My attention was drawn to rinsing efficiency after noticing that out of dozens of washing machines reviewed by Which? most of them had a poor rating for rinsing. Even those singled out as Best Buys were “poor” at rinsing. Believe it or not, at least one Best Buy was “very poor”. I found that pretty shocking.
From studying the figures it is clear that if “good”, or “very good” rinsing was one of the prerequisites for a Best Buy there would be no Best Buy washing machines or washer dryers at all – not a single one. It appears that Which? have decided to allow the poor rinsing results to be a caveat instead of a best buy killer. Please note however that several Which? best buys are “satisfactory” at rinsing which is something at least.
Out of 125 washing machines and washer dryers tested, a remarkable 75 of them (60%) were rated either “poor” or “very poor” at rinsing with only 3 getting the rating we should expect for all washing machines which is “good”.
The rest were a mere “satisfactory”. To summarise, just less than 3 % of the 125 washers & dryers are “good” at rinsing according to Which?
Since writing this article I’ve discovered Which? no longer give the majority of washing machines 1 or 2 star ratings for rinsing ability, and the majority appear to get 3 or 4 stars. Which? tell me they’ve readjusted their rinse marks to more accurately reflect the degrees of abilities between even poor rinsing machines. However, they are still critical of many of their rinsing abilities in the comments and the pros and cons.
What does this mean?
Well for a start it doesn’t mean that we can settle for one of the three washing machines that are “good” at rinsing because they unfortunately let themselves down in other areas such as with “noisy spin, and poor brand reliability”. However, if you really need a washing machine that rinses better than any other – maybe because of allergies – then at least Which? have identified three candidates out of the 125 they’ve tested so far.
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Why aren’t they rinsing properly and does it really matter?
Surely all washing machines should rinse well? It’s surely quite simple, you just use enough water to rinse them properly. It’s astounding that we have reached the situation where the majority of washing machines and washer dryers on sale in the UK are apparently poor at rinsing.
This has probably come about because people have been focussing on other aspects, which has left rinsing as a low priority. Two explanations spring to mind. Firstly, the focus on using less and less water is clearly impacting on our washing machine’s ability to rinse effectively. Whereas modern detergents can facilitate efficient and effective washing results at lower temperatures and with less water, no such product is currently allowing effective rinsing with much less water.
Good rinsing needs plenty of water which is in direct opposition to the current environmental concerns and clamour to be the washing machine using the least amount of water.
Eco LabelsThe second explanation I can think of is that the eco-labelling system which awards ratings for energy efficiency, spin efficiency and wash efficiency do not appear to take into account rinse efficiency.
As such, manufacturers aren’t being judged on how well their washing machines rinse, only on how well they wash and how well they extract water on spin. I’m speculating at this stage, but I can’t see how so many washing machines could be awarded an “A” wash efficiency rating if the tests took into account how well the clothes were rinsed. Presumably, as long as all stains are removed and laundry looks “clean” no one bothers about how much soap detergent residue is left.
It might be a good idea to create a fourth category, “rinse efficiency” on the eco labels, or at least include the rinse efficiency as part of the wash efficiency test.
Ultimately if customers don’t notice an issue then it could be argued that it doesn’t really matter.
Maybe it doesn’t for most people, but it surely does to anyone sensitive to wash detergents and with allergies and a lot of people are. There were 581 comments added on this topic from such people before I had to close comments to prevent it being endless.
The current situation is that to anyone keen to buy a washing machine with good rinsing I have no washing machine to recommend because none of the companies producing the best, and the most reliable washing machines currently supply one that rinses above average according to Which? although this could easily change and you would need to check out the latest to be sure.
Are Which? being too critical? Are Which? applying too stringent a rinse test? I must admit I’ve not had many complaints from people saying their washing machine isn’t rinsing properly and my own Miele washing machine, which although a Which? Best Buy, didn’t receive a “good” rating for rinsing yet it appears to rinse perfectly well as far as we can see.
In fact I remarked to my wife that my clothes don’t smell of detergent like they used to in the old washing machine and deduced that it rinsed much better. However, neither of us have any reactions to washing machine detergent. The thing about Which? is that they are totally independent.
They work only for their subscribers interests and are actually a registered charity. They don’t make any money directly by recommending any product (even though they could) because they want to be seen as 100% unbiased. They are highly respected and I expect they test products fairly. However, my understanding is that the do charge for companies to display their “Best Buy” logo!
