How to use a washing machine

[hellymedic]

I'afraid the Man in the House here is also ignorant of the finer details of Home Laundry.

I don't think he wishes to clog his Precious Brane with details but I like my clothes to emerge from the washing machine clean but undamaged. I operate the Washing Machine here and we have enough clothes to last 2-3 weeks.

[Arch]

MFWHTBAB knows how to work his washing machine, and I don't. But I could have a stab at it, based on my general knowledge of washing machines previously.  His dishwasher would be more of a puzzle, as I've never used one of them. The surface planer, bandsaw and MIG welding kit are definitely outside my remit at the moment.

I don't have a washing machine myself, I handwash stuff.

When I worked at Iceland, many years ago, we'd occasionally have to talk old chaps through the process of cooking oven chips or similar, because they'd been recently widowed and hadn't a clue about cooking their dinner.

[Pancho]

Pancho, I must apologise for sounding like a dick here.

Am I the only person here who finds your lack of ability pitiful? Its a fucking washing machine. I am probably oversensitive thanks to enduring The Washing Machine Tales from my colleague. I am also enduring the I Have To Cook Tales from the same person. Holy fucking shit. This is REALLY basic stuff.

I've likely missed some irony in your post (and am overladen with my colleagues domestic travails) but how can someone not know how to operate a washing machine, or feed themselves?

No irony, I'm afraid. It's just the way it is. Mrs P would be equally bereft of clues if it came to repairing a puncture, navigating, managing investments or planning a holiday.

I can cook "in the field" (and in extremis) but that's about it. I've simply never had to learn. Ditto washing machines. Mrs P is the same way about marine diesel engines - despite relying on one most summers.

I do intend to learn one day. If only to avoid starvation when Mrs P goes on holiday.

[Kim]

Washing machines are, to a first-order approximation, trivial.  There's probably a manual somewhere you can read to decipher the advanced features and obligatory UI quirks, if you can't work it out from first principles.  The clever bit is understanding clothing labels, and what you can't wash with what.  And that's hardly rocket surgery: Pretty much anything normal will tolerate a 40C delicates cycle.  Easily-shredded fabrics don't like being washed with unmated hook-side velcro or spikey things like zips and bra clips.  Look the symbols up on the interweb if you're unsure.

Don't cram everything in there until it's full.  The sloshing around action works best if there's space for everything to move.  Don't leave clean clothes sitting in there for more than a few hours, lest they fester and need washing again.  Leave the machine door ajar when you've finished so it can dry out.

Possibly non-obvious: biological washing powder only works properly at 40C or lower.  Enzymes, innit.

Fabric conditioner is a work of Stan, thobut.  As far as I can determine - other than it's primary functions of costing money and making everything smell - it makes your synthetics marginally less staticy, and stops the towels from working.


Yeah, that's pretty much it.  The clever stuff involves motor brushes, bearings and clogged drain pumps.  I wouldn't know anything about those, but can warn of the dangers of getting the hot and cold inlet pipes reversed (indoor rain, child-sized clothes), or the importance of the transport bolts (having to rebuild part of the PCB with wire-wrap because it had been headbutted by the drum) in proper DAHIKT style.

[Butterfly]

The easiest way is to put the powder in the drum with the clothes. I wash almost everything on a synthetics cycle at 30 or 40º except light sheets, towels and nappies which I wash at 95ºon a cotton cycle.  White sports socks sometimes qualify for the hot wash too. You can generally get away with leaving washed clothes in the machine for 36 hours before they get smelly and need rewashing.

[Jurek]

.........You can generally get away with leaving washed clothes in the machine for 36 hours before they get smelly and need rewashing.

Generally...... but not so with mine. Pinky-Ponky-Poo after about 10
Yes, I've done the 95°C jobbee using soda crystals - it did help.

[Kim]

The easiest way is to put the powder in the drum with the clothes.

Not recommended if you're prone to dermatitis from handling the powder.  I can squeeze a tablet out of its little bag straight into the tray without ever actually touching it.  It does of course require knowing which tray is which.

Complicated powder-delivery systems (bags, balls etc) that go in the drum with the washing are a triumph of marketing over common sense.

MIL once received a telling-off for 'helpfully' putting her used bedding in the washing machine and crumbling powder all over it (and the floor) when we had clothes in urgent need of washing and a general lack of drying space.

