OT - low temperature wash

The recommended wash these days for clothes is low temperature - 30C to

35C I think - and this is often quite a quick wash.

Concerns have been expressed, however, from time to time, over the low temperature not killing bugs/germs/whatever. Sometimes a recommendation to add a disinfectant to a wash from time to time.

So - my dishwasher has various options including a fast low temperature

35C wash. We are currently using the "daily" program which goes to 65C and takes over two hours.

Killing germs on food items is probably more important thank killing germs in your woolly jumper. However in the old hand wash days the water was probably not much higher than 35-40C unless you were dead 'ard and/or wearing thick Marigolds.

So - what does the team think about low temperature washes in a dishwasher?

I note that there is an "auto-sensing" program which washes at between 40C and 65C but I have no idea how it makes up its mind.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David
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My experience is that dishwashers part of the process to dry the items in a dishwasher is by heating them up in steam.

Does this cold wash do the same, or are plates etc wet when removed from the dishwasher?

FYI, hands can generally tolerate temperatures to just below 50C.

Reply to
Fredxxx

Not sure if anyone else finds this, but in my experience, bath and hand towels get a bit smelly if they're not washed at a fairly high temperature. I assume it's because the grease isn't getting removed properly.

I'd love to know what hotels use to wash their towels - to me, they actually smell clean, rather than scented.

Reply to
Etaoin Shrdlu

Two thoughts:

1) The British public (and probably all in the western world), are neurotically and unnecessarily obsessed with the hazards of 'germs'. Those that can do real harm are few and far between. It's not as though we suffer the ravages of tropical diseases, and our immune systems can cope with the rest, if properly trained (which they probably aren't these days, due to our neurotic and unnecessary obsession, see above).

2) Detergents in dishwashers wash away the germs along with the food residues; it's what they do. Just like soap when you wash your hands. You don't have to wash your hands in bleach or boiling water to remove germs. Dishwasher detergents are probably sufficiently caustic to kill the germs anyway, irrespective of temperature.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

I run everything on 50-55C and use an occasional wash at 65C to keep the machine clean (and I run cleaner though it every other month which does do a lot of good - especially as I take of the filters out for that and arrange on the racks so they get a good wash too).

Same with the washing machine - towells get done at 95C.

Reply to
Tim Watts

For hygiene reasons, I suspect they are properly boiled. After all, you've had everyone's butt and mushroom infested dangly and wibbly bits on those.

None of which bothers me as long as they've been boiled!

Reply to
Tim Watts

Eh? I recall the days where whites were boiled, pretty much. Big vat thing in the basement, water, fire underneath, stovepipe to the chimney, wooden paddles to beat the dirt into submission. This is in Treznal, though.

AFAIK the cloudiness of the wash water. I have heard a recommendation to add a squirt of ketchup to the dishes to help raise the temperature, as it dirties the water. No idea if it works.

(Bit daft, I think, to add dirt to get the dishes warmer...)

Thomas Prufer

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

Well if you look at commercial dish washers they either add disinfectant to the washing process or wash at a high temperature. Personally I would say unless you have had something like raw chicken on the items to wash then th e washing process really ought to be 'good enough'. After all hand washing takes place in a bowl full of lukewarm water (it soon cools to an ideal tem perature for bugs to breed in). Hand washing also involves a bug infested d ishcloth or sponge.

Philip

Reply to
philipuk
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Not in this house, it doesn't. We use a washing up brush, which goes in the dishwasher regularly & gets washed at 65degC.

Reply to
Huge

I did a "placement" work in hospital, the electrics department. Laundry including operating room sheets with blood... The washing machine pipelined, i.e. there'd be laundry in each of six (or so) stages, and it'd shift from one the then next every three minutes or so. At the end there was a clothes dryer that dried a thirty-or-so pound bag of laundry ever three minutes. Impressive! Also impressive the line of ladies running the laundry through ironing machines.

The detergents are liquid, powerful, and nasty... but it would get the laundry

*clean*. There was a big flap when a laundry detergent line leaked and dripped over a 10 kV feeder. Ate the zinc off the cable tray, and etched away at the concrete floor. The insulation was very carefully checked before pressure-washing the stuff off the (live) line...

That detergent

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

Detergents work down to below 15C so a cold water wash is possible - and in the household this is what is used 95% of the time.

Once you have fully dried the clothes on an outside line very little of anything will have survived the wash/dry.

The only reason that manufactures recommend this is to sell more product!

Reply to
alan_m

Wash some stains in too hot water and you will fix them. It's better to have a cold wash first.

Reply to
alan_m

We wipe up with kitchen towel. We used to use dishcloths, but "single use and in the washing machine" became onerous, so we switched to paper towels.

Reply to
Huge

Things normally are left to air dry here, unless been having a big meal with lots of pans etc.

For washing up I prefer a sponge scourer type thing.

Reply to
Chris French

Yup.

And unless the clothing has been exposed to some significant nasty, I'm not sure what we are supposed to be catching from clothes washed at 30C or whatever (and again, surely the detergent will get most of them?)

Reply to
Chris French

Well, quite. Some of the most powerful bugs around are in your gut. And therefore on your hands etc after having a s**t. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Have they not invented bog paper round your way Dave?

Reply to
Tim Watts

Does that mean you don't wash your hands after having a shit?

You might be surprised just how far such bugs get scattered during that operation. Onto your clothes and surrounding surfaces. Enjoy your dinner.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

:) I shall...

Reply to
Tim Watts

And thousands of people die every day in the UK as a result.

Reply to
alan_m

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