Dry cleaner’s experiment proves whether hot or cold water is better for washing clothes

Choosing hot water when washing a load of laundry in the machine is slowly “destroying your clothes”, according to the results of an experiment from renowned dry cleaner Zach Pozniak.

Instead of simply warning people not to use hot water for regular laundry loads, he wanted to share proof of what it does to fabric to help people keep their clothes in good condition for as long as possible.

Pozniak sourced blue, black and brown swatches of fabric and put one of each colour in a hot wash five times and compared that with the same colour swatches washed only in cold water five times, and left another set of swatches unwashed.

Sharing the results in a TikTok, you can clearly see the damage caused to the fabric swatches washed only in hot water. The colours have faded significantly compared to the fabric washed only in cold water and the unwashed fabric.

“Yes, hot water is always better at stain removal, but it’s not selective; it attacks fabric dye with the same exact mechanism that it does stains because water doesn’t know the difference between a stain on a garment and a garment’s colour,” he said.

Read more

Detail suddenly appearing on laundry detergent bottles will actually make a difference for stain removal

If you’re tempted to use hot water because your clothes are stained, Pozniak recommended starting with a cold water wash first and seeing how that goes before trying warmer temperatures.

“You’d be amazed how well a little bit of pre-treating paired with cooler water temperatures works,” he said.

Cold water is also recommended for most laundry needs by Australian laundry experts Susan Toft, CEO and founder of The Laundry Lady, Ryan Hijazi, owner and director of EZY Appliance Repairs and Nicole Gibson from Soka Australia.

In addition to pre-treating stains, the experts agree that modern laundry detergent is effective at removing stains thanks to enzymes.

“People assume cold means less clean, but that’s actually outdated thinking based on how detergents used to work. Modern laundry liquids are formulated with enzymes that are specifically designed to activate and break down stains at lower temperatures,” Toft said. 

Gibson added, “Without enzymatic detergent, you would need significantly more regular detergent, much hotter water and a lot more manual labour, such as scrubbing the fabric against itself, which can damage the fabric fibres if done incorrectly,” she said. 

Read more

Quirky Aussie habit making pyjamas mouldy and smelly

Using cold water instead of hot water for most laundry loads doesn’t just save money by making your clothes last longer, it also saves money on electricity costs.

According to Choice, using cold water instead of warm water can save you $181.14 a year, and that figure would be higher if you switched from hot to cold water.

“Hot water also uses a lot more energy to heat. Some studies have shown that washing in cold water can reduce energy consumption by up to 60 per cent compared to washing in hot water,” Toft said.

The main situations to use hot water for are washing garments, sheets and towels when someone has been sick, with a stomach bug for example, and for cleaning the washing machine.

“Hot water is also useful for machine sanitisation. As part of regular maintenance, run an empty hot wash cycle at 60 degrees with a sanitising agent, then leave the door open afterwards to air dry,” Toft said.

But the first port of call before choosing water temperature for any garment is to read the care label as that will provide the best washing and drying instructions for keeping that item in good condition.

“It sounds like a small step, but it’s the one that actually determines your whole approach to that item: whether it can go in the machine at all or needs to be dry-cleaned, the maximum temperature it can safely handle, or whether it’s hand wash only,” Toft said.

“Cold water is a sensible default for most of the wash basket, but the label overrides any general rule of thumb because it’s telling you what that specific garment’s fibres and construction can actually cope with.”