[jsabine]

I'm curious as to which cycles actually get used on peoples' machines. I've been expecting the one I inherited when I got this house to die[1] for about eight years now, so vaguely keep an eye on what's available - and I'm amazed by how many options they all seem to come with.

I use a normal wash, a delicates/wool wash, a hot wash (for some whites), and a boil wash (well, 95C) for stuff that needs it. I'd like a quick wash, but the delicates cycle is OK for that.

What else should I be looking for when we get round to buying an all-singing and dancing new model, apart from a faster spin than 800rpm?




[1] It has done, thrice. A matchstick to hold the door interlock together was installed very soon after I got it, and more recently new brushes and a new heater for a total cost of about £20 including postage. I'm expecting the next fault to end its Lazarus impersonations: I'm fairly sure the switch panel and PCB will be unobtainable, and I don't think I can be bothered changing the bearings.

[hellymedic]

I think we've done washing machine choice and purchase before.
I chose something simple and robust, a Miele which has needed no attention in the 12 yearsI've had it.

[Pickled Onion]

But, bloody hell, the "dashboard" looks like the flight deck of the starship Enterprise; dials, blinking lights and and an awful lot of buttons.

Which says a lot about who generally makes the purchasing decision for these things. Especially given:

a

I'm curious as to which cycles actually get used on peoples' machines.
I use a normal wash, a delicates/wool wash, a hot wash (for some whites), and a boil wash (well, 95C) for stuff that needs it. I'd like a quick wash, but the delicates cycle is OK for that.

You probably use more than most people. Personally, I put everything in at 40 (separate light and dark, of course) unless it's delicate, in which case it goes in the Hand Wash cycle. That's it.

I would never buy a machine without a hand wash setting, otherwise woollens would just get worn for longer than is socially acceptable. There's also a "go faster" button that can be pressed at any time to finish the cycle quicker. Can't imagine what use all the other settings are.

[Valiant]

Mine has separate programmes and heat settings. So I usually choose one of the following: Refresh, Fast Wash, Synthetics, Whites, Linen and the temp is set to 30 or 40 or 90 for linen & towels. Sometimes use the half load button too. And depending on the amount of drying space/sun there's the dryer function. Anyone actually seem a domestic dryer actually work properly? Mine just seems to get things very very hot but still damp.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A half load button could be useful.

[Kim]

Anyone actually seem a domestic dryer actually work properly? Mine just seems to get things very very hot but still damp.

Sure.  Proper tumble driers which vent to the outside work fine (but use vast amounts of power).

Condensing ones, less so.

Washer/driers, might as well not bother.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Mine's a washer-dryer. I use the dryer bit for sheets and towels because I don't have space to dry them otherwise. Everything else goes on the pulley and is usually dry within 24 hours.

[jsabine]

Anyone actually seem a domestic dryer actually work properly? Mine just seems to get things very very hot but still damp.

[Eggs/Grandmother]

You do know that, inconveniently, the drying capacity of washer-driers is generally about half their washing capacity? So you have to do a load of washing, take half of it out wet, dry the half that's still in there, then swap over to dry the second half.

Fill washing machine -> set wash programme -> set drying programme -> press Go -> go to work -> come back from work -> empty machine = hot damp clothes.

[Pickled Onion]

A half load button could be useful.

Or get one that senses the load size and adjusts automatically.

[CAMRAMan]

A half load button could be useful.

Doesn't fuzzy logic render that button out of date? My John Lewis cheapo one adjusts itself to the load.

[jogler]

I'afraid the Man in the House here is also ignorant of the finer details of Home Laundry.

I don't think he wishes to clog his Precious Brane with details

your Man & Marj's Man come from the same mould

I was going to say....

washing machines are white goods.Brides wear white to colour co-ordinate

but thought better of it.Not least because I'm not really a misogynist mcp & also the last time I told that joke to a lady,the lady in question( one otp) gave me aright good slap which left a bruise.

I'm going to go to hell aren't I?
That's rhetorical I reckon

[Oscar's dad]

I think its fine that blokes don't know about washing machines just as its fine that ladies don't know about diesel engines.  Equally its fine the other way round.

I wish I knew about the blokey stuff as well as the lady stuff.  For the record I know more about washing machines than diesel engines, marine or otherwise.

