Understanding how your washing machine washes … What goes on inside your washing machine … Which type of washing machine is right for you … Top-loaders, front-loaders, hybrids, high-efficiency machines … Be a washing machine skeptic; choosing a machine … Summary of cycles, the regular, permanent-press, gentle or delicate … Dryer cycles and options … Drying cabinets … Care and maintenance of laundry appliances … Useful furnishings and equipment for laundry rooms
You can launder more efficiently and effectively if you understand what goes on under the lid of your automatic washing machine when you close it. Most people do not. Many laundry failures and frustrations can be traced to the illusion that it is not necessary to know what the different cycles on washing machines do or why they are recommended for certain fabrics and fibers.
What Happens Inside Your Washing Machine. The type of automatic washing machine that most people in this country have in their homes is a top-loading machine that “agitates,” or churns or jerks the clothes back and forth by means of a post in the center of the tub in order to wash and rinse them. As it drains the wash and rinse waters, it spins the clothes at ever-increasing speeds until the great “centrifugal” force of the spinning presses out so much water that the clothes do not drip, i.e., are “damp dried” when they are finally removed.
Other types of machines, those that tumble rather than agitate clothes, are growing in popularity. These have no agitator post and clean clothes by tumbling them in a turning barrel while causing sudsy water to be sloshed and, sometimes, sprayed through them. Different versions of tumbling, sloshing, and spraying are used by the various tumbling machines. Like agitators, tumblers spin the clothes to squeeze the water out of them until they are damp dried. Although most tumblers have a door on the front instead of a lid on the top and thus are called “front-loaders,” there are several “hybrids” that use a variety of nonagitating washing mechanisms but have a lid on top like agitators. Both front-loading and hybrid tumblers are called “high-efficiency” (HE) washing machines, for reasons explained below. Both types of machines are referred to here as “tumblers” or “high-efficiency machines.”
Which Machine for You? The increasing variety of types of washing machines available and features offered means that it is now more difficult to decide which machine is right for your household. Although front-loaders have been around almost as long as top-loaders, most people in this country have lived only with top-loading washers and are not familiar with many of the advantages and disadvantages of tumblers. (In Europe, the opposite is true.) For the average person, top-loaders offer two strong advantages: you can load top-loaders without bending and straining your back, and, more importantly, until recently, top-loaders were bigger and could wash far larger loads far more quickly than front-loaders. For most people, these factors were decisive. But things have begun to change.
In recent years, tumbling machines have become increasingly popular on account of their outstanding energy- and water-saving features. They offer faster spinning speeds, too, and faster spins mean that clothes come out of the washer far more dry and thus dry faster in the dryer, creating further energy savings and convenience. Tumblers often cost more up front, but depending on your laundry volume and your habits, you make up a good portion or even all of the excess cost in reduced operating costs over the life of the machine. For these reasons, they are called “high-efficiency” or HE machines.
American front-loading and hybrid models are no longer smaller than agitators; the different models have a range of capacities comparable to that of top-loaders. (European front-loaders continue to be smaller and slower than new American front-loaders.) And despite the ample capacity of new-model tumblers, they still use much less water and energy than old-fashioned agitating machines. Today’s more stringent regulations on laundry appliance efficiencies, therefore, have tipped the balance in favor of tumbling machines for many home laundries.
Claims of superior laundry effectiveness are also made for tumbling machines—both by their manufacturers and by many users. Tumblers, they say, not only clean more thoroughly but they clean more gently, causing less wear and tear on clothes. Tumblers generally use more rinses than top-loaders, too, and repeated rinses are more effective at removing residues of dirt and detergent than one deep rinse. More thorough rinsing is also better for sensitive skin and helps clothes last longer and stay cleaner longer. Because of their more effective washing and rinsing, some say that tumbling machines help decrease reliance on laundry chemicals such as detergent and bleach.
