Advice from an expert on washing detergent

I am really wound up about the new machines all being cold feed too, we have a combi boiler which can heat water up for a wash a damn sight quicker than the element in my machine

I had this issue when I had to replace my machine, but our nice washing machine engineer gave me an explanation: New machines are designed to used very small amounts of water (maybe as little as 2l for the wash part of the cycle). If your machine did have a hot feed it would most likely stop drawing water from the hot pipe at just about the same time that the hot water actually started arriving since combis have a delay before they provide hot water (due to them having to fire up, plus the length of the pipes). Since the water wouldn't be at the right temperature the washer would then heat the water anyway. So all that water the boiler has just heated would be wasted and the washer wouldn't have saved any electricity anyway.

This has made for a really interesting read and I have to admit that the advice given by the washing machine expert makes a lot of sense. It pretty much coroborates what I'd been thinking for some time now, after a lot of trialing (& error) of various different brands of liquids and powders.
The only thing that I've not seen mentioned (unless I've overlooked it ) is the dosage of detergent when washing towels (or nappies). I find that the full listed dosages - of both powders & liquids - is far too much for towels and nappies and that if used, I will be rinsing and re-rinsing things forever to get all the detergent out.
If I don't get all the detergent out, then 1) everything dries much crispier and rougher than it otherwise would and 2) this is when I start getting detergent related skin issues.
I agree fully with what he's said, that bio washing detergents are not the nasty-to-skin baddy that they're made out to be. However, if the washed items are not properly rinsed and the detergent not fully removed from them, then yes it will cause skin irritation, with non-bio just as likely to cause it as bio.
I don't live in a particularly soft water area, which I know can make a difference to the amount of detergent needed - if anything, it's classed as a hard water area. But I've found that my towels and nappies come out equally fresh smelling and stain free using half the detergent recommended on the box.
Has anyone else found this?

Dooby x

Oh and another thing... finally I feel better (& justified!) about using my full cotton cycle which takes over 3 hrs to complete!
My sister thinks I'm mad to use it as it "takes far too long & uses up too much electricity" but I've always maintained that it's the only cycle to get everything properly cleaned. Maybe I've been right all along

Dooby x

This is a very interesting read, i've been worrying recently about what detergent to get as it baffles me. We usually buy morrisons value powder and the cheapest conditioner but now I think i'll pay the extra and get a good bio for when we need to wash the cloth nappies.
Those of you that have followed this advice do you use the bio on everything or just the nappies? Shall I wash the baby's clothes in the same stuff?

Also for those of you worried about electricity used in long washes could you wash things at night as night rate electric use is much cheaper?

Can't give you advice on washing babies things in bio as I didn't change over to bio till my baby was 5mths, but only because I'd never considered it before. I now use bio for everything.

No reason why you can't wash things at night if its cheaper, my Mum used to set the timer on her washing machine to come on in the night. Not sure how you'd manage it if your washing machine doesn't have a timer though, mine doesn't. Think it also depends on the way your supplier charges as to whether its cheaper at night, am sure some charge a flat rate

This is interesting reading, I've been using Tesco own bio powder but I've been getting awful build up of detergent on the nappies so I think it's time to switch to something else.

I didn't even know about maintenance washes! So i've just had a look on my washer and the longest cycle i can find is 2hrs 10min on a 95 temp... so i've put it on with nothing in it and no powder.

I use liquid all the time instead of powder, i always tend to put too much powder in if i use it

My 2pence worth.
Really food read and it's so true about powder v's liquid I only ever used liquid till about a year ago. I changed as I had a machine for 20 months and it died when Daddy looked at it for my he said it was disgusting inside and since my mum use to work for a White goods company she told me to use powder. The difference has been great. I do find however that I get nappy rash with bio bit not with fairy dispite the fact that I am a over rinser. So I tend to do Bold one a week or fortnight and and then only 40ml of Fairy all the rest of the time.
As for simple I bought it for my DS as he suffers terrible with excema but it all his t-shirts kept coming out patching almost like dots has been lightened no stain remover extra waging ect would work so I had to throw away about £80 of clothes I was not happy and the o ly difference between his and ours was the Simple it could have been a fluke but i'm not going to go there again just in case.
As for the electric on longer cycles most if the eco cycles will be longer as the machine soaks more heats the water up less ect ect I never was our clothes for less than 2hrs. In for a oeeny in for a pound is my thoughts. The difference linger washes had was amazing I don't have to re wash thing are use stain remover anywhere near as offen on DH's shirts he works in a bank and all that money makes his cuffs revolting.
For measuring the powder if you go on Fairy's web site they will send you a free measure which makes a big difference.
Sorry ramble over now.

Just to add (almost 9 months after the previous post) that in their June issue WHICH? lists ALDI Almat with Stain-Lift Bio powder as their top bio detergent closely followed by ARIEL Bio powder with Actilift. And this is with ALDI being almost 1/3 of the price per wash of Ariel!

They also say tests show bio's better stain-removing powers irrespective of form - powder, liquid, etc...

Despite life-long habit of using non-bio products I am definitely moving to bio powder (Aldi?) now once my massive stash of branded liquitabs runs out (excuse the pun)...