recommend a good forum for laundry?

Forget the prewash and use half the recommended amount of detergent for the main cycle. If the machine has a pre-wash cycle, it will have separate compartments to put the prewash and main wash detergent. Based on your user name, you probably want to get one of the environmentally friendly detergents. It won't get your whites as white or your colors as bright, but it will get your clothes perfectly clean. My philosophy is that anything that does not come out with normal washing won't hurt me.

You might be able to set the dial so it skips the prewash entirely. That will save water.

Best are the front-loaders, which use much less water, and require much less soap. Like about a teaspoon of it.

 

Better yet, get yourself a supply of Soap Nuts. Throw the "nut sack" in at the beginning, and it just stays for the whole cycle.

 

I kinda thought we already had enough dirty laundry around here.

 

If it stays in for the whole cycle, how does it get rinsed out? I don't care how natural it is, I want it rinsed out after it's done its cleaning.

 

May I direct your attention to this article: Soap Nuts article

In practice, the soap nuts work as both cleaner and softener. I'm particularly allergic to soap, myself, and I am not in the least bothered by soap nuts, as they aren't soap, either... it's a natural saponification in the nut rinds. If you have a top loader, you can pluck the nut sack out before the rinse cycle, if you like. If you use a front loader, as I do, you will discover that there is no "soapiness" left after the first rinse cycle! Since front loaders change the water so many times, the nuts run out of soapiness.

Soap nuts, if used for just the wash cycle in top loaders, can be reused 3 or 4 times. In a front loader, just the once. It's STILL incredibly effective, and less costly, than synthetic detergents.

 

They must be awfully cheap if they cost less than detergent and you only use them once. A box of detergent lasts me about six months with a top-loader, and with a front loader you use about a teaspoonful. A box would last me two years.

And BTW I never use fabric softener. I hate the stuff. The tumble dryer leaves my laundry plenty soft.

Okay, I checked out the earlier link you gave, 16 to 20 loads, ten bucks (plus shipping, I suppose), cheaper in larger quantities. I'm going to try them. But I cannot order them until after my trip, or the package would sit outside my door until my neighbor picks it up for me.

 

As a suggestion, instead order from here: Maggies Soap Nuts
These are the original, and they work better than the ones that are talked about in the article. Just sayin'.

 

Yep. That's the page I was looking at. You cited that page in your first post in this thread. That's where I'll get them. Thanks.

 

If its a commercial front loader, eg ASKO, Electrolux, etc, usually only a quick drain is done, no rinse and minor spin.

I have a Kenmore Elite front loading pair, about 5 years old. The washer itself is actually made in Germany by Miele, a very well respected appliance maker in Europe

I rarely use the prewash option. The few times I have, it's important to ensure the *total* detergent added does not exceed what you'd normally put into the main dispenser cup

Options I always select: extra rinse, and extra high speed spin

With front loaders, its also really important to use detergents - liquid or powder - marked "HE." If you attempt to use regular laundry detergent in a front loader, expect a Mt St Helens of suds

A final word about detergent: more is NOT better! The detergent scoop for HE detergent is MUCH smaller than for regular detergent. I have hard water, with a good water softener, and use barely half the little scoop.

Any hint of sudsing, I'd cut WAY back. In your case, I'd cut back to 50% the detergent you're now using

 

:tape2:

MMMMMPPPHHHHH! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPH!

 

Jayman, you would love it around here...
Occasionally, I have to put a note on the whiteboard that says:
"Where are the balls and nut sack?"

It usually gets a chuckle from someone.

[I use "dryer balls" in the dryer, and occasionally they, and the soap nut sack, end up going with our son's laundry when he takes it upstairs]

 

MMMMMMPPPHHHH! MMMMMPPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHHH!!

 

I thought this was a Prius forum oO

 

Welcome to Fred's House of Pancakes. :welcome: