Did you know that about 90% of the energy in a typical laundry cycle is spent heating the water? While hot water may be necessary for certain stains or for running a sanitizing/allergen cycle, using hot water to do laundry is a waste of energy. Plus, washing clothing in cold water allows fabrics to retain their color and strength longer.
I love it when my husband helps around the house, but he mistakenly believes laundry should be washed in hot water if you want clothing truly clean. When he helps with the laundry, it often results in shrunken and faded clothing. Despite his hot water habit, I still adore him for helping with laundry. But when we had an opportunity to test the new Whirlpool Duet Washer & Dryer, I was determined to show him how to do wash with cold water.
The Whirlpool Duet Washer & Dryer has a smart Care Control temperature management system enabled by 6th Sense™ technology which controls water amount and temperature. The EcoBoost option increases the tumbling action which enables you to use cooler water without sacrificing cleaning quality.
One of the biggest complaints about cold water washing is that detergents don’t fully dissolve, which can leave clothing looking duller. I’ve noticed that cold weather impacted the effectiveness of cold water washing since the water wasn’t heated enough to dissolve the detergents. During the summer, our cold water wasn’t freezing, and the wash seemed cleaner. However, the Whirlpool Duet Washer has a feature that adjusts the cold and hot water inlets to reach temperatures that are warm enough to dissolve detergents even on the cool cycle. Temperatures were freezing the past week, so I had a chance to test this feature and was happy with the results.
I use cold water to wash my clothing, but I use warm water as well as a pre-treater on stained children’s clothing and my workout clothing. Choosing warm water instead of hot isn’t as energy efficient as cold water washing, but it still reduces the load’s energy use by 50%. I save hot water washes for killing dust mites on mattress covers and eliminating bacteria on clothing or sheets involved in baby’s diaper blowouts or on bath towels to get them extra white.
How do you do your laundry? Have you tried cold water washing yet?
Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a test-drive campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Whirlpool and received a complimentary Whirlpool Duet washer and dryer to facilitate my review.