But new-model tumblers, unfortunately, are still slightly less convenient to use than top-loaders. They still tend to take longer to wash the clothes than top-loaders, although they offer various quick-wash options. You still have to bend down to fill front-loaders. You still cannot open some tumblers to add a forgotten item after the first couple of minutes of the cycle; nor do you have the same ability to fiddle with the length of washes or rinses as you have with agitators. Because tumbling causes more suds and uses less water than agitating, tumblers need low-sudsing HE detergents that at present cost more, although the prediction is that their price will come down. The new hybrids offer the convenience of top-loading but otherwise tend to have many of the advantages and disadvantages of front-loaders.
My personal experience is that although both tumblers and agitators clean well, my front-loader seems to be gentler and cleans better than my old top-loader. But I have never compared my new front-loader to an equally up-to-date top-loader. I do not notice that I use less detergent or bleach in my front-loader.
Be a Washing Machine Skeptic. General advice on choosing a machine is likely to miss the mark, but some factors that it pays to notice are not likely to get attention in consumer magazines. Keeping these in mind may help convince you that, if you cannot afford the fanciest new machine out there, it is probably nothing to cry into your pillow about.
DOE REGULATIONS ON WASHING MACHINE EFFICIENCIES
In 2001 the U.S. Department of Energy issued new regulations governing clothes washers, requiring all new clothes washers to be 22 percent more efficient in their use of energy and water by 2004 and 35 percent more efficient by 2007. These environmentally desirable rules will result in huge national savings in water and energy with no loss, according to the DOE, in home laundering abilities. Both top- and front-loading machines can meet these standards, but high-efficiency tumbling machines, at least so far, tend to offer considerably more energy and water savings than top-loaders.
If you are in the market for a new machine, in advance of shopping read up on performance, economies, and repair records in consumer publications and visit a variety of stores and websites. A complicated computerized machine is unlikely to have the long years of repair-free functioning that simpler machines have. Read the entire operating manual before you buy the machine. If the manual does not provide a toll-free customer information number, consider finding another manufacturer. Do not buy a fancy machine with a confusing or uninformative operating manual. Also be wary of a complicated machine with a very short operating manual; it may be equally short on answers and necessary information.
Find a company or retailer whose representatives are well informed and willing to answer all your questions patiently. Be cautious about buying washing machines from people who are mainly good at making or selling DVD players and cell phones. You are best off buying from people and companies who really know how to do the laundry.
THE ENERGY STAR PROGRAM
When shopping for clothes washers and dryers, as well as other home appliances, look for Energy Star appliances. Energy Star is a U.S. government program that tries to encourage energy savings. Products that show the Energy Star symbol meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and the Department of Energy. Energy Star clothes washers use 50 percent less energy than standard washers, and full-size washers use 18-25 gallons of water per load, compared to the 40 gallons used by standard machines. Moreover, Energy Star washers spin clothes dryer, which means that they need less time in the dryer to dry, resulting in a further energy savings. You can find Energy Star machines of all types—top-loading (agitator-style), front-loading, or hybrid, i.e., machines without agitators that have a lid on top—but most are front-loaders and hybrids.
Summary of Cycles. The sequence of events under the lid of the washing machine, the progression from washing action to rinses and spins until the machine reaches a final automatic stop, is called a “cycle.” Despite a burgeoning variety of special options on new-model washing machines, there are still only three basic automatic cycles, answering to the laundering needs of the three major fiber groups. Novices should be sure to learn what each of these basic cycles is called on their own machines and to read the instructions for using them set out in the following chapter.
The normal, regular, or cottons cycle is for sturdy fabrics woven of cotton, linen, and other cellulosic fibers—fabrics, in other words, that can take heat and vigorous manipulation. Thus the regular cycle provides vigorous washing action and fast spin for drying; it is typically used with hot or warm water. See pages 52-53.
