I was discussing plumbing with a colleague yesterday & recalled that when we moved into our house, the appliance slots under the kitchen worktop had 1 cold water connection & 2 hot ones. (I had to change that when we got a dishwasher.)
I know that most domestic appliances now are cold-feed only, & washing machines used to have hot & cold connections, but what hot-feed-only appliances existed? Or is there some other reason I can't think of for having 1 cold & 2 hot?
In article , Adam Funk scribeth thus
Yep the dead leg syndrome . The hot water is very rarely anywhere near hot on its way from the tank to machine so you'll have let it run before it becomes hot.
So the hot is not as hot as it ought 2 B...
From the machines POV that is..
Can't answer your question directly, but our LG washing machine has a hot feed (currently not connected though). It only uses it on "boil" washes though. (or uses the cold feed when no hot flows) When we've finished re-arranging the utility room it'll be plumbed back in.
The issue in (I presume cheaper) washing machines is lack of a controllable thermostatic blender to stop 80C water being dumped onto your woolies, etc.
Actually, I don't know if posher machines have a blender or if it just adds too much to the cost...
Gordon
But how how would having *two* hot feeds help with dead legs?
I can't think of any machines which are *designed* to have only a hot feed. A dishwasher would probably work ok, because I think they usually heat the cold water taken in before doing anything with it. It might speed up the cycle.
The issue is that too little hot is required for it to flush the cold out of the hot pipework. Modern machines use so little water in the wash part of the cycle, and also can't start a hot wash above around 35C or they damage some of the washing powder enzymes before they get a chance to operate. So there's no point in plumbing the hot in - it will in almost all cases waste more hot water left cooling in the pipework than it can actually use, and the cost of heating the small amount of water in the machine up to 35 or 40C is negligable.
A previous generation Hotpoint of mine from 1985 could blend hot and cold to achieve its 30C initial wash temperature, but it used a lot more water than today's machines do - water level just above the bottom of the door window (higher for a wool wash). Today's machines only fill the wash cycle to less than an inch above the bottom of the inner drum to wet the clothes - they don't wash by dunking and lifting the clothes in and out of the water, but by wetting them and rubbing them against each other (hence shorter life of the clothes).
I thought most people had given up on enzyme clothes washing powders?
What made you think that?
Machines are all designed for bio wash powders, as that's all that's available in just about all european countries, except the UK. (See other recent thread where this was discussed.)
Lots of foodstuffs become much more difficult to remove with hot water, so wash cycles always start cold.
Some dishwasher installation instructions say you can use just hot, but warn they won't wash as well.
The recent thread made the point that bio wash powders are bad news for most peoples skin. I do not know of a family which uses bio.
Which disproved that over half a century ago. The best washes were achieved with the hottest water.
most? I'll accept "some"
I use bio for whites and non-bio for colour wash (are there any bio-colour liquids/powers?)
Persil Small and Might Colour
Like hell they did.
We're discussing the best initial RINSE, not washes.
Unlike UK machines, US ones use hot only.
Did which do a proper test? They don't do proper tests on anything I know about. Try it, look for a which report on anything you are expert in and you will see that they are poor.
Is "only" a typo for "too"? It's several years since I visited the USA but I've used several with hot and cold fill there over the years and I have just checked that they are still on sale at Walmart. How else would Americans wash silk and wool?
Unless I've misread this, about 90% of the replies so far have misread your question and gone onto the usual explanation of why cold feed (only) is a Good Idea.
As for why hot feed only would be useful - sorry, I have no idea!
I think dishwashers were being referred to.
Aaaargh. Apologies for my failure to keep up.
Dishwashers have moved on a bit in 50 years....
It's not the final wash temp, it's how you get there.
Modern dishwashers, (and washing machines for that matter) are designed to warm the water giving time for enzymes to work, and maybe for stuff just to soften. Also as Andrew says some food stuffs and stains get harder to remove if they get too hot.
I'd have once said that a modern dishwasher probably didn't wash any better, after all it's just squirting water around. But our new (about a year 18 months) bosch dishwasher is much better than our old AEG.
Even on the 'eco' program - most water and energy efficient it gets casserole dishes etc. clean of the crusty bits that the old one used to leave behind.
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