Following on from Jacomus' post, the blokes that cause my eyebrows to disappear over the back of my head are the ones who can't do the bloke stuff or the lady stuff!  My sister's father-in-law is a case in point.  He's a retired academic who spends most of his time reclining on a chaise longue reading poetry whilst his wife runs round after him.  On the eve of his son's wedding to my sister said academic watched in awe as my dad opening up my sister's shower, which had suddenly packed up, and deduced by logically analysis why the shower had packed up.  After the logical analysis my dad quickly ordered the parts over the phone and fixed the shower in the morning after the parts turned up by express delivery.  Said academic couldn't understand how my dad managed to fix the shower given he hadn't received any training, had virtually no experience of fixing showers and didn't have a manual to refer to.

For the record my dad is fucking useless at the lady stuff 

[hellymedic]

I'afraid the Man in the House here is also ignorant of the finer details of Home Laundry.

I don't think he wishes to clog his Precious Brane with details

your Man & Marj's Man come from the same mould

 

I sometimes seem more proficient than he at pursuits that are not necessarily 'feminine'. It was only last week that I talked him through the finer points of How I Patch an Inner Tube. He was amazed that the tyre remained inflated...

[simonp]

The operation of the machine seems pretty simple to me. At least Pancho selected a reasonable temperature. I can remember an incident back in the 1980s when my dad did not, ruining an entire load washing it at something like 90 deg C. Everything was a shade of pink, and many things shrank.

[geraldc]

My inability to use a dishwasher is a source of pride, as I wash dishes by hand, as God intended.

Re: Washing machines. I'm more than a little hacked off with the trend to put balls and tablet in the drum. If you're going to bypass the drawer mechanism, then why do you create washing machines with drawers then.

I am not allowed to alter the wash cycle (30c), and we have 3 laundry baskets, colours, whites and delicates. When in doubt I'm not to wash, this is after an angora snood got turned into felt due to me ramming stuff into a washing machine.

Other half is very good at putting delicates into net bags, turning clothes inside out to wash etc, whereas I'm all about shoving it in.

I'm the one who does the crap like clean the filter traps etc. With modern low temperature washes, those things are rank with rancid fat...

[Kim]

I think its fine that blokes don't know about washing machines just as its fine that ladies don't know about diesel engines.  Equally its fine the other way round.

[...]

After the logical analysis my dad quickly ordered the parts over the phone and fixed the shower in the morning after the parts turned up by express delivery.  Said academic couldn't understand how my dad managed to fix the shower given he hadn't received any training, had virtually no experience of fixing showers and didn't have a manual to refer to.

Hammer.  Nail.  Head.  Etc.

I know about as much about diesel engines as I do about washing machines, which is not very much.  I am however prepared to use a combination of vague background knowledge, common sense and Google to work from first principles to solve easily solvable problems with either.

This also applies to computer literacy:  Sure I have a degree in computer science, a healthy working knowledge of embedded micros and years of experience with *nix servers.  All of which count for approximately nothing when you ask me why the printer isn't working.  What I can do is read rather than reflexively dismiss error messages, poke around arbitrary UIs for likely looking settings and apply basic troubleshooting principles.

Some people seem pathologically unable to do that sort of thing.  Usually because they get through life using one or more of  a) rote learning  b) making random stabs in the dark until it has the desired effect  or  c) persuading someone else to solve the problem.

All of those are useful skills, of course, but I'd suggest that having the confidence to try to work things out was more valuable.  Barriers to confidence include an education with an overemphasis on rote learning, gender stereotyping, the Dunning-Kruger effect, fear of failure and fear of making the problem worse.  While we could all be quick to laugh at or deride Pancho for getting through life without having used a washing machine, I'd suggest that the OP demonstrates that he's trying to resolve this using applied common sense and the tools available (one of which is an internet forum where people like asking random questions).  Nothing wrong with that, is there?  If the OP was from a person who has always washed all their clothes by hand faced with a washing machine for the first time (substitute dishwasher if that seems too unlikely) I doubt the thread would have gone quite the same way....

[simonp]

Refusing to use a dishwasher is a mistake if you have one. You will use far more water and energy doing it by hand.

[geraldc]

Dishwashers are geared towards westerners, we have woks and bowls, and rice bowls have to be laid upside down for them to be washed properly making it very inefficient space wise. You can't put them in at a slight angle like plates, where water bounces off the flat surfaces. Also if you put chopsticks in the cutlery holder, they can fall through the holes.