The permanent-press, wrinkle-free, or easy-care cycle is designed for wrinkle-treated fabrics, synthetics such as polyester and nylon, man-made fibers, and blends containing these. It consists of fast or medium washing action (depending on how many speeds your machine offers) and medium to slow spin (again depending on how many spin speeds there are); typically it is used with warm to cool water—because many synthetics cannot take heat—and a final cold rinse. The less vigorous washing action helps to reduce the pilling that many synthetics and blends are prone to, and the cold rinse and slower spin lessens wrinkling in these heat-sensitive fabrics, which, when warm, readily take the imprint of the shapes they are spun-dry into. See pages 53-54.
The gentle or delicate cycle is for washable silks and woolens—i.e., the protein fibers—for weak synthetic fibers such as acrylic or acetate, and for all fabrics of any fiber made in delicate constructions or weaves. The gentle cycle provides slow washing action and slow spin and is typically used with cool to warm water. Such procedures are usually necessary both for protein fibers and for articles of delicate construction that could easily be torn, stretched, or otherwise harmed by rougher treatment. See pages 55-57.
The manufacturers’ decision many years ago to create three basic cycles, plus the means of varying them to fit special cases, was a wise one that answered real needs. More cycles would always have been possible; the ideal care for even similar laundry items is often different. But laundering is largely the art of making safe compromises, treating unlike things roughly alike so as to avoid the inconvenience and waste of having to wash too many loads and loads that are too small. If cycles are too numerous and too narrowly designed, you end up with too few items per load for efficient and effective laundering. See chapter 4, pages 56-57.
Recently, however, in an excess of marketing zeal, manufacturers have begun to fix what was not broken. Many of them now offer a fourth basic automatic cycle called, absurdly enough, “hand-wash.” (See chapter 4, page 61.) Others have begun offering numerous “preset” cycles for everything from pet-bedding to sneakers, promising “no-brainer” laundering. So long as you can still easily find and identify the three basic all-purpose cycles and so long as the machine offers you the flexibility to vary these basic cycles as necessary to fit the characteristics of your particular load (colorfastness, degree of sturdiness, tendency to pill, and so forth), these extra preset cycles are harmless enough. But this is not always the case.
One manufacturer, for example, has broken up the three basics into nine, some of which are whites, normal, heavy-duty, delicate casuals, jeans, and wool. These are somewhat irrational categories that leave you guessing at what goes where and why. I consider jeans heavy-duty; and cotton whites were deemed “normal” on all washing machines for more than half a century. This same machine presets the “wool” cycle to a low-speed spin, which in my opinion is wrong more often than right. Presumably, on these machines you can concoct your own cycles—for washable wool or other fibers. That is some consolation, so long as you are not misled into thinking you do not need to. The machine cannot really make it unnecessary for you to know what you are doing. Besides, too many cycles may tend to create inconvenience and waste by inducing the inexperienced launderer to wash more, smaller loads, rather than fewer, larger ones with, say, jeans thrown in with other heavy-duty items. (Not all jeans bleed dye; even those that do present no problem for dark-colored loads or even bright colors after a few washes.)
If your machine does not have the three standard cycles, you can almost surely create them for yourself using their descriptions in this and the following chapter. You will find that you can wash nearly all laundry using these three cycles and that most of the time it is efficient and convenient to do so.
Dryers
In the past decade, while the home washing machine has been adding new features, dryers have changed little. They still tumble clothes in a barrel with heat and send moisture and lint through an exhaust pipe to the outdoors. You pick a temperature or fabric setting appropriate to the fiber content and construction of the fabric. All machines still offer timed drying periods. But because timed drying often leads to under- or overdrying, many dryers now also have “moisture sensors” as well. The moisture sensors let you set the machine to go until it achieves the degree of dryness (very, normal, damp, damper) you want instead of setting it for a specified time period. Most machines offer antiwrinkle options. For example, one keeps clothes tumbling without heat at the end of a cycle so that hot clothes do not get set-in wrinkles. Another offers a short warm tumble, followed by a cool-down, to freshen clothes wrinkled from a suitcase or from sitting in the dryer.
