I’ve always just put the clothes in, then the detergent, then put the machine on. But sometimes I see people starting the machine, letting it fill with water and adding clothes as they go and then putting detergent in. Or letting it fill and then putting detergent and clothes.
Apparently, putting the detergent in too soon before it dissolves can leave spots on the clothes, or so googling tells me. But is there anything wrong with the way I’ve been doing it for years? Or are all my clothes horribly tainted?
The method I’ve used since I started washing clothes was to start the water, add detergent when the water got high enough that I could turn the agitator by hand to mix it all up really well and then start tossing in clothes. I want the clothes to be in before the water stops filling.
My logic is that I want the detergent to be in solution and I want the clothes to get in there in time for the water level sensor to be able to have the right amount of water based on the size of the load.
I’m probably over-analyzing the whole thing but I’m a guy with a technical background. Can you tell? (And no, I’mnot married–yet. Couple weeks to go.)
IME if your clothes suck up some of the water and bring the level down, the machine will automatically add more water.
I always turn the water on, add clothes then put the detergent in. I try to make sure I pour it as close as I can get it so the water hits it and carries it down. Even if I have to push on the agitator so the entire tub tilts backwards a but. Also, I try to pour it on to a towel. I’ve had detergent leave stains on clothes. Of course that only happened once when I forgot to turn the machine on and it sat there for a few hours.
I asked a friend who said he couldn’t open the laundry machine after it was turned on (that’s how the laundry machines all work in his apartment building, I guess), so he’s only ever done it as I mentioned in my OP.
I’m just afraid that the clothes haven’t been getting appropriately cleaned and now I’m starting to obsess and wonder if I should go rewash the laundry I did this afternoon.
You’re going to rewash the clothes? If you’ve been wearing “improperly” laundered clothes for all these years, one more load surely isn’t going to matter!
Technically, you should add the detergent first to allow it to mix with the water, but as you’ve discovered over a lifetime of clothes washing, it really doesn’t matter all that much. I’d say you’re overthinking it. It’s laundry, not rocket science. As long as you’re not regularly washing monkey feces out of a zoo uniform, you’ll be fine with the way you’re doing it.
Cecil had a couple of columns awhile back about whether adding soap actually made a difference in how clean your clothes were when you washed them. It’s way past my bedtime, so I’m not going to search for them right now, but IIRC, the upshot was that if you didn’t give your soap a chance to mix with a decent amount of water, it would be trapped in one place and not do anything to clean most of the clothes. Not sure if that would apply to your method or not.
So now I add the detergent as the water starts, then wait until it’s a few inches deep before I add clothes, with the heaviest stuff at the bottom so that it doesn’t get imbalanced because I hate hearing that whomp-whomp-whomp from the basement when it gets to the spin cycle.
I have (access to) a front-loading washer. There’s a compartment above the door to add liquid detergent, and then I assume the machine dispenses it into the drum at the proper point in the cycle.
I still put the detergent in before the clothes. If any detergent dribbles down the side of the bottle, I wipe it off with a sock, or a shirt, or something that’s going into the wash in a few seconds, anyway.
I know, I know…I tend to get a little insane about things like this when I start to obsess. I mean, when I’ve had stains, I’ve gotten them out with my method (plus a bit of pre-treatment), so I’m sure the detergent is doing something. It’s not off hiding with the missing socks.
I guess I’ll change how I’m doing it. I just hope I haven’t been walking around dirty all these years.
Drop in two bath towels, one on each side for balance. Then fill the remaining space with everything else. Then add detergent, then turn on the machine.
I’m not obsessive over it, but I do have a certain order in which I prefer to add stuff to the washing machine:
Set water level and temperature controls.
Begin filling machine with water.
Add detergent.
Add clothing while water is filling machine.
Close lid.
Profit!
(Actually, the water/detergent/clothes order is logical according to the voices in MY head: It allows the water to dissolve the detergent before clothes are added; the detergent breaks the surface tension of the water, making it easier to add clothes to the water; and the water level is still appropriate to the volume of the load, because the clothes are in there before the machine cuts off at the level I’ve chosen.)
People do this in all kinds of orders, so manufacturers have built their machines to work effectively under all these conditions. So it doesn’t really matter.
Water, detergent, clothes would seem to be the best. But with modern washers, it would be really hard to find any measurable difference in the result, no matter which order you used.
You definitely should wait on putting the clothing in if you’re using bleach. Start the water going, add bleach, let the rest of the water as it pours in dilute the bleach, then drop the clothes in when there’s a decent amount of water in there.
Powdered detergents these days dissolve really fast. I try to put the detergent in first, so that the first gush of water dissolves it and the clothes get maximal soaking time.
Bleach would go in after the washer was filled up.
I don’t use fabric softener. Dryer sheets do it for me.
I usually just dump the clothes in, pour in the soap, then start the water. If I’m using bleach, it’s generally on kitchen towels, so I dump in the towels, start the water, wait a minute, then pour in the bleach, then the detergent.
I always put the detergent in, start the water, then add the clothes as the water runs. I wait until the water has dissolved the soap a bit. (I usually use powdered detergent, except when I’m washing my delicates.) My mom always put the clothes in, then added soap, then started the water. As far as I can remember, it always worked that way, too.