Clothes come out hard from washing machine

Maz2016

Hi guys, I recently replaced my washing machine as my previous one was old. I am having one issue which I also had with my previous one - the clothes (especially towels) come out hard/stiff.

I use the symthetics cycle, 40 degrees and quick wash (still takes 1hr20 mins). I put fairy into the drum and 2 scoops of comfort into the dispenser . I cant figure out why this happens. I was blaming the old machine but must be something I am doing wrong. Any help appreciated

Sleeper12

Are you in a high limescale area? It's called hard water for a reason

A great solution for this is to setup a rainwater harvesting system for the washing machine. The clothes will come out softer than if you used fab softener. You help save the planet at the same time

Maz2016

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Are you in a high limescale area? It's called hard water for a reason

A great solution for this is to setup a rainwater harvesting system for the washing machine. The clothes will come out softer than if you used fab softener. You help save the planet at the same time

:pac::pac: I am in a hard water area but I was asking my neighbour and she said her weren't too bad

Sleeper12

Maz2016 wrote:

I am in a hard water area but I was asking my neighbour and she said her weren't too bad

I bet she uses fabric softener. Either that or her idea of "not too bad" & yours differ a lot. My better half buys our washing powder /gel balls so I don't know what is in them but I think I remember a commercial from years ago claiming that a particular product had built in fabric softener.

It's not your machine as the old machine was the same result. It's highly unlikely that your water is different to your neighbours.

If you really wanted to find out you could ask her to throw in one of your tea towels and see if you notice any difference.

Garlinge

I think towels should go in a mixed load or cotton wash. You may be using too much soap but problem is those capsule thingies cannot be varied. You could add in an extra Acqua cycle to rinse off soap a bit better.

I have new machine also and not found perfect program yet ....

Anteayer

I wouldn’t use the synthetics cycle for cottons. It’s likely the machine isn’t tumbling then enough. Also those cycles are usually designed for lightly loaded drums.

For a full load of towels, you need to use the cottons cycle.

If you need to make it shorter, try finding a short wash option.

Also using extra softener can make clothes hard or almost sticky. You’re better off to only use a very small amount with towels. Use maybe half a cap at most.

Give your towels a run through the machine with a good detergent at 60°C on the cottons cycle and I bet they’ll come out perfectly.

Generally a powder detergent will do a better job too or add a scoop of one of those oxygen bleach powder boosters (Vanish or an own brand) to the drawer.

Hard water doesn’t make the clothes hard btw - the issue is that it makes detergents work less well as they end up binding to the minerals in the water instead of the dirt on the clothes. The result is you have to use more detergent to get the same results as you would in soft water.

Just follow the dosing instructions on the pack. They should give you a guideline for soft, medium and hard water.

Maz2016

Great advice, thanks everyone. I will try smaller load, less detergents and on a cotton wash see how I get on