i always wash my heavy blankets in hot water, because i thought it sanitizes them. when i worked as a care taker, we washed soiled blankets in cold water to get rid of smell. what’s the difference?
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When you say care taker, I’m think you mean like a medical setting.
Cold water is best for bodily fluids. Blood is full of proteins, feces can also have a good amount. Hot water will cook the proteins which can make them stain and be even harder to wash out.
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The hot water in your home is not hot enough to make any difference for killing bacteria.
Detergents used to work better in hot water but with modern ones it’s unnecessary.
Now, hot water just fades colours faster and costs more while providing no benefit. Use cold water for all your washing.
Your dryer does a better job of sanitizing than your washer can. As long as you’re drying on high heat, that is.
Looks like I’ve been washing all my blankets in hot water. No wonder they shrunk to baby blanket size.
Hot water is more expensive?
Seriously, though, with most modern detergents, there’s no difference. Hot water will tend to felt up knits and woolens a lot faster than cold, which is great if you want a felted aran sweater for your dog but not so great if you wanted to wear it yourself. Hot water will also set most stains that are of bodily fluid origin (= that stain is staying for good), whereas cold water will let you remove them.
Hot water is only useful these days for oil/grease on things. If its not oiled up, greased up work stuff, cold water is just fine for everything else.
Cold water detergents work way better then the hot water detergents of yesteryear.
Hot water is not sanitizing your laundry or your dishes or your hands, that’s what soap and detergent is for. Also, any bodily fluids on your laundry are going to get cooked in by hot water.
Hot water most certainly helps with washing clothes more than simply using cold. Anytime you increase the temperature, you’re killing more bacteria than a lower temperature. And obviously the higher the temperature, the more bacteria that dies. However hot water, from my understanding, can make colors “run” which is why it’s typically recommended to only use hot water for whites
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