Laundry Additives?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Which is better, Top:loader or Front loader? I have an old MAH4000AWW that I have resurrected and re-bearinged. I also have a more recent Frigidaire TL.Which do you all prefer?

As for detergent, I like Gain with a dash of Oxy Clean. Our city water is soft and very high quality (Birmingham Water Works). I soak clothes after an initial 30 seconds of agitation, sometimes overnight. This allows light detergent use.
 
Former laundry engineer (1983-1998) weighing in. Front loader does indeed use less water and is less damaging to clothes. As far as washability goes, many of the Euro front loaders I benchmarked achieved this through cycle design. Short agitate followed by an extended soak cycle, often punctuated by several extremely short agitate cycles,followed by more ag then rinse and a thorough spin dry. Some wash cycles were up to 2 hrs. long due to use of soak periods. Personally, I have never owned a front loader. I find top loaders to be cheaper, less problematic and perform adequately.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
Pretreat the stains, wait 15 minutes and start the wash. Use the proper pretreat. The oxiclean stuff is good on organic stains like food or blood. Other pretreat are better on grease.

The one hard and fast rule is if you dry the item without getting the stain 100% out, you never will.


I've used Fels-Naptha for pretreatment of nastier stains

And definitely, don't dry until the stain is gone, or at least gone-enough because you'll have to live with it from that point forward.
 
I use Arm and Hammer Scent Free and a half cup of 20 Mule Team Borax.

To pretreat stains, I follow the directions on Goop Hand Cleaner (it's an amazing stain remover on clothes)

When I was in the Army during the Digital Camo years, softeners and whiteners were taboo on the uniforms, oxyclean tended to make the uniform have a white fuzzy glow as well.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by SirTanon
Have something to drink....

[Linked Image]


Pousse-café!
 
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
Former laundry engineer (1983-1998) weighing in. Front loader does indeed use less water and is less damaging to clothes. As far as washability goes, many of the Euro front loaders I benchmarked achieved this through cycle design. Short agitate followed by an extended soak cycle, often punctuated by several extremely short agitate cycles,followed by more ag then rinse and a thorough spin dry. Some wash cycles were up to 2 hrs. long due to use of soak periods. Personally, I have never owned a front loader. I find top loaders to be cheaper, less problematic and perform adequately.



+1, Since you live in NV I have some anecdotal experience with this. Some of the suites at Vadara, Las Vegas have Bosch front loaders and from my experience with them the 2 hr wash cycle is for real. There's no free lunch as they say.
 
My laundry additive is adding more water to my loads these days. These new fangled washing machines don't hold much water at all. Heck, they don't even have any agitators anymore.
About the only setting that works pretty decent is the Bulk Load Setting. It adds about 278% more water than any other setting on my Maytag Bravo model washer.
 
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by JunkdrawerDog
Former laundry engineer (1983-1998) weighing in. Front loader does indeed use less water and is less damaging to clothes. As far as washability goes, many of the Euro front loaders I benchmarked achieved this through cycle design. Short agitate followed by an extended soak cycle, often punctuated by several extremely short agitate cycles,followed by more ag then rinse and a thorough spin dry. Some wash cycles were up to 2 hrs. long due to use of soak periods. Personally, I have never owned a front loader. I find top loaders to be cheaper, less problematic and perform adequately.



+1, Since you live in NV I have some anecdotal experience with this. Some of the suites at Vadara, Las Vegas have Bosch front loaders and from my experience with them the 2 hr wash cycle is for real. There's no free lunch as they say.
 
Correct. You can pre soak in a bucket and then launder or you can let the clothes soak in the machine. Either way, you have to give the enzymes in the laundry product enough time to break down the stain.
 
Originally Posted by opus1
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Sister-in-law uses (I think) Downy. The stuff stinks to high heaven, and I can smell it from outside her house. For us, just plain old HE liquid and some Shout for when something gets stained.

I shout at the stains when they happen but they won't come out unless I pre-treat them...


Since it was capitalized I thought it was intuitively obvious that I was talking about the product name. Apparently not for some.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top