One Small Step: Wash Laundry on Cold
April 15, 2008 by Peggy
You’ve probably heard this one before, but do you have the facts on how much washing laundry on cold really helps?
Some good things to know from Carbon Conscious Consumer:
•About 90% of the energy used for washing clothes is for heating the water.
•Push the “cold/cold” button on your washing machine for 80% of the loads you do this month. By doing 4 out of 5 loads in cold water you’ll cut 72 pounds of CO2 emissions this month alone.
•Keep washing 80% of the loads in cold for a year and you’ll save more than $60 in energy costs for the year ($100 a year if you live in regions with high electricity costs).
•Use the correct amount of detergent. Too many bubbles make your machine work harder and use more energy.
•If buying a washer, look for the Energy Star label. Energy Star clothes washers clean clothes using half the energy and half the water compared to standard washers. Energy Star models also spin the clothes better, resulting in less drying time.
If you’re worried about washing a garment in cold when the label calls for warm, don’t be. Cold is the safest temperature for washing clothes. And despite what some manufacturers may lead you to believe, you don’t need a special cold-water detergent. I’ve been washing my clothes on cold with regular (phosphate-free) detergent for years. No special formula is needed.
Do you wash your clothes on cold?
Image via MorgueFile.
We always wash on cold, with the exception of bed linens and towels, for disinfecting and eliminating dust mites. As far as clothing, hot water sets stains in and shrinks fabric, so clothing is also apt to last much less longer when washed in hot.
I always was in cold but i forget to do my sheets and towels since they get tossed in with the clothes, lol.
We wash in cold too! My mom (a nurse) hates it b/c she thinks we’re all going to get MRSA. Not that I don’t fear this crazy super bug, but if I let fear control everything I do, I’d wind up in a mental hospital!
I wash everything all together and on cold. My aunt thinks I’m nuts. She’s a separate the whites, colors, clothes, towels, sort. But I’m way whatever with the laundry. After taking all the science based course in college (for nursing) germs don’t bug me. After micro I realized we can’t win, we’ll never kill them all, and trying to kill them all only makes them more resilient, so why stress. Wash up to get rid of basic germs and after that accept that it’s mostly ok.
Well I do separate my towels, but it’s only because I have plenty of them to wash in their own load. It’s just easier for me. That way, I know exactly what’s lurking in the clothing heap. It’s usually not a heap… most of the time it’s not.
Thanks for the comments everyone, but now I’m picturing dust mites floating around in my washer. Can’t be. They’d drown. Oh darn, now I’m off to Google dust mites swimming.
I wash everything in cold except diapers, which I wash on hot. Has anyone tried washing diapers with cold water? Everything I’ve read says to wash diapers with hot water, so I do. I hope I am actually getting the diapers cleaner and not just wasting energy.
Rebecca, I don’t have kids, but if I did I’d probably wash my cloth diapers on warm as well. You are doing good by using cloth, so I don’t think you should feel bad about it!
I’ve never heard of anyone washing diapers on cold. Although I don’t see why you can’t and here’s why; in micro we learned that there was little difference between washing hands in cold vs. hot. The biggest difference was from agitation. How long you scrubbed. I.E we took bacteria samples after scrubbing hands for different lengths of time and it was scrubbing well with soap that made the big difference.
Two – if you can touch hot water without it burning you, it’s not hot enough to kill bacteria. I’ve touched my hot water coming from my washing machine before and it certainly didn’t burn me. It’s just not that hot. Here’s a link that backs that up – http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/a2z-h.html
although any basic science text can tell you this. Or you could get some of that germ showing hand gel and prove it to yourself.
Frankly I think that the whole hot water deal is a safety net that makes people feel better, cleaner. SUPER hot water will kill bacteria though. But in the case of diapers I can’t see how it helps unless your washer does run hot enough to burn you, which technically as part of baby proofing you should have turned down your water heater anyhow to a nice non-burn level.
One thing, I do think you should use the dryer on hot for cloth diapers and not hang them. Dryers do run hot enough to burn in some cases and putting an air dried brick-like diaper on a baby is no fun.
PS using cloth is a little more work and greener, so anyway you wash them I agree with Peggy, you should feel good just for using them.
Thanks for the information! Perhaps I should simply try washing diapers in cold–or at least warm–and see if I can detect a difference. I do dry my diapers in the dryer, so it sounds like I could rely on that heat to kill some of the germs.
It’s not true, however, that people using cloth diapers can be sure they’re doing what’s right for the environment. A British study in 2005 determined that the environmental effects of disposables and cloth were about the same. After looking into it, though, I found that the cloth diaper users in the study were not washing their diapers as efficiently as possible. They were using over 4000 gallons of water a year to wash diapers, whereas I use just 900. Cloth diaper users can reduce the amount of water they use by using a dry pail instead of soaking diapers, skipping an extra rinse cycle, and getting a front-loading washing machine. The people in the study were also washing diapers every other day; I do it every four. If I determine that washing in cold works just as well, I’ll have yet another energy-saving tip!
Rebecca, good cloth diaper tips. I know I’m a little shocked because you always read tips like – soak, pre rinse – wash – wash again – rinse twice. I always think, you must be able to cut out some steps. I still think almost anyway you use cloth is better though. Water is renewable while the land used for landfills is not, also I use old cloth diapers as cleaning rags, which eliminates paper towels and you get to use them to death – but there is that energy consideration.
Yes, I was really shocked to read that study, too, considering how bad plastic is to produce and throw away vs. the fact that water is a renewable resource, as you said. (And the study was done by the British government, not a diaper or paper company!) The good news is that it’s possible for those of us to use cloth to cut down on our environmental impact. Disposable-users have to wait until the companies themselves use greener practices.
I have always washed cloth diapers as I would any other load of laundry–just toss them in and wash them once on the heavy cycle. No soaking, double-washing, rinsing, etc. This makes cloth diapering no more difficult than any other load of laundry and saves a lot of time, money, and water!
My mom’s a huge believer in the hot=clean theory. She’d nearly burn her hands off washing dishes and insists on washing things in hot to “get them clean.” I’ve always heard that a normal water heater doesn’t really get the water hot enough to disinfect anyway. I do wash our underwear/socks/towels/sheets on hot simply to get out all the crud and smells, but the rest of our clothes are on cold. Using cold and avoiding the dryer makes (especially women’s) clothing last so much longer.
When I watched that commercial for the cold-water detergent I thought “wow, does the rest of the world wash everything in hot?”