I suspect Which? are right and that modern washing machines don’t generally rinse very well because of the reasons I speculate about above. Whether it matters or whether it will change depends on whether enough of the public are bothered, or even notice. The 581 comments added to this article below show that many people do find this a big issue.
Which? research
NOTE: Which? do rate some washing machines as satisfactory for rinsing and even a couple are rated as good, although unfortunately the few rated good (so far) are not so good on reliability.
Which? are constantly reviewing washing machines so if rinsing is particularly important to you it makes sense to become a member and see all the buying advice. I can’t print their advice for copyright reasons.
Here’s how they describe their reviews –
We are of course well known for our traditional product testing. And when we test something like the proverbial washing machine, we will ask the laboratory not only to measure how clean the clothes get, but how much water and energy is used? How easy is it to work out the programmes? What is the machine like on specialist cycles? How long does it take? All these things feed into our best buy criteria.
We will devise the testing schedule by looking at things from the ordinary user’s point of view: and if standard industry methods are not good enough we will devise our own methods ”
Causes of poor rinsing
There are some common causes of poor rinsing even in washing machines that do rinse well that it might be useful to point out. Anyone experiencing poor rinsing problems where washing comes out with detergent residues or white powder streaks should read this – White streaks or residual washing powder after washing
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Oliver I’m with you on the whole colour care thing. I use it pretty much-just in case on loads that have nice clothes in, but if its just a load of say trackies, joggers, rough t shirts, underwear etc I will use biological even on dark’s. There is a noticeable amount of fading around the seams but that’s it really black joggers are still black and not a washed out grey as the adverts would make you think. I think with me it’s just the principle that if I spent £40 on a top I want to take care of it, and I will do, but seeming as at the moment the majority of my wardrobe is from Primark at £3 or £4 a piece, colour care doesn’t seem worth it on these items.
Of course, I also wash some of my mums M&S, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, and Debenhams stuff, and I daren’t use anything but colour care or 30*C for fear of my mother’s wrath lol.
The latest adverts make me laugh for Vanish. Scaring people into using the new Extra Hygiene stuff but if the mum on the advert washed the sheets on 60*C cottons instead of a 30 minute quick wash.. need I say more? I will admit to buying a tub of this, simply on an impulse, and is probably the biggest waste of £3 so far this year, I might as well have invested in a bumper bar of Galaxy :).
Jon
Michelle, using only half the recommended dosage with 40 degree washes (which is what most people use) could result in a nasty build up of slime and gunge and black mould. You probably get away with it because you wash at 60 degrees.
Also, in hard water areas anyone using only half the recommended dose of detergent could end up with limescale problems shortening the life of their washing machine because detergent contains ingredients to protect against limescale.
Not using enough detergent can also cause a white staining on laundry in hard water areas. Generally I think it’s better to use the recommended amount.
Hi Simon,
The chances are Ecover may be lingering in your laundry too as is Persil, but probably not as much due to its formulation. Dye will make rinsing neither harder or easier, it will just highlight to you how much detergent is left in your laundry at the final rinse stage. As you have a water efficient Hotpoint that may be quite a lot!
Your Hotpoint will have an adjustable pressure switch, however altering the settings can cause a lot more trouble than its worth if you are the least bit unsure how to do it. It is quite easy to make any machine fill half way up the door, but for many machines this is too high, as the drum suspension has decreased in quality since machines used to do this and cannot take the strain of all this extra water. If memory serves me the WMA range had a 1 level pressure switch, the rinses will be similar to my Mums Siltal, whereby it fills to the 1 level on the switch and then kicks back in to to fill to level 2 (or whatever, some machines have in excess of 10 water levels) using a timed fill session. So to increase the rinse level you will have to drastically increase the wash level (or level 1).
The Siltal fills to the bottom of the door glass on wash now its being adjusted, and fill and 2″ up the glass on rinses. Adding extra water to the wash phase will not make it wash any better, unless you massively overload it.
My recommendations are if you are unsure in the least, do not change it at all. I can tell you no washing machine engineer will change it either, there can be come backs if it cocked-up. It could result in serious flooding (which your home insurance will not cover). Or if it done the either way accidentally could burn out the heating element and cause a fire. So if you decide to proceed please be careful as cock-ups are very easy.
All the best,
Oliver.
