Our washing machine had more descriptive cycle like, sheets & blankets or rugs along with delicate, quick wash, etc. But it also had 3 columns of lights (like a bar graph) for Temp, Time and Spin Speed I think. When you set it to any cycle the various lights would illuminate in the three columns. So every special cycle was just made of a combination of readily available settings and you could see what each cycle did. You could also press the settings up or down to make adjustments to any cycle, or make up your own.
Every now and then. Mostly the temp and spin options.
Most of the time ours is either on the “Colors” cycle for cold water wash stuff, or “Heavy Duty(Normal)” for everything else. I also tend to vary the water temp as well- my kids’ clothes get “Heavy Duty” and warm water, even though the cycle defaults to hot water.
There’s also an auto-soak button that inserts a 10 minute soak into the wash cycle- I use that fairly frequently as well. There’s also a second-rinse one that doesn’t get used too often, and a “Fabric softener rinse” option that we don’t use too often either.
Sometimes I use the “jeans” cycle if I have a load of all jeans, but most of the time they’re just in with the other warm water stuff anyway.
I’ve got about 12 cycles on my small-ish HE frontloader. The matching dryer also has 12 cycles.
For me, “permanent press” covers everything except sheets or towels which get “Large/bulky” since they’re well, large & bulky and I really wedge the machine full of them.
Dry the same: PP for everything except the sheets & towels that get the large/bulky treatment.
It must suck to be the marketing & product design team at a washing machine company, trying desperately to keep up with TVs, etc., with their hundreds of features nobody uses. My dozen barely passes the chuckle test, and 25 settings wouldn’t pass the laugh test.
That must make them feel so inadequate.
My gf does her laundry, doing separate loads of “delicates”. “colors”, “permanent press”, etc. she also does our sheets and there’s prolly a separate cycle for that.
I throw everything in together and use generic normal setting, all cold water. If we are low on soap I will rinse out the container and use what’s left.
She gets annoyed at how our clothes look the same after being laundered.
I use “normal” for my colors, “whites” for my unmentionables, and “permanent press” whenever I get around to washing my pants. Oh, and there’s a setting for “clean the washer” that I use (pour in a packet of Oxi Clean washing machine cleaner first).
Same, but warm water. Every couple of months I’ll run a bleach load just for kitchen cloths with hot water (I don’t use paper towels, just cloths). I like knowing that there’s a delicate cycle, but I can’t even remember the last time I might have used it. Maybe 2 washing machines ago.
My machine has the option of creating your own cycle, so I did - cold water, extra rinse, high spin. I use that for most loads - it runs for about 40 minutes. I’ve used the Heavy Soil setting a few times - that one takes over an hour. And I’ve used rinse/spin for things I’ve knitted just in an attempt to remove the cat hair, since my Bengal insists on filling my lap while I knit. For the most part, tho, I prefer my custom cycle. It seems to do the job just fine.
I’ve got a big top loader and use bulky for bedding.
And second rinse+extra spin on a regular basis because when I don’t the washer doesn’t seem to thoroughly wet the whole load - some things come out almost completely dry. I’m pretty sure it’s user error, but I haven’t figured out what I’m doing wrong so it works as a work around.
Mine is old. The options are for much water, what temperature, how long to agitate, whether to include a second rinse, and maybe there’s a pre-soak and gentle option.
I regularly adjust how much water, what temperature, and whether to use the second rinse. I never use the other options.
I almost never use the extra cycles/options. My machine has a shit ton of modes, all the way up to some steam-sanitize cycle that takes 2 1/2 hours. Except in exceptional circumstances, I just use “quick wash” (35ish minutes) and set the temperature to warm for sheets/towels, cold for everything else. I figure the short wash saves water and energy, or at least energy. And it’s a front loader so I’m already saving water.
I have a fairly old washer, and we always adjust the amount of water, and use permanent press for shirts and underwear and normal for the rest, with things like t shirts going in wherever there is room.
Our newer drier has more options.
As to why which the OP asked 7 months ago I figure that with a screen and a computer inside it doesn’t cost much more to give more options, but the complexity makes the washer look more expensive, even if most people never use them.
LG front loader here.
Mostly use “normal” for under ware and other whites and “permanent press” for shirts, pants etc. Also sheets get permanent press. All get an extra rinse to make sure there’s no detergent residue.
I’ll guess at 80% normal; 19% quick wash and 1% I’ve found the wool setting useful for doing a bedspread, even though it’s not wool, that barely fits into the machine but I’m too cheap & lazy to take to the dry cleaner.
Pro tip: Don’t try spinning a too heavy item too fast. The drum will come off it’s moorings and you’ll need a new machine.
Since replacing my washer 3 or 4 years ago I’ve also found I can cut back on the dryer time & now use low heat. The new washer spins faster & sucks out more water I guess. Whatever it does, clothes are wrung out pretty good when done. Except for bedspread.
It seems every electronic device manufactured these days is 90% useless add on functions that exist only because ‘they can’. Not because they serve any really needed useful purpose.
From washers to computing devices to cars to tools. Add to this all the useless apps that come packaged with phones & computers.
Maybe one day some manufacturer will put out a piece of equipment that has only the required functions, for less cost. What a concept!
High end audio approaches this notion, except for the less cost part, by removing un-needed functions such as bass, treble, equalizer type controls. The idea being that if buying a decent amplifier one will also buy decent speakers . . .but I digress.
My washer is 26 years old. It doesn’t have a lot of “named” cycles, but I do alter the temperature and time depending on the load. I’ve also used “soak” (which fill the tub, sloshes a couple minutes, and sits until you start it up again…if you remember!) and delicate for wool items, of which I have only a couple.
I don’t know whether I’d call these cycles “special”, but my washer has specific “cold” and “whites” that I use regularly. I’m actually not sure what they do, aside from making the wash temp cold and hot, respectively. I think they add a certain soak time.
I also use the “towels” cycle as appropriate, and sometimes “bulky goods”.
I’ll use “express” from time to time if something isn’t really in need of a good thorough wash.
On the other extreme, I’ll use “sanitize” once or twice a year for something grosser than usual.
Almost all the time, it’s “normal” and warm water.
I used to use deep wash until I discovered one day that it wasn’t deep-washing at all. It was as shallow as almost any other cycle.
Now I just use delicate for everything, and open the lid halfway so I can press down on the clothes with my hand to ensure everything is actually submerged.
I use the normal + steam cycle for my uniforms and most clothes. I use the delicate cycle for the unmentionables and the bedding cycle for, well, bedding.
I did use the sanitize cycle once when my kitten had an attack of diarrhea on my bed.