Washing Machine with cold water intake only??

Mizu_Ger

I just bought a new Hotpoint washing machine, removed all the packaging and went about installing it when I noticed that it only has an intake for cold water! The house is plumbed for hot and cold in the utility roo for the a washer, but it seems strange that the wshing machine is cold intake only. Its rated A for energy consumption, which is one of the reasons for buying it, but I never throught of checking the intakes while looking at it in the shop. Presumably it will be more expensive to heat the water in the washer (using electricity) rather than take it from the gas heated water.

Can anyone clarify????

BTW: Its a new house and this is the first washer I have ever bought!

James_M

I think cold water only is the standard these days. At least you won't need a hot tank to wash your clothes

Frankieboy

Ya the machine heats up the water so its not taking it from your house supplies. Thats what I reckon anyway. I think it saves you money!

chuckles30

A lot of the newer ones only have cold water intake - they heat the water themselves. That's my understanding. I only became aware of this last year when my mother got a new one as all her old ones had both hot & cold. When shopping for my own recently, the shop assistant kept mentioning that some needed cold water only. I think if you go for the really advanced & pricey models you get both, but not sure what actual difference it makes.

Mizu_Ger

chuckles30 wrote:

I think if you go for the really advanced & pricey models you get both, but not sure what actual difference it makes.

This is what I am trying to figure out. What's the advantage of a cold only intake model? I thought everything these days was built to be more energy efficient, but using the washer to heat the water (instead of the hot tank, which I have, and is gas powered) seems to be less efficient (or more expensive anyway)

Anyone know the reasoning?

Thanks for the replies.

MacGyver

the washer heats the water so it saves you money, i work in an electrical shop and this is what all the manufactures tell us, it also saves water as the hot and cold fill machines will keep taking in water until its hot so its not efficent especially if you've no hot water in the tank. the machines with hot and cold fill arent any better. most if not all of the new machines will be this way once people relalise the difference but until get out of their old ways :rolleyes:

gonk

Mizu_Ger wrote:

This is what I am trying to figure out. What's the advantage of a cold only intake model? Anyone know the reasoning?

Thanks for the replies.

I think the logic is that on a hot and cold intake machine, once the hot intake is opened, it usually takes a while for the cold water in the pipes to run through and for hot water to start flowing. In most cases, the washing machine has filled itself before any hot water actually gets to it. I know, for example, in my utility room I have to let the hot tap on the sink beside the washing machine run for a couple of minutes before I start to get any hot water. It only takes half that time for the washing machine to fill up and start the wash cycle.

Idleater

Mizu_Ger wrote:

Anyone know the reasoning?

With your gas heating, the entire large water tank is being heated.

With the washing machine, just the water going into the machine itself is being heated.

The washing machine, also regulates the temperature of the water being used. For example 40 degrees, or 30 degrees etc.

If you rely on the hot water from your boiler, the washing machine will still have to add cold/heat up the water to get it to the correct temperature.

Adding cold is very inefficient, so on average, a single cold feed washing machine will be more efficient.

In theory, you could make your house even more efficient if you install a simple heater at each hot tap, that way you are definitely just heating the water that you are using at any particular time.


L.

Raytown Rocks

Mizu_Ger wrote:

This is what I am trying to figure out. What's the advantage of a cold only intake model? I thought everything these days was built to be more energy efficient, but using the washer to heat the water (instead of the hot tank, which I have, and is gas powered) seems to be less efficient (or more expensive anyway)

Anyone know the reasoning?

Thanks for the replies.

This way you have to heat a full tank of water for the machine to use hot water. With a cold only intake, the machine only heats the required amount, I.E whats in the mchine.
With a dual intake system at the moment every time you want to use your machine you have to switch on the Gas heating system to heat the water.
Honestly the new cold intake only ones are more energy effecient.

Chef

sorry, almost a duplicte post as above^^^^, just took a while for mine to download

GreeBo

Also, with a hot feed, the washer cant control the temp of the incoming "hot" water so you may damage some clothes.
I havent seen any washers that will mix the two inputs to achieve the desired temp, mostly they just keep heating the water until it hits the desired temp, if its already above that temp it will just let it on through.
(Maybe Miele do it, but I doubt anyone else does)