have to sacrifice the quality of the wash but can still use cold water, save money and the environment.

It was encouraging to see people question whether cold works or not- most people usually gloss over this topic.