What are the differences between 'Pre-Wash Cotton' and 'COTTON ECO 60°' on a Montpelier MW600IP?

[James Aitken]

Hello,

I wrote to the company asking this more than a fortnight ago and have not had a response. The manual says:

 

Washing Temperature: both 60°

Max Dry Laundry Amount: both 6kg

Detergent Compartment: Pre-Wash Cotton: 1&2, COTTON ECO 60°: 2

Programme Duration (minutes): Pre-Wash Cotton: 164, COTTON ECO 60°: 200

Laundry Type / Descriptions: both: Dirty cotton and flax textiles, (underwear, linen, tablecloth, towel (maximum 3kg), bedclothes etc.

 

My questions:

What are the differences between these programmes?

What happens in each?

Why is there a 36 minute difference?

Why, if the first programme includes a pre-wash and uses both detergent compartments, instead of just one, is it shorter?

 

Thanks for any help.

Edited August 3 by James Aitken
spelling correction

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello there. Pre-wash literally means a wash before a wash. This cycle would be useful for very heavily soiled laundry. Back in the day, it would be used for things like nappies. It will fill up with cold water from the pre-wash section and flush detergent into the drum. It would then do a short wash before draining the water and filling up as normal and doing the normal wash. You would never need to use this cycle unless you are something that was really badly soiled.

An eco-wash is designed to save energy, and will always take longer than a normal cycle. However, it's difficult to see how much energy can be saved when the overwhelming bulk of energy used is in heating up the water to the wash temperature, which remains the same. So this only leaves any potential savings potential to using less water on the rinses. If using less water, or lower temperatures, all eco-cycles just need more time in order to compensate.

 

[James Aitken]

Thanks! That was informative.