Hi Oliver,
Thanks for your helpful information. I think I will leave it as its not worth it. But i think i am going to buy the Whirlpool American top loader as had enough of manually filling my machine with extra water. Mine takes 2 hours and 50 minutes to a 60 degree celsius wash. Daft isn’t it lol
All the be best
Simon
Just been looking on Ariel and Persil ingredient list and shocked to see they put some ‘fillers’ in their liquid detergents. I always thought liquids did not contain filler material other than water. I know Sodium Sulfate is a filler but can anyone tell me the other chemical names for fillers in powder and in liquids so that i can get a proper truly concentrated product. Cheers
Hi Simon,
Some of the fillers in washing powders are “builders” or water softeners. There are not many useless ingredients in the formulations, it costs money to add fillers so manufactruerers are loath to do it. I do not know any chemical names of filling agents, sorry.
And yes 2 hours 50 minutes is outragious for a 5.5 kg load of washing to be done! Some modern machines can take even longer than that!
Be careful if you get an American top loader, many do not have heaters and just rely on your own hot water supply. Also many only do 2 rinses, some do 1 deep rinse and 1 spray rinse (wets the laundry whist spinning it at the same time). These do not rinse as effectivley as the ones that do 2 deep rinses. Something else is many are now energy efficient and suffer the bad rinsing as current front load machines.
All the best,
Oliver.
Ok Oliver will bare it mind. I have found someone in East Anglia where i live with same Bosch as you so hopefully might buy it. It looks good. Simon
Jon, Just read your post dated 22nd March. You say you recommend Persil tablets? Do you find the tablets and powders then rinse out better than the liquids then? Have used Persil colour care and bio and agree the water seems clearer for some reason. I though switched to Persil Small and Mighty liquids and rinsing has been poor ever since. You would think liquids rinsed better than powder but maybe I’m wrong. I have checked the Unilever and PandG website and all powders and tablets have anti foam agents but liquids don’t.
I have a Hotpoint and it seems to like Persil but not Ariel much. When it was bought in 1998 Hotpoint recommended Persil and not Ariel. I think Persil is probably better and has been around longer than Ariel.
Simon
Hi Simon,
I would say the Persil tabs are a good performer yes, only bugger is you have to mess around putting them in that net but aprt from that they clean/rinse really well – though I will say I’ve only used the colour care ones and haven’t used the bio version for a long while. I’ve always foudn Persil and Ariel somewhat equal in terms of performance, the new Actilift range of Ariel is pretty good at rinsing too from what I’ve used of it. From what I’ve found you will get high and low sudsing liquids, and high and low sudsing powders – it’s more a point of experimenting to find out what works best for yourself rather than a blanket statement. One of the best liquids of late for rinsing was Ariel Power, but that seemed to be replaced by Excel Gel after only a year or so, shame as it was a great product.
I’ve always thought P&G powders better for whites, but I’m not sure if that’s my imagination more than anything else.
Is your Hotpoint one of the last timer ones? Our last one was, a WM64 from 98/99, and rinsing on that was far from great to say the least. Still completed the cycle in an hour though, but wasn’t that great at performing, or reliability, at least in a heavy use family – but put it this way, the ultra stingy low level Bosch that replaced it actually rinsed better for us!
Jon
My Hotpoint is the WMA30 range but the programme dial does not turn at all. All computer operated. It is a ‘Proper’ Hotpoint though not the Merloni ones now. Was either made in 1997 or 1998 and bought from Powerhouse so shows how long ago that was.
To be honest I never have liked powders or tablets and as I don’t have white clothes not an issue. I keep a small pack for maintenance washes. Liquids are better for me as i find they do rinse easier.
Out of all the mainstream detergents I think Persil Small and Mighty is best for my machine as it doe not produce much foam. I can use Daz regular liquid but not concentrated as it foams loads.
Surf, Ariel and Bold are no go as do not clean well in my machine and again foam too much. Have emailed customer care but are totally unhelpful and useless and only tell me what i already know.
I assume the concentrated liquids don’t have the foam inhibitors in whereas the regular ones do.
Have found Sainsburys own brand excellent and good stain removal.
Currently using Amway Sa8 which gets most stains out most of the time and its 3x concentrated as Persil and Ariel. 10ml is enough for lightly soiled stains and 20 ml heavy soil. No foam at all and rinses completely clean.
Highly recommend.
Simon