Cold water only washes

Nappies need warm to hot water to get reliably clean. So what should you do if you don’t have access to hot water?

First check if your machine does have hot water.

[Most] Front loaders heat their own water

Front loaders sold in Australia, New Zealand and the UK have internal heating elements. This holds true whether they have hot and cold inlets or just cold inlets.

Front loaders that do not heat their own water

Many front loader washers sold in North America do not heat their own water. It’s almost impossible to test the water temperature in front loaders.

[Most] Top loaders don’t heat their own water

Top loader washers use a mix of water from the cold and hot inlets. Therefore, wash temperature in top loader washers depends on:

1. The temperature of the water coming into the cold inlet
2. The temperature of the water coming into the hot inlet
3. The ratio of water from the cold and hot inlets

This depends on the ambient temperature, the season, the time of day, and where you source your hot water from. Water will be colder overnight in winter than it is midday summer.

Newer hot water services in Australia have a maximum of 50°C for safety.

What? There are top loaders that heat water?

We know of one brand that does this, but they’re the odd ones out!

Testing water temperature in a top loader

The only reliable way to know the water temperature is to use a thermometer, for example, a candy thermometer.

We recommend a water temperature of 40°C for mainstream detergents and 50°C for plant-based / sensitive detergents.

You might find that your ‘hot’ wash in a top loader is less than 40ºC.

What to do if wash loads are not hot enough?

Use chlorine bleach or find an alternative source of hot water.

Bleach in-wash

Our chlorine bleach calculator has options for Cold Washing. You can add bleach to the first wash, the main wash or both. When using chlorine bleach use the usual amount of detergent and no laundry booster.

Find an alternative source of hot water

The alternative source could be a hose from another hot tap, running black poly pipe on the shed roof, or bucketing in hot water.

We used to suggest bucketing in hot water as the first option. However, heating hot water is expensive and handling large volumes of hot water has inherent risks. We now suggest using chlorine bleach as the first option to improve your nappy washes.