The Main Event: Washing
The invention of the automatic washing machine was to household cleaning what the advent of the gas-powdered mower was to lawn care--revolutionary. The automatic washing machine accomplishes what once took hours of skin-scalding, backbreaking work. And the machine does it better, getting clothes cleaner and treating them more gently. Today, machines, especially the new generation of front-loaders, are more efficient than ever.
Most people pick up their laundering skills in bits and pieces. The following is a more thorough lesson in washing, with a few tips that just might surprise you.
Evenly distribute clothes in the washer. The spin cycle relies on a balanced load. Never wrap sheets or long garments around the agitator post. That can tear fabric and jam the machine. The best loads are ones that mix small and large items--for instance, sheets mixed with hand towels and socks.
Don't overload the washer. The wash cycle depends on clothes rubbing together to remove the oil. If the washer is too full, the clothes will not have enough space to rub together. Powdered detergent may not have room to adequately dissolve, and you may end up with clumps of powdered detergent stuck on your clothes. Moreover, there must be enough free-flowing water to carry away the soil removed from the clothes. Check your washer's manual for the recommended maximum load.
Pick the right setting. Most clothes, of course, do fine with the normal or regular setting. Use the gentle or delicate setting (typically shorter agitation and spinning cycles) for lingerie, loose knits, washable woolens, and rayon fabrics. The permanent press setting usually has normal agitation but includes a cool-down rinse to reduce wrinkling.
Choose the right water temperature. The hot cycle draws directly from your household hot water supply. Warm is a 50/50 or 40/60 hot and cold water mix. Cold draws directly from the cold water line. Each of these can vary greatly depending on the distance of your water heater from your washing machine and on the season. (Incoming cold water, for instance, can range from near freezing in winter to 80 degrees F in summer.) When using the hot or warm cycle, run a hot-water tap in a nearby utility or bathroom sink until the hot water fills the pipes. This way you will cut down on the amount of cold water that inadvertently mixes in with the hot in the washer. Use the following as a general guide:
top-loaders. And the tumbling action is gentler on clothes. However, there are disadvantages as well. Front-loading washers call for different kinds of detergents--ones that are low foaming--to prevent excess suds that can impede the tumbling (soil-removing) action of the clothes. In addition, there is less water to rinse the detergent away. If you have purchased one of these new front-loading washers, make sure that you use a detergent specially suited for it or that you use less of your regular detergent. If you have trouble finding the proper detergent, contact the manufacture of the machine. Or contact the maker of your favorite brand of laundry detergent to see whether the company can tell how much of its standard detergent to use.
Use the right detergent for the job. Use general-purpose detergents for most wash loads. Use light-duty detergents for washing lightly soiled and delicate fabrics. Liquid detergents work better in cold water and on
oily stains. Powders are especially good for removing ground-in dirt and clay.
Add the right amount of detergent. This sounds like a no-brainer. You just scoop up the powder (or fill the cap with liquid) and toss it in, right? Yes, but you may need to vary the amount of detergent you use. The main cause of clothes coming out yellow, gray, and dingy is not using enough detergent.
The standard measure of most detergents is based on a 5- to7- pound load of clothes, moderately soiled, cleaned in an average water volume (17 gallons in a top-loading machine) in moderately hard water(3.6 to 7.0 grains per gallon). If you have a larger load, heavy soil, or harder water, you will need to use more detergent. Check your owner's manual for recommendations about detergent usage specific to your machine.
Soften your water. If you have hard water, meaning there is excess calcium, magnesium, and other minerals present in your water, you will have a laundry handicap. These minerals react with soaps, reducing their effectiveness and forming a sticky curd that is hard to remove from fabrics. In addition, detergents that contain silicate or carbonate builders can react with the minerals to leave insoluble deposits on your clothes. If your clothes come out of the wash looking gray and dingy and feeling rough, you may have a hard-water problem. (Other symptoms of hard water are rings around your bathtub, white residue around faucets and drains, and soaps and shampoos that don't seem to lather well.) Contact your water utility, your county Cooperative Extension Service, or a water treatment specialist for advice on testing your water's mineral content.
To soften hard water (often a problem for homeowners who use well water as opposed to municipal water), you can install a water-softening system to solve the problem. Water softeners are available at home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, and through water-treatment companies, such as Culligan. For a temporary solution, add a water-softening product, available at grocery stores, directly to the wash or rinse cycle.
Laundry Extras
Along with detergents, the list of laundry products designed for more specific uses is growing: all-fabric bleaches, softeners, and boosters, for instance. Atleast one century-old product--bluing--is making a comeback, too. Here's a look at some laundry extras.
Bleaches come in two varieties:
Samoyed, a white dog breed, who was getting ready for a show. She used a little too much and ended up with a blue dog." One guy, he says, intentionally used too much before entering a parade with his ox. He was going as Paul Bunyan, whose ox, Babe was blue. "Everybody in the 1920s and'30s knew about bluing and they knew how to use it." says Norman. In the old days, special bluing tubs were set up beside the rinse tub. Today, you dilute a few drops of bluing with water and either add it to the wash cycle or to the final rinse cycle. "These days, we kind of have to retrain people," he says. "A lot of people think that if a little is good, a lot is better." With bluing, that's just not true.
Detergent boosters, as the name suggests, help detergents do their job by increasing stain--and soil-removal action, altering the pH of water, and brightening clothes.
Water softeners and conditioners are quick fixes for hard water. Added directly to the wash or rinse cycle of your machine, both of these products soften the water, making the detergent work more effectively.
Fabric softeners come in liquid that you add to the final rinse cycle of your wash load or in sheets that you add to the dryer. These products make fabrics softer and fluffier, reduce static cling and wrinkling, and make ironing easier. Beware, though: If over used, fabric softeners can reduce the absorbency of towels and cloth diapers. Dryer sheets, if overused, can leave oily looking splotches on medium-colored items.
Starches, fabric finishes, and sizings, either used in the final rinse or after drying, stiffen fabrics, making them look crisp and fresh. They tend to make ironing easier and fabric less susceptible to soil and stains.
The invention of the automatic washing machine was to household cleaning what the advent of the gas-powdered mower was to lawn care--revolutionary. The automatic washing machine accomplishes what once took hours of skin-scalding, backbreaking work. And the machine does it better, getting clothes cleaner and treating them more gently. Today, machines, especially the new generation of front-loaders, are more efficient than ever.
Most people pick up their laundering skills in bits and pieces. The following is a more thorough lesson in washing, with a few tips that just might surprise you.
Evenly distribute clothes in the washer. The spin cycle relies on a balanced load. Never wrap sheets or long garments around the agitator post. That can tear fabric and jam the machine. The best loads are ones that mix small and large items--for instance, sheets mixed with hand towels and socks.
Don't overload the washer. The wash cycle depends on clothes rubbing together to remove the oil. If the washer is too full, the clothes will not have enough space to rub together. Powdered detergent may not have room to adequately dissolve, and you may end up with clumps of powdered detergent stuck on your clothes. Moreover, there must be enough free-flowing water to carry away the soil removed from the clothes. Check your washer's manual for the recommended maximum load.
Pick the right setting. Most clothes, of course, do fine with the normal or regular setting. Use the gentle or delicate setting (typically shorter agitation and spinning cycles) for lingerie, loose knits, washable woolens, and rayon fabrics. The permanent press setting usually has normal agitation but includes a cool-down rinse to reduce wrinkling.
Choose the right water temperature. The hot cycle draws directly from your household hot water supply. Warm is a 50/50 or 40/60 hot and cold water mix. Cold draws directly from the cold water line. Each of these can vary greatly depending on the distance of your water heater from your washing machine and on the season. (Incoming cold water, for instance, can range from near freezing in winter to 80 degrees F in summer.) When using the hot or warm cycle, run a hot-water tap in a nearby utility or bathroom sink until the hot water fills the pipes. This way you will cut down on the amount of cold water that inadvertently mixes in with the hot in the washer. Use the following as a general guide:
- Hot (120 degrees F): Use for whites and colorfast fabrics and heavily soiled clothes (such as underclothes and cloth diapers). The hot water is needed to kill bacteria. When starting a hot-water load, make sure your water heater has had a chance to replenish its hot-water supply after being exhausted by family showers and dishwashing.
- Warm (105 degrees F): Use for noncolorfast fabrics, moderately soiled loads, synthetics, wrinkle-free fabrics, knits, silks, and woolens.
Generation Next: Front-Loading Washers
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Front-loading washers are not exactly new. And they haven't exactly caused a laundry equipment revolution. Most people still use to top-loading models with a central agitating post. But attitudes are changing. Although more expensive, the new models have many advantages. They're more efficient, in some cases using only a third of the amount of water standard washers use. That not only saves water, but it also saves the power needed to heat it. Front-loaders clean as well, if not better, than
Front-loading washers are not exactly new. And they haven't exactly caused a laundry equipment revolution. Most people still use to top-loading models with a central agitating post. But attitudes are changing. Although more expensive, the new models have many advantages. They're more efficient, in some cases using only a third of the amount of water standard washers use. That not only saves water, but it also saves the power needed to heat it. Front-loaders clean as well, if not better, than
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- Cold (85 degrees F): Use for dark or bright colors that you know will bleed and for lightly soiled loads. Powdered detergent will not dissolve well in cold temperatures, so use liquid detergent with cold water.
Use the right detergent for the job. Use general-purpose detergents for most wash loads. Use light-duty detergents for washing lightly soiled and delicate fabrics. Liquid detergents work better in cold water and on
oily stains. Powders are especially good for removing ground-in dirt and clay.
Add the right amount of detergent. This sounds like a no-brainer. You just scoop up the powder (or fill the cap with liquid) and toss it in, right? Yes, but you may need to vary the amount of detergent you use. The main cause of clothes coming out yellow, gray, and dingy is not using enough detergent.
The standard measure of most detergents is based on a 5- to7- pound load of clothes, moderately soiled, cleaned in an average water volume (17 gallons in a top-loading machine) in moderately hard water(3.6 to 7.0 grains per gallon). If you have a larger load, heavy soil, or harder water, you will need to use more detergent. Check your owner's manual for recommendations about detergent usage specific to your machine.
Soften your water. If you have hard water, meaning there is excess calcium, magnesium, and other minerals present in your water, you will have a laundry handicap. These minerals react with soaps, reducing their effectiveness and forming a sticky curd that is hard to remove from fabrics. In addition, detergents that contain silicate or carbonate builders can react with the minerals to leave insoluble deposits on your clothes. If your clothes come out of the wash looking gray and dingy and feeling rough, you may have a hard-water problem. (Other symptoms of hard water are rings around your bathtub, white residue around faucets and drains, and soaps and shampoos that don't seem to lather well.) Contact your water utility, your county Cooperative Extension Service, or a water treatment specialist for advice on testing your water's mineral content.
To soften hard water (often a problem for homeowners who use well water as opposed to municipal water), you can install a water-softening system to solve the problem. Water softeners are available at home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, and through water-treatment companies, such as Culligan. For a temporary solution, add a water-softening product, available at grocery stores, directly to the wash or rinse cycle.
Laundry Extras
Along with detergents, the list of laundry products designed for more specific uses is growing: all-fabric bleaches, softeners, and boosters, for instance. Atleast one century-old product--bluing--is making a comeback, too. Here's a look at some laundry extras.
Bleaches come in two varieties:
- Chlorine bleach (sometimes labeled as sodium hypochlorite)
- All-fabric bleach (containing sodium perborate, hydrogen peroxide, or some other chlorine substitute)
Chlorine bleach is the most effective whitener and sanitizer, but we all know how strong chlorine bleach is. It can fade or alter the color of fabrics and can weaken fibers.
As a general rule, never pour full-strength liquid chlorine bleach directly into a washer load. Always dilute it or dispense it through a machine's bleach dispenser, following the instructions found on the bleach container. Don't soak cottons in a bleach solution for more than 15 minutes. ((If the stain remains after 15 minutes, that means it's not going to go away.) Don't use chlorine bleach on silk, wool, spandex, polyurethane foam, rubber, or anything with rubber or spandex elastic.
All-fabric bleaches are not as harsh and may be safe for colors. At the same time, they are not as powerful or fast-acting as a chlorine bleach.
Enzyme presoaks are good for loosening and removing stains, especially protein stains (milk, egg, urine, and feces), before the wash cycle. When added to the wash cycle, they act like boosters to
improve the washing.
Prewash stain removers are often spray products containing some combination of concentrated detergents, alcohol, mineral spirits, or enzymes. These are especially good for removing oily or greasy stains from synthetic fibers.
Bluing is an old-fashioned product that is actually used to make whites whiter. It's not a bleach (so it's environmentally friendly). In effect, bluing is just that--blue dye. When white fabric is new, it contains blue coloring (invisible to the naked eye) that makes the white brighter. After repeated washings, the blue coloring is removed, leaving whites with a yellowish tint. By adding bluing to your wash, you replace the microscopic blue pigment, and your whites look new again. (see The Laundry Blues box on the next for a bit of the history of bluing.)
