Have you got clothes coming out of washing machine hot? Laundry should be cold when coming out of the washing machine (they’ve just been rinsed several times in cold water). However, the temperature of the cold water varies throughout the year, so in winter the clothes should be a lot colder (and therefore feel wetter). In summer they should feel slightly warmer (and therefore dryer) – but not "warm".
What If the Laundry Is Hot?
If washing comes out of the washing machine hot, or particularly warm then the most likely explanation is that they've been rinsed in hot water. This is caused when the cold valve is accidentally connected to the hot tap.
As unlikely as this sounds it is surprising how many times I've come across this. Sometimes people have been using their washing machine for years like that.
Needless to say it's very wasteful of hot water and causes the washing to come out quite creased. Sometimes the hoses appear to be connected to the right tap, but because of a faulty installation it’s not.
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For a detailed explanation of how to check if your washing machine is connected to the hot supply by mistake and to see all the possible explanations for why laundry might come out of your washing machine hot see my help article – Laundry comes out of washing machine badly creased)
If washing is just coming out warm read this – Should the washing come out warm or cold?
Linda says
My washing machine is connected o the cold water valv and sill comes out hot can you nswering me please
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
Hello Linda. If it is definitely connected to the cold water then it should be impossible for clothes to come out hot. Have you doublechecked that it is rinsing in cold water regardless of whether the pipe is blue, or the tap is blue you have to ensure that the water coming through is actually cold water and doesn’t run hot. If it is definitely only cold water coming through I can’t imagine how the washing machine would work perfectly okay but managed to heat up the water on rinses to be hot. It takes too long to get the water hot and rinses only last several minutes.
Check my follow-up article which describes how plumbing connection faults can cause a washing machine to be rinsing with hot water laundry comes out of washing machine badly creased However if your washing machine has been connected to the plumbing for a long time and this is a completely new problem, and the washing machine is not been disconnected than presumably it is connected properly but that just leaves a mystery as to how the washing machine could be heating up the rinse water when there isn’t enough time for it to happen plus there are built-in safeguards to prevent it from happening.
Yvonne McKenna says
My washing also appears to be coming out warm, sometimes! I have done many loads of washing today after our holidays and the washing is coming out warm after washing on cycles of 30C and 40C. This problem began a while a go and has been intermittent so I have been monitoring it. It hasn’t happened for quite a while so I had completely forgotten about it until today. The machine is a Bosch Exxcel WAE 32464 and is 8 1/2 years old. It doesn’t appear to happen on the cottons cycle (towels etc at 60C). Going back to when I first noticed this, I remember it was on a rinse hold cycle and I could hear the machine buzzing away as if it was heating the water.
This is a cold fill only machine and my husband actually blanked off the hot water inlet that supplied our old machine so no errors there. It has worked perfectly up until recently.
Have you any more thoughts on this?
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
When you say you could hear it “buzzing away as if heating the water” I’m presuming you meant you could hear the sound of water heating up like when a kettle is heating up? If so then the heater should definitely not be on during that point but I can’t think of any easy thing to check with a fault like that. It needs an engineer.
Truk says
Can it not be because the thermostat of the machine machine which sets the temperature of water is not working..!!???
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
Hi Truk, if the wash thermostat was faulty and allowing laundry to get too hot, the software should abort the wash cycle and produce an error code. They normally also take in lots of cold water to cool things down if they detect it has overheated. An old washing machine with old fashioned mechanical timer though would not abort and would instead just overheat. However, it would be obvious the washing machine has overheated because it would stick for ever on the wash cycle and not move on to rinses.
Malc says
Not sure if Samsung top loaders are sold in UK. But here in NZ the top loader uses whatever temp is set for wash on the rinse cycle as well. Basically this is just sloppy programming by the manufacturer. So yes you can get a machine that rinses with warm or hot water and your clothes come out warm at end of wash.
Kate says
H,i my clothes came out of the washing machine really hot, I know it’s connected to the cold water not the hot because it’s been that way for a year and hadn’t been touched, not had this happen before. I wasn’t timing it, but it seemed like the washing machine was going much longer than usual. Could there be something other than the water causing this?
Andy Trigg (Whitegoodshelp) says
Hello Kate. Is is the washing machine taking significantly longer to complete the wash cycle? If the clothes are coming out hot but they are definitely rinsing in cold water then the only possible explanations are if the cold water on the last rinse cycle is being heated up, or possibly the original hot water from the wash cycle is never been properly pumped away.
Check the pump filter, and check that water is being pumped out properly. Put the machine on a rinse and spin cycle with no laundry inside and observe it when it starts to drain out the water. Can you hear the water being pumped away? Can you see that the water level drops down in the drum fairly quickly? Another symptom of this possible issue is if the laundry is coming out a little soapy as well as warm indicating that it isn’t rinsing the wash cycle water away.
If by any chance the heating element was being turned on during the last rinse then that could potentially account for water being hot. But the rinse cycles are pretty short so it shouldn’t really be possible for the last rinse water to get heated up in the several minutes that it is rinsing.
Sharon lightfoot says
Hi my washing machine is brand new I noticed that it would not take the softener away so I turned the water pressure up that’s works fine but my washing is coming out hot and it only happens on the 59 minute wash and it’s only connected to cold water it’s a candy machine