Many seem to rave about front loaders with built in heaters, others say they are not required if one has access to plentiful hot water. Having owned both types can say while I appreciate the benefits of being able to heat water to temps in excess of 160F useful, also have plenty of hot water which comes at 140F or so during summer and higher during the winter.

One problem I see with many front loaders sold in America, is they use 120v for heating, which makes for long cycle times. IIRC a poster on THS stated his Danby would heat to 200F, but took over 2 hours to complete a heavy cottons cycle. To me that seems a very long time to have laundry tumbling about, even if front loaders are more "gentle" than top loaders.

To my mind's eye, American appliance makers are producing uber sized washers so one can do more and in some way compensate for long cycle times. In other words your laundry will take over one hour or longer to do, but you can do more of it at one time.

Thoughts?

Launderess

Heating is a nice option, I guess. I have an HE3 w/o heater. Couldn't see paying $300. more for that and 1200 rpm spin. The cycles times are much longer for a bigger load, and I do LOVE the fast rpm spin; faster drying time, but I'm not sure total time is much different. But I am getting used to it. Thanks to GREGM, I now have a rollermatic rapidry 1000 that spins the clothes almost dry in 3 minutes! Gotta love that!

It is a fact that washing machines that take in cold water only and heat slowly to a preset temperature are superior at stain removal to machines that take hot and cold or just hot. In the UK, FL's have historically always been H & C fill (with very few exceptions). In mainland Europe, machines have been cold fill only and this is now becoming to standard in the UK. Biological detergents work much better if the temperature of the water is increased gradually and it also means that you can reduce wash temps and save energy. The latest Ariel detergent is now claiming that it gives superior whiteness and stain removal at 30 degrees which is luke warm. Having tried this last weekend in my cold fill machine, I can confirm it and will not be turning my temp dial up past 40 degrees. A lot of people don't realise that once the wash temp rises above 55 degrees, biological detergents are pretty much rendered useless.

My two cents: I have a Bosch compact which has hot and cold hose connections, and it's own internal heater. I think these machines are useful when a home's water heater is located some distance from the laundry, as is mine. You can be assured that you'll get the proper wash. I've used only the "hot" wash setting at most. The door gets noticeably hot upon touch. The machine actually has two higher settings called "temp boost" and "power temp boost", which I cannot imagine ever using unless you want to vaporize your clothes!

Pete

Hoovermatic,

Not doubting profile washes have their place, and yes detergents are adjusting to the reality that more and more laundry is being done in cold and warm water. But only natural enzymes are killed off by temps in excess of 60C. There are many enzymes used in laundry and automatic dishwasher detergents that work quite well in hot water temps. How else could automatic dishwasher detergents with enzymes work when basically all dishwashers (at least those in the US) start with hot (120F) or above water?

Granted it is not the most efficient use of water, but can obtain much of the same effects of profile washing by pre-soaking/washing white laundry in warm water before washing in hot. Coloured clothing which is washed in warm water should be fine with a quality detergent and proper cycle length/contact time.

Launderess

In the uk the acerage wash time for a cotton warm cycle is 2hrs. This is due to the fact that the frontloaders only use in average 43ltres of water per wash althought manufacturesre have now realised that people do not want to wait that ammount of time for a complete cycle. Whirlpool and Hoover now offer front loaders with warm cycles of 60mins for a 6kg load