@Sweetbay magnolia wrote:
Hi, @Pooky1 - always enjoy your discussions.
I don't feel it is doom and gloom. I gave up an old Whirlpool with endless water wasting capacity for a Hotpoint that has been built to meet (good for the planet) specs.
It is a top-load with an agitator, and it does a great job, even with my King-sized bedding.
What I have learned, through research and experience, is that it is about agitation, not lots of water swishing around, that cleans clothes. Our ancestors used a wash board, and before that, beat them on rocks.
The newer machines appear to not fill, but as displacement happens, the fabrics become soaked and then agitation happens, which is the laundering part. Not to mention the toll on drainage systems with water wasted in the old machines. It impacts water purity.
The spin cycle of the "new" machines is long, as it has been shown (no references cited but I believe it is common knowledge), that modern day dryers are energy hogs, compared to their counterpart washing machines. Thus, drying times are reduced. When I can, I do use wind and sun to dry clothing. For free. And no toll on Mother Nature.
The advent of front loaders has been due, in part, to their ability to use less water to agitate (beat) clothes clean. Dryers, to me, are the things that kill clothing fabrics more so than the washers.
I work a blue collar job and get plenty dirty. The new Hotpoint gets my clothes clean. Part of what I do for a living is to attempt to educate people on the beauty of Nature and how to live in conjunction with her.
Have a nice evening and Happy Holidays all!!! YMMV.
I'm going to offer a differing opinion.
Something 'designed and manufactured for efficiency' isn't that at all if people have to over use it to get the results wanted.
There are some loads of laundry that will clean effectively with less water, but there are those that simply won't.
I live with a mechanic and a machinist, and we live a small farm like lifestyle, and no low water washer will clean much of the laundry we generate properly, or to get it to happen, will have to be washed multiple times, using as much water as a standard washer (and more electric in the long run). I often have laundry so dirty that I need to soak clothing for hours, and that is only effective when there is sufficient water.
Water is not a premium everywhere in this country or the world for that matter. And while conservation is always an honorable goal, there are different needs, wants and priorities for different people based on individual needs and circumstances, and locations.
People fall for the 'conservation' mantra, when in fact, if they truly analyze their usage of various resources, conserving one, may actually over use others, and it isn't always as cut and dried as environmentalist would like us to believe, nor are all resources equally limited in all areas.
I believe everyone should conserve in all areas they can but that not everyone is going to conserve in all areas equally. We all do what we can where we can, and for some, water conservation may not match that of others, while conservation of some other resources my be much greater.
What I don't need, is regulation, especially at the national level, about my use of resources. Local issues that might require it are more understandable though.
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