*Hot* washes and energy efficiency

Martin Angove · 2004-10-07T10:11:33+00:00

Dead washing machine, so quick question (the basket is already full ofdirties)!I know this has been done before but our uses are slightly different tothe average:The "energy efficiency" rating on washing machines relates (as Iunderstand it) to the cotton cycle at 40C. This is, for all machines, acold-fill-only wash.Most (75%+) of our washes are at 60C or 90C because we use non-bio(sensitive skins), messy children (stains to lose) and have dirtynappies (three loads or so a week). In total we might do seven or eight(or more) loads of washing a week, though as the current machine is4.5kg and we're now looking at 6kg or 7.5kg models this might change.We have gas-heated stored water at about 60C, lagged pipework and thewashing machine take-off is before both the bathroom and the kitchen(hence there is usually warm water close by).50% or more of new machines are cold-fill only which I grant will makevery very little practical difference to people who do the majority ofwashes at 40C or who have a run of cold pipework to empty or (obviously)who have combi boilers.As I said though, 40C washes make up no more than 25% of our useage, sohow much of a difference in both energy use (kWh) and time (waiting forthe water to heat) is a cold-fill-only machine likely to make over a hot& cold machine?And can anyone recommend a machine under £400? I've been told thatHotpoint and Hoover have the cheapest, most widely-available partsand are easiest to fix (that is one reason why the current Zanussi isconsidered "dead"). Is this true?Hwyl!M.

Oct 07, 2004 21 Replies

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That's interesting. How old is your machine? As I mentioned a couple of posts ago our new Hotpoint isn't drawing any hot at all. I called the service people and the nice bloke said (not an exact quote, but close enough):

"Oh yes, even on the 95C wash it draws cold in first, then jiggles the clothes, draws more cold in and only draws hot if those two draws don't fill the drum sufficiently."

What tosh. If this is indeed the case then there is absolutely no reason for having a hot fill at all. We might just as well have gone with the cold-only machine we were originally considering.

I'm waiting for our next 95C wash so I can prove him wrong and then the service bloke is coming out whether he likes it or not.

Of course I can't find any technical information about the machine anywhere which tells me what the thing is *supposed* to do. The user guide supplied with it is weedy in the extreme, and both hotpoint.co.uk and therepaircentre.co.uk are superficial websites with little more useful information than an interesting table towards the end of the laundry information pdf.

Hwyl!

Hot washes and energy efficiency

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