I was just curious what temperature water you use to wash clothes. Hot,Warm,or Cold? A friend and I were discussing this today and she said ,most of the time she uses cold water, she think its takes out stains better? I myself usually use warm. Except for Reds and colors that bleed I use cold and whites I use hot.
I was just curious

By Texannie on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 06:35 pm:

I pretty much just use cold.

By Colette on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 06:37 pm:

I mostly use cold too. Exceptions being whites, sheets and towels, I use hot for those. I don't use warm for anything.

By Vicki on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 07:07 pm:

I use cold for everything except towles and whites. I use warm for those. My experience is that things seem to fade much less when washed on cold.

By Eve on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 07:09 pm:

I use hot for sheets, towels and whites as well. I think of those nasty dust mites and the hotter the better. I use cold on colors and lights.

By Mommyathome on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 07:48 pm:

Ditto Eve.

By Tink on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 08:05 pm:

I use cold on everything but whites. I hadn't really thought about the dust mites but I would have thought that the heat from the dryer would take care of everything. For those of you that use hot for towels, do you have a reason why? Cold water is less likely to set stains and fade colors.

By Emily7 on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 08:41 pm:

I use cold because the laundry room doesn't heat up quite as much.

By Melanie on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 08:50 pm:

Ditto Eve as well.

By Amecmom on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 09:56 pm:

I use cold most often, except for underwear and socks. I use warm and do a load of dark and then a load of light (mainly white).
Towels and sheets I do in warm. I have a sanitary cycle (super hot) on my washer and I think I used it once.
I like cold for most everything because I know my colors won;t run and are less likely to fade.

Ame

By Sue3 on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 10:26 pm:

Ditto Kathy.

By Coopaveryben on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 10:54 pm:

My DH works for a major washer manufacturer, he is a customer care tech and he had to take a laundry class. In the class they told him you need to use the hottest water possible to activate your detergent. I usually add the detergent, put the water on hot until the drum fills up about an inch and then I switch it back to the temperature I want and then add the clothes.

By Babysitbarb on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 10:34 am:

I use cold for everything except blankets and sheets. I use to always use warm and then I was told to use cold because Stains set in with warm or hot water. I have been finding out that people do use hot for whites and I think I might start trying that.

By Kristie on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 10:44 am:

I heard that warm sets in stains too. I use cold for everything. Speaking of laundry, I bought some new towels and there dark blue. Iv'e washed them 3 times and they are still makeing my dh look like a smurf when he dries off with them. Iv'e tried to wash them in all temp. but nothing works.

By Missymelissy on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 10:48 am:

Generally I use cold water, the odd time I will use warm/hot, but not too often

By Kernkate on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 10:51 am:

Chrissy that is interesting about the detergent. I never knew that.
I have always used hot for my whites. Maybe I will have to change that. Maybe thats why the kids socks seem to always be stained the hot is setting it in there.

By Texannie on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 11:40 am:

That's why I use liguid!!
Kristie, I know that vinegar in the wash will help keep the colors from fading, maybe that would help him to not look like Papa Smurf.

By Momaroze on Thursday, July 1, 2004 - 05:43 pm:

Most often cold.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 01:01 am:

Most often cold, since that is what is on the labels of most of my clothes! Towels warm or hot depending on what I feel like at the moment.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 06:20 am:

I use liquid detergent because when my Mom was alive and doing laundry, she didn't do as Chrissy suggested and dissolve the powder detergent in hot water - she dumped the detergent in on top of the clothes and one of my favorite dresses got a big bleached out spot on it.

I use lukewarm water for most washing, with a cold rinse. (I set the washer for "warm" but set the water flow on the pipes so the hot is just a trickle, which makes the water lukewarm.) I don't want to use just cold water, especially in winter, because even with liquid detergent I think (with no evidence) that lukewarm, room temperature water helps it disperse better. But I also don't want the water more than room temperature because I do worry about setting stains. I also put the detergent into a couple of inches of water and swish the water before I add the clothes. I do use hot water for washing and cold for rinsing whites.

(Does anyone know where the term "lukewarm" comes from?)

By Pamt on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 10:56 am:

FYI, Ginny...

"The word lukewarm has a long and respectable history, going right back to the 14th century. The adjective luke sems to be an alternative form of lew, Old English hleow, which meant 'tepid'" from Ask Oxford

re: laundry
Hot-whites; warm-lights; cold-darks

By Insaneusmcwife on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 11:11 am:

Hot-whites, everything else-cold. I use liquid detergent so that I don't have to worry about the powder disolving.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 02:29 pm:

Pam - thanks. I am a bit of a word freak and it suddenly occurred to me that I have used the word lukewarm, instead of tepid, for most of my life and never knew where it came from.

By Tunnia on Friday, July 2, 2004 - 03:02 pm:

I use hot for bleach whites, towels, sheets, and my dh's uniforms, warm for colorfast light colored clothes, and cold for dark clothes.

By Rose on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 02:43 pm:

I used cold for many years but the last 15 years have been using warm with liquid detergent. I like the detergent brands that contain enzymes. I think they work the best.

By Bea on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 05:08 pm:

I use warm with a cold rinse. I adjust my water with my hot and cold spigots, and it's not very hot at all. I do believe that you need at least warm water to cut through grease.