Drying cabinets are now being made by a couple of manufacturers, but drying cabinets are not new. I once lived in a century-old building that had a huge drying cabinet in the basement for the tenants’ use. This convenience was a wall-high, built-in cabinet whose gentle, effective warmth was apparently derived from proximity to the building’s boiler. Opening its doors pulled forth long rods on which to drape your wet linens and clothes. To see another sort of drying cabinet, one much like those today’s manufacturers are offering, look at any late-nineteenth-century edition of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, in the section titled “The Laundry-Maid,” for a lovely engraving of a drying cabinet from Victorian England. It resembles an armoire with space both for drying on hangers and drying flat on pullout shelves of fine open grating, like an oven’s—or as Mrs. Beeton says of hers, “clothes horses on casters running in grooves.” This type of drying cabinet was metal-lined, heated by hot air pipes, and vented to carry off steam, so that the laundry room would remain free of “unwholesome vapour.”
Today’s drying cabinets, like Mrs. Beeton’s, look like cabinets. They open to disclose hanging space and mesh shelves; you can hang things or lay them flat. You close the door and warm air circulates to dry the clothes much faster than in room temperature air. You can also steam and scent clothes in the cabinets to freshen and unwrinkle them.
Drying cabinets, if well designed, are practical and useful additions to any laundry room with space for one. Drip-dry items, sweaters, and knits would dry far more quickly hanging or lying flat in a drying cabinet. Lingerie would soon dry and be static-free without fabric softener. I have not used one of the new drying cabinets, but I can vouch for the very old ones. At the moment, drying cabinets tend to be rather expensive.
The low-budget alternative to drying cabinets is a drying rack that fits into the barrel of the dryer. You place wet things that you want to dry flat, without tumbling, on the rack and turn on the dryer. The rack stays stationary while the barrel turns, causing warm air to circulate around the wet things. (With the in-dryer rack, I use time-drying, not moisture sensor-drying, as the machine does not seem to sense the moisture of one stationary wet article.) Of course, you cannot fit much on one rack. If you would like to try such a drying rack, your machine will probably accommodate it whether or not its manufacturer makes them. Just make sure to ask when you buy (from appliance stores or—where you are less likely to get any answers—on the Internet).
Care and Maintenance of Laundry Appliances
Check your instruction booklet for maintenance chores for your laundry appliances. Some automatic washers have filters that need cleaning periodically. You should also wash out the dispensers and tub in your washer occasionally. First wipe out any dirt or lint particles with a damp cloth, then run the machine through a short wash cycle with laundry detergent and hot water, spin, and rinse with plain water. If you need to clean, sanitize, or deodorize the tub of an agitating top-loader, run it through a hot-water wash, rinse, and drain cycle with the machine set to its maximum fill; add chlorine bleach enough for an extra-large load (according to the label instructions) and all-purpose detergent. To sanitize your front-loading machine, add all-purpose detergent and the maximum permissible amount of chlorine bleach to your liquid bleach dispenser, set the machine for hot water, and run it through a short wash cycle. If hard water mineral deposits appear in your tub, use any commercial remover for these or try softening them with white vinegar.
Dryer filters need constant cleaning; too large a collection of lint causes the dryer to operate inefficiently and is a fire hazard. In addition to emptying the filter frequently between loads, you should clean in and around the opening in which the filter sits, as lint tends to collect in this entire area. Vacuuming there with the crevice attachment is helpful. The dryer exhaust system, including exhaust pipes or tubes and the outside exhaust hood, should be inspected and cleaned annually. Now and then, wipe the inside of your dryer with a well-wrung cloth dampened with a mild-detergent-and-water solution.
The exteriors of washers and dryers are usually made of baked enamel, which scratches easily but readily wipes clean with a cloth dampened in a solution of mild detergent and water or any mild, nonabrasive all-purpose household cleaner.
