do you wash in cold water?

[ApatheticNoMore]

I always default to warm except occasionally hot for towels and sheets, but I was reading this article about washing in cold water:
http://www.coyuchi.com/the-naturalista/cold_water/

(ok it's a commercial site and the products are expensive - don't look at any products unless you desperately need bedding or something then at least it's organic ) - but the article is just about washing in cold water. So maybe I'll try switching to cold. I have zero germ phobia (except around raw meat which isn't exactly applicable to my clothes), pay quarters to wash (so don't stand to save any $), have no bed bugs, and really could care less about "sterilizing" my clothes etc.. I just want them to be clean.

[herbgeek]

Yes. I use cold for almost everything. If it's a dirty load or anyone has been sick, I'll use warm. I don't see any difference so why spend the energy? I do use a detergent that says it works in cold water.

[Dhiana]

The entire country of Japan uses only cold water. There are no hot water hookups to our washing machines.

No problems here.

[lmerullo]

My everyday wash is done in cold. The only time I set the washer to another temp is when an illness is in the home.

DH recently had shingles, and since I've not had the chicken pox the doc said it might be possible to get it from the weeping rash. We used hot water and laundered sheets every other day for two weeks.

I agree that both the machine and the detergents have evolved and if the goal is clean wash - cold is good for the clothes, the environment and the pocketbook.

[rosarugosa]

I almost always use cold water. I think it minimizes shrinkage and fading, and helps keep stains from "setting."
I wash my towels in hot water because I was reading a true crime book once, and one of the clues that shed suspicion on the wife for killing her husband was that she had washed towels in cold water (I don't recall how the police knew this), but they had basically noted that nobody washes towels in cold water, so it must have been to get rid of blood, so I've washed my towels in hot water ever since!
On rare occasions, I will bleach really grungy whites in hot water, but this is very rare. I don't like to use much bleach as I think it weakens fibers and is kind of a creepy chemical.

[catherine]

I usually default to warm also, and my "warm" is kind of lukewarm. I kind of like hotter water for stain removal, but I guess if I did a better job of pre-spotting, it wouldn't take a whole load of hot water to remove one or two stains.

I also am not germophobic (with the exception of sickness in the home), so I would never routinely use hot water to kill bugs. I believe certain bugs have their place, frankly.

I agree that colder water preserves your clothing--maybe I'll wash in cold more often--thanks for the article.

[Miss Cellane]

I wash sheets and towels and underwear in hot water--they are all white cotton, so they are a logical load. Supposedly, the hot water will help with my allergies. And about 3-4 times a year, I wash my cotton blanket and the mattress pad in hot water, again because of the allergies.

Everything else gets washed in cold water. Unless there is a specific reason, such as something got really dirty and warm water is recommended to remove that type of stain. But that happens about once every two years or so.

I figure if a germ can survive the detergent and the agitation in the washer and the heat and the tumbling in the dryer, it deserves to live.

[razz]

Yes. I use cold for almost everything. If it's a dirty load or anyone has been sick, I'll use warm. I don't see any difference so why spend the energy? I do use a detergent that says it works in cold water.

I cold wash and line dry to sterilize in the sun.

[Mary B.]

Cold here too, except sheets/pillowcases in hot. And sometimes I turn the washer to 'cool' rather than 'cold' in the winter, since it's well water and in winter it seems extraordinarily cold. (I know that the temperature underground doesn't vary much, but our water goes from well into cistern and then into house, and it gets pretty cold in the cistern in winter.)

[Sad Eyed Lady]

99% of the wash is done in cold. Every now and then some whites like sheets, pillowcases and an old white terry robe I have, seems like they could benefit from a hot wash and so I will do it. But routinely it is cold. I also line dry outside, or in real cold weather I use a folding rack inside.