Mixing different fabrics in same wash cycle

[Tytalus]

Hiya,

This maybe my only post, but it's about a question driving up the wall: Which wash cycles do I use on my washing machine?

Basically, it has: Anti-Stain, Cotton and Synthetics (and a whole load of specials that appear straight forward). The manual helpfully advises: "separate clothes into material type". Great, I've got a mixed load of roughly the same colour, many of the garments are mixed fabric. Is there a basic 'mixed' wash? No. There are daily quick washes for mixed, but these are clothes in need of a good wash.

So if I use Anti-stain, it's a rigorous wash, won't it shorten the life of the clothes? (having used it for a week I'm already seeing bobbling on some).

If I use Cottons will it wear out mixed and the synthetics I'm throwing in at the same time as it's a 3:00hr wash at 40°?

If I use Synthetics:  will it get the mixed and cotton clothes clean as it's only a 1:20hr wash at 40°?

All these new clever settings are great, but our old Indesit had a 'wash at 40° wash' (option 4). It didn't care about what you threw in as long as there was room for laundry to move.

 

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Funny enough I've just written two new articles on this subject which you may find useful

Why are clothes getting stretched?

What do the wash symbols mean?

I also have an article on the causes of bobbling and how to avoid it

Try to find time to read all the articles but basically it can be such a pain to try and wash everything on the "correct" wash programme that most people (like my wife) bung most things in the same wash programme (often cottons 40 degree wash) but this damages and shortens the life of clothes. The agitation settings are explained in my articles

[Tytalus]

Hiya,

Thanks for the articles, an interesting read.

I'm taking it that the Synthetic washes have less agitation than the Cotton settings (as your wife continues to use!), so have started to use the 'Synthetics Resistant' setting on my machine, but at 40°C. At least the white-coated men programmed the machine to remember the last setting on a key press, instead of the several I need to get it to the right setting to start with (just got to get my wife to use it!)

Still, a shame they just don't have a 'Mixed-standard wash' or similar. Apart from the towels, I can't think of any wash that doesn't have a mixture or mix clothing in it, and I can't be the only one on the planet with the same issue!

Cheers,

Ty.