Useful Furnishings and Equipment for Laundry Rooms
Not only laundry appliances but laundry rooms as a whole have become subjects of fashion. Basement gloom and utility room dourness are out; laundry luxe is in. New houses have large laundry rooms with laundry gadgets, fancy faucets, huge televisions and stereo systems, lounging furniture, telephone, drawers, closets, shelves, hanging and drying racks, and more. The idea is that you spend enough time laundering, folding, and ironing to justify making your laundry, like your kitchen, as friendly and inviting as possible. It is an idea whose time came long ago.
As usual, Mrs. Beeton had something to say that bears on the contemporary discussion. She believed that the well-designed laundry should have not one but two rooms or possibly three. In one, you would wash—a process that in her day involved many tubs and water taps, boilers, rinses, clouds of steam, and washerwomen. The wash room would have drains for carrying off waste water and excellent exhaustion and ventilation. You would dry and iron and fold in another room, fitted up for those functions. But, even better, you would dry using a separate drying closet that would have exhaust pipes to carry off moisture. (See the discussion of drying cabinets above and in the following chapter.) This would permit ironing and folding in a room without “unwholesome” vapors of steam and heat and chemical fumes. Above all, Mrs. Beeton thought, you had to provide adequate ventilation.
If we plan to spend substantial amounts of time in our laundry rooms, we, too, should adequately cool and ventilate them because heat, steam, chemical fumes, and dust are problems even for the contemporary laundry. Laundry detergents and bleaches still produce chemical air pollution. Washers and dryers still heat and humidify the room—even if rows of steaming washtubs were much worse. And although our dryers are vented, they throw some lint and moisture into the air too. Laundry appliances are now quieter than ever. But for the foreseeable future they will continue to make at least a little noise.
For these reasons, I question whether it is wise to install laundry appliances in the kitchen or in other living areas if we can avoid doing so. I also wonder whether we should try to condition the air in the laundry room to make it healthy and pleasant enough to spend substantial amounts of time there, or should we, instead, take advantage of the freedom that our appliances give us of being able to get away from the heat, humidity, noise, and pollution of laundry. Maybe, in fact, we should have not comfortable and attractive laundry rooms, but quiet, well-ventilated, accommodating, and attractive ironing, folding, and mending rooms—laundry anterooms, so to speak, where these time-consuming but light and relaxing chores can be lightened with entertainments and cheerful, comfortable surroundings. In this room, you might have racks, shelves, tables, a mending kit, music, television, and all the other comforts and conveniences you like. If large enough, such a room could also double as an attractive sewing, general workroom sort of place. I suspect the latter would be my choice, if I had one.
All of these things, of course, are luxuries, second in importance to the necessities of a good washer and dryer, and plenty of hot water, cold water, fresh air, and light. But, if you have space, funds, and an inclination for a few such luxuries in your laundry room, the list of useful laundry room features below may spark your imagination.
Double laundry tub or sink with faucets
One or two small plastic basins
Small washboard
Indoor drying line
Drying racks, including a mesh one for drying knits flat
Drying rack that fits inside dryer
Drying cabinet
Hanging facilities, including a hanging rod, broad-shouldered hangers, and trouser and skirt hangers
Ample tabletop or countertop space for folding and stacking Shelves for folded laundry
Shelves and cabinets for storing laundry products, stain-removal products and equipment, and mending equipment
Ironing board and iron, plus ironing aids such as a sleeveboard, press cloth, and a water-spray bottle
Clothes steamer
Windows providing good natural light for checking color compatibility of loads, colorfastness, success of pretreatment, color-matching sock mates, and so on
Small bulletin board with care label terms and symbols, notes on care for different articles, reminders, stain-removal charts, etc.
Clothes brushes and lint removers
Small sewing basket with scissors, needles, and several basic colors of thread for quick repairs such as reinforcing seams or tightening or removing buttons