Washing clothes

[egon]

A question, why do we use hot water to wash clothes? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

I know why I like a hot shower though! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

Helps to dissolve body oils and other oily things?

[Pat]

Some laundry detergents work better at elevated temperatures, especially on oily or greasy dirt. If you use hot enough water it will kill a lot of the bacteria/germs on clothing.

Some detergents are especially formulated for proper operation in cold water. You can save some $ over the year by not washing everything in super hot water. Often, with the right detergent, you can get great results on the hardest stains by elevating to WARM wash and cold rinse.

We have been using front loader washers for the last 8 years or so and they require special detergent with reduced sudsing. Our front loader experience has been that they do as good or better than top loaders and they don't mechanically abuse the clothes nearly as much. Washers tend to turn clothes into lint. Front loaders do a very good job of cleaning (I can get amazingly dirty) but are much more gentle on the clothes (less lint.)

OK Egon, now tell us all about how your family went to the creek, broke through over a foot of ice and pounded the clothes on rocks with wooden paddles!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Pat

[jimbrown]

Hey Pat I can remember my grand mother and my aunts doing wash in South Texas in the 40's. They all got together on one day. Built a fire in the back yard and heated water in several big black pots. Called wash pots. they were about 3 ft in diameter. It took all day. They had one with soap and one for rinse stirred it all up with big wooden paddles. I think they may have had some sort of hand cranked roller to squeeze out the water.

[Bird]

Jim, I've seen it done with the big black cast iron pots on a wood fire, but from the time I was big enough to remember much, my folks had a genuine wringer washing machine. It was stored on the back porch until wash day, when it was moved out in the yard in pretty weather or into the kitchen in bad weather. Then we put 3 tubs on 3 wooden stools around the machine, heated the water on the stove for the washing, had a wooden stick to dip the clothes out of the hot sudsy water in the machine and start them through the wringer into the first tub of cold rinse water, sloshed them around by hand, then through the wringer into the second tub of cold rinse water, sloshed them around again, then through the wringer into the tub of "bluing", through the wringer once more into the laundry basket to go hang them on the clothes line to dry. It wasn't a bad job except in real cold weather and your hands would nearly freeze hanging those wet clothes on the line.

[egon]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
OK Egon, now tell us all about how your family went to the creek, broke through over a foot of ice and pounded the clothes on rocks with wooden paddles!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I can remember a scrub board and washtub! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

We still have my Grandmothers copper top loading hand operated paddle washing machine with a roller. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Before the Hydro back on the farm we had a little gasoline engine on the washing machine. It sat in the porch which got cold but didn't freeze and had a flexible metal exhaust hose going outside. The well and hand water pump were also inside the porch. One of the few hydro less farms with such easy access to water. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

Bird the washing machine came along after the hand wash. My grandfather ran a gas station for many years and he had one of the big round Magnolia signs (flying horse) that he had kept and that was in in the middle of the back yard and they put the washer on that sign, to keep the mud away I guess and then washed in the washer. They still heated the water in the big pots. I had forgotten about bluing. I have not seen any in I don't think in 50 years. I did two loads of wash today. My it was easy.

[Pat]

When we visited my aunt in Mississippi the "colored" maid built a wood fire in the yard to do our laundry in a 3 legged black iron pot and used home made lye soap. Later my older cousin with the help of a couple "boys" seined a farm pond to get 3 wash tubs of fish for a fish fry for the friends and neighbors to celebrate our visit and the fish were boiled in hog lard in those same 3 legged pots.

The kitchen stove was wood fired.

Been there, done that, have plenty of memories of the pre MLK south and am proud to number MLK as one of my inspirational heroes.

Pat

[jml755]

Well, I guess because my grandparents were in the city as far back as my memory goes ('50s), I only recall the wringer washer and clothes line running the length of the back yard with a notched pole to hold it up midway. (Grandma always warned me to keep my fingers away from the ringer when she was doing laundry and I was always tempted to stick a finger in just to see why. Typical boy. LOL).

However, I still have my grandma's copper wash tub with copper top (that we now use to store sheet music next to the piano). The handle brackets on the top and sides have a curved shape so you could use a broomstick to remove the top or move the tub around when hot.

Of all the TVs, computers, stereos, and crystal and sterling silverware we have in the house, I think I'd be most upset if someone came in and stole that wash tub.

[Bird]

Yep, that wringer would squeeze fingers and arms might tight. I once saw my younger sister get her arm through it right up to the elbow. There was a "bar" (I guess you'd call it) that you could just hit to release the pressure.

Even in the late '50s at my Dad's service station we had an old wringer washing machine that was used every day. In those days a "service" station meant just that. We washed ALL the windows on each customer's car, and we used chamois instead of cloth towels. They were washed in that old washing machine with plain cold water - no detergent, then run through the wringer and were ready to use on customers' car windows.