how do washing machines work? How does just swishing some clothes around and soapy water get out stains and dirt but scrubbing clothes with a brush and soapy water only seems to spread the stain around?
In: Engineering
When you’re scrubbing by hand you’re most likely not spending nearly as much time as the machine does, and are also trying to dissolve the stain into a much smaller volume of water. Not many people have the patience to spend an hour or more trying to scrub a stain out by hand.
First of all, detergent works better than soap. It’s specifically designed to clean clothing. Second, it’s the cycling of water and the total time that makes it work. As it churns around, water, mixed with detergent is dropped on your clothing, which is then churned around the cause friction between the cloth and the detergent mix, and then the liquid drains downward. So for an hour or so you have a steady stream of detergent and water flowing downwards over your clothes, soaking the cloth, absorbing dirt, and then draining downwards.
Your arms get tired. Your washing machine doesn’t.
Your washing machine bangs your clothes around for like half an hour to an hour, and it does that all at once. If you wanted to wash 20 items by hand for half an hour, you’d be at it for 10 hours. You ain’t doin’ that; you might scrub something for a minute or two.
Latest Answers