Basically bleach makes whites whiter but also fades coloureds. Colour friendly detergent doesn’t fade colours but eventually leads to dingy looking whites.

Would rinsing improve if detergent is added directly to the drum and not the soap drawer? I’m wondering because bits of detergent often get left behind in the soap drawer and maybe end up being flushed down during the rinses? What’s the point in using the soap drawer when it ends up in the drum anyway?

Yes it would for some, if they have low water pressure. It’s a known issue that with low water pressure not all the detergent is flushed into the drum on the wash. Then on the rinse cycle it’s possible for small amounts of detergent to get into the rinse water.

You are right about the agitation, it would seem now that water has been so drastically reduced not only is washing taking forever but the agitation is near constant. A Miele tumbles for 13 seconds with only a 2 second gap between tumbles, doing that for an hour should do some damage to clothing! I have justed watched the Bosch, 10 seconds clockwise, 10 seconds off, 5 seconds anti-clockwise and 5 seconds off then it repeats, it does this for the wash and rinses on cotton and synthetic cycles. No idea what it does on delicate and wool washes as I have never tried any of them!

I have just washed my work clothes on “Whites Economy” it washed for 45 minutes before rinsing (the whole programme takes about 90-95 minutes) and they are spotless. Bearing in mind that is has both fill hoses connected to the cold supply that is not bad at all. So even very dirty washing dosen’t seem to need the stupid wash times of todays machines. This is with no prewash either. I have never tried the prewash, but will be doing shortly as I have one of those Hi-Vis jackets to wash and they are a real bugger to get clean and they tell you to use non-bio, nothing like a challenge, says 40oC on the label just to add insult to injury, it will be getting a 60oC and I will have to buy a box of Non-bio especially, what a pain.

On the quick wash front, yesterday we changed the bearings on my Mums Siltal (9 years old), that all went well, it turns out it has a sealled metal tank, the bearings are held in a rear cross piece and through the hole where the shaft of the drum spider leaves the tank you could see about an inch of the spider its self. My Mum has being using quick wash a little too often as the spider is half an inch thick in soap powder and badly corroded, which now as I have discovered the sealled tank the machine will be written off as and when it breaks, looking at the state of it probably will not take too long! I have been telling her the perils of the quick wash for years but she couldn’t be told and as the powder has not being disolving properly it is now rotting the machine away. I have done 4 maintainence washes but how much it has helped nobody will ever know. It may have given the machine a little more life.

I have noticed Persil powder foams a lot less than Ariel powder, don’t know if thats just in my machine though. Another option is (if you have hard water) to use calgon and then you can use a soft water dose of soap powder. Still means the Calgon has to be rinsed out too I suppose, I don’t know if it will make any difference just a guess. Our water is not hard enough to try it.

Oliver.

Excessive washing and repetitive agitation just shortens the life of clothes. Long wash times are fine for REALLY dirty clothes. If someone has bought a new washing machine because the old one didn’t wash things properly, then long wash times are fine for a few months, by which time the clothes should be thoroughly clean.

This may be another reason why rinsing is so poor on modern washing machines? The long wash times create more foam – I notice it every time I wash the towels – I’m now considering using just HALF the MINIMUM dose of powder for towels, as slightly more just creates foam which hinders rinsing. During the first hour or so (whenever I get a chance to look), there’s the usual small amount of bubbles, but towards the end of the wash, there’s always too much foam.

Yes, the “Shout” fabric stain remover is excellent. I shake the bottle, spray onto the stains and rub gently. Leave for just 10 minutes and wash. It works better than adding more detergent – which makes rinsing more of a challenge!

If wash times were shorter “normal” instead of aeons, then oxygen-bleach powder would probably not cause any noticeable colour fading. Biological detergents always score better in “Which?” tests and people who are sensitive to them wouldn’t have a problem using biological detergents if washing machines rinsed PROPERLY.

Simon