The Laundry Blues
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A century ago, everyone who did laundry knew about bluing. It was how you got whites really white. But, alas, thanks to the washing machine, modern detergents, and bleaches, bluing was nearly forgotten--until recently. Today, some environmentally conscious consumers are rediscovering bluing, which they consider an ecologically sound alternative to bleach. Here's how bluing works. Instead of removing dirt or bleaching it white, bluing known as an optical whitener, adds the slightest hint of blue to your whites, making them look brighter and whiter. Most white clothes start out with added blue tints, but those tints fade after repeated washings, sometimes making whites look yellow and dingy. Bluing, which is basically a fine blue iron powder in a water suspension, is a safe and easy way to add back the blues. (Nevertheless, as with other laundry products, as with other laundry products, it shouldn't be swallowed and should be kept out of the reach of children.) Brad Norman, who owns the company that makes Mrs. Stewart's Bluing, which has been around since the 188 s, says that he hears from consumers who use his bluing on their white animals to make them whiter. "People showing horses treat their manes and tails," he says. "I got a call from the owner of a
Bluing is an old-fashioned bargain, too: A single bottle of the highly concentrated stuff, which costs only a few dollars, can last a year or more.
As a general rule, never pour full-strength liquid chlorine bleach directly into a washer load. Always dilute it or dispense it through a machine's bleach dispenser, following the instructions found on the bleach container. Don't soak cottons in a bleach solution for more than 15 minutes. ((If the stain remains after 15 minutes, that means it's not going to go away.) Don't use chlorine bleach on silk, wool, spandex, polyurethane foam, rubber, or anything with rubber or spandex elastic.
All-fabric bleaches are not as harsh and may be safe for colors. At the same time, they are not as powerful or fast-acting as a chlorine bleach.
Enzyme presoaks are good for loosening and removing stains, especially protein stains (milk, egg, urine, and feces), before the wash cycle. When added to the wash cycle, they act like boosters to
improve the washing.
Prewash stain removers are often spray products containing some combination of concentrated detergents, alcohol, mineral spirits, or enzymes. These are especially good for removing oily or greasy stains from synthetic fibers.
Bluing is an old-fashioned product that is actually used to make whites whiter. It's not a bleach (so it's environmentally friendly). In effect, bluing is just that--blue dye. When white fabric is new, it contains blue coloring (invisible to the naked eye) that makes the white brighter. After repeated washings, the blue coloring is removed, leaving whites with a yellowish tint. By adding bluing to your wash, you replace the microscopic blue pigment, and your whites look new again. (see The Laundry Blues box on the next for a bit of the history of bluing.)
The Laundry Blues
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A century ago, everyone who did laundry knew about bluing. It was how you got whites really white. But, alas, thanks to the washing machine, modern detergents, and bleaches, bluing was nearly forgotten--until recently. Today, some environmentally conscious consumers are rediscovering bluing, which they consider an ecologically sound alternative to bleach. Here's how bluing works. Instead of removing dirt or bleaching it white, bluing known as an optical whitener, adds the slightest hint of blue to your whites, making them look brighter and whiter. Most white clothes start out with added blue tints, but those tints fade after repeated washings, sometimes making whites look yellow and dingy. Bluing, which is basically a fine blue iron powder in a water suspension, is a safe and easy way to add back the blues. (Nevertheless, as with other laundry products, as with other laundry products, it shouldn't be swallowed and should be kept out of the reach of children.) Brad Norman, who owns the company that makes Mrs. Stewart's Bluing, which has been around since the 188 s, says that he hears from consumers who use his bluing on their white animals to make them whiter. "People showing horses treat their manes and tails," he says. "I got a call from the owner of a
Bluing is an old-fashioned bargain, too: A single bottle of the highly concentrated stuff, which costs only a few dollars, can last a year or more.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Detergent boosters, as the name suggests, help detergents do their job by increasing stain--and soil-removal action, altering the pH of water, and brightening clothes.
Water softeners and conditioners are quick fixes for hard water. Added directly to the wash or rinse cycle of your machine, both of these products soften the water, making the detergent work more effectively.
Fabric softeners come in liquid that you add to the final rinse cycle of your wash load or in sheets that you add to the dryer. These products make fabrics softer and fluffier, reduce static cling and wrinkling, and make ironing easier. Beware, though: If over used, fabric softeners can reduce the absorbency of towels and cloth diapers. Dryer sheets, if overused, can leave oily looking splotches on medium-colored items.
Starches, fabric finishes, and sizings, either used in the final rinse or after drying, stiffen fabrics, making them look crisp and fresh. They tend to make ironing easier and fabric less susceptible to soil and stains.
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