I still get people asking if I know of any washing machines with a hot water valve. This article gives a few suggestions – but you should read on first to fully understand the issue. It is not as simple as you might think. It could be a complete waste of your time looking for one.
Most washing machines now only have a cold water valve but many people instinctively don’t like this. We all know washing machines wash with hot water, so it seems crazy not to use the hot water we already have in our homes. Heating it all up from cold seems wasteful and unnecessary.
This apparent madness is even more annoying for people who have an environmentally friendly and economic source of hot water such as solar powered.
However, there is a good argument that because modern washing machines use so little water on wash – there is no need for a hot valve. It’s in fact more economical to use cold fill only on 40 ° washes for most (but not all) people as explained here – is a hot & cold fill washing machine more economical?.
What is the science behind cold fill only washing machines?
All this is explained fully in my article Should I buy a cold fill washing machine?
So are there any washing machines with a hot valve?
At the time of writing there are some LG & Statesman models with a hot valve. However, they don’t take in hot water at all unless you use a very hot wash cycle. There is alternatively a British made washing machine with a hot water valve. Ebac’s hot & cold fill washing machine is advertised as using, “Intelligent hot fill technology”.
Some Hotpoint washing machines appear to be hot and cold fill, but they are designed for cold fill because there’s only a cold fill hose supplied and a y-piece adaptor supplies both valves.
I suspect this is a temporary measure, and that subsequent models will just have the cold valve.
So hot and cold fill washing machines are currently very rare. But even if you find one, you need to know that the few I’ve seen rarely even use the hot water valve.
If most of your wash cycles are done at 40 degrees or less it will most likely never use the hot valve at all.
Related:
Several people have asked me if you can connect an environmentally friendly and economic hot supply to the cold valve to utilise it. The short answer is no, for more details read Don’t connect the hot water supply to the cold valve on cold fill washing machine
New comments on this topic have been closed. There were over 600 comments now trimmed down (below) to 233. There are very interesting discussions there.
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Brilliant to see Canadian posting his or her comment (574 above).
It would be great if some other people from other countries where hot fill is not only available but is the norm, encouraged by government, or indeed, like Canada, all there is, could also post so that there is more evidence for us to use against the British suppliers.
Best of all would be if users of machines like Miele’s Allwater or Bosch’s hot and cold fill models could quote to us the PR used by the manufacturers for why Hot and cold fill is normal / better – then we could send that back to the UK offices of the same and challenge them as to why they say one thing outside the UK and the opposite within the UK.
If you sent your letter to the correct address I believe you will get a response. Unlike private companies, I suspect official bodies are mandated to respond to public enquiries. Certainly I have always has a reply to any letter I write to an MP or Government body and, when they were nationalised, British Rail had a 100% record of responding to me.
There will be a department of the EC whose job it is to deal with goods’ availability, I feel sure. The challenge is to find it.
Write to your MEP. He or she is probably obliged to send on a letter to the right dept in the Commission, just as MPs are obliged to help you.
Official UK bodies aren’t obliged to reply if you write directly to them, so the MEP route is probably the better one.
Good iuck.
I have received a reply e.mail from the “EUROPEAN COMMISSION”
they are directing my query to the relevant department ,
however i dont think “I” on my own will change anything.
Now that the Commission has replied to someone’s letter, it would be worth registering this Group’s views/objections to the present washing machine energy label with DEFRA. On the whole, UK official bodies are quite good at noting views expressed to them, and a Group carries much more weight than a single individual. Who knows, the weight of opinion represented by this forum might even help to offset the contrary views of AMDEA.
dave, i will put the results of my query on here, also the contact details.
david the group sounds a very good idea, you seem to know what you are, talking about / doing. i will join the cause, especially as we are paying for something we do not like but need. hot countries are able to purchase machines with adequate water intake, we with all our rain are not.
I agree with the author’s opinion above but some machines would heat to 40oC and must be take in to consideration. Besides, system is a little more complicated than simply having an hot water inlet valve that’s why we should think twice when deciding and choosing right material or products for you.
“More comlicated” is what we want. Modern technology is quite sophisticated enough to contrive to mix two sources of water so that the combination is of the right temperature. It was possible back in June 2007 – when this thread started – and it’s even easier now.
I have received a reply from ” THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ” stating the matter does not fall in the remit of DG INTEMAL MARKET.
they say, it is more a a question for uk authorities. this is not very helpful. Barbara
my cold water w.m. continues to gi ve poor results in spite of high cost . ( wm. cleaners calogen etc. )
Barbara
I cannot believe that the Commission are right. They issue Directives which legally definitely override UK law, even if the UK legislated on the matter the previous week. But I’m not a lawyer.
Now is the time for you to contact the UK Market Transformation Program in DEFRA, the details were in a past e-mail. This needs to be done via your MP, then DEFRA are legally obliged to reply to your letter.
If DEFRA do try to pass the buck back to the EU, we’ll know that something fishy is going on.
David