Load ratings of Washing machines

wait4me

Quckk question: What does 5kg or 6kg load for a washing machine mean? Is this the dry or wet weight of clothes?

coylemj

Dry weight, how would they expect you to know the wet weight?

wait4me

Fair enough - reason I asked was that I wondered if 6kg of (say) jeans would be more difficult to wash than 6kg of cotton shirts. The wet weight of these fairly different items would I presume be quite different and could (?) cause damage to the drum.

byte

The rating would be a maximum dry weight, probably based on some fanciful calculations that may not possible in real life.

There's a limit before you run out of space. 6kg of wooly items for example, would need more space than maybe 6kg of heavy cotton items. There still needs to be a bit of headroom in the drum to allow clothes to agitate during the cycle.

antoinolachtnai

I looked at this, and the nominal weight seems to apply to cotton. If you put in synthetics, a smaller weight of stuff will fit (presumably because synthetics are lighter).

It is the dry weight for sure.

It is really the volume that matters, I think.

I got a 7kg machine (an end of line from power city). It is a lot handier to work with than the 5kg machine I had before. If you can afford to get a bit bigger, it is that bit more convenient..