Some models has them, those sanitizing cycles. We, in europe, using them to get whites white without bleach. But are you using them as wel.

I remember my mother tought me how to do a good whites cycle. You had to select a pre-wash, longest mainwash and a near boiling temperature. But only the asko and miele are reaching those temperature. And to be a bit ecomic, we did it always over night. No waiting, no high electricity costs

I use bleach. I'm into chemicals.

I use bleach. I'm into chemicals.

Wow. That must have been a post from the Department of Redundancy Department.

Bleach eats your clothes and causes dry rotting over time. I use my Danby front loader with a cold pre-wash and a 200 degree wash with an extra rinse and the water plus button pushed (it raises the water level).

Jeff

I have a duet clone (Kitchenaid). I just wanted to point out that when you select the whitest white cycle, you do not get the Sanitize temp. In fact, you are not even allowed to select that super hot temp. It is something I have been curious about as I had always heard that the hotter (near boiling) the water, the better for getting whites white. It is interesting that the Whitest White cycle does not allow the use of the hottest temp.

I just use bleach. I'm into chemicals.

I don't have a washer with a sanitize cycle, so....

I just use bleach. But I'm not into chemicals:-) so I use it in moderation.

I'm pretty sure I'd use the sanitary cycle more than the Whitest Whites cycle. It's a shame WP didn't set the set temp to 140 instead of 127-130 for the WW cycle.

designgeek, you're the coolest man I don't know.

I could look it up somewhere, but can somebody tell me what's the highest target temp reached on the Hettie, Duet, and Ensemble?

My tankless maxes-out at 140°F, and I know that temp actually gets to the washer (not counting thermal absorption by the clothes and the machine's parts), because the washer's display reports 60°C (140°F) input temp in diagnostic mode.

Glenn, Sanitary cycle is 153 degrees, according to literature. Not sure how much below that set temp it actually gets to though, or if it actually reaches it, since it's not a delayed heat.

Frigilux, thanks dude;-)

I agree frigilux, designgeek has to be. I mean, with a name like georgio, ya gotta be cool & hot.

Well, this may seem cynical, but I really don't believe in being too sanitary in terms of laundry. Now, I do run all bedlinen and towels through a high temperature 60 or 75*C wash, to get rid of dustmites, however with everything else I just wash at 40 or 50*C anyway. My belief is that the laundry is only sanitary until the first rinse water enters the tub!

Whites do fine on a 50*C wash, with a prewash, done in 1.30 or less in the Miele. Quicker, and more energy efficient too, and still have blindingly white whites :-).

Jon

True, true.

Unless laundering items from the sick room or perhaps grossly soiled in some way, normal "hot" water washes are fine. Front loading washers can take ages as it tis, who has time for 2 hour boil washes these days?

Launderess

Hey Glenn, you can enter the diagnostic mode of the Maytag Neptune by pushing and holding the “help” button and then the “back” button at the same time for 5 seconds, but how do you enter the diagnostic mode on the Hettie, Duet, and Ensemble?

My Danby FL will get quite hot, but I don't have very many whites...just a few socks, and a few tank top style undershirts. I do try to wash my sheets and the occasional pair of underwear though in water that's at least 140F. Nothing like fresh sheets when I go to bed!

I imagine this will change when I eventually have children, and the never-ending stream of diapers starts up. Getting those clean and sanitized will require the hottest temp's and plenty of bleach!

Washaholic,

Sorry, I don't have any details on diagnostic mode for Hetties/Duets/Ensembles. I vaguely recall someone, somewhere, provided a link to a copy of the tech sheet for one of those machines, but I don't recall if I downloaded/saved the file. Likely I did ... but I'd have to find it, and I have so much material saved that may take a while.

There are several people here who have a Hettie or Duet, so I'm thinking the info may yet be brought forth by one of them.

Cybrvanr, the high temps with the Danby (200 degrees), you won't need bleach. The extra hot water does all the whitening as well and thoroughly cleaning the diapers. Westtexman loves the whites he does in his Danby, he sets it at the highest temp and OxyClean, as well as some exotic international detergents, which he loves to experiment with and play with.

Has anyone measured the temp in a Duet/KA washer on the Whitest Whites mode? Is it possible that it defaults to 153, and that's why you can't "select" the Sanitize mode?

I get great results with my Neptune 7500. For whites, I choose boosted hot water temp (130F), a 15 minute presoak, stain cycle, 34 minute extra heavy soil wash, cotton/sturdy tumble pattern, and an extra rinse(four rinses total). The stain cycle setting means the first rinse will be hot as well. The entire cycle takes about 109 minutes, about 59 minutes of that is presoak/wash. I boost Sears HE/oxygen bleach with 33% STPP. This results in brilliant, fresh smelling whites with virtually no residual staining. If the washer went up another 20 degrees, I'd use that higher temp, but I don't anticipate the results would get much better.

"Sanitize" is more a marketing term than anything else. It will never sterilize anything - that would take temps of 250F or higher, under steam pressure, for at least 15 minutes. From my point of view, the main objective should always be to separate dirt from fabric, and doing that requires the correct water temp, tumbling pattern, detergent, and cycle time.

Studies have shown that 120F plus detergent is more than enough to